Summeries, of novel's on the Internet

Do you guys believe it is okay to have summeries of novel's and book's on the internet?

There are such sites as sparknotes.com or cliffnotes.com. These internet sites, hold a summery for each novel, chapter by chapter. They have summerires of novel's and books children read in school. These two sites are the easy way out for kids not read the book the are given in class, anwser all the questions the teacher gave and still know what the story of the novel is. Even though children know it is wrong to read the summeries of the chapter's, they are still compelled to use them because the book is either boring or they just dont feel like reading it. SO they take the easy way out to read these summeries.

In my opinion, I think this is wrong. Even though i do it. 😆 I still think people should read the full novel. Because reading summeries on the intenet takes away from your learning.

What do you think?

 

Sparknotes can help you with Shakespeare - frankly, how many of us understand that Old English? I read both - the summary and the actual text in such cases to understand. However it must be noted that if you read Summaries, you can only get an idea of the plot. They ONLY help with plot related questions.

I would think twice before simply reading the Sparknotes summary for Novels or Classics in High School - especially grades 11 and 12. My teacher especially had a tendency of picking quotes from a chapter and asking us who the speaker was, what is the theme of the quote, in what context is it being used. Generally he never used the Sparknotes "important quotes" or he threatened us that he had read through SN or CN. 😆

Let me say that you can't do really well with just SN in higher grades. In University - absolutely not.

Moreover, English Teachers are well aware of these sites + ColesNotes. Thats why they pick modern and famous bestsellers that have NOT been summarized by these sites. Trust me, you'll have a hell of a time figuring out the theme of some novels. 🤢

On a side note, I would NEVER read summaries unless the book was really difficult to understand because I LOVE reading.

I always make an effort to read the actual text. Sometimes, I find that I end up liking the book after analyzing it. Edited by T. - 17 years ago

I live on those sites 😆 😆

No jokes apart, its not like i dotn read the text , coz my teacher pops the most bizzare questions onto us...but i think for extra reading/reference those sites are jsut fine😊

i remember when i was doing my GCSEs and reading Shakespere was reali difficult to understand so i think it is a gud way of helping understand a book even tho in a way it is the easy way out at least it sort of encourages children to do their homework otherwise if there werent any of these not many ppl would bother because they just dont understand!...

overall i think im ok with it! Edited by Krishana Tulsi - 17 years ago

guys you can never max your paper with these sites. In India we had a "Kunji" (key) for all literature and we had kids mug them up. You will pass with these short notes, but don't expect to excell the paper.

I must tell you this funny thing. I had a dear friend who hated books and reading , and neither was she a good student and infact relied a lot in passing her B.Com. She would always "admire" my love for reading and wished she had it too. 😆 Last year she tells me she had decided to study M.A in English Literature. I fell of my chair when i heard the news!!!!! 😲 I was like buddy you've never ever read a full novel !!!!!!!!!!! She decided to pass her papers through reading "Kunjis" (short notes). But in the middle of her semester she had to abandon MA( Eng)!! 😆 She realised she can't make it through MA with Kunji's( school is different!) !!!!!! 😆 Edited by Aparna_BD - 17 years ago

I use sparknotes sometimes 😆 so I really dont think its wrongs, or I should say that I just dont care.I love reading, but some books are just so very boring. I read "I am the Cheese" this summer, and I also have toi read "Catcher on the Rie", but that book is so boring, its not even funny. So, what if I go online and find the summary, its just one book. Tomoorow, I'll read two books that I like in replacement of this one book. Maybe it is wrong, it is dis-honest...but maybe I just really dont care. But yeah, I think its smarter to read the book even if its boring, becasue at least in USA, your going to have to give the SAT's which has alot of questions from these books.

Originally posted by: Aparna_BD

I must tell you this funny thing. I had a dear friend who hated books and reading , and neither was she a good student and infact relied a lot in passing her B.Com. She would always "admire" my love for reading and wished she had it too. 😆 Last year she tells me she had decided to study M.A in English Literature. I fell of my chair when i heard the news!!!!! 😲 I was like buddy you've never ever read a full novel !!!!!!!!!!! She decided to pass her papers through reading "Kunjis" (short notes). But in the middle of her semester she had to abandon MA( Eng)!! 😆 She realised she can't make it through MA with Kunji's( school is different!) !!!!!! 😆

Omg! that is funny, Aparna! 😆 Suicidal to attempt that at Masters Level!

This reminded me of another incident in HS. We were doing a Shakespeare play and Sparknotes had the wrong interpretation of one of the themes.

Half of our English class read through those summaries and notes and did their essay on that with the same wrong example.

They all got 0s and the teacher gave the whole class a lecture on how bad Sparknotes was. 😆

Originally posted by: T.

Omg! that is funny, Aparna! 😆 Suicidal to attempt that at Masters Level!

This reminded me of another incident in HS. We were doing a Shakespeare play and Sparknotes had the wrong interpretation of one of the themes.

Half of our English class read through those summaries and notes and did their essay on that with the same wrong example.

They all got 0s and the teacher gave the whole class a lecture on how bad Sparknotes was. 😆

Lolz Aparna di😆

Some people actually take the risk of not reading the play before the eggjam...😕

Spark notes and all are for the nerdy souls who actually bother to look up stuff on the net--not to make their life easier--but because they take the trouble of reading as many explanations of the same thing as they can just to make the concepts clear😳

@ Tanu di : please dont tell me that shakespeare play was twelfth night😕😆

Coming to funny stories, i have one to share too😆

Once there was this certain teacher who gave us this longggg borrringg and really difficult novel for us to read over the vacations....I went to India in my holidays and needless to say never bothered reading the book. When i came back i just read a summary of the net ( I was like its just a measly quiz, whats the wrost thing which can happen? To my shock, i aced the test....as if i wasnt feeling guilty enough...my teacher read my answers out loud and said😕😆

 "ahh...i wish all the kids were like u , out of the whole class, i can tell that you're the only one who had read the book😛😆, unlike most of us who have memorised the summary of the net"

That was the first and last time i didnt read a book assigned to me😳😳

 

Oh Eisha lucky you!! 😆 BTW, i have heard of such cases where people actually did well in their exams. But the risks are too much, you are just taking a chance.

As for reading, i often go to Amazon and read reviews of a book before ordering it. But thats different issue from this topic !