SparkNotes...

[LittleMomo]

I know you guys use them before you people have taken quizzes before. Now tell me, students or not, do/ would you use them? Personally, I do not think it's right. Reading the books is much better.

this is the site:
www.sparknotes.com

[Kojack]

SparkNotes saved my behind last year. I didn't have time to read Huckleberry Finn for English because I made the mistake of letting the work for all my classes snowball. I would have been completely lost in lecture and seminar if it wasn't for SparkNotes. But, I would have read it myself if I had the time. I don't think defaulting to it every time you have to read something is the way to go about things. I'm really glad it exists, though.

[Gizoku]

The Huck Finn story goes with me too. I thought the book wasnt that great so I kind of slacked off. Sparknotes saved me from failing english.

[Dxon]

SparkNotes is what? Something to cheat? To get the general idea of a book without reading it? I don't get it. o.o;

[sa5m]

LOL GUILTY.

Sparknotes especially saved me this year, in AP Lit. We had to read so many books, and with my other busy classes, I just didn't have time to sit down and read a book thoroughly.

You gotta do what you gotta do.

[Amray]

Sparknotes saved me from drowning.

But seriously, they are really helpful to run through at the last minute. They did help me quite a bit.

[Kojack]

SparkNotes is what? Something to cheat? To get the general idea of a book without reading it? I don't get it. o.o;

SparkNotes is a website that has lots of information on literature. It's got plot summaries, character outlines, major theme explanation, symbolism analysis, etc. Think of it as a really smart classmate that tells you all the answers.

[ChibiNaruto]

In high school, I relied on pinkmonkey.com, sparknotes.com, gradesaver.com to help me out in English class, because I was too lazy to read the book (or at least read it in time).

So...no, I am ALL for sparknotes! However, I think pinkmonkey is better.

[Capernicus]

I think its really ridiculous that students have trouble getting all their work done. It's not that hard people. Wait till you get into college, you'll really drown under all the work and waste your tuition.

[Amray]

Oh. Whoops. I never knew it was a website, I thought you were talking about some form of written notes that you had jotted down from classroom lessons.

In that case, then no I have not used sparknotes. I have much wisdom and store it all in my head or on a piece of paper with a pen.

[Perpetual Specter]

I've honestly never heard of the site before. Anyway, Capernicus is correct here. Once you're in college, thing will be much more difficult than high-school ever was normally, especially if you have a job while in college. Don't complain too much about "not enough time", because you'll most likely have less time to do assignments in college, as college instructors tend to be more strict than high-school teachers. And time certainly won't wait for you in the actual real world after college. Anyway, I don't use such sites. I just get things done as they should be, only usually I just get them done 'at the last minute'. >_>

[Ollie]

I have never ever used SparkNotes.

Not because of personal ethics or anything, just because since I hadn't ever successfully used it I keep forgetting about its existence. I'm sure I WOULD have used it when my senior English class was reading Beowulf if I had just remembered about it.

[Eris]

Nah. I just watched the film version instead. Or if in a pinch, pieced together the plot from reviews online.

[Kobarokawa-San]

never used anything like that... i just not trust them :) either i needed it

[DaRkAnGeL_2919]

reading the book is always gonna be alot better..
and i always say im going too..
but eh >.< im lazy,
it's really useful though,
even if i had read the book, i could read the sparknotes if im studying for a test
i think the people who created sparknotes are gods xD

[Khanxay]

Doesn't work work on my teacher. She reads the Sparknote and Cliffnote sites to decide what not to put on a quiz. Quizes would have ridiculous details in them.

I'd rather just read the books over three class periods. (That's if it's 300 or less pages, normal sized print.)I can read something pretty fast and understand it pretty well, exceot for symbolism.

[Manhattan_Project_2000]

I've never had a problem reading things on time, instead I have a problem writing things on time. Sparknotes is useless to me.

[Eris]

I've never had a problem reading things on time, instead I have a problem writing things on time. Sparknotes is useless to me.

Best solution is to just outsource it to some foreign sweatshop. That way, you get your homework done whilst supporting the cause of evil in general and oppression of the poor and unfavored in particular.

