Learning Objectives

1. Identify the different types of context clues.

2. Practice using context clues while reading.

An important strategy to help you build your vocabulary is use of context – i.e., using the clues or hints provided in the text that surround an unfamiliar word to help guess the meaning  without depending on a dictionary. This can include words, phrases, or sentences that appear before, after, or close to the word. It can also include visuals or headings embedded in the text – basically anything that helps a reader understand the meaning of an unfamiliar word. Expository, non-fiction text tends to offer more context clues than narrative text.

8 types of context clues

Context clues can come in a variety of different forms, but the eight types of context clues below pop up most often. We’ll discuss each in detail in the next sections, along with context clue example sentences.

1 in-text definitions

2 examples

3 synonyms

4 antonyms or contrast

5 root words and affixes

6 mood or tone

7 cause and effect

8 inferences

Types of context clues: 

1 In-text definitions

The easiest and most helpful type of context clue is when a definition is provided directly in the text. A lot of times, an appositive or adjective clause will come after an unknown word to explain what it is.

Context clues example sentences

Abigail knew that to get a catfish, she would have to try bottom fishing, a technique of dropping the lure to the water floor to catch the fish that dwell there.

The mechanic needs to replace the entire exhaust manifold, which is a series of pipes that combines exhaust from different places into one pipe.

2 Examples

Sometimes, you can guess the definition of a word by seeing some of its examples. You may be familiar with some of the specific examples without knowing what category those things belong to.

Context clues example sentences

Arthropods like millipedes, dragonflies, and scorpions grew to enormous sizes during the Carboniferous period, about 350 million years ago.

Some of my favorite cooking ingredients—soybeans, chickpeas, and lentils—are legumes.

3 Synonyms

You can easily understand a new word if you can tell it has the same meaning as another word you already know. Sometimes difficult words are used near a context clue synonym; if you can find the synonym, you can guess the meaning of the unknown word.

Context clues example sentences

We’ll use the food court as our rendezvous, unless you can suggest a better meeting place.

The coach doesn’t allow taunting, so don’t let her hear you making fun of the other team.

4 Antonyms or contrast

Antonyms, words with opposite meanings, can be context clues like synonyms. Look for certain cue words like but, however, although, or other phrases that suggest a contradiction or contrast. Keep in mind that you have to reverse the antonym’s meaning to reveal the definition of the unknown word.

Context clues example sentences

Mika seemed genial at first, but when we started discussing politics she became hostile and even rude.

Even though he was prejudiced as a teenager, his life experiences as an adult led him to be more accepting and open-minded. 

5 Root words and affixes

Root words are small parts of words (called morphemes) that each carry their own meaning. Root words can change their meaning or word class by combining with different affixes, the prefixes and suffixes that come before and after words. If you’re familiar with the root words and affixes in an unknown word, you can figure out its meaning.

Context clues example sentences

The student chose to specialize in dermatology.

(The root word derma means “related to skin,” while –ology and –tology are suffixes for scientific disciplines. Therefore, dermatology must be the scientific study of skin.)

To me the movie was indescribable . . . because I fell asleep halfway through.

(The prefix in- often negates the meaning of the root word that follows, so indescribable must mean “not describable” or “can’t be described.”)

6 Mood or tone

If you’re struggling to find the meaning of a word with context clues, you can use the mood or tone of the passage to help. We’ve discussed tone versus mood before, but to recap, tone refers to details like word choice or punctuation and how they affect the attitude of a piece of writing, whereas mood refers to broader writing choices like themes or topics and how they affect the atmosphere of the text as a whole.

While mood or tone may not reveal the precise definition of an unknown word, they can still hint at what kind of word it is. This is better than nothing when there are no other context clues present.

Context clues example sentences

What this grim, ungainly, ghastly, gaunt, and ominous bird of yore

Meant in croaking “Nevermore.”

