A recent study reveals that people, especially young people, are reading far less literature—novels, plays, and poems—than they used to. This is troubling because the trend has unfortunate effects for the reading public, for culture in general, and for the future of literature itself.
While there has been a decline in book reading generally, the decline has been especially sharp for literature. This is unfortunate because nothing else provides the intellectual stimulation that literature does. Literature encourages us to exercise our imaginations, empathize with others, and expand our understanding of language. So by reading less literature, the reading public is missing out on important benefits.
Unfortunately, missing out on the benefits of literature is not the only problem. What are people reading instead? Consider the prevalence of self-help books on lists of best sellers. These are usually superficial, poorly written, and intellectually undemanding. Additionally, instead of sitting down with a challenging novel, many persons are now more likely to turn on the television, watch a music video, or read a Web page. Clearly, diverting time previously spent in reading literature to trivial forms of entertainment has lowered the level of culture in general.
The trend of reading less literature is all the more regrettable because it is taking place during a period when good literature is being written. There are many talented writers today, but they lack an audience. This fact is bound to lead publishers to invest less in literature and so support fewer serious writers. Thus, the writing as well as the reading of literature is likely to decline because of the poor standards of today's readers.
The article states that people, especially young people, are reading far less literature than they used to and this trend has unfortunate effects for the reading public, for the culture and for the future of literature and provides three reasons for support. However, the professor explains that the argument is not true and refutes each of the author's reasons.
First, the reading claims that since there is a sharp decline in reading books, especially literature, people are not exercising imagination or empathize with others or expanding their understanding of their language and as a result, intellectual stimulation is completely gone. The professor refutes this point by saying that people are now more interested in reading history, science fiction, political events which are well-written and creatively represented and are as intellectually stimulating as literature.
Second, the article posits that people watching television, listening to music or reading web pages rather than engaging themselves in reading challenging novels and thus lowering the level of cultural values. However, the professor opposes this point by saying that today's cultural norms have changed and there are more creative forms available for people to engage in than it was in the past. According to the professor, if people engage themselves in listening to a good song or watching a good movie it does not imply that cultural values are degrading.
Third, the reading states that today we have more talented writers than ever before but since there is a lack of audience, that leads publishers to invest less in literature and so they support only a few serious writers and thus the reading and writing literature is declining. However, the professor says that even though there is less support of writers today, we cannot blame the readers since most of the modern authors write difficult stories that are hard to follow along.
Grammar and spelling errors:
Line 17, column 104, Rule ID: A_LOT_OF_NN[1]
Message: Possible agreement error. The noun audience seems to be countable; consider using: 'a lack of audiences'.
Suggestion: a lack of audiences
...ers than ever before but since there is a lack of audience, that leads publishers to invest less i...
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Transition Words or Phrases used:
but, first, however, if, second, so, third, thus, well, as a result
Attributes: Values AverageValues Percentages(Values/AverageValues)% => Comments
Performance on Part of Speech:
To be verbs : 15.0 10.4613686534 143% => OK
Auxiliary verbs: 1.0 5.04856512141 20% => OK
Conjunction : 17.0 7.30242825607 233% => Less conjunction wanted
Relative clauses : 12.0 12.0772626932 99% => OK
Pronoun: 24.0 22.412803532 107% => OK
Preposition: 30.0 30.3222958057 99% => OK
Nominalization: 6.0 5.01324503311 120% => OK
Performance on vocabulary words:
No of characters: 1633.0 1373.03311258 119% => OK
No of words: 306.0 270.72406181 113% => OK
Chars per words: 5.33660130719 5.08290768461 105% => OK
Fourth root words length: 4.18244613648 4.04702891845 103% => OK
Word Length SD: 2.7107897308 2.5805825403 105% => OK
Unique words: 162.0 145.348785872 111% => OK
Unique words percentage: 0.529411764706 0.540411800872 98% => OK
syllable_count: 505.8 419.366225166 121% => OK
avg_syllables_per_word: 1.7 1.55342163355 109% => OK
A sentence (or a clause, phrase) starts by:
Pronoun: 2.0 3.25607064018 61% => OK
Article: 8.0 8.23620309051 97% => OK
Subordination: 1.0 1.25165562914 80% => OK
Conjunction: 0.0 1.51434878587 0% => OK
Preposition: 1.0 2.5761589404 39% => More preposition wanted as sentence beginning.
Performance on sentences:
How many sentences: 9.0 13.0662251656 69% => Need more sentences. Double check the format of sentences, make sure there is a space between two sentences, or have enough periods. And also check the lengths of sentences, maybe they are too long.
Sentence length: 34.0 21.2450331126 160% => The Avg. Sentence Length is relatively long.
Sentence length SD: 54.6641824187 49.2860985944 111% => OK
Chars per sentence: 181.444444444 110.228320801 165% => OK
Words per sentence: 34.0 21.698381199 157% => OK
Discourse Markers: 7.44444444444 7.06452816374 105% => OK
Paragraphs: 4.0 4.09492273731 98% => OK
Language errors: 1.0 4.19205298013 24% => OK
Sentences with positive sentiment : 7.0 4.33554083885 161% => OK
Sentences with negative sentiment : 2.0 4.45695364238 45% => More negative sentences wanted.
Sentences with neutral sentiment: 0.0 4.27373068433 0% => More facts, knowledge or examples wanted.
What are sentences with positive/Negative/neutral sentiment?
Coherence and Cohesion:
Essay topic to essay body coherence: 0.322832140316 0.272083759551 119% => OK
Sentence topic coherence: 0.125649389095 0.0996497079465 126% => OK
Sentence topic coherence SD: 0.1755182361 0.0662205650399 265% => The coherence between sentences is low.
Paragraph topic coherence: 0.210172051205 0.162205337803 130% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence SD: 0.182982629264 0.0443174109184 413% => More connections among paragraphs wanted.
Essay readability:
automated_readability_index: 20.7 13.3589403974 155% => OK
flesch_reading_ease: 28.51 53.8541721854 53% => Flesch_reading_ease is low.
smog_index: 11.2 5.55761589404 202% => Smog_index is high.
flesch_kincaid_grade: 17.7 11.0289183223 160% => OK
coleman_liau_index: 14.28 12.2367328918 117% => OK
dale_chall_readability_score: 9.4 8.42419426049 112% => OK
difficult_words: 79.0 63.6247240618 124% => OK
linsear_write_formula: 21.0 10.7273730684 196% => OK
gunning_fog: 15.6 10.498013245 149% => OK
text_standard: 21.0 11.2008830022 187% => OK
What are above readability scores?
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Rates: 80.0 out of 100
Scores by essay e-grader: 24.0 Out of 30
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Note: the e-grader does NOT examine the meaning of words and ideas. VIP users will receive further evaluations by advanced module of e-grader and human graders.