Why it is Important to Develop Reading Skills as a Student?

An argument for reading between a Son and his Mother:

Son: 

Mummy, how often are you going to repeat the same piece of advice?

Mother: 

As long as it takes you to follow it.

Son:

I’ve told you so many times, mother, I don’t have time to read. You know that I am busy with my classes and my assignments.

Mother: 

My Dear Son, why don't you understand that it is the reading habit that will help you excel in your studies?

Son:       

But I do read my textbooks and take notes systematically too.

Mother: 

If you limit yourself to textbooks, how will you learn more about the world in general?

Son: 

I watch TV, I talk to friends, I go to the latest movies - and they're all much more colourful and stimulating than those black and white pages!

Mother: 

You're not a child anymore son, to be stimulated by only colour and lively talks. Take the next step. Books will widen your perspective and add depth to your thinking. You can read about what goes on in the minds of people who may be very different from you in culture and modes of thought. Books will sharpen your language and help you understand your own feelings.

Son: 

But these writers use such difficult words. I usually give up after the first page of any book!

Mother:

Oh, in that case, you should try to guess the meaning of words in their context. If you run to the dictionary for every new word, you'll soon lose track of the ideas, and so lose interest in reading too.

Son:

I tried to read some novels and they were boring.

Mother:

Why don't you choose a book that deals with a topic that interest you? Umm! Let me see .. you like cricket, right? Why don't you read the biographies of famous cricketers? Some have even written their autobiographies. Check out 'Sunny Days' by Gavaskar, 'All Round View' by Imran Khan, and 'Beating the Field' by Brian Lara. I'm sure these will be lively and witty.

Son: 

Oh, yes! Do you know if Sachin Tendulkar has written his autobiography?

Mother:

I don't know, but do buy it if it exists and don't stop with just reading cricketers biographies.

Son:

All right, Mummy! I get your point - I'll also read the biographies of football players, hockey champions, tennis player, rugby player, kabbadi ...

Mother:

My Dear Son! That's not cricket!

Son:

What does that mean?

Mother:

Read more and find out!

Do you recognise the Boy in yourself? Do you feel that reading is a waste of time, and too much of it will only turn you into a bookworm?

Like Him, many students feel that reading is a waste of time, so I'd like to give you many reasons as possible to pick up the reading habit.

My aim of this article is two-fold:

1. to instil in you a love for reading, and

2. to help you read and comprehend more efficiently.

THE IMPORTANCE OF READING

So, why is the reading habit so important?

"Good books can convert a merely literate person into an educated person."

Well, a literate person may know how to read, but an educated person knows how to put her/his reading to good use.

In the above argument, Mother's points out, books provide us with insight into the workings of our world. Moreover, they help us understand the past, to share the ideas of the best thinkers, to be up-to-date with our professions, and to make the world a better place.

As a student, your reading is often put to the test. Your assignments demand that you gather information on a variety of subjects. The pity is that most look upon this as a meaningless chore, and feel that once their formal studies are completed they would not have to look again within the covers of a book.

But they are mistaken. Have you notices that the top slots of any profession are reserved for those who are well-informed and articulate, who can process relevant information quickly and use it intelligently at the workplace? Reading is one of the activities that can give you all these qualities.

Reading as a source of knowledge

There are three main sources through which new facts and relationships become known to us:

1.    through direct observation,

2.    through conversations with others who know, and

3.    through reading.

Let us examine the effectiveness of each of these:

1.    Even though direct observation may be the most satisfactory way to prove an idea or a hypothesis correct, very few of us are observant enough to learn everything using only this method.

2.    Very few of us have such well-informed friends, who can give us all that we require. Moreover, one should not be too dependent on other's points of view.

3.    Books give us first-hand information. Reading gives us access to the best minds on any subject. We can crosscheck information from books that have been authenticated as reliable sources.

Reading for Professional Growth

Now, imagine yourself in the following professional roles:

• You are a receptionist in a multinational company. You receive emails every day; you are asked to write the minutes for meetings; you are asked to browse various Websites to gather information. Can you get the work done without reading?
• You are a manager of stores in a company. People come to you with various tenders and notices. they bring different offers and place them before you. You have to go through each of them and make a decision that will affect the company. What do you need to do? You need to read and understand what is being said in those papers. If you do not understand, you will lose your job.
• You are an engineer in charge of marketing heavy equipment in various parts of the world. To frame marketing strategies that will work, you need an insight into the culture and attitudes of your clients. where would you get information? Obviously, your best source of information is books.
• You are a doctor working in a remote part of the country, trying to do your best for the underprivileged sections of society. How can you keep up with the latest trends and research findings? You will have to turn to books and journals to keep up with the latest trends and findings in the world of medicine.

A good reader will be able to handle such tasks with ease, since certain sub-skills, such as scanning a text to pick out the relevant details, summarizing the essential points, etc., have already been unconsciously imbibed.

So, it is essential to keep up with your professional reading.

Reading to become a Complete Person

Reading only for professional growth is still too narrow an aim; picking up the reading habit for the knowledge that you can gain is important. It can make you not only a complete professional but also a well-rounded human being.

Let us look at a few facts about readers and non-readers.

A reader

• is well-informed
• has an active, inquiring mind,
• has highly developed language skills and can communicate well,
• is open and willing to explore and understand different points of view, and
• is in touch with ideas and, therefore, could be more creative.

A non-reader

• is partially informed,
• is easily bored since the mind gets little opportunity to feel its curiosity or develop an absorbing interest,
• maybe hesitant about talking to people since that would mean exposing her or his own ignorance,
• maybe more open to prejudices and the influences of manipulative people, and
• may become stagnant or regressive in life since she/he is unaware of new ideas and progressive developments.

There are some old sayings about Reading which I remember:

Joseph Addison said, "Reading is to the mind what exercise is to the body."

Mark Twain said, "The man who does not read good books has no advantage over the man who cannot read them."

That's it for today!


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