Issue: watching TV and reading books

[thesispaper]

In the age of television, reading books is not as important as it once was. People can learn as much by watching television as they can by reading books."
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My response：

I agree with the author insofar that watching television has become a more valuable means in learning skills than reading books; in other fields of learning, however, I disagree that the watching television has a equal value with reading books; one the contrary, reading books is still much more important than watching television.

To begin with, reading books is better than watching television because it provides an active learning for learners while the latter is a passive one. The difference of these two kinds of learning originates from the disparity that books is a static medium, whereas television program is a dynamic medium. Consequently, book readers can control the speed and the interval of their leaning activity: they can stop to think freely if they want, and continue their reading at any time. In contrast, TV views cannot control the rhythm of the process; they have to follow the program passively, lacking much free time of thinking. In US, Japan, Canada, and other developed countries where watching television is a very common thing among the public, there is rising a deep concern about the indulging of children in TV programs, which would prevent to some extend the mental growth of children; many parents refuse to install cable TV in their houses because they are worrying that their kid would become more passive and more stupid if watching too many programs. In a word, active learning is cherished by the modern education, and reading book can achieve this goal while watching TV cannot.

Moreover, reading books is better than watching television because it can learn much more knowledge than the latter does. Understandably, books have existed as a medium of recording knowledge of the world for thousands of years, whereas television is not only a modern invention existing for no more than half a century. Therefore, the number of knowledge in books greatly exceeds that in TV cassettes. We can find so many books in all fields of academic efforts: humanities, social sciences, and natural sciences, while in TV cassettes or discs, we can just find much fewer of them. Accordingly, if we want to learn more knowledge with broad scopes and diversified contents, we have to turn to read books rather than watch TV programs.

Nonetheless, in the learning of techniques, watching TV programs are better than reading books. As mentioned above, the nature of TV programs is dynamic while that of books are static; at the same time, the process of learning techniques require a dynamic show of how the techniques are being conducted. Thus, the TV programs can provide a perfect medium for learners in this concern. Consider students in art, architecture, music, design, dance, and drama, all pay much attention on the training of skills in their fields. They rely much on watching videos and TV programs to imitate and practice the skills that are the focus of their study. Without these media, it is difficult for them to achieve their learning goals

In conclusion, in most cases, as a means of learning, reading book is still much more important than watching television because of its active nature and its extensive content. However, in the learning of skills, watching TV and video is more important than reading books because of its dynamic nature.

[agcr1]

Hi. I find your essay quite good. Your reasoning is very good but, for my personal taste, I think your writing stye, although being very good, is not the best. That's basically all I can say because I'm not yet too aware of the criteria used to evaluate the GRE essays nor what is desirable or not. Do not take me too serious, my native language is not english.

In few words, I find your essay very good.

[brightstar]

HI thesis,
I find ur essay to be a neutral one,well ur right that television can be a dynamic source for learning and books are static.i find ur essay to be a better one but still there needs to be some improve ment in it.like if u constantly watch tv programs there is possibility tht it will have a very bad effect on ur eyes... and many more factslike this.

[Pengaterch]

Originally Posted by brightstar

HI thesis,
but still there needs to be some improve ment in it.like if u constantly watch tv programs there is possibility tht it will have a very bad effect on ur eyes... and many more factslike this.

get an LCD tv or plasma tv and ther would be no radiation whatsoever

[lestou]

GOOD response, ADMIRING!!

[lestou]

I mean the your idea, but your expression is not good enough.
For instance "I disagree that the watching television has a equal value with reading books; one the contrary, reading books is still much more important than watching television."
Would you please read that again by yoursleve?
1.television has a equal value with reading books<<<< as far as I concern ,it is problematic. television and books share an identical functon. will be better
2.one the contrary? are you crazy. on the contrary.

before you paste ur article, make sure you have read it at least one time.
hopefully you can learn something

[cybrgreen]

Great comments above! hope you can also give some on my essays.

[computer-bot]

Besides some trivial spelling and grammar mistakes (which are rather careless), your essay is OK. What I would criticize is how you started your essay. Although it was not worse but it would have been better if you'd have said something like "... watching television and reading books each have their pros and cons..". This kind of sentence properly explains what the reader is going to encounter in the rest of the essay and thus the reader is not dismayed by any surprises.

CB