<p>when you read a novel for class, do you usually use sparknotes/cliffnotes/bookrags for a study aid?</p>
<p>Sometimes I will, if I'm not sure I understood the reading. Or if I have to read something like Beowulf and I have no idea of what's going on, or if I have little to no time to read it. Generally I try to do without it though- you can usually get a lot more out of it by reading it yourself than by relying on Sparknotes to explain it to you.</p>
<p>I use gradesaver.com. I think it's good deal since it has good summaries, and they're free.</p>
<p>I usually use sparknotes, I also read the book, I just read the chapter summaries after reading the chapter for better and more understandable information</p>
<p>Don't we spend enough of high school reading boring information? why would anyone elect to read more? it's an insult to the author who has spent so much of his or her life trying to make the writing interesting. That being said I haven't read Beowulf and I also understand using them with Shakespeare but you still lose so much.</p>
<p>No.
First of all, they can only help your understanding of the book on an elementary level. I doubt there are many books that are actually beyond anyone's comprehension (except perhaps The Sound and the Fury), and those that people consider "too difficult" just require more effort to understand them. It's easy to fall into that trap - to second guess your own gut feelings and questions and responses and rely on guides to tell you what to make of something. The more you start relying on guides like that, the more you will end up needing them. It's best to learn to read and read well on your own.
Second, they suck. I've read them after reading books - they really won't tell you anything that shouldn't be really obvious. </p>
<p>I don't see why not understanding and looking it up is better than reading it and then asking about it the next day. Is it so important to get the "right" answers without having any idea how to get to them?</p>
<p>lol one of the english teachers in my school used to write for sparknotes (I think he graduated from Harvard too). Usually teachers can tell if your comments in class resemble the language in those things.</p>
<p>"I don't see why not understanding and looking it up is better than reading it and then asking about it the next day. Is it so important to get the "right" answers without having any idea how to get to them?"</p>
<p>If you have a Lit teacher who gives pop quizzes simply based on comprehension, yes.</p>
<p>For normal people, it's impossible to read a book and get ALL the concepts. And if you're in high school and still have to get those ridiculous "objective" tests (oddly based on opinion) to make sure you read, you'd better believe it's important to get the "right" answers. Aids, if you're using them in conjunction with the actual book, provide you with more insight and discussion on the plot/themes/etc. If you want to read just the book and retain your own narrow view, then you should probably ditch your English class on days when you have discussions. Because they really won't tell you anything that shouldn't be really obvious.</p>
<p>"If you have a Lit teacher who gives pop quizzes simply based on comprehension, yes."</p>
<p>I agree, 100 percent.</p>
<p>But comprehension is exactly the thing that should be the simplest to grasp. Not understanding that isn't a sign of needing to read cliffnotes, but a sign of needing to pay attention when one is reading. It's quite simply cheating.</p>
<p>yes, Limon, cheeting it is...</p>
<p>most of the books are fine, if you take more effort to read it, you probably won't need to go online. I do agree that The Sound and the Fury is one of the exceptions that needs alot of clarification.</p>
<p>I use Sparknotes occasionally for my Shakespeare class, but only after I try to read the scenes. Other than that, I rarely use it.</p>
<p>i use sparknotes/gradesaver all the time when a novel is too boring to read. why waste my time reading a book i hate when i can pass the class w/ sparknotes. honestly, if you can pass by NOT reading the book, then it shows how pointles reading it is in the first place.</p>
<p>i agree with coqui. i almost always read the book, but when i have a million other things to do, reading a book which i could care less about and not even needing to read to do well on the paper/essay/etc doesnt seem to be sooo important</p>
<p>Don't fall off the Cliff!</p>
<p>Be careful when consulting Cliff--those explications and analyses could have come from your teacher (or professor, when you get to that level)!</p>
<p>When did using cliffnotes or sparknotes get to be cheating?!
Looks like I've cheated my way to As and 5s and 750s in english.....
Foiled again!</p>
<p>Well, how is it not cheating? It's looking in the back of the math book for the answers to the odd questions. </p>
<p>Here's the breakdown - they won't help you with any of the in-depth analysis because their info is pretty dry, so they suck as an aid to reading, and they shouldn't have to help you with simple comprehension, because not understanding that is simply laziness. </p>
<p>Ugh. American education.</p>