It's my feeling that American readers prefer essays, articles and blogposts to be longer than we like in the UK, where we seem to appreciate brevity and conciseness. I casually explain it to myself as Americans liking to 'get their money's worth' but more seriously wonder if there may be a couple of other factors at work.
1. Although both the UK and the USA are slightly below the international average in literacy rates, those Americans who do read, read more - about 12 books per capita p.a. compared with 10 in Britain. Also, this infographic places the USA 7th globally in terms of 'literate behaviour characteristics', behind Nordic countries and Switzerland; we rank 17th on the same basis.
2. American attendance at Christian churches is double that in the UK. Maybe they're more used to long sermons - remember Meghan's preacher starting to let himself go at the wedding? On the other hand, the most religious may not be the most well-read.
So is my impression correct and if so, what are the reasons?
2 comments:
My former dean used to complain that emails from department chairs in the humanities, fine arts and social sciences ran to several pages to make a point, where those from the sciences were one paragraph.
As to Americans reading more, I would posit by 42 years of observation that we tend to be polar extremes: teatotal or alcoholic, obese or super fit, reader or illiterate.
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