When is using sparknotes cheating

Is it really that difficult to read a few chapters a day? I know a lot of college students have jobs and are taking the maximum amount of credits, but we all knew what we were getting into when we listened to our professors read the syllabus aloud on the first day of classes.

Put aside your personal grievances with reading, and think of it as a way to build your character and intellectual abilities. Most of all, I want students to stop bragging about cheating. Who would have known that the Internet would hurt academia? If used correctly, it could be used as a valuable learning tool, but many students are using it in vain these days. Currently, I am taking a computer science course, and people browse their social media accounts on the school desktops while the professor is lecturing.

SparkNotes is one of many examples that prove that college was more serious before computers were everywhere. In almost every class, I notice at least one student desperately scrolling through Twitter or Instagram, like a deprived addict. Your writing, trigonometry, and poetry classes may not seem relative now, but you will find uses for every single one of them in the future, whether you use them to teach your future children, to think in more abstract ways, or use practical skills in your profession, will all depend on the path you pave for yourself.

If for some reason, you struggle with reading comprehension or time management, try some other tactics. Audiobooks are available for almost all popular books; that way you can listen to your assigned reading in the car or while relaxing.

Senior Julie Freschl is also very familiar with Sparknotes; she uses it for every book. Senior Rachel Ballela uses Sparknotes as well. The hair on the back of my neck stick up. You read for style. That said, she says it is good for plot and literary terms and devices. She even used Sparknotes in , when she took a Shakespeare class in college.

She used it in addition to reading the plays. English teacher Katy Gagnon thinks Sparknotes can be a useful took for understanding references in particular old novels. Sparknotes helps give basic backgrounds for obscure time periods. But for some teachers, Sparknotes is better than nothing. Students can use SparkNotes to better understand difficult text that they may not have understood on their own.

In this way it is being used as a supplement to better understand a difficult reading that the student would otherwise not be able to access. The foolproof way a teacher can monitor the site's use is by creating assignments with questions that cannot be easily answered by just visiting SparkNotes.

Teachers must assign literature and corresponding assignments that dig deeper than the surface information that SparkNotes provides. It is up to the teacher to make sure that using SparkNotes to complete an assignment is not a possibility. It is not solely that teacher's responsibility to discourage the use of SparkNotes. In the end, it is up to the student to draw the line between studying and cheating. If a student is not reading a book assigned in class, and is instead reading the chapter summaries online, SparkNotes is being abused.

In doing this, however, they miss out on the work of the literary masterpiece that is the novel. When SparkNotes is used in place of actual text, students do not receive the same effect they may find while reading the novel.

Browsing the SparkNotes page of "Great Expectations" cannot be compared to actually indulging in the classic novel, following Pip through his hardships. Here the value is relative - it's perhaps a way to pass a quiz or enable a student to discuss a work they haven't read - so no doubt the student considers it valuable.

However, students who rely solely on SparkNotes are only cheating themselves. This tool is very helpful for students reading Shakespeare because the real text is beside the modern interpretation. Without using "No Fear," many students would be unable to understand what they are reading.

It provides a section where students can research colleges, and a non-educational Spark Life section for entertainment. Tools like "No Fear Shakespeare" and practice quizzes are helpful for students who struggle with difficult material.

In this way, SparkNotes is not abused, but taken advantage of responsibly. The abuse of SparkNotes is becoming obsolete.