BY ERICA POUR
Staff Writer
On Monday, your professor assigns 80 pages of reading due Wednesday. Instantly, you come down with the Monday blues. With other homework, that big paper due and early morning workouts, you have no time to read 80 pages on something you’re not sure you will be tested on. You decide to skip the reading and opt for a quick skim of SparkNotes before class begins Wednesday morning. This begs the question: how much do McKendree students actually read? The answer: they don’t read much at all.
Of 22 McKendree students who participated in an online survey, a shocking 21 students admitted to “cheating” on their reading assignments from time to time. Even for English majors, nightly reading can be out of control.
Kris Buckman, a senior English major, agrees that the reading can be a hassle.
Buckman says, “Professors think they are your only professor and their class is the only class you are taking. They want you to understand concepts but often don’t understand we are taking four other classes and work.”
Undoubtedly, college reading is a necessary practice, but it can be overwhelming for many students. In fact, 70 percent of students surveyed believe they are assigned more than three hours of reading per night, but 90 percent of those same students admit to spending little to no time at all on assigned reading.
To graduate from McKendree, two intensive writing courses are required. It’s no surprise that with this, intensive reading comes into play. The truth is, the majority of intensive studies actually happening are of summary websites like SparkNotes.
90 percent of students surveyed also believe that they have the ability to get through reading required courses without opening a book. At McKendree, the popular expression, “I graduated college without opening a book,” may actually reign true.