—“The Raven,” Edgar Allen Poe

(If you don’t know what grim, ungainly, ghastly, gaunt, or ominous mean, you can still guess that their definitions are gloomy and dismal from the mood and tone of the poem.)

He is jubilant as a flag unfurled—

Oh, a girl, she’d not forget him.

My own dear love, he is all my world,—

And I wish I’d never met him.

—“Love Song,” Dorothy Parker

(You may not know what jubilant means, but you can tell it’s positive and complimentary from the rest of the poem’s tone.)

7 Cause and effect

In English, words like because, so, therefore, and thus show a cause-and-effect relationship. If you understand the words explaining either the cause or the effect, you can guess the meanings of the other words as long as you understand how the relationship works.

Context clues example sentences

She wanted to dress her best for the prom, so she asked to borrow her mother’s finest adornments.

Because of the kalopsia from his puppy love, he couldn’t see any of the warnings or red flags.

8 Inference

Last, you can put various types of context clues together to infer the meaning of a new word. Simply look at the rest of the sentence or passage and review the words you do understand; does their meaning help you with the unknown word or words?

Context clues example sentences

The soldiers are tired, unmotivated, and falling into despair; we desperately need to raise morale.

Everything I did or said, he complimented. It was cute at first, but by the end of the night it got annoying. I’m never dating a sycophant again.

MORE DISCUSSION

Brief Definition or Restatement

Sometimes, a text directly states the definition or a restatement of the unknown word. The brief definition or restatement is signalled by a word or a punctuation mark. Consider the following example:

If you visit Alaska, you will likely see many glaciers or slow-moving masses of ice.

In this sentence, the word glaciers is defined by the phrase that follows the signal word or, which is slow moving masses of ice.

In other instances, the text may restate the meaning of the word in a different way, by using punctuation as a signal. Look at the following example:

Marina was indignant—fuming mad—when she discovered her brother had left for the party without her.

Although fuming mad is not a formal definition of the word indignant, it does serve to define it. These two examples use signals—the word or and the punctuation dashes—to indicate the meaning of the unfamiliar word. Other signals to look for are the words is, as, means, known as, and refers to.

Synonyms and Antonyms

Sometimes, a text gives a synonym of the unknown word to signal the meaning of the unfamiliar word:

When you interpret an image, you actively question and examine what the image connotes and suggests.

In this sentence, the word suggests is a synonym of the word connotes. The word and sometimes signals synonyms.bLikewise, the word but may signal a contrast, which can help you define a word by its antonym.

I abhor clothes shopping, but I adore grocery shopping.

The word abhor is contrasted with its opposite: adore. From this context, the reader can guess that abhor means to dislike greatly.

Examples

Sometimes, a text will give you an example of the word that sheds light on its meaning:

I knew Mark’s ailurophobia was in full force because he began trembling and stuttering when he saw my cat, Ludwig, slink out from under the bed.

Although ailurophobia is an unknown word, the sentence gives an example of its effects. Based on this example, a reader could confidently surmise that the word means a fear of cats.

Tip

Look for signal words like such as, for instance, and for example.

These words signal that a word’s meaning may be revealed through an example.

PRACTICE 1

Try the following exercise on context clues:

Exercise 1: https://highered.mheducation.com/sites/0073123587/student_view0/chapter3/context_clues__exercise_1.html 

Exercise 2: https://highered.mheducation.com/sites/0073123587/student_view0/chapter3/context_clues__exercise_2.html

Exercise 3: https://highered.mheducation.com/sites/0073123587/student_view0/chapter3/context_clues__exercise_3.html 

PRACTICE 2

Exercise 1

Identify the context clue that helps define the underlined words in each of the following sentences. Write the context clue on your own sheet of paper.

1. Lucinda is very adroit on the balance beam, but Constance is rather clumsy.

2. I saw the entomologist, a scientist who studies insects, cradle the giant dung beetle in her palm.

3. Lance’s comments about politics were irrelevant and meaningless to the botanist’s lecture on plant reproduction.

4. Before I left for my trip to the Czech Republic, I listened to my mother’s sage advice and made a copy of my passport.

