Literature and Reading Reflection

Literature and Reading Reflection

Literature Classes now are needed credits to graduate. Many people question why do we have to take these classes? For my opinion, I sometimes think as well, why studying literature is necessary. Some of the careers I'm interested in pursuing won't use literature at all. So why should it be required to take in high school?

After thinking about it, I realize that literature will be beneficial in the end. Even though it is not directly linked to my specific career, I can still learn many things from it. For one, when you study literature, you read all different types of it. Every type is slightly different. It teaches you how to understand how each other author wants you to understand. All most every job involves some sort of reading and some can be very complicated. If you didn't take literature in high school it would be extremely hard to understand some readings such as contracts, because businesses purposely try to use difficult vocabulary so you don't completely understand the contract. This applies in most important documents.

Many students do not like to read. I, myself am not very enthusiastic when having to read. But reading is very beneficial in the short and long terms. Reading in school is required and used in every class. Reading in school is how you retrieve the information needed to learn in that class. A lot of students aren't auditory learners, so lectures for many are useless unless there is information to refer back to visually; such as a text book.

Reading for pleasure is very beneficial as well as reading in school. Unlike reading in school, where the reading is preselected for you and is required, pleasure reading is completely your own decision. You are able to choose what you read, when you read, how long, or if you read at all. But pleasure reading is a lot more appealing and can be just as helpful as reading for school. First of all, you are able to choose any book corresponding to your personal taste. This helps you want to read more often since you like what you are reading. As you read more often you are able to increase your pace or "reading speed". And faster pace can eventually help you move through reading in school quicker. Secondly, when you are interested in what you're reading, your comprehension level increases significantly. This can help your overall comprehension in all of your reading, including reading for school. Whatever you read, you gain knowledge from it, so comprehension is very important. If you do not understand what you read what is the point in reading it? But to start a good comprehension level, you must read things you enjoy, so that you are able to learn how to comprehend reading. So in a sense pleasure reading is almost more important than school reading.

One book i have read that has helped in and out of school is the Bourne Identity.