In the texts, Reading for Pleasure Is in Painful Decline, by Stephen L. Carter, and Twilight of the Books, by Caleb Crain, both authors discuss the declining trend of reading and its social impacts. While Carter takes a more emotional approach to his argument, Crain presents a more logical perspective. Overall, Crain’s argument is much more effective as it contains greater specificity and more compelling statistics compared to Carter’s. Throughout their arguments, both authors assert that individuals who participate in various activities are more likely to be readers; however, Crain provides a more detailed explanation of this correlation. In the concluding paragraph of Crain’s argument, he skillfully provides specific examples of civic participation…show more content… Thus, Crain's argument appears to be stronger due to the clarity and specificity of his example. Furthermore, Crain’s argument presents more effective statistics regarding the decline in reading habits. Crain cites a decline in Americans reading levels in the span of 10 years to have “fell to fifty- four percent”, compared to over half the population it previously was. His statistical numbers make his argument appear more established as it prevails, the fall in reading levels is clearly evident. However, Carter’s argument insufficiently claims that an increase in non-readers would “bode ill for the nation's future”, without any statistics to support there is a downward trend to begin with, making his argument lack persuasiveness and credibility. Thus, Crain’s argument is more reliable as it includes sufficient, statistical evidence to support its claim of the decline of non-readers. Although Carter’s argument appeals to the reader's emotions by depicting dialogue between two teenage girls and their desires to read, it lacks statistical evidence to support the claim of a decline of teenage