5. His rancour, or hatred for socializing, resulted in a life of loneliness and boredom.

6. Martin was mortified, way beyond embarrassment when his friends teamed up to shove him into the pool.

7. The petulant four-year-old had a baby sister who was, on the contrary, not grouchy at all.

8. The philosophy teacher presented the students with several conundrums, or riddles, to solve.

9. Most Canadians are omnivores, people that eat both plants and animals.

10. Elena is effervescent, as excited as a cheerleader, for example, when she meets someone for the first time.

Exercise 2

On your own sheet of paper, write the name of the context clue that helps to define the underlined words.

Maggie was a precocious child to say the least. She produced brilliant watercolor paintings by the age of three. At first, her parents were flabbergasted—utterly blown away—by their daughter’s ability, but soon they got used to their little painter. Her preschool teacher said that Maggie’s dexterity, or ease with which she used her hands, was something she had never before seen in such a young child. Little Maggie never gloated or took pride in her paintings; she just smiled contentedly when she finished one and requested her parents give it to someone as a gift. Whenever people met Maggie for the first time they often watched her paint with their mouths agape, but her parents always kept their mouths closed and simply smiled over their “little Monet.”

Collaboration

Please share with a classmate and compare your answers.

Comprehension: The Goal of Reading

Comprehension, or extracting meaning from what you read, is the ultimate goal of reading. Experienced readers take this for granted and may not appreciate the reading comprehension skills required. The process of comprehension is both interactive and strategic. Rather than passively reading text, readers must analyze it, internalize it and make it their own.

In order to read with comprehension, developing readers must be able to read with some proficiency and then receive explicit instruction in reading comprehension strategies (Tierney, 1982).

Purposes for reading

People read different kinds of text (e.g., scholarly articles, textbooks, reviews) for different reasons. Some purposes for reading might be

• to scan for specific information

• to skim to get an overview of the text

• to relate new content to existing knowledge

• to write something (often depends on a prompt)

• to critique an argument

• to learn something

• for general comprehension

General Strategies for Reading Comprehension

The process of comprehending text begins before children can read, when someone reads a picture book to them. They listen to the words, see the pictures in the book, and may start to associate the words on the page with the words they are hearing and the ideas they represent.

In order to learn comprehension strategies, students need modeling, practice, and feedback. The key comprehension strategies are described below.

Using Prior Knowledge/Previewing

When students preview text, they tap into what they already know that will help them to understand the text they are about to read. This provides a framework for any new information they read.

Predicting

When students make predictions about the text they are about to read, it sets up expectations based on their prior knowledge about similar topics. As they read, they may mentally revise their prediction as they gain more information.

Identifying the Main Idea and Summarization

Identifying the main idea and summarizing requires that students determine what is important and then put it in their own words. Implicit in this process is trying to understand the author’s purpose in writing the text.

Questioning

Asking and answering questions about text is another strategy that helps students focus on the meaning of text. Teachers can help by modeling both the process of asking good questions and strategies for finding the answers in the text.

Making Inferences

In order to make inferences about something that is not explicitly stated in the text, students must learn to draw on prior knowledge and recognize clues in the text itself.

Visualizing

Studies have shown that students who visualize while reading have better recall than those who do not (Pressley, 1977). Readers can take advantage of illustrations that are embedded in the text or create their own mental images or drawings when reading text without illustrations.

references

Honig, B., L. Diamond, and L. Gutlohn. (2013). Teaching reading sourcebook, 2nd ed. Novato, CA: Arena Press.

Ogle, D. M. (1986). K-W-L: A teaching model that develops active reading of expository text. The Reading Teacher 38(6), pp. 564–570.

Pressley, M. (1977). Imagery and children’s learning: Putting the picture in developmental perspective. Review of Educational Research 47, pp. 586–622.

