The Importance Of Nonfiction

The school board is not quite certain that schools should continue to include fiction in the curriculum. However, if fiction is taught to students it may actually teach life lessons. Fictional literature can change someone's perspective on, what problems we may come across. For instance, a fictional book can help us relate to all the controversial problems that do occur in today's society. I disagree with the school board's thoughts about completely banning it. This type of literature can deepen our knowledge and teach us about things that we don’t experience on a day to day basis.

Good Literature is what it sounds like it’s good but nothing amazing. It is for example, the Hunger Games, where it is a fun and exciting read, but doesn’t spark a change or awakening. This distinction between good and great is vital to the gradual understanding of what makes the human mind tick. Good literature might be nice for a quick and easy read on the beach, but Great literature or nonfiction will change one’s view point and requires detail and focus to extract its full meaning.

Many students who struggle with reading ask why should we read, what is the point? The point is that being able to read opens you up a whole new world of knowledge and imagination. But to have that new world opened up you need to be able to comprehend what you are reading. The primary goal of reading is to determine the meaning of

In Dana Gioia’s article titled “Why Literature Matters”, he explains about the decline of reading literature for young Americans. Although “income rose to unforeseen levels, college attendance ballooned, and access of information increased enormously” he states, “the interest young Americans showed in the arts… diminished”. In his article, Gioia uses surveys, articles, studies, and statistics to persuade his audience that the decline of reading in America can have a negative effect on society.

Fiction novel’s shows us the views and perspective others. This type of literature help us gain a more broader perspective and can teach us more about our society. The idea of banning fictional novels is a very foolish idea. These novels do more good than they do harm and are beneficial for our curriculum and learning. Taking away this literature will not benefit our learning and will only harm our learning. “Literature is a luxury; fiction is a necessity.’’ said G.K. Chesterton.

Lessons learned from reading fiction can be very useful to use while approaching your issues. Fiction fills our beliefs and desires and teaches us things we have didn’t know. Evidence I can pull to help support my claim is that real world problems are no joke. These issues shouldn't be taken lightly. Fiction can teach you life lessons that you may or may not known. The school board needs to think this through. If the school board makes this decision on taking away fiction from school, today's society, in my opinion, will get mad. Today's society can tear people down easily. They can adapt to many different things at once if they wanted to. They can make things worse for people or make things good for people. Not only is this book about fictional issues, it’s also about real world problems and how fiction can relate to us, the readers. “Researchers found that people who read Literary fiction, led to better results in every subject. That same year, they found that people who read fiction had a higher brain activity than others who didn't.” Fiction, in my opinion, should be taken down, because of this

As I became older and a more advanced reader, my preference for books changed. When I was in Elementary School, nonfiction books were uncharted-territory; I would never dare or even attempt to read them. Whenever I went to a library, I would immediately zoom over to the realistic fiction and fantasy books and completely ignore nonfiction. This changed in Sixth Grade. My English teacher, Ms. Oshman had put multiple nonfiction books on display. I hadn’t been able to find a book that I had enjoyed recently, so out of sheer curiosity, I picked up a book titled “Murder, Moonshine, and the Lawless Years of Prohibition” by Karen Blumenthal. I only read a few pages, but I was fascinated. Then, I stopped only checking fantasy and fiction books, and

Gioia uses statistics to relate the decline of reading on a much larger scale. The declines are "most severe among younger adults" inciting the newer generation of children have little to no interest in reading books. Reading requires an attention span that younger people aren't willing to give, letting the appeal for reading plummet. Gioia associates this as a "troubling trend" because these individuals "bypass(ing)

As of late, the literacy rates in America have declined. In fact, over the past ten years “book reading [in] young women slipped from 63 percent to 59 percent, while young men plummeted from 55 percent to 43 percent” (why johnny won’t read pg. 575) Boys have a lower tendency to read than girls due to the fact that school forces them to read things that they are not interested in. Although in “I Know Why the Caged Bird Cannot Read pg. 176,” Prose points out that

The biggest connection emphasized by Mr. McQueen was that boys crave nonfiction. He pointed out this difference between girls and boys several times in the first half of the seminar. I would go farther to say boys prefer data driven reading whether fiction or nonfiction. The ability to skip through a book to the part of interest to you and ignore sections that hold no appeal is the biggest factor; Mr. McQueen touches on this briefly but relates it only to the difference between fiction and nonfiction whereas there are many fictional books written in this manner. I think the distinction should be made between narrative stories or novels and informational texts

In this article from 2005, Dana Gioia is telling Americans how much the decline in reading among young Americans has gone. Gioia is encouraging Americans to read, and writes about the consequences of not having this literature reading skill.

Michael Henry’s article “Whats with This Summer Reading” has readers pondering why summer reading has students “moving one step further from reading.” Michael Henry explains that one day he saw a teenager becoming very frustrated with the book he was reading. He asked why the young man was reading the book and the boy said, because it was a summer reading assignment. This made Henry think and he began to research summer reading assignments. He wanted to find out what was causing so much frustration.

Dana Gioia, an author of “Why Literature Matters,” addresses an issue in society of the decrease in reading during the past quarter century. This issue may seem little now, but will eventually have a negative effect on America as a whole and the business industry of America. Although reading may not be the activity for all, it is crucial to continue reading and learning to benefit the future people of American and the people after instead of the growing decline which affects society.

Raymond Mar, a psychologist at Your University in Canada and Keith Oatley a professor An The University of Toronto, they both say that “individuals who often read fiction appear to be better able to understand other people, empathies with them and view the world from their perspectives.” I agree that reading certain types of books can help people further understand and see things from a different point of view. Reading helps to open people's eyes and to teach life lessons or to show there are other things to believe in and know other than what they have always been told to know. Getting different types of books, types that are not always the same as the books that you normally read can help you to view things differently. For example from personal experience a new book can help your imagination grow, readings helps me a lot when I need to come up with new ideas for an art class. The new places a book takes you the new images you see while you are reading the new stores you hear and the happy ending your book might have can change the way you are feeling it can brighten up your day.

Reading requires a habit. Without much practice, students do not have good reading skills. With a lot of reading, students will be able to find out past events, current, and can predict the events that will occur later. Students who have reading habits are capable of using time to read activities. Demand for information needs that continue to grow over time can actually be facilitated through reading activities. But this fact becomes different when the reading habits of students are still low.