"What Will life be Like if People Stop Reading?" by Caleb Crain, and the notation system

This article is about what will happen to people and society if people stop reading. It describes the social effects and also the effects on one's brain. The one thing that I liked about this article is that it provides a lot of interesting facts about who reads, how many people read, and the difference between how educated and uneducated people think. Overall though, I disagreed with the arguments of the article. The article basically insinuates that in order to be educated and well-rounded, a person must practice reading. I disagree with this statement for two principle reasons. First, I believe that the reading that a college student has to do is more than enough to keep their brains functional for reading intensive purposes. Secondly, I believe that the internet and news stations provide all the news of the newspapers, except these mediums cut out the excess, and get to the news.
In regards to the notation system that we used, I do not really like it. I think that it is something that would be needed to be practiced for a very long amount of time, for minimal gains. I did not feel like it helped me understand the article anymore, and it took me longer to read the article.

attempt #2

I became interested in science and engineering through elimination. When I sat down and tried to decide what I wanted to do, I didn’t automatically think of being an engineer. At first, I thought of being a business major, but then I realized that there are too many business majors and not enough jobs, so finding a job would be extremely competitive. Then, I thought that I wanted to be a lawyer. I enjoy arguing with people, so I figured that being a lawyer was a good decision, until I found out that I would have to be in school for eight years. The same reason deterred me from being a doctor. I always wanted to be a surgeon, and I was willing to do the eight years in school. That is, until I got to the University of Miami, realized how hard it was and decided I did not want to go through eight years of schooling.

All that was left was the sciences. There is no particular science that I like. I would never want to be a chemist or physicist. Biology was better, but I still didn’t want to do it. Engineering looked interesting but I was not convinced that I wanted to be an engineer. I still wanted to do business even though I knew I wouldn’t be able to. Everything changed when I found industrial engineering. It allows me to be very knowledgeable in the sciences, while providing me opportunities in the business world beyond what a business degree would. With industrial engineering, I am able to study the business world with a scientific perspective.

Why Engineering