Tierney, R. J. (1982). Essential considerations for developing basic reading comprehension skills. School Psychology Review 11(3), pp. 299–305.

What is Critical Reading?

Reading critically does not, necessarily, mean being critical of what you read.

Both reading and thinking critically don’t mean being ‘critical’ about some idea, argument, or piece of writing - claiming that it is somehow faulty or flawed.

Critical reading means engaging in what you read by asking yourself questions such as, ‘what is the author trying to say?’ or ‘what is the main argument being presented?’

Critical reading involves presenting a reasoned argument that evaluates and analyses what you have read.  Being critical, therefore - in an academic sense - means advancing your understanding, not dismissing and therefore closing off learning.

As a critical reader you should reflect on:

• What the text says:  after critically reading a piece you should be able to take notes, paraphrasing - in your own words - the key points.

• What the text describes: you should be confident that you have understood the text sufficiently to be able to use your own examples and compare and contrast with other writing on the subject in hand.

• Interpretation of the text: this means that you should be able to fully analyse the text and state a meaning for the text as a whole.

Critical reading means being able to reflect on what a text says, what it describes and what it means by scrutinising the style and structure of the writing, the language used as well as the content.

Critical Thinking is an Extension of Critical Reading

Thinking critically, in the academic sense, involves being open-minded - using judgement and discipline to process what you are learning about without letting your personal bias or opinion detract from the arguments.

Critical thinking involves being rational and aware of your own feelings on the subject – being able to reorganise your thoughts, prior knowledge and understanding to accommodate new ideas or viewpoints.

Critical reading and critical thinking are therefore the very foundations of true learning and personal development.

Developing a Reading Strategy

You will, in formal learning situations, be required to read and critically think about a lot of information from different sources. 

It is important therefore, that you not only learn to read critically but also efficiently.

The first step to efficient reading is to become selective.

If you cannot read all of the books on a recommended reading list, you need to find a way of selecting the best texts for you. To start with, you need to know what you are looking for.  You can then examine the contents page and/or index of a book or journal to ascertain whether a chapter or article is worth pursuing further.

Once you have selected a suitable piece the next step is to speed-read.

Speed reading is also often referred to as skim-reading or scanning.  Once you have identified a relevant piece of text, like a chapter in a book, you should scan the first few sentences of each paragraph to gain an overall impression of subject areas it covers.  Scan-reading essentially means that you know what you are looking for, you identify the chapters or sections most relevant to you and ignore the rest.

When you speed-read you are not aiming to gain a full understanding of the arguments or topics raised in the text.  It is simply a way of determining what the text is about. 

When you find a relevant or interesting section you will need to slow your reading speed dramatically, allowing you to gain a more in-depth understanding of the arguments raised.  Even when you slow your reading down it may well be necessary to read passages several times to gain a full understanding.

Following SQ3R

SQ3R is a well-known strategy for reading. SQ3R can be applied to a whole range of reading purposes as it is flexible and takes into account the need to change reading speeds.

SQ3R is an acronym and stands for:

• Survey

• Question

• Read

• Recall

• Review

Survey

This relates to speed-reading, scanning and skimming the text.  At this initial stage you will be attempting to gain the general gist of the material in question.

Question

It is important that, before you begin to read, you have a question or set of questions that will guide you - why am I reading this?  When you have a purpose to your reading you want to learn and retain certain information.  Having questions changes reading from a passive to an active pursuit.  Examples of possible questions include:

• What do I already know about this subject?

• How does this chapter relate to the assignment question?

• How can I relate what I read to my own experiences?

Read

Now you will be ready for the main activity of reading.  This involves careful consideration of the meaning of what the author is trying to convey and involves being critical as well as active.

Recall

Regardless of how interesting an article or chapter is, unless you make a concerted effort to recall what you have just read, you will forget a lot of the important points.  Recalling from time to time allows you to focus upon the main points – which in turn aids concentration. Recalling gives you the chance to think about and assimilate what you have just read, keeping you active.  A significant element in being active is to write down, in your own words, the key points. 

