Breaking News
  • Peer tutors available in library before & after school
  • Follow @thelancerlink on Instagram, Twitter & TikTok
News for the Carlsbad High School Community

The Lancer Link

News for the Carlsbad High School Community

The Lancer Link

News for the Carlsbad High School Community

The Lancer Link

Using and abusing the Internet

Using+and+abusing+the+Internet

We have all done it. After reading 36 pages of Romeo and Juliet or The Scarlet Letter, without a clue who did what (or who did whom), we go against everything our teachers have told us, venturing onto study guide websites. Maybe a quiz awaits in English class the next day, or there are piles of study questions looming in the no-longer-so-distant future. Whatever the case, we have all done it.

Living in the internet age, it seems as though the sites are endless: SparkNotes, Shmoop, NovelGuide, BookRags, CliffsNotes, yada, yada, yada. Teachers are well aware of the ease of going online to look up information on the latest assignment or novel, and this is why students are so strictly discouraged from using things other than the actual book.

As our entire culture shifts away from the days of thread-bound books and dog-eared pages, students also shift away from challenging themselves with Shakespeare’s meticulously beautiful sonnets, or Hawthorne’s ridicule and analysis of another culture hidden within a piece of literature. More and more often, students write essays based off of a brief summary of themes and motifs found on the first page of a novel’s SparkNotes profile, instead of taking the time to struggle toward a meaningful understanding.

When you come down to it, even though these study guide sites may seem convenient to busy–or, more often, lazy–students, using them as a substitutes to diving into an assigned novel will only hurt you in the long run, and even more consistently, on that quiz tomorrow, or the easy points gained from completing the study guide questions while you read.

So what about those students who do actually try to read the book, but have a hard time keeping track of which way is up?

Well, in all honesty, in this situation, we don’t think SparkNotes is all that bad. It is time to draw a line of distinction between the use of these sites for an educational supplement and the abuse of these sites for an extra hour on Facebook.

Teachers give us challenging novels for a reason: not so we drown in their undecipherable meaning alone, but so together we can unravel things which will bring us a step further in understanding perspective, culture, and life.

And sometimes, that “life” that we are trying to figure out isn’t all that easy. Sometimes things simplydon’t click together, and meaning is lost within pages and pages of advanced words and sentence structures.

So then what?

In the past, and obviously still applicable to today is the reliable study group. Calling a friend, setting up a time to meet with others from class or simply going in to talk to your teacher are all valid ways to get some help; however, with the internet at our disposal, why not use it to our advantage as well?

Teachers may be able to control the novels they assign, as well as the tests they write, but they can only hope students will work efficiently and passionately toward finding success in reading. As students become increasingly more likely to abuse study guide websites, and in turn increasingly more sneaky about not actually reading an assigned novel, teachers cannot control what the students do outside of the classroom.

We can only hope that the transformation of our internet society  doesn’t lead students to make poor decisions about how to make their ways though school, but stay motivated to achieve success the long way.

View Comments (1)
More to Discover
About the Contributor
Kathleen Dooley, Lancer Express section editor
Simply put, Kathleen Dooley exists solely to make the world a better place. She speaks fluent sarcasm, loves cats and has a dazzling smile; and, because of these charming quirks, she is an integral member of the journalism staff. Kathleen views the world as her oyster, meaning she is--of course--the pearl. In her free time, Kathleen enjoys long, romantic walks on the beach with her cats Charlie and Luna.

Comments (1)

As a public forum for student expression, Lancer Link welcomes comments on stories, but reserves the right to edit work and/or refuse to publish submissions. Anonymous comments will not be accepted and all submissions will be reviewed and moderated by the editors in chief before they are published.
All The Lancer Link Picks Reader Picks Sort: Newest

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

  • M

    Mr. SpanierDec 5, 2012 at 4:07 pm

    Great article Kathleen. I appreciate your sophisticated understanding of why rigorous reading is assigned and the importance of making strides as a reader to unravel difficult text. Your article makes me want to re-read Fahrenheit 451!

    Reply
Activate Search
Using and abusing the Internet