Read the following instructions and passage.

Then, write a brief essay (at least 3 paragraphs) that answers the prompt below.

The passage below is from Teaching Literature to an Alliterate Generation: The Role of Engaged Pedagogy (2019), a book chapter written by Dr. Emmanuel Akanwa, an English teacher at Duval High School.

Read the passage carefully and identify what you believe is Akanwa’s most compelling observation. Then write an essay in which you consider the extent to which that observation holds true for the United States or for any other country. Support your argument with appropriate text evidence.

There has been a significant loss of interest in literary reading in recent times. The decline in the reading of literary works is apparent in both adults and young people. In America, for instance, a 2015 survey of literary reading conducted by the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) found that only 43 percent of American adults read any works of literature. According to Christopher Ingraham of the U.S. Washington Post, this percentage decline in literary reading represents “the lowest percentage in any year since NEA surveys began tracking reading and arts participation in 1982, when the literature reading rate was 57 percent” (par.1). Similarly, various studies indicate that reading of literature as a meaningful activity has declined among young people (Bradshaw, Nichols, & Bauerlein 2004; Sullivan, et al 2007; Arlington, 2009). The apparent indifference to the reading of literature among students has remained a significant concern to educators. As a characteristic of the present generation of students, gross indifference towards the reading of literary works has resulted to a dominant state of alliteracy. Roger Cohen defines alliteracy as “the rejection of books by children and young adults who know how to read but choose not to” (par. 1). In juxtaposing alliteracy with illiteracy, Cohen argued that illiteracy is primarily a problem of the third world, while alliteracy is a problem of developed countries, with the United States leading the way. According to John Ramsay, “An alliterate is usually cast as someone who doesn’t care about what others write, and is therefore suspected of being lazy” (51). For Merga and Moon, alliteracy could be described as “the state in which the skill to read has been acquired, but not the will” (122). From the foregoing, the problem of the present generation is not illiteracy—commonly described as the inability to read or write, rather it is the question of lack of interest in reading. While a variety of reasons could be influencing students’ and young people’s interest toward reading, it is important for educators to find ways to engage these students into meaningful investment in the theory and practice of literary reading.