Review

The final step is to review the material that you have recalled in your notes.  Did you understand the main principles of the argument?  Did you identify all the main points?  Are there any gaps?   Do not take for granted that you have recalled everything you need correctly – review the text again to make sure and clarify.

Download the following reading test from British Council. READ AND TRY TO ANSWER. The answer key is provided. Check it for yourself and see how you perform. THERE WILL BE A SIMILAR TEST FOR YOUR SECTION IN THE COMING DAYS. This is the format of an international reading test called the IELTS or the International English Language Testing System. IELTS is the International English Language Testing System, trusted by governments, employers, and thousands of universities around the world.

The International English Language Testing System (IELTS) is a test that measures the language proficiency of those who want to study or work in environments where English is used as a language of communication.

Reading for pleasure — a door to success

Reading for pleasure engages the imagination. Research shows it has other far-reaching benefits such as improving literacy, social skills, and health and learning outcomes.

What is reading for pleasure

Reading for pleasure is also referred to as independent, leisure or recreational reading.

The National Literacy Trust (UK) defines reading for pleasure as:

Reading we do of our own free will, anticipating the satisfaction we will get from the act of reading.
— Christina Clark and Kate Rumbold, Reading for pleasure: A research overview

They add that it may have begun at someone else's request, which we continue because we are interested in it. The report describes reading for pleasure as an act of play — one that allows us to experience different worlds in our imagination. And reading for pleasure is a creative and active/interactive process.

According to Professor Teresa Cremin:

Reading for pleasure is more closely associated with intrinsic motivation; it is reading that children do for themselves at their own pace, with whom they choose and in their own way.
— Reading communities: Why, what and how?

Why reading for pleasure matters

Research shows that the benefits of reading for pleasure are extensive and long-reaching. Reading for pleasure:

• boosts academic achievement, and provides a foundation for critical, digital and information literacy

• builds cognitive function and stamina when immersed in the flow of reading

• develops empathy and knowledge — of self, other worlds, culture, heritage, and ways of being and thinking

• empowers students to become active citizens

• improves and builds psychological wellbeing and healthy behaviours, and

• crucially for young people, can be relaxing and provide an escape.

Research on reading engagement

Reading for pleasure is both an independent and social practice. It enhances reading programmes, school culture and individual wellbeing.

Reading for pleasure counts as learning. There’s so much research that shows children who read for pleasure have all sorts of better life outcomes including achievement … Reading is meant to be a joyful, purposeful, exciting experience and learning skills is important so you can have those experiences, it’s not an end in itself
— Sue McDowall, How teachers who read create readers

Improves learning

The ability to read competently and, more importantly, the enjoyment of reading has implications for a student’s academic success.

There is debate about the best way to improve literacy. But evidence shows that reading for pleasure improves learning. In 2021, OECD research reported that reading enjoyment is an important prerequisite to becoming an effective learner. They also noted a strong link between reading, motivation and skill in adults.

Interest in reading is a much more important prerequisite for acquiring skills than having a parent who holds a higher education degree (as compared to no qualification). Sullivan and Brown (2013) suggest that independent reading can promote a self-sufficient approach to learning overall, with positive implications for achievement in other subjects.
— OECD Skills Outlook 2021: Learning for Life

Reading for pleasure: how and why does it enable children to do better at school? — Michael Rosen blog post, 2022.

The impact of pleasure reading on academic success — Christy Whitten, Sandra Labby and Sam Sullivan, 2016.

Maths advantage for pupils who read for pleasure

Reading for pleasure and progress in vocabulary and mathematics

Has a positive impact on reading achievement

International research strongly suggests frequent reading for enjoyment helps raise reading achievement.

Reading for pleasure had a positive impact on:

• reading attainment and writing ability

• text comprehension and grammar

• breadth of vocabulary

• positive reading attitudes

• self-confidence as a reader

• pleasure in reading in later life.