[Manhattan_Project_2000]

Best solution is to just outsource it to some foreign sweatshop. That way, you get your homework done whilst supporting the cause of evil in general and oppression of the poor and unfavored in particular.
But I would still have to reread it, least the little urchins try to replace my thesis statement with a call for help/clean food and water. I don't have time for that.

[Eternal_Flame]

Yes, I have used Spark Notes, but it was when we had to make a Shakespeare gameshow, and I needed random facts. I don't think it's right to use it instead of reading the book, but if you need facts or a study guide I think that that's okay.

[Eris]

But I would still have to reread it, least the little urchins try to replace my thesis statement with a call for help/clean food and water. I don't have time for that.

Just get them all hooked on barbiturates. It's great because going cold turkey induces fatal seizures. Then they can't risk escaping and cutting off their supply. You need to set up a Moebius loop of dependencies, where you have two sweatshops, that produce the drugs that the kids other sweatshop are hooked on. Then you have the first sweatshop produce the essay, and the other one proofreading it.

Needless to say, random electric shocks and child-hating dobermanns are also necessary for a well functional evil empire.

[Manhattan_Project_2000]

Just get them all hooked on barbiturates. It's great because going cold turkey induces fatal seizures. Then they can't risk escaping and cutting off their supply. You need to set up a Moebius loop of dependencies, where you have two sweatshops, that produce the drugs that the kids other sweatshop are hooked on. Then you have the first sweatshop produce the essay, and the other one proofreading it.

Needless to say, random electric shocks and child-hating dobermanns are also necessary for a well functional evil empire.
The problem is, the larger the Evil Empire the more time you need to spend watching it. Sure, you can delegate tasks to functionaries, but half of the time you callously killed their parents/sibling/girlfriend and they seek to destroy you with your own evil device. It's such a pain. That's why I'm more of a Magnificent Bastard (http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/MagnificentBastard) then an Evil Overlord (http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/EvilOverlord).

[Kishiro]

Real men use www.cliffnotes.com (http://www.cliffnotes.com)

SparkNotes is for newbs.

In any case, there is no real problem with using them if you can. Why pay for a book you're only going to read once or search for it in the library when you can get detailed chapter by chapter summaries and plot analysis as well as character analysis.

Here's an example, recently, I had to read Frankenstein and Things Fall Apart for my Western Civ III course. And I had to write a 5 page essay comparing the two books. Both are around 25 chapters long, pretty averaged sized novels. In addition, we had class discussions on each book. I read both books as summaries on Cliff Notes, and lead the class discussions with the most insightful comments about the books. I never opened the actual ones. And I'm glad I didn't. It took me about 20-30 minutes to get through each book that way, and I had great results and was able to write a great paper on the two.

[Eris]

The problem is, the larger the Evil Empire the more time you need to spend watching it. Sure, you can delegate tasks to functionaries, but half of the time you callously killed their parents/sibling/girlfriend and they seek to destroy you with your own evil device. It's such a pain. That's why I'm more of a Magnificent Bastard (http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/MagnificentBastard) then an Evil Overlord (http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/EvilOverlord).

You're doing it wrong. You need to place yourself between the dungeon master (http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/DungeonMaster) and the chessmaster (http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/TheChessmaster). Set up an evil empire that does your bidding without actually requiring you micromanaging it. You need a hierarchal system to keep it effective, and a strange loop (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strange_loop) to make sure nobody is so high up in the hierarchy they are actually aware of the big picture.

[Manhattan_Project_2000]

But why make my own evil empire when I can manipulate someone else's evil empire into doing all the work?

[Eris]

But why make my own evil empire when I can manipulate someone else's evil empire into doing all the work?

Too much work. The other evil empire will constantly divert from your evil plan onto other evil plans. Better to set up a proper evil empire once and have it run good without maintenance.

[Manhattan_Project_2000]

Too much work. The other evil empire will constantly divert from your evil plan onto other evil plans. Better to set up a proper evil empire once and have it run good without maintenance.
If they still apparently have free will, you aren't good enough with the Xanatos Gambits (http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/XanatosGambit). And without Xanatos Gambits, a Magnificent Bastard is just a jerk with style.

[Daenerys]

back in the day when we had cliffnotes, the teacher would give you detention if you were caught using it.

It's easy to tell if a student uses it, because they're only to help you remember the book, or the general idea of the storyline, and if you had to write a book report on it, it's obvious when you didnt.

