Desperate for Study Guides (see comments)

MOther of God i need freaking cliff notes for peace like a river please someone help

i love felicia — favaDesperate for Study Guides (see comments) (12 Frogs)

From another comment: “J., do you get the sense that some teacher assigned Peace… as summer reading and a whole bunch of people blew it off?”

Sigh. The desperation and rage of these students who can’t find online study guides is very sad to witness. I say bravo for whoever picked that book — if there aren’t ready-made study guides online, it might get more people to think about what they are reading. In the real world, you will face problems whose solutions aren’t written in the back of the book, or carefully outlined in study guides. One of those real-world problems is how to get students excited about their education. Back In the Day, people only went to college because they wanted to… now that so many more people have opportunities to go on to higher education, it seems that some are just coasting.

I count myself very fortunate here at Seton Hill, since my journalism courses are full of people who like writing (that wasn’t the case with the technical writing courses I used to teach at UWEC).

I was the type who called my professors over the summer and asked what books I should read to get a head start on the class. I read Milton’s Paradise Lost one summer, and loved it.

32 thoughts on “Desperate for Study Guides (see comments)

  1. well, I have my self in a tizzy Im not like the people who just want an easy read with notes but we have a test tomorrow and someone has stolen my book! 0_0 Ive been reading the book and Ive gotten into half the assigned pages for the test. I just need some kind of notes or annotations of the chapters or even better, the whole book online.

  2. soooo… i’m in college, senior year (yay!) and as an english major trying to cram in all the classes i need to graduate on time, i’m taking 4 lit classes at once…. so, if, on occasion, i simply am overwhelmed by reading assignments far exceeding the time i have available (and i’m not a slow reader either), i do not feel the least bit guilty for turning to sparknotes, etc. for summaries. :] just thought i’d try to lend a little legitimization to the practice. but by all means, read the books, the WHOLE books, if at all possible!! some of the most fascinating characters and beautiful language can be buried in the details!
    happy reading!
    * Words ought to be a little wild for they are the assaults of thought on the unthinking. ~John Maynard Keynes *

  3. For those few out there ( including me ) I praise those who do what they are supposed do and not be a lazy bum about it. For the people that do read we will be the ones that get into college and get far in life dont get bogged down by the whole world of idiots and fools that are too lazy to do anywork.

    “If we kill all teh idiots in the world only a few will remain”-Anonymous

  4. I agree with that other guy. I enjoy reading books if I'm not forced to. At the begining of the year I read Timeline and I really enjoyed it. But I can't stand it when schools shove books down our throats that majority of the kids don't want to read in the first place. It has made me lose intrest in reading. Plus one more point to all of you book lovers. Some people just don't like reading. So don't act like every person in the world should actually enjoy reading.

  5. I had to remove a comment posted from somewhere near Stafford, Virgina because I don’t feel comfortable leaving personal attacks written by anonymous posters.

  6. I think study guides are a good idea. When I first read this book I really wasn’t quite putting things together correctly I DID read the book but used a study guide to help me understand what exactly the story was all about. But read the damn book first. Then look at a study guide.

  7. There are a lot of problems in life, that is true. Those who are successful are those who find the shortcuts.

  8. thats gay as fuck…you know that the only reason kids go online to look at these study guides is because they are forced to read books in the 1st place. We have been forced to read books like, “To Kill A Mockingbird”, and have these works of arts turned into crap because they have the pressure of meeting deadlines while they are reading. some kids can simply just not focus on the joyeous aspects of these pieces of literature when they are just reading to meet standards. this practice takes the meaning out of reading; it turns what was once a fun activity, into stressful wastes of time. so if you really wanted to help with this problem you wouldnt sit and criticize kids but rather come up with alterior options to this clearly unjsut practice

  9. C. L., while I tend to adopt a formal writing style here on my own blog, many young people feel perfectly comfortable using the abbreviations that make text messaging more efficient.

    I’d rather have students using abbreviations and talking to each other about their work, and I’m perfectly willing to accept abbreviations, smileys, and typos in return for the benefit everyone gains from their interactions.

    Of course, I’ll still expect perfect English in their papers and in the articles they publish in the student paper. I think most teens are more fexible than you think, when it comes to knowing how to switch between the informal online writing style and the formal style their teachers and elders expect.

  10. Now the question I pose to everyone is, “Why are the people so adamant about not reading the ones who cannot take the time to spell a simple word such as people… ppl is part of a word not a word in itself. If you cannot take the time, or lack the ability to use the English language you should not be allowed to voice your opinion on why reading is stupid. Believe it or not vowels ARE necessary. The reason my generation (20 somethings) and the generation coming after me as so damn disrespectful is the lack of American tradition. You are supposed to read “Catcher in the Rye” and be shocked that they used the “F” word. You are supposed to READ Huck Finn and wonder about the ignorance and bigotry of how often the “N” word was used in simple every day speech. SparkNotes, MTV, Paris Hilton, and George W. Bush are killing society. In God we Trust on the currency, but anything with the mention of “God” in it is considered “hate speech” because it may offend our non christian friends. I am a devout Athiest and I want to be one nation under God indivisible, because quite frankly thats how my father said it and my grand father and so on. Its what made America what it was. I apologise for what my generation is doing and going to do, and feel pity for those who will live in a world when people like Sonny will be in office.

