2005 Dana Gioia Summary

In Why Literature Matters Author Dana Gioia expresses and supports his opinion on why schools should support and teach arts and literature. Gioia shows the rapid decline in Americans not reading literature anymore, he shows the consequences you will face in the real world, like when you try to get a job. Gioia uses facts and statistics throughout the essay, as well as appealing to your patriotism.

Dana Gioia calls out millennials and younger generations in america, to spark a conversation about the increasingly declining and destructive behavior of NOT reading! Gioia makes very many fantastic points and uses very many persuasive elements on why literacy actually is vital to to our society and the negative effects that come from this lack of literacy. She gives us factual evidence and credible sources to pull the reader into her side of the argument.

Giona includes negative diction that allows the reader to infer his critical tone toward the decline in rates of reading literature because the critical tone emphasizes the importance of the issue. His tone is negative, illustrating the negativity the decline in reading America has had to face. He illustrates this by embedding the phases, “A strange thing has happened… the interest young Americans showed in the arts- especially literature- actually diminished… The declines have been most severe… a troubling trend.” This phrase exemplifies the author’s use

In his essay, “Generation Text,” Mark Bauerlein, uses many statistics and strong evidence to convince his audience that adolescents are losing the need to learn and grasp the knowledge of the arts and humanities that once were important to previous generations.

In the passage “Why Literature Matters” by Dana Gioia, Gioia states that the decline of interest in reading in America is decreasing. She then claims that this lack of interest will hold negative effects on the future of our society. Gioia uses facts and evidence to support her claim.

In the article, “Why Literature Matters,” Dana Gioia predominantly focuses on the use of logos, logical fact-based evidence and stimulating, emotional-based language to entice the audience. Gioia elaborates on the theme of correlation between young adult Americans and the decline of literature in this age group. He continues his argument with the consequences with the decline of literature in the lives of these Americans.

Gioia starts his piece with an explanation of the problem at hand. “The interest young Americans showed in the arts - and especially literature - actually diminished,” he informed us in paragraph one. By clearly identifying his topic and issue of choice, we know exactly what to expect from the rest of the essay. His first piece of factual evidence, found in paragraph 2, tells us that “arts participation by Americans has declined for eight of the nine major forms that are measured,” but he focuses his concerns on “the declining percentage of americans, …, reading literature.” These statistics are true and accurate,

In the passage, “Why Literature Matters”, Dana Gioia creates his argument to persuade his audience that decline of reading in America has a negative effect on America. He mentions studies and surveys done on younger Americans that were done to observe how readers versus non-readers participate in society and also to observe young Americans’s knowledge on the “historical and political awareness among young people”. Dana mentions early in his argument that as Americans “income rose… [and the] college attendance ballooned” that the art interest of young Americans decreased. He later mentions a survey done by the National Endowment for the Arts, observed that the number of young Americans participating in art has decreased in relation to the number

When was the last time you read a book. I guarantee that your parents & grandparents still read books. Though, people around my age have begun to read less often. Which is why Dana Gioia wrote this article. She tries to persuade reading literature to inspire my generation to read more by stating facts from different sources.

In the article, “Why Literature Matters,” Dana Gioia is trying to get the reader to understand that reading actually benefits American citizens, and inversely not reading has negative consequences. Gioia built his argument by using a multitude of literary devices that include diction, organization,using direct quotes, and using credible sources/ facts. By utilizing many different types of literary techniques, Dana made his argument more persuasive. At the beginning of his argument, Gioia starts of his argument by using facts from credible sources that explain how young Americans reading has “diminished” and then transitioning into the impact of how not reading has negative consequences.

“The decline in reading has consequences that go beyond literature.” This is where Gioia discusses the impact not reading enough can have on the reader’s personal, social and professional lives. “Business leaders consistently [seek] imagination, creativity, and higher-order thinking,” three skills Gioia argues you won’t build if you don’t read. She’s tricking the reader into thinking that if they don’t read, they’ll fail to succeed in their career. Now, alongside guilt and shame is fear.

Dana Gioia in his article, “Why Literature Matters” discusses the decline in youth interest in literature in order to persuade his audience to recognize the importance of literature to society. He achieves this through a passionate and caring tone, informational evidence, and suspenseful transitions. Dana Gioia is an author for the New York Times, this is an appeal to ethos because it shows he has accreditation. Gioia opens his article by explaining that while college attendance has risen, there has been an immense decrease in the arts. To show the towering decrease, Dana Gioia uses powerful diction.

Nowadays, people are facing an important problem of inheriting the interest in reading. In the Article “Why Literature Matters”, the author, Dana Gioia persuades his audiences that the phenomenon of Americans being deficient in reading effects the nation negatively. He strengthens his claims by using comparisons,quotation from compelling author, supportive evidences, and forceful words that can catch readers’ attention. The utilization of ethos and logos also give credits for backing his assertion. In the first paragraph, Gioia starts with “a strange thing has happened”, that gives people the sense of mystery.

Prose assumes that most high school students do not read on their own and that students do not enjoy the literature they read in school; she also assumes that many students stop reading in their adult life and that what books students read in high school affect them for the rest of their lives.

“ Now a days when we read a book it is here and there.” pg(103) If we are all being honest here the only time teens read is when teachers make them in school and the only time other people really read is when they like to read but not a lot of people actually like reading hard covered books.