Chapter 1 Importance of Reading

     When reading chapter 1 I noticed a new importance on the art of reading. College reading is a whole new world compared to highschool level reading. This is due to the fact that college reading requires not only textbooks but historical documents, Platonic dialogs, Supreme Court decisions, scholarly journals, reports of scientific experiments, magazine articles, newspapers, opinion pieces, blogs, Web materials, zines, and more. Although all those examples are relevant, textbooks are the main reason students get overwhelmed. The reason for the textbooks is to introduce someone to the topic and give them as much information as they can. Obviously the information is important and relevant to the topic, but that's why there is so much information given. 

As I continued to read I found out the meaning of an advanced/experienced college reader. College readers go beyond just reading the text, they use the text as a way to begin critical thinking. This leads to more research and critical thinking towards a subject, making the text a good building block of information. Along with that as a higher leveled reader you must make sure you understand the text. Read the text more than once, make footnotes, be sure that you can understand and break down the text in front of you. The author is trying to teach the reader, so interact with the text, ask questions, write thoughts down. If you interact with the text it not only makes you more engaged, but it helps you comprehend the text as well. 

This connects to the real world because you read information everyday. Whether you are reading the news or twitter, you want to make sure you understand the full story. You do extra research on trending topics, or breaking news. You go beyond what you are told to try and fully understand what's going on. We can take this action and translate to reading just how the book suggests. We read the information and then make sure we research and fully understand the topic, that's how to become an experienced reader.

Introduction

    Welcome to my blog page, this is the first post, the classic "introduction" post. Now when we were given this assignment I wasn't really sure what I was going to write about. I have plenty of things to write about myself, I mean I do know myself pretty well. However, I am not used to having to go so into depth on parts of my life. This made me think very long and hard about how I wanted to present myself to the class, and to anyone reading this blog. After all that I think I found a good way to do it, so lets get started.  
  

     Hi my name is Matt, I am a business major here at North Central. I grew up in sports playing basketball, baseball and golf, my favorite sport being baseball. This picture is from Tropicana Field in Tampa Bay, the home of the Rays. I am a Cubs fan for life, but whenever I go on a vacation with my family we always try to visit a new ball park and watch a team play that we have never seen play before. Most of the places we visit have been in the National league but I am slowly starting to merge over into American league stadiums as well. There is nothing more enjoyable for me than sitting down and watching a baseball game, preferably the Cubs. Along with sports the most important part of my life is my family, that is also why I chose the picture below. Whenever I need help or something happens I know I can count on my family for support, and they have always been a big part of my life. 

    One of the main reasons I am at North Central is because of sports. I am on the golf team here at North Central, I have been golfing since I was able to walk. It is a very calming thing for me, even though mentally it can be very stressful and it's something I enjoy to compete in. I really liked the small school atmosphere at North Central, and it helps me focus on my work. Over weekends or breaks I like to visit my friends at other schools like UIUC, Marquette and other small schools around the area. I enjoy most genres of music, my favorite are country, rock, blues, and hip hop. I am planning to go to country thunder over the summer along with some other concerts around the area. That's just a few things about me and what I like to spend my time doing.

  

      Now with being in Card 101 this brings a whole different perspective on things compared to last semester. Last semester it was all about preparing speeches to be heard, not based on the writing of them. So I am excitied to fine tune my writing skills this semester, and that will then help me in the future for other classes. I am ready to work on not only my writing skills, but also my reading skills. The book lets us know that this is essential to becoming a better writer. Being able to learn and understand both sides of a written piece of work is crucial for us to learning and improving our skills.