Importance of Reading and Writing in English

The important of reading and writing cannot be underestimated in modern life today. We take it for granted that we can read and write but those academic skills which we learnt at school are not valued by ourselves as much as you may think.

People worldwide are actually reading less as their lives become ever more busier and the quality of handwriting deteriorates while our typing skills on keyboards attached to computers, remote control devices and mobile hand phones reaches the level of an expert.

There is plenty out there to read – books, comics, magazines, online articles, reports, essays, letters, emails, so the amount of reading material is not diminishing in any way, nor is our actual need to read the material in the first place. We still want to read it. The fact is – we do not.

We all must read textbooks in our relative environment. Students at school. Employees in the workplace. Announcements while on the move. Advertising campaigns. Packaging on the foodstuffs we buy.

It is suggested that most young people under the age of eighteen consider Reading as unnecessary and boring and there is no need to handwrite anything if it can be typed. The reality is that the very young, the next generation, are not being read to at bedtime, as generations before were read to by their parents. This has the impact of these young people being unable to relate and tell simple stories, either by speaking it or in writing. The consensus are that books are for reference, for skimming, not for reading. Who really wants to read a book from beginning until end? Who has the time to do that?

This unsettling phenomena is a global thing affecting those using English as their native language as well as those who are learning English as a second language. They come into contact with English on a daily basis through television, the internet, radio, movies and of course Books.

Reading has a real value. It is more than just skimming an article to extract information on a given topic to complete a homework assignment. Writing is about more than just writing it down. Handwriting is a form of Art and is certainly a signature to our identity. How we write and what we write very much reflects who we are and where we are going in life.

Our whole life is determined by the academic skills of Reading and Writing. There cannot be any excuse for any individual in modern life who has been advantaged and privileged to attend School, whether freely provided by the State or paid for by his or her family, to neglect the skills of Reading and Writing.

Nobody should be illiterate. Nobody should be unable to write in their own handwriting and in a manner which can be read by others. Reading and Writing are skills which are learnt, and perhaps like riding a bicycle for the first time, are skills never ever forgotten.

There is a great joy in listening to a story and then recounting it to others. There is a wonder about being able to write at all. Just writing your own name. Writing down thoughts in your head. Writing an important Report. Writing a Twitter Tweet. Even writing an introductory Summary for Hubpages.