Reading for pleasure: Supporting reader engagement — Teresa Cremin and Gemma Moss, 2018.

Reading volume and reading achievement: A review of recent research — Richard Allington and Anne McGill-Franzen, 2021.

Research evidence on reading for pleasure — UK Department of Education, Education Standards Research Team, 2012.

In 2022, The Education Hub investigated the state of literacy in New Zealand Aotearoa. Amongst other findings, they identified a need to encourage reading for pleasure to positively impact reading achievement.

… it is crucial that we develop a robust strategy to support students to read widely for pleasure. Research is clear that even when controlling for other factors, reading for pleasure is strongly correlated with better reading comprehension, in large part because reading for pleasure allows students to gain access to a broad array of vocabulary and other knowledge. Given that PISA data has revealed dramatic declines in students’ reading for pleasure over the past decade, a plan to reverse this is urgently required.
— Nina Hood and Taylor Hughson, Now I don’t know my ABC

There is much discussion about declining literacy rates. But it's important to know that reading enjoyment can support reading development and has long-term benefits.

Other life benefits

Enjoyment of reading is also an important indicator of success in other areas of life.

The ‘Growing independence: Summary of key findings from the Competent Learners at 14 Project’ report found that students who love reading had:

• higher scores on the cognitive and social/attitudinal competencies

• consistently higher scores in mathematics, reading, logical problem-solving and attitude

• higher average scores for engagement in school, positive communication and relations with family, and positive friendships

• less risky behaviour

• higher levels of motivation towards school.

Growing independence: Summary of key findings from the Competent Learners @14 Project — New Zealand Council for Educational Research.

Social and emotional wellbeing

As well as academic benefits, reading for pleasure provides social and emotional gains including:

• an increase in empathy and social skills

• improvement of health and wellbeing

• enjoyment and stimulating the imagination.

… children’s enjoyment of reading is related to a longer life, better mental well-being and healthier eating … But reading for pleasure is also good for communities because readers tend to be good at making decisions, have more empathy and are likely to value other people and the environment more.
— Kiwi kids who read for pleasure will do well in other ways — it’s everyone’s responsibility to encourage them, The Conversation, 2021

Reading for hauora | wellbeing

Factors that create engaged readers

Certain factors increase the likelihood of creating engaged readers, such as ensuring students:

• have access to books — print and digital

• can choose their own books to read

• have regular opportunities to read independently

• are read aloud to regularly

• have time to chat about books and reading

• have reading role models.

A school reading community

Strategies to engage students as readers

Teachers love of reading inspires ākonga — Education Gazette, 2023.

Prose and poetry are the two common forms of the literary discourse. Although we are not aware of this, at least in two ways we can react to discourses. Specifically, we can enjoy or appreciate them. The key to true appreciation is enjoyment and this depends largely on your attitude to literature in general.

Enjoyment must not be confused with appreciation. For instance, we often enjoy a poem without fully understand its meaning. The reason has to do with the nature of the genres. Poetry calls attention primarily to the “music” of the words, while prose, for its meaning. Prose is the kind of writing that does not fit a recognized poetical form, that is, it does not have metrical structure. In prose, a writer may express herself more directly. We might gain pleasure from a poem without knowing to explain why it is so.

Actually, when one reads prose, she must pay attention to what the author actually has to say. In other words, the meaning always comes first. Conversely, when one reads a poem it is possible to pay more attention to the way a poet says something. Poetic language fits a rigid pattern. Poetry shows some sort of definite regularity in prosodic form, that is, some pattern of lines, pitches, or stresses.

Appreciation relates to reasoning. Before you can discuss the meaning of the text, it’s necessary to know what type of text it is you are reading. This will help to discern the writer’s intentions easily. Poetry – like prose – is an art of sounds. In order to appreciate a poem, we should note there are four main types of poems, to know: descriptive, reflective, narrative, and the lyric. Poetry uses sense devices. For instance, simile, metaphor, and personification.

