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16.7.2: Persuasive Speech on Reading During Leisure Time

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    By: Samantha Gentry

    Specific Purpose:

    To persuade my fellow classmates on the importance of reading during leisure time.

    Introduction:

    Raise your hand if you have read a book outside of a class requirement within the past year. Did you know that according to the American Time Spent survey of 2017 by the Bureau of Labor Statistics, Americans who read for pleasure has declined by over 30% since 2004? In 2004, about 28% of American ages 15 and older read for pleasure; in 2017 that number was down to about 19%. Less men are reading for pleasure than women with a whopping 15% of men reading for fun and about 22% of women. Hello, my name is Samantha Gentry, and today I’m going to persuaded you why reading for pleasure is good for you.

    Thesis/Preview:

    Reading for pleasure and as a leisure active has many benefits for your mind, body, and soul. Three of the benefits include: improved brain health, relieved stress, and improved empathy skills.

    I. Reading is a fantastic activity to help maintain and even improve your brain health.

    1. As many of us may be aware, as we begin to get older and age, our physical bodies begin to decline, but so do our brain and mental activity.

    2. A study published by Neurology, a peer-reviewed neurology journal, showed that people who read throughout their lifetime had a slower decline in memory compared to their peers who did not.

    3. When you are reading, specifically fiction books, your brain is having to make connections; over time these connections for new pathways between the four lobes and two hemispheres in the brain. Over time these new pathways help promote quicker thinking and help defend against cognitive decay.

    Transition: Reading is like exercise for your mind. It also serves as a stress reliever.

    II. There are many ways to reduce stress. Why is reading one of them you ask?

    1. Well according to a study by the University of Sussex in 2009 found that reading for just 6 minutes can reduce stress level by up to 68%.

    2. Reading is such a large part of going through school and at many jobs; it is hard to find the benefits of it.

    3. When you are immersed in a new world of a fiction novel or learning about one of the greatest leaders in history in a biography book, you are focusing your mind and body to think beyond the stress of your everyday life. Reading also helps reduce your heart rate and eases muscle tension.

    Transition: Everyone needs a little stress relief in their life. They also need to learn how to become more empathetic.

    III. Being able to show empathy and understand the mental and emotional states of those around is an important skill to forming social relationships.

    1. A study by Bal and Veltkemp in 2013, showed that over a week’s time readers who were emotionally transported into a fiction story felt a change in their empathy skills.

    2. When you are immersed in an emotional book, you are able to feel what the characters are feeling and think what they are thinking. This helps you to begin to understand how those around you are feeling about situations you may actually never face in your own life.

    3. If you are wanting to be a more empathic person, make sure you read fiction books over nonfiction because literary fiction had a more significant impact than nonfiction.

     

    Conclusion: According to Caleb Crain, a writer for The New Yorker, there are many reasons why Americans don’t read; from actives on computers, to cell phone scroll, to the king of them all television watching. However, there are many benefits to reading. These benefits include improved brain health, relieved stress, and improved empathy skills. So please understand that no matter how boring or how much of a waste of time it may seem to you, reading books for fun is good for you. Thank you.

    References:

    Bal, P. M., & Veltkamp, M. (2013). How does fiction reading influence empathy? An experimental investigation on the role of emotional transportation. PLoS ONE,8(1). doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0055341

    Crain, C. (2018, June 14). Why we don’t read, revisited. Retrieved from https://www.newyorker.com/culture/cu...read-revisited

    Ingraham, C. (2018, June 29). Leisure reading in the U.S. is at an alltime low. Retrieved from https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/ wp/2018/06/29/leisure- reading-in-the-u-s-is-at-an-all-time- low/?noredirect=on&utm_term=.f3fa9d4bd61c

    Kidd, D. C., & Castano, E. (2013). Reading literary fiction improves theory of mind. Science,342(6156), 377-380. doi:10.1126/science.1239918 PJ

    Web Solutions Ltd. (n.d.). Reading reduces stress levels. Retrieved from https://www.kumon.co.uk/blog/reading...stress-levels/

    Schocker, L., & Schocker, L. (2017, December 07). 6 science-backed reasons to go read a book right now. Retrieved from https://www.huffpost. com/entry/health-benefits-reading_n_4081258

    Specktor, B. (2019, March 04). Here’s why your brain needs you to read every single day. Retrieved from https://www.rd.com/culture/benefits-ofreading/

    Wilson, R. S., Boyle, P. A., Yu, L., Barnes, L. L., Schneider, J. A., & Bennett, D.A. (2013). Life-span cognitive activity, neuropathologic burden, and cognitive aging. Neurology,81(4), 314-321. doi:10.1212/WNL.0b013e31829c5e8a

    Wise, A. (17, October 17). 8 science-backed reasons to read a (real) book. Retrieved from https://www.realsimple.com/health/preventative- health/ benefits-of-reading-real-books

    This page titled 16.7.2: Persuasive Speech on Reading During Leisure Time is shared under a CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 license and was authored, remixed, and/or curated by Kris Barton & Barbara G. Tucker (GALILEO Open Learning Materials) via source content that was edited to the style and standards of the LibreTexts platform; a detailed edit history is available upon request.