[Inamorata]

funny thing is I actually got away with that in the 4th grade. o.o Gotta love innocents.

[Hideki Motosuwa.]

Ha!! I use them to get h-work assignments done quickly whenever I feel too lazy to actually read a 20 page chapter :ninja: There are some tricks I learned, for one, my english teahcer isn't the smartest guy around and second, I just take what Sparknotes has to say and use them in my own words(so nobody suspects that I'm plagerizing). :) Yep, gotta love those Sparknotes, haha!! :laugh:

[Dxon]

SparkNotes is a website that has lots of information on literature. It's got plot summaries, character outlines, major theme explanation, symbolism analysis, etc. Think of it as a really smart classmate that tells you all the answers.
O something like that. I use that too. But then everyone can submit something and a lot is missing. So it's still being built up. It's in Dutch, though. http://www.scholieren.com/
Because of it's still being built and everyone can submit, I don't use it for tests. Only when I really have to. A lot of grammar mistakes in those things posted.

[International 4-8818]

If i did not have sparknotes, i would be failing all of my english papers. I love it because i can read my book first and then read sparknotes later so that i can further understand everything. it just saves my butt every time.

[Hideki Motosuwa.]

I still love it and use it a lot to this day :happy: How do you think I was able to get every h-work assignment this year done in less than 10 minutes?? :laugh:

[hirokiaibalovex3]

Personally, I like SparkNotes. I started using them earlier this year, especially when we started to read A Midsummer Night's Dream for English. I don't replace reading the book with it, I just use it as a tool to help me understand the text more. My teacher actually liked her students to use SparkNotes, as long as they read the book.

[october breath]

I use spark notes when I know the teacher does a bad job at teaching and ends up giving a test in which you'd have to write a summary about the chapter.

[Middy]

In my opinion, reading an outline of any book on sites such as Sparknotes is like reading the recipe (for some sort of food product) and equating it to actually eating the object of the recipe.

You get a small small feeling for the book, but you don't really get the book.

And I really hate it when people I know use Sparknotes because it makes me feel like I'm always stuck doing more work >.<

[Diocletian]

I'm not a genius,but I think like one.Instead of cliff/sparknotes I use common sense.

To Kill A MickingBird
How did Tom Robinson Die?
a)lynched
b)Jumps fence and gets shot
c)Mudered in sleep
d)Doesn't

B)Why?Who's gonna lynch him in jail?

[Mmmmmmmmmm]

I haven't had to use either, but great ideas. Great ideas.

[Arashii-Kun]

I've used SparkNotes a few times- I like it, but I wouldn't substitute SparkNotes for the actual book. Although, it really helped when I had to do translations of A Midsummer Night's Dream for English.

[Lord Fluff]

I've never had a problem reading things on time, instead I have a problem writing things on time. Sparknotes is useless to me.
Yes, that is totally me. I usually finish books a few days after I get them, but when it comes to essays I try, but nothing comes until the last minute. My essays are usually solid B work if I actually tried.

So anyway yeah, never used sparknotes, I've never had to use 'em.

[OminousCloud]

The quality of sparknotes material is pretty bad. I'd be surprised if people who use them get decent grades. Plus most teachers would be able to tell if you've used them... I personally have looked at them, but have not used them.

[Evockzi]

Never used it yet, didn't know about it either. Will have to keep in mind for Future English course's .

[Karel]

I've heard of it many years ago.. but I never even bothered to use the site.

A good part of my college work were miracles I pulled off at the very last minute. I mean.. I wrote things with out even proof reading and phrase corrections and I still scored relatively high

a lot of the stories though were ones I got to choose.. and I had read during my earlier school years.

[wolfgirl90]

I used both Sparknotes and Cliffnotes while I was in high school and I think I will use them in college as well, but probably not as much as I have more time during the afternoon to do things (although AFROTC will probably leave me tired at the end of the day).

During my first two years of high school, I barely used Sparknotes but during my Junior and Senior years, I was using them all the time:p:p!

[SSDynamite]

I never knew such things as sparknotes existed!
Not that I'd use it anyway, I love english >< I get on well with my English teacher and I always do my work to the best I can *chuffed smile*
That's only because english is my favorite lesson though :/ and I don't find it relatively hard. I've got other subjects to worry about.