"Medicine, law, business, engineering-- these are noble pursuits necessary to sustain life. But, poetry, beauty, romance, love, these are what we stay alive for."
This famous dialogue from the famous American movie 'Dead Poets Society' was quoted by the legendary actor Robin Williams. In the simplest of words, if one wants to describe the necessity of literature in human lives, this is the sentence to read.Literature is important for youths to build their career as well. Reading is a practice, and when it turns into a habit, it helps to upskill one's writing skills, stimulates intellectual curiosity, enhances memory and encourages critical ability. All these are essential skills for students in any career.
Builds writing ability
Writing relevant content can be a challenging task at the workplace. Even today, professionals face significant difficulties in writing clear reports that are easily understandable. Literature helps to develop writing and grammar skills. It also assists in conveying messages precisely and presenting ideas and arguments in a meaningful manner in front of its peers and superiors. These enhance one's both written and verbal communication skills for every possible future job prospects.
“Stimulates intellectual curiosity
Due to lack of patience, many people have the habit of just skimming through the details of several documents. However, a detail-oriented person can come up with solid business solutions in many cases as he or she will not miss out on anything purposely. Thus, literature enables 'reading through the lines' to decipher meaning, intention and the message of the author which extends a person's thinking of new ideas and chances. It also introduces the readers with learning of history, society and cultures of different eras. This kind of historical insights of the ancient times may stimulate students to research more or delve into further reading into that genre.
Boosts creativity
Literature helps to expand the horizons of human-thinking, encourages to generate new ideas and indulge into creative conclusions as it forces a person to think out of the box and reach areas beyond his or her imaginations. The creative industry is the fastest-growing sector in any economy. Creativity is highly appreciated by employers in every sector of an industry, since it helps improve products, services, processes and something that cannot be automated by robots.
Promotes mental stimulation
Focusing on words and storylines stimulates the brain and keeps it active and alert. It also helps to broaden thinking when analysing themes, interpreting messages and discovering new words. This can improve a person's workload taking ability without creating much stress.
Improves memory and attention
Staying focused and remembering due tasks is one of the most challenging attributes that must be developed among job-holders. Great memory and concentration makes a person more responsible and enables him/her to carry a project more sincerely, minimising mistakes. During literary endeavours, one will recall and remember sequences of events and historical periods. This helps maintain concentration and attention levels.
Encourages critical analysis
This skill is highly required in a workplace and is developed through commenting, interpreting and suggesting various views and opinions of someone's work. Hence, reading literature makes this achievable. A person is further required to analyse written structures, themes, ideas and characters building persuasive techniques of writing to convince readers about its analytical viewpoint.
Literature helps people advance in their career as it makes the reader visit places, experience events, meet people, hear them and feel their joys and sufferings, from past and present. Literature, hence, mirrors society and its mannerisms. Hence, apart from spiritual nourishment, literature develops other attributes that are necessary for practical life.
The writer is a student of Department of International Business at University of Dhaka.
kashafa.saira@gmail.com