Reading and Writing Research

In Books for Living (2016), Will Schwalbe writes, "Reading is the best way I know to learn how to examine your life. By comparing what you have done to what others have done, and your thoughts and theories and feelings to those of others, you learn about yourself and the world around you. Perhaps that is why reading is one of the few things you do alone that can make you feel less alone; it's a solitary activity that connects you with others" (7).

In The Best American Essays (2005), Susan Orlean says, "All indications to the contrary, our voices matter to each other, that we do wonder what goes on inside each other's head; that we want to know each other, and we want to be known. Nothing is more meaningful - more human really - than our efforts to tell each other the story of ourselves, of what it's like to be who we are, to think the things we think, to live the lives we live" (xviii).

In Reading Without Nonsense (2006), Frank Smith writes, "All the nuts and bolts of writing - including spelling, punctuation, and grammar, but more importantly the subtle style and structure of written discourse, the appropriate organization of sentences and paragraphs, the appropriate selection of words and tones of voice - are learned through reading. This point deserves emphasis. You learn to read by reading and you learn to write by reading" (118).

Kelly Gallagher and Penny Kittle write in their book 180 days : "We show up for writing by separating from distractions and then rereading a draft, changing one word and then another, and adding thinking, even shallow unformed thinking. It is active work: reading, listing, waiting, hearing our words and 'speaking' to an imagined reader. We face the limitations of time and refuse to waste it. We practice the discipline of writing by not giving in to distractions. It is too easy to say, 'I can't.' It is too easy to say of a first draft, 'Its's fine.' Trust us, it will get better if you work at it. Writing is never finished - only abandoned. We must face how hard it is to write well just like we face an opponent on the football field - refuse to yield. Discipline alone separates the best writers from those who improve very little...Writing will set you apart from any candidate for a job. It will provide you with unforeseen opportunities; it begins with your willingness to work" (87).

John Warner writes in his book Why They Can't Write : "In Professor Blum's book I recognized traits of the students in my first-year writing class who valued an A over everything, for whom learning was an airy abstraction, while grades - even those entirely unconnected to achievement - were something meaningful. Students [have] become cynical about school. School counts, but it doesn't matter" (39).