In order to appreciate a prose passage, one should remember that not all prose is alike. Types of prose are: narrative, descriptive, and argumentative. Narrative tells a story; it focuses on actions. Descriptive describes scenes, objects, people, or even persons’ feelings. Argumentative deals with ideas and facts. Note that argumentative is the most difficult type of prose, because each sentence logically adds something to the main argument. Sometimes it is not easy to follow an argumentative text. Often the argument is nuanced: there are subtle shades of meaning or expression. So, the reading must be very attentive. In order to fully appreciate a text, it is important to note how writers compose and develop their thoughts, ideas, and emotions.

Scientists and Engineers Need Literature

APR 7, 2013 |  Troy Camplin

Shortly after clocks were introduced to Japan in the sixteenth century, Japanese inventors used the principles underlying the clock’s movements to create robots. True, those robots were merely mechanical dolls, but they could often do quite intricate tasks, like serving tea and writing Japanese characters. This idea that mechanical objects could—and should—be made animate and even human, is a deep part of Japanese culture. That helps to explain why the Japanese remain at the forefront of robotic technology.

You could make the argument that if one were interested in becoming a robotics engineer, an excellent way of doing so would be to become more Japanese. But how does one become more Japanese?  How do we get into the mindset of a Japanese person, whose world-view is formed as much by Buddhism and Shintoism as the Western mind is formed by ancient Greek philosophy and Christianity?

The answer is: fiction.

When we read a work of fiction, we come to empathize with the characters. We come to know them from the inside. Literature is how we download another’s mind into our own. Even though Japanese novelists Kenzaburo Oe and Kawabata do not themselves write about robots, having engineering students read their works puts them into the minds of people who live in a culture of which robots are a natural outgrowth.

Despite such benefits, literature is one of those courses that students in pretty much every other major consider to be a pointless requirement. Why should a physics major or an engineering major care about literature? Or a chemistry or biology or psychology or economics or sociology major?

Clearly the psychology major should know some biology and sociology. And in the case of Hayek’s theory of spontaneous orders, anyone studying networks, including sociology, psychology, brain science, and biology, should definitely learn some economics. But where does literature fit into this? Wouldn’t it be better if people simple focused more on their narrow fields to learn about those fields more thoroughly?

In other words, is literature mere entertainment for those wealthy enough to get a liberal arts education? Or might there be something more to it?

First, as Mark Turner argues in The Literary Mind, we think with stories. Literary works are the most refined and complex versions of our natural way of thinking. That being the case, if you want to sharpen your thinking and make it more complex, then read more literature.

Thomas Carlyle defined literature as “the Thought of thinking Souls”—meaning if you want to think best and most beautifully, you simply must read literature. If we want our scientists and engineers and inventors to be good thinkers, we should encourage them to read literature.

Second, literature, like other arts, helps stimulate creativity. There is creative crossover, and this crossover helps people to see patterns and connections in other fields. Bursts of creativity are apt to occur when one way of thinking comes into contact with another.

Specialists in a field who only read and discuss the work of others in that field can settle into uncreative groupthink. Literature, with its complexities and narrative structures and alternative meanings, can break groupthink, creating new insights and possibilities. This is why we find the most creative scientists to be avid lovers of the arts, including literature.

When Max Planck received the Nobel Prize for physics, he commented that, “I am vividly reminded of Goethe’s saying that men will always be making mistakes as long as they are striving after something.” It was a giant of literature, not a physicist, who came to mind for Planck. Noted chaos theorist Mitchell Feigenbaum too found inspiration in Goethe—notably, his Faust, in which Goethe develops the theme of the interrelatedness of order and chaos. And when British physicist Sir Authrur Eddington tried to explain how electrons actually behave in an atom, he went with Lewis Carroll’s poem “Jabberwocky,” altering it thusly: “Eight slithy toves gyre and gimble in the oxygen wabe.”

