Books Are Your Best Friend

In the article What Should Colleges Teach? Part 3, Stanley Fish tackles one of the most debated questions among college English professors: What should the ideal composition course look like and what should it teach? He argues that most high school students aren’t being “[taught] writing skills in an effective way”, which creates a burden on college professors who have no choice but to re-teach English language composition to these students. His answer to this problem is the establishment of multiple methods and techniques to more effectively teach composition to college students, starting from, according to him, the most important part - sentence structure.

How I imagine Fish imagines English classes in high school 

Now when it comes to Fish’s claims on what the most important components of college writing are - I mostly agree with him. I especially strongly agree with his argument that a standardized form of the English language exists and should not be ignored for the sake of promoting individual “identity and style”, but it should rather be taught and used properly; however, his notion of how irrelevant reading is to enhancing college writing skills doesn’t really float my boat.


After continuous research assignments, seasoned with my personal experience as a college student, I’ve come to conclude that reading, active reading more specifically, is one of the best ways for college students to sharpen their writing skills. Throughout this semester I’ve conducted research on the effects reading has on writing through surveys, interviews, observations, etc.


The following were the most insightful on the topic: 

• Conducted interview with Dr. Keller, PhD. in Rhetoric
• Tutoring Observation at the OSU Newark Writing Studio
• Conducted interview with John Wetzel, tutor at the OSU Newark Writing Studio
• Researched multiple peer-reviewed articles done on reading
• Surveyed college students on college writing

"Knowledge is power", so put on some lofi music and grab a book. 

And yes this is undergraduate research, and yes I’m a freshman. But the people that helped me derive my claim are all professionals on the topic (or have been written by professionals) and agreed on a very much similar idea: active reading sharpens college writing skills. Once a student develops a habit to read on a daily basis, if done properly, active reading can enhance his/her critical thinking abilities. By forcing them to continually criticize the text they’re reading, they, as readers, are exposed to new patterns and styles of writing who are memorized through latent learning, and last but not least, enriches the vocabulary of the reader, giving them the ability to articulate better and sound credible.


Okay, so why do I disagree with Fish? In this article, he states, “doing a lot of reading and hoping that by passing your eyes over many pages you will learn how to write through osmosis? I’m not so sure”. He later on implies how diverse reading material can be more effective at enhancing writing skills. This might find Fish in a feud with Dr. Keller who seems to disagree with him on the matter. In our interview, Dr. Keller too, emphasizes the importance of reading different literature. However, his key argument is that paying attention to how we’re reading is what does the trick. “They should read many different types of writing and pay attention to how [students] read”, says Dr. Keller. 

There is a plethora of books to choose from.
Research and pick

By having teachers and professors teach students how to properly interact and engage with assigned reading material can be a major game changer for some students. Discrediting reading completely is absurd, especially when there is plenty of scientific data backing up the positive correlations between active reading and good writing skills. 

The benefits of reading can’t be denied. People who frequently read books will always have an edge over people who don’t when it comes to writing. A mind that has been introduced to so many new worlds and so many perspectives, whether it be fictional or real, modern or ancient, will always have one source of both creativity and information more than the mind that dreads anything written (or nowa days procedurally coded 1s and 0s, displayed through the liquid crystals between two pieces of polarized glass).