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Cliffs Notes

Advantages and disadvantages of using Cliffs Notes

Cliffs Notes are online and published guides that provide important information on a wide range of subjects, such as literature, math, languages, accounting, history, economics, management, business, and sciences. While students regard Cliffs Notes as a valuable learning tool, scholars, researchers, and educators indicate a quite sceptical stand towards these unreliable sources.

Advantages of using Cliffs Notes

Above all, Cliffs Notes can be especially useful for those students who experience difficulties with a certain subject, have little time for studies, or want to concentrate entirely on the study areas pertaining to their specialty. However, educators propose using Cliffs Notes after students finish reading their primary texts. When students start with primary sources and then turn to Cliffs Notes, they take a giant step forward in their understanding of different issues. For the convenience of students, Cliffs Notes write separate summaries for each chapter of a text; overall, 300 literary guides are prepared for college and high school students. Cliffs Notes’ questions give students an opportunity to test their knowledge and recognise the gaps. Some teachers allow their students to use Cliffs Notes when they need to recall some information. It takes less time to read a summary of certain parts than to search for details in the original source. No doubt, re-reading is a time-consuming activity for students. Cliffs Notes can be successfully employed as complimentary guides for written assignments; if students want to use some examples in an essay or research paper, they may refer to Cliffs Notes and find all the necessary details. Moreover, some people find it extremely difficult to understand something at once; written in an easily comprehensible manner, Cliffs Notes clarify complex material (e.g. the use of symbols and motifs or classic allusions in a literary work).  

Study guides may also help if learners do not have an access to some resources, but they need to find answers to some general questions. Additionally, Cliffs Notes offer DVD films with appropriate study guides; this proposal will be of particular interest to those students who tend towards unconventional methods of learning. Another advantage of Cliffs Notes is that they provide recommendations and free advice articles on how to successfully pass such tests as GRE, SAT, AP, and GMAT, specifying effective strategies, approaches, and techniques. Those who want to better prepare for tests may use Cliffs Notes’ glossaries in different subjects, vocabulary puzzles, and digital flashcards, receive free newsletters, ask questions, and learn how to plan their time. Cliffs Notes also help students improve their writing skills; different articles reveal the principles of writing and major grammar mistakes. The articles are arranged in a sequential order and are divided into four sections: How to begin a writing assignment, Prewriting: How to research and organise, Writing, Revising and editing. All these rules are necessary to successfully complete a test, an essay, a research paper, or other academic assignments.

Disadvantages of using Cliffs Notes

The first serious disadvantage of Cliffs Notes is that students who use them fully disregard primary sources. Such substitution do more harm than good, as students fail to penetrate deep into the essence of great literature and thus do not acquire profound knowledge. Instead of reading a splendid Shakespeare’s play King Lear, they look through Cliffs Notes’ summary and, on the basis of this information, write a coursework, research paper, or essay. In view of the fact that this information is not original, their written works are significantly plagiarised. As teachers are well aware of the content of Cliffs Notes, students often receive low scores for their use of these guides.

But even if students manage to cheat teachers, they are not able to cheat themselves. Due to Cliffs Notes, learners get used to receive everything for nothing; they no longer want to put forth an effort and study seriously. It is quite easy to get access to Cliffs Notes and cope with a task or written assignment in a short span of time. Everything students need to do is to copy the material from Cliffs Notes, slightly change it, and check for grammar and spelling errors. It is by no means clear that such activity does not require much independent thinking; when school or college students use Cliffs Notes, they do not form their own opinions, they accept imposed opinions that may be biased or invalid. If learners do not refer to primary sources, they are unable to critically assess the information in study guides, understand the deepest mechanisms of internal and external conflicts, reconcile contradictory elements, find evil behind divinity, recognise irony, draw conclusions, debunk the myths, or elaborate fresh ideas.

While Cliffs Notes help students save much time, they do them a disservice, significantly retarding their spiritual, intellectual, and emotional maturity. Using Cliffs Notes, students do not realise that the best can be achieved only at the cost of undue hardship. Cliffs Notes only indicate a way, but great literature teaches students to overcome difficulties, delve into new realms, make decisions, appreciate beauty, develop moral and ethics values, step into other people’s shoes, broaden horizons, and acquire wisdom. Every literary piece has messages that can be understood differently by different people; Cliffs Notes are not able to assist students with the interpretation of these messages. Capturing these messages, learners are able to draw parallels between literature and real world; such understanding contributes to students’ growth and overall development. Even if a text is complex and uninteresting, it is worth reading, as any book, good or bad, paves the way to new discoveries and improves person’s intellectual abilities.

Hence, Cliffs Notes can either benefit or harm students; if Cliffs Notes are not used as an ultimate source of information, they can increase students’ academic achievements. But if Cliffs Notes are used as a major source, they may confuse students and deprive them of many vitally important opportunities. Instead of prohibiting students from using Cliffs Notes, educators can give sound advice on how to rightfully employ these study guides.

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