Being a College Reader and Writer

Why should you care about becoming a stronger reader and writer? College involves a lot of reading. A full load of college classes—about 15 credit hours—will require between 30-45 hours of study each week, including time spent in class, plus writing and reading on your own outside of class.

Most college courses average three credits: ENGL-090 is a double-load of six credits, while ENGL-095 is also weighted heavier at four credits. ENGL-121 is a three-credit class. The following information on class workload is from Rice University:

• A three-credit course will average about 40 pages of reading each week, with about 450 words per page. Average student reading speed for college texts ranges from 100-300 words per minute (wpm) with good comprehension of the content. This equals around two hours of reading each week for a three-credit course.
• A three-credit course will average about 15 pages of polished essay-level writing each semester, plus additional writing each week in the form of exercises, discussion posts, and drafts. Students can produce a polished essay page—with pre-writing exercises and drafts—at about two hours per page. This works out to at least two hours of writing each week for a three-credit course.
• ENGL-090: plan on four hours each week for reading; four hours for writing
• ENGL-095: plan on three hours each week for reading; three hours for writing.

That’s a lot of reading and writing.

The National Survey of Student Engagement estimates that first-year students will write about 92 pages during the academic year, and read about six thousand pages. (Remember, you will read 40 pages per week, per course.)

So, improving your reading and writing will make that load more manageable. That is what ENGL-090 and ENGL-095 are designed to do: help guide you to gaining stronger reading comprehension skills and clear writing competence. This textbook will aide you in achieving your reading and writing goals.