While a slew of recent op-eds have posed questions regarding the poor level of writing among Dartmouth students, it has occurred to me that there is perhaps one very important, yet thus far unaccounted reason for this. As Joe Asch '79 pointed out ("Poor Writing at Dartmouth" Jan. 16), faculty nationwide are becoming well aware of this problem, grading papers so replete with grammatical errors that what the student is trying to say eventually becomes lost. Although allotting more money to the college's Writing Program might do some good, such initiatives can only go so far.
Writing better must be a mostly self-initiated process, stemming mainly from the student. But what Dartmouth can surely do to help in this process is to promote more reading among its students.
In my two years here at Dartmouth, it has occurred to me that the culture of reading at Dartmouth is a rather poor one. There seem to be few students who read beyond what a class requires, or who simply read for pleasure. A quick walk through Baker-Berry library shows that the problem is not reading itself, as it is too easy to find a student with her head buried in her books, going over assigned reading for her classes.
Rather, at its core, the problem seems to be that students, busy as they are, have a hard time finding time to just read a book for themselves.
Reading for pleasure leads to many obvious benefits such as greater awareness and understanding of key events in the world. Yet oftentimes, a by-product of reading more is writing better. As the American Association of School Librarians cites, reading and writing serve the same basic function. That is, they increase our ability to process given information and communicate more effectively.
I can't even count how many times in the past while navely wasting my time on Facebook looking at people's profiles, I would find that under the "favorite books" category many people would write such things as "What books? I don't read books!" or something closer to the truth like "I don't have time to read a book!"
Many students, instead of lining their shelves with their favorite literary gems, inundate their space with magazines and the day's copy of The New York Times or The D. While there is nothing wrong with this, cultivating one's eye for better writing would more effectively and more efficiently be achieved by reading actual books, rather than the watered-down prose found in many magazines. Mark Twain captured the heart of this when he said, "The man who does not read good books has no advantage over the man who cannot read them."
But I was surprised to learn that 35 percent of Americans list reading as their favorite pastime, making it the country's number one leisure activity, according to a recent survey conducted by Harris Interactive, a market-research firm in Rochester, N.Y. While the truth of this might eventually become realized once we leave Dartmouth, when, if ever can we realize this while still at Dartmouth? Can one ever find the time to just read?
Oprah Winfrey's Book Club, the world's largest book club that has many times over succeeded in its mission of convincing many Americans to read books, has just announced its selection of Nobel Peace Prize laureate Elie Wiesel's autobiographical novel "Night." Though I don't suggest that Dartmouth, too, should create a massive book club for its students, maybe such a model on a smaller scale might not be such a bad idea.
In the past, Dartmouth's Student Activities office has sponsored such initiatives, where students are given snacks and a free book for their participation in a book club at The Dartmouth Bookstore. I participated in two such programs during my freshman year. In the first club meeting, I received a free copy of Dan Brown's "The Da Vinci Code" and snacked on some free biscuits. Although I started the book, I never finished it, for the simple reason that I had more urgent work to do for my classes. In another book club meeting at the Dartmouth bookstore, I got a copy of Jhumpa Lahiri's "The Namesake," and I couldn't finish that one, either, because I had other more pressing reading to get done. I ended up giving those books away as gifts to friends, in the hope that my friends would give them the close read they deserve.
So I bid you, Dartmouth: if you want to improve your writing, start by reading a good book.
