Is this article a good idea?

Talkatoast · Jul 11, 2008

Well, I'm in the third stage of weeding out. I have to write an obejective article, 250-300 words. Since the section I'm wanting to write for is geared towards teens, this article deals with teens. What I want to know is if this is a good topic to cover: I want to write about why most adolescents don't like to read. I'm probably going to interview a libraria and one of my friends, who is in remedial English, and I feel he's in remedial because he never did his reading assignments.

While it's true that books like Harry Potter and Twilight are gaining more adolescent readers, most of those adolescent readers are hesitant to read other books, so they only read either Harry Potter or Twilight.

Calla Lily · Jul 11, 2008

I don't know about "most." My 16YO only read HP for awhile, but that was because our school district required them to read 30 books over the 8th-grade school year. It made reading a chore. But he had to read a current issue book this year, and I got him Dan Brown's Digital Fortress (I know, I know, but he liked it. He's 16.) Because that was a quick read, he lawyered his teacher into letting him read my unpubbed mystery for his final project. So now he reads a bit more.

My 12YO, OTOH, reads for pleasure. He reads Naruto graphic novels, too, but hey, I read Godzilla comics still.

MoonWriter · Jul 11, 2008

Have you thought about taking a survey of your friends or AW teens? Instead of saying most teens don't read, you could provide statistics. You could also ask why they don't read, and for those who do read, ask what they enjoy reading and how many books a week/month/year they read.

BfloGal · Jul 11, 2008

Lily raises an interesting point -- what discourages teens from reading and what actually encourages them? Might your article cover positive things being done to increase teen reading?

I'm not sure what your audience is, but as a former teacher, that would be something that would interest me more.

Talkatoast · Jul 12, 2008

That's a good idea! That'll make the article a lot easier to cover!

maestrowork · Jul 12, 2008

I certainly think it's a good topic but I think 300 words is too short. It seems like such a big topic and I would think at least 800 words would do it justice.

kuwisdelu · Jul 12, 2008

maestrowork said:
I certainly think it's a good topic but I think 300 words is too short. It seems like such a big topic and I would think at least 800 words would do it justice.

I agree. I think it's a good idea for an article, but I have a feeling it could go on for much longer than 300 words.

If you asked my why kids don't read? Movies. School reading assignments. To today's kids, movies=fun, and books=work. It's what they have to do for school, not something they want to do for fun. I partially blame school's choosing terrible books. I hated at least 90% of my school reading until my senior year in high school. There was some good stuff in there, like The Great Gatsby and stuff, but most of it was crap.

...of course I'm also very biased in that I'd also ask the question "Why do kids today read such bad books?" only to then realize, from my point of view, the majority of reading adults also read bad books...

Is this article a good idea?

Talkatoast

Calla Lily

On hiatus

MoonWriter

practical experience, FTW

BfloGal

Lost in a plot hole

Talkatoast

maestrowork

Fear the Death Ray

kuwisdelu

Revolutionize the World