Literature helped guide these scientists to their scientific insights—insights that challenged the predominant ways of thinking. And when we look at the lives of our most creative scientists, we discover that they all counted literature as being central to their creativity. Creativity develops out of expanding our horizons, not from narrowing them.

Literature is also filled with a number of patterns. There are complex patterns of meaningful word distribution in novels, rhythmic and often rhyming patterns in formalist poetry, patterns of speech and action in plays. Some of these patterns are regular, others are irregular, and many are fractal (exhibiting both regularity and irregularity simultaneously). Literature can thus help us to see patterns more clearly, and to see more complex patterns. This allows us to see connections and to notice when something is breaking a pattern. Both are vital to scientific discovery.

Literature is filled with the expected (patterns) and the unexpected (pattern breaks). It is sometimes filled with strange happenings—Kafka’s The Metamorphosis being an obvious example—that challenge the way you view the world. Kafka certainly presents us with a strange world and forces us to reconsider the way things are. We are faced with strange possibilities—things as strange as quantum physics and the strange attractors of chaos theory. Works like The Metamorphosis help develop a mind that’s open to counterintuitive possibilities.

And as we discussed above, literature allows you to inhabit the life and world of different people. Thus, literature develops our empathy. Men can experience what it’s like to be a woman; women can experience what it’s like to be a man. I’ve experienced being an African-American woman through Toni Morrison and Alice Walker, being an African-American man through Langston Hughes, being an African tribal priest through Chinua Achebe, being a Colombian Hispanic through Gabriel García Márquez, being a Czech Jew through Kafka, being ancient Greek through Homer, Sophocles, Euripides, and Aeschylus, and being a modern Greek through Kazantzakis, just to name a few.

I have inhabited those lives in the only ways actually possible—literature—and that has made me more open, cosmopolitan, and creative. There is little doubt in my mind that literature has allowed me to see the world as deeply complex, which has in turn affected the way I have done my own social science work, seeing the world as I do from a complexity perspective.

New ways of thinking do not occur just among disciplines, but among cultures as well. These cultural differences have resulted in geographically distinct scientific developments. It is not a coincidence that so many of the revolutionary physicists of the early part of the 20th century were Germanic or that early Darwinism was an English phenomenon. And we have already seen that robotic innovation is a mostly Japanese phenomenon.

Cultural elements contributed to those patterns, because culture affects the way we think and view the world. It affects the kinds of questions we ask, and the kinds of answers we see. As we come to understand different cultures better, we will come to think in more creative ways, which can benefit those in math, technology, engineering, and the sciences.

STEM students—those in science, technology, engineering, and math—need literature because it helps to sharpen and complexify our thinking. They will have seen a more complex world, from which they will then ask new questions and find better solutions. And as complexity science comes to dominate more and more, STEM students are going to need more complex habits of thought. Those who want to be most innovative in their fields will not ignore literature.

Immerse in the enchanting world of poetry! Do you know that poetry are supposed to be read orally? Listen and watch to this beautiful poetry classics. 

Poetry is powerful because it can act as a guiding light during the good times, the tough times, and the in-between. Poetry can change your life for the better. No matter what kind of life you lead, there is a poem that matches your experience. A good poem can give guidance to any situation in life. Inspiring you to think deeply or even to act differently.

Watch and read along with this beautiful story from Dr. Seuss, "The Lorax". 

“The Lorax”

The lesson: Be an advocate for those who can’t defend themselves.

Most people think of “The Lorax” as a stern warning against over-logging and polluting our environment — which is true. But we can also take it a little further by looking at a few choice lines from the book to find an even deeper meaning:

"I am the Lorax. I speak for the trees.

I speak for the trees, for the trees have no tongues."

This one snippet is really powerful when you think about it: The Lorax takes it upon himself to stand up for other defenseless beings without reservation. It’s that kind of altruistic act that we could all aspire to bring into our everyday lives a little bit more.

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