Bloomington High School South, The Gothic, 1999, Page 50

Description:	THE YELLOWPACESStudents take advantage of Cliffs NotesIts a lateweekday nightand senior KyleElkins justremembered hehas to finish a 350-page book forEnglish which hasto be read bytomorrow. Butinstead of makingthe commitment toread for fivehours, he heads to T.I.S.Bookstore, coughs up a few bucksand buys the Cliffs Notes. It willonly take him an hour to read thesummary of the book found in theCliffs Notes.Cliffs Notes were popularamong students who chose not toread the book they were assigned.I first got hooked on CliffsNotes in eighth grade because Iwaited until the last minute toread a book, and everybody saidCliffs Notes were useful, Elkinssaid.Sophomore Jon Herr got aneven earlier start using them. Istarted in seventh grade with ATale of Two Cities because thebook was all screwed up, Herrsaid. I use them because I donthave the time, or the book is tooinvolved for me.Elkins sees no point in takingthe time to read the whole book.Why read [the book], when youcan sum up each chapter in acouple paragraphs, Elkins said.There were other students whoused Cliffs Notes along withreading the book to gain insighton theme, symbolism and theoverall meaning of the story.[Cliffs Notes] are good forunderstanding parts of the book,I started inseventh gradewith A Tale ofTwo Citiesbecause thebook was allscrewed up.sophomoreJon Herrby Chris Carterand for reviewingpurposes of thebooks, seniorAmberSeibel said.Most Englishteachers took intoaccount the factthat studentsused Cliffs Notesas a guide or as acompletereplacement forreading the actual book.I think most teachersprobably look at the Cliffs Notesof the novels they are reading ...and try to come up with essayquestions or paper topics thatcannot be found within the scopeof the Cliffs Notes, Mrs. NancyLumbley, English, said.However, some students suchas Elkins still succeeded on testsand essays by just reading theCliffs Notes.I have fared well on the testsbecause any question asked onthe tests I had were basically laidout for me in the Cliffs Notes,Elkins said.Lumbley also felt thatstudents missed a lot by usingCliffs Notes, even if theyhappened to do well on the testsand essays.I think students need torealize that they are missing a lotof what the novels are about.They are missing things like plot,writing style and things at thetime many students dont feel areimportant, Lumbley said.As long as novels are requiredfor English classes, students willcontinue to take short cuts withthe other yellow pages.Utilizing Cliffs Notes,junior Steve Sidorekreads up on The GreatGatsby. Many studentsused Cliffs Notes to avoidreading the assignednovel.Cramming at the lastminute, junior LinaMorris reads the CliffsNotes for The GreatGatsby before a possiblequiz. Cliffs Notes helpedstudents during a timecrunch to learn the plotand details of the book.For which bookwere the Cliffs Notesmost helpful andwhy?©Spread Design byacademicsRavi SoniI used them for Les Miserablesbecause they were helpful for findingout what the author was trying to saywhen Im not able to do it.sophomore Emily ThrasherI used Cliffs Notes for Hamlet becauseit was really hard to understand, andShakespeare speaks the old version ofmy language.sophomore Brandon Williams**
Source:	http://cdm17129.contentdm.oclc.org/cdm/ref/collection/hs-bloomsouth/id/6056
Collection:	Bloomington High School South

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