You must have heard a lot the statement that reading is vital tool for cognition, in other words, it is considered the main source of knowledge and information. What is more, reading is an activity, which, for sure, takes more than 50% of time in the studying process. Even if you are writing a paper you must do some reading first in order to have support for your claims and be able to develop your own ideas. Therefore, the contention of reading importance is not stereotyped but true and fair.
Reading is, basically, one of the first skills which a child acquires early and dedicates much time to it in his or her primary school. Certainly, it is preceded by such abilities, such as speaking and writing but, usually, parents are willing to teach their offspring to read as soon as possible. The point is that modern schooling system is, generally, based on reading and, to a large extent, a student will need it, at least, to the graduation. It is one of the significant ways to get new knowledge, apart from teacher’s lectures.
Besides reading as a learning tool, it is one of the sources of getting information. If you need to gather some facts, ascertain your position or just get the news you will probably use your reading ability first. Naturally, you can get all that pieces of information from listening but reading method is typically more convenient and faster than any other. You do not need any additional appliances for reading but just the text, your eyes and brain.
One more essential function is that mankind has preserved all the knowledge and experience in resources that can be read, beginning with manuscripts and ending with modern electronic libraries. All symbolic and literary systems were developed for just sharing the earned experience with future generations and saving knowledge for humanity needs. A good example of knowledge preservation is historiography, which we know to exist from the ancient ages. Although one of its initial functions was glorifying the government as usually historians were serving the kings / princes etc. , they managed to save the useful pieces of information about the past and appeared to be one of the most trustworthy sources of historical, social and cultural life about bygone ages. Also, an ancient literature shares the knowledge and world view of people that used to live before us. Basically, by reading we get a chance to protect traditions and values from their extinction.
Considering all the points, we can state that the phrase “reading is important” is not a common stereotype, which we got from parents or teachers. Mankind was developing and making the progress with reading as it was and still is a tool to save the knowledge and experiences. Its popularity and value are, also, grounding in reading’s convenience: it is the fastest way to get and comprehend the information. Moreover, people tend to have a better sight memory, which means that reading and re-reading works for them more effectively. Therefore, we recommend you to not ignore reading in your studying process as its broadens your mind, saves time and improves mnemonic skills.
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