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Emily Deck
Ms. Park
English 106
2/23/14
Read To Succeed
My name is Emily Deck and I am going to be discussing the importance of reading and why
children need to pursue reading throughout their school years using my own personal experience.
My audience consists of fourth and fifth grade children because that was when I started to lose
interest in reading. The purpose of this audio essay titled, Read To Succeed, is to inform children
and persuade them that reading is extremely important and that you must continue to read
throughout your life to improve your comprehension skills.
(Drops of Jupiter by Train starts to play)
There was a time in life where technology didnt exist. There were no televisions, no radios, no
cell phones, and no computers. So what were kids supposed to do for fun back then? They
couldnt watch their favorite television show Spongebob Squarepants during the day or text their
friends seeing if they wanted to go to the movies or go bowling. When I asked my grandma what
she used to do as a kid she said,
- Well Emily, I liked to do a lot of things when I was young when we didnt have
technology. I loved to play outside with my friends, play with dolls with your aunt
Carol, but my favorite thing to do was read. I loved to read.
Reading books was the one way children and adults kept themselves occupied. People would
read for hours wanting to know the ending to the most exciting book they could lay their eyes on.
And thats just how I was when I was in the first grade when my grandma introduced me to my
friend Junie B Jones.
- My name is Junie B Jones, the B stands for Beatrice. Except I dont like Beatrice I
just like B and thats all.
Every Junie B Jones book I read started off with those very words. I could remember reading
these books till I could barely keep my eyes open. I would read these books everywhere I went. I
would take them on vacations to read, I would take them to school with me and I would take
them to the dinner table if I could. My life immediately took flight when I read these books. I
was taken off into a world where only I could imagine what Junie B Jones life was like. I vividly
tried to imagine the adventures and daily tasks that Junie went through. Even though technology
was available for me at that time, I still was engrossed with the amazing, colorful books that
were written by Barbara Park. But sadly once her series was over and I had finished reading her
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books, I began to lose interest in reading. I had a hard time trying to find new books to read that
would catch my attention especially when I started to have more access to technology. When I
got to the fourth grade I didnt want to read at all because all I wanted to do was watch movies
and play video games.
(Super Mario Brothers sound effect plays)
However I didnt realize that once you lose interest in reading it is hard to re-immerse yourself
in the joys of reading. It is even more important today that children continue to keep reading
especially when they are in their late elementary school years going into middle school. I
strongly encourage and recommend that you continue reading no matter what technology you
have access to. Set aside time in the day where you can just read a few pages or for at least 30
minutes. Because I promise you the more you read the more you will succeed.
Authors Bio:
Emily Deck is a freshman at Purdue University and she is majoring in animal sciences with a
concentration of pre-veterinary medicine. Emily plans attending the Veterinary school at Purdue
University in hopes that she can become a veterinarian. She grew up with four younger siblings
in Carmel, Indiana and was the first to attend college.
This audio essay was created and produced by Emily Deck herself at the Harrison Hall Room
267 production company on February 25, 2014.
Works Cited:
Train. Train- Drops of Jupiter. Online video clip. Youtube. Youtube, 25 Oct. 2009. Web. 23,
Feb. 2014.
Super Mario Sound Effects! Online video clip. Youtube. Youtube, 2 Nov. 2011. Web. 23, Feb.
2014.
I chose these two sounds to use in my audio essay because Drops of Jupiter by Train is about a
girl who has gone to outer space and when she returned she had changed and thats how I felt
when I first started reading. I also chose the super Mario sound effects because I was going to
use them to relay how I was more interested in television and video games instead of reading.