When people think of comics, what comes to mind first is a middle school child having a great time being amazed at make-believe superheroes and warlocks. The general public rarely thinks about the great benefits comics can add to the education of that child, let alone a college student.
However, comics have real value and they matter in the development of many students who may not benefit fully from traditional text-only books.
Understanding Story Elements
Comics can make understanding every element involved in storytelling easy due to its simplicity and the use of visual and “audio” cues like onomatopoeia. The simplicity of how information is relayed in comics is why spotting falling or rising actions, story climaxes, and character development easier than in regular books.
When students can understand these concepts, it’ll be easier for them to identify the meaning and purpose of messages in textbooks and research when doing coursework. Knowing what the authors of course-related publications wanted to tell them will improve the quality of their writing as they’ll relate the information correctly.
Reading Becomes Fun
If poring over long blocks of text intimidates you or you just don’t have the attention span or ability to read for a long time, comics can assist you. Comics allow students to read little by little and this light reading can warm them up for longer and complex pieces like coursework-level material.
The way comics are interesting and how they usually have characters from famous movies and TV shows can motivate students to like reading. When reading becomes fun for students, they will enjoy learning and the more knowledge they have, writing coursework will become easier.
Coursework Writing Help
While reading comics can help improve your writing skills, this might not be enough as college students have a wider range of problems that affect coursework. One of the common problems unique to college students is balancing schoolwork and their jobs, which usually leaves them feeling drained.
When I’m at my lowest, I visit Edubirdie and ask their team to do my coursework for me to avoid missing deadlines and possibly to flunk the year. Edubirdie has helped me at times when my deadlines were due in than five hours and they’re great at following specific instructions to meet submission criteria.
Improved Vocabulary
Comics don’t come in one genre and that can help expose students to various forms of language use that are theme-specific which will introduce students to new words. To understand these new words, a student will be eager to search them in a dictionary so they can get a clear picture of what the author is saying.
Over time, students will learn many words that will help their writing become more engaging and concise as they’ll have better words to express the depth of their knowledge. Being familiar with words will also reduce the frequency of typos and grammar mistakes on a student’s coursework.
Improves Dialogue
A large part of comic book text consists of dialogue which can make a student familiar with documenting speech which will help write dialogue-based coursework. Besides that, written dialogue can improve the language skills of native English speakers and people who speak other languages.
Comic dialogue can improve a student’s language skills by using short pieces of text that are easy to understand and are coupled with explanative hints in character expressions. However, reading comics too often can hamper your academic progress, which is why study apps can help you balance studying and enjoying comics.
Better Comprehension
The illustrations in comics don’t just make reading exciting for students. It teaches them good comprehension skills as the meaning of the text is dependent on the drawings. What makes the text’s meaning depend on drawings is that they are sequential and a reader has to make sense of both to understand the story.
Being able to make conclusions on available data can help students develop good study habits that’ll lessen the time spent processing information. Comics encourage readers to use their imagination and this can help students form clear mental pictures that’ll make comprehending information easier and lead to better-written coursework.
Conclusion
Comics are fun and learning is more effective when it’s enjoyable, which is why reading comics can be essential to teaching students to view their studies positively. It’s also interesting to see how a form of media that is viewed as being for fun only can have such an impact on helping students succeed. As we’ve learned, reading comics also has tangible benefits that can enrich the learning experience for almost all types of students.
Author’s Bio:
Julius Sim is the head of the support team at Edubirdie and has previously worked in various large organizations in marketing and customer service divisions. His experience, backed with his strategic management style, makes him a very successful C-suite person. In his free time, he loves playing billiards, walking his dogs and watching live sports.