Do you do your assigned readings?

Image taken from Google Image Search, source: liberty.edu

Whether you don't have the book or you're just lazy, there's a good chance you have skipped some assigned readings in the past.

I've done it frequently, especially in my journalism classes, because I feel they can be very irrelevant to the discussion. In a class I had last semester, which will remain nameless, we had assigned readings each week that we sometimes discussed in class. I did half of one week's readings and no more.

I got an A- in the class.

As S.P. Sullivan states in this Daily Collegian column, readings usually aren't seen as important by students. He seems to believe, at least in the past, that there was an understanding between student and professor:

‘This is too much reading. I know this. Only a small percentage of you will do all of it. But enough of you will read Book A and enough of you will read Book B and enough of you are prodigious-enough bullshitters that we’ll be able to keep the conversation going all semester.’

He concludes that we probably should put the money we spend on books to good use, but I have an even better idea: don't buy the books in the first place. As much as I might be able to learn by reading in journalism classes, I've been helped much more by the critiquing of my writing and the sharing of real-life experiences from my professors.