Skip to main content
PBS logo
 
 

Book Review of The great American writing block: Causes and cures of the new illiteracy

The great American writing block: Causes and cures of the new illiteracy
reviewed on + 188 more book reviews
Helpful Score: 1


From the back.......

"Writing-once a lively, vital American resource-is rapidly becoming an endangered skill, a lost art. In this important, original, and impassioned book, Thomas C. Wheeler, a teacher of writing snd literature at the City University of New York, blames the current literacy crisis in part on the insidious influence of television. Even more responsible, he declares is our educational system's emphasis on standardized objective testing. Using examples ranging from Emily Dickinson to Ernest Heimingway, Wheeler shows how vigorously young people respond to American writing at its best. He quotes from the work of his students to dramatize the way writing helps them develop a sense of identity. Wheeler's eloquent plea for renewed emphasis on the written word results in 'an important book, provocative, potentially controversial' (Cleveland Plain Dealer)"