  11. all of u r wasting ur time sitting around complaining about some stupid crap. it is sheer coinicdence that i found this page in the first place and u guys r sitting around complaining about stuff thats a waste of time. reading is good for u, it doesnt take that long, sit down and expand ur vocabulary. it is a good thing to be able to say words that arent found in the fourth grade dictionary. so get up off ur butt, stop wasting time looking for cliff notes, and read a book. promise it wont hurt ur mind, as a matter of fact, u might even learn something.

  12. Holy God, sonnY and borntobefree may be the most unintelligent people ever.
    They clearly should not be allowed to voice their opinions. peace lika river is a damn good book so suck it up and read.

  13. omg u ppl make me sick, not one of u sellouts even gave him his sparknotes or told him where to get them. u hippocrites say “i read it b/c i wanted to learn” thats bull u cant learn anything from a fictional book except morals which is common sense anyways. u really wanna learn something from a book? read soulsword or tales from the time loop. thats real life unlike this bs waste of time. so for the love of god, just give the guy(and me as well) some frickin sparknotes.

  14. i read the book i just dont understand valdez and sonny; and what swede writes about and what it has to do with the story

  15. RCAC: You sound very bright. Being bright is enough to get you through high school without much effort. But if you don’t work in college, you will drown. Trust me.

  16. Oh yeah, and living life to the fullest is only measured by ones intentions and aspirations. DGJ’s aspiration is to know as much as he can and understand as much of the world as he can than that’s great by him. While others may want to live life by having as much fun as they can and die being able to say that they didn’t miss an ounce of life, thats great by them. As for me, I like to fulfill myself by illustrating stuff and being able to create something so I can leave some of myself behind for others to see in the future… or, you know, I want to do that in the future through concept art, I’m only in 10th grade. heh.

  17. Ok, well I say that this debate depends on your motives. In order to learn what a curriculum is trying to teach, you don’t actually need to read anything at all. You don’t even need to read notes. I went through english last year and loved it without reading one book. The class doesn’t teach the plots, it teaches themes and style, and all that requires is subtle observation and class discussion. I was the most active participator and the biggest slacker in my class at the same time and my teacher loved me (and meanwhile I learnedexactly what the class was trying to teach). Now, if you’re talking about this issue from a moral honor perspective, notes might just be the easy way out, and are “cheap”. The truth is you don’t lose anyhting with notes except a few tears at the end of the book and minor details in the plot, and that is at the reader’s own expense, and I say if they’re willing to deal with that loss go ahead. One might say something like (for example) “what makes harry potter so great is all the tiny details in the classroom, and if you don’t read it you don’t get it!”, but as long as you know that they’re there, you’ve learned the style (or an aspect) and all you don’t know is what wall the fireplace was on, or what Neville forgot to bring to class; these details are only necessary for a word for word recount of a book, or a test that asks only for facts about the plot, but what I think matters most is the philosphical and analytical process of determining what kind of theme the book represents, and how that theme is portrayed through the style.

  18. eh.. i agree ppl shud reali stop using lk sparknotes n stuff. thy shud jus read tha book n get into a better college.but still i was one of those ppl this summer. i didnt read tha book so im probably gonna fail first quarter. sry i agree with tha kidz on this one :P

  19. I didn’t think the book was boring, I liked it. I read it. I would like guides to help me understand books better and what not but I’m not desperate for it. Except for the Scarlet Letter. I don’t know why but I can’t read the book. I sit there with the book in my hand and I feel this agonizing boredom. I can’t understand what’s going on and it’s so boring. It spends like five chapters with the woman showing everyone her scarlet letter.

  20. Ok, listen this book is so freaking boring and it amazes how many people agree with me on this one.THANK GOD. Oh, sorry was that to overeager?! By the way,for those of you picking on little Dennis I say leave him alone! With a name like that you can’t help, but be a book worm! Just Kidding You’re Cool by ME Dennis!!

  21. I find myself disgusted with people of my age. It’s amazing how many people have regressed in to their happy adrenaline pumping worlds. Their everything has to happen so fast that you might as well read the cliff notes instead of wasting time “sittin on ur ass readin books.” Ha, Bradbury wasn’t so far off after all and there is proof ^^^^^ :(

  22. DGJ u need to find urself partner and live a real life. sittin on ur ass readin books is a waste of time. you only get 1 life, you might as well live it to the fullest…

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