Sparknotes Cheating?

[billionbucks25]

I'm in grade 11 english and sometimes it gets pretty tough. I have recently recieved an assingment where we have to find the symbolism of locations in The Great Gatsby. I kinda had an idea but my sis told me to go on Sparknotes. It gave me everything I needed to know so I wrote down some notes on that symbolism (not copying it). What I just did...was it cheating?

 

[Shem]

Nah, It's just like asking friend for help on an assignment. They didn't do it for you, but they gave you a hand. Plus, who really cares if it's cheating, the whole point of it is to learn the material and you did that right?

 

[billionbucks25]

Nah, It's just like asking friend for help on an assignment. They didn't do it for you, but they gave you a hand. Plus, who really cares if it's cheating, the whole point of it is to learn the material and you did that right?

I guess, my mom and sister keep stressing the fact that it's not. Some of my friends say every kid in English uses it.....

 

[yvette]

My teachers warned me against taking notes from Sparknotes (for research projects). If it's in order to study for a test, why not. But if you use stuff from it on a typed paper, and the teacher puts it through a website like Turnitin.com... look out. You could be in serious trouble if you put the information, word for word, in your assignment. :S

I just glance over stuff at websites like Sparknotes. Again, it's for mostly study/exams, and not for actual research. If you're using Sparknotes to study for your English exam, that's fine, as long as you can put the info in your own words when you're writing the exam. :)

 

[Ageless Irony]

Absolutely not cheating. Sparknotes is a great resource to help you find out what a book means. No use in reading a book you don't understand.

PS: Jay and Nick are totally hot for eachother.

 

[billionbucks25]

Absolutely not cheating. Sparknotes is a great resource to help you find out what a book means. No use in reading a book you don't understand.

PS: Jay and Nick are totally hot for eachother.

I guess but ewwwwww. Totally gross, wrong, insignificant, and all that!

 

[twocows]

Yeah, it's cheating. For those of you saying it's NOT cheating, try telling your teacher that you did the homework without reading the material and see what they think. They're the ones that determine if it is or is not cheating, not you. Using it as an aid isn't cheating, but doing it without reading the material is.

Not that I'm saying it's wrong or anything. It's a lesser form of cheating, you might say. I did it all the time in high school, myself. I probably saved weeks worth of my time doing that.

 

[TRIFORCE89]

It's an aid. Provided you're actually reading the book, understand it, and aren't relying soely on SparkNotes.

These sources have been around for years. Our parents (and our teachers) had them. They were in book form and can still be found in libraries and school book stores. They're aids.

My twelfth grade English teacher actually recommended one of those books to me for an essay I was working on.

 

[Luck]

It's an aid. Provided you're actually reading the book, understand it, and aren't relying soely on SparkNotes.

^This.

I really couldn't have said it better myself.

 

[Captain Fabio]

No. It is not.

It is a form of resource.
As long as you aren't lifting the text from that site and claiming it as your own, then it isn't cheating.

If you go onto further education, you will see that researching for a project isn't cheating, it is a way of life.
It is to show how you can wade through all the crap of the world and find out what you want, dissect it and use it to your advantage.
I do this nearly every day at University =]
Though, I don't use Sparknotes...

So, no. Do not worry.

 

[BJ088]

Our teachers at school use to encourage us to look at Sparknotes. We were told to read the material and look at websites such as Sparknotes for bits and pieces and NOT to copy from it.
So it was basically up to us whether or not we just used Sparknotes or read the material as well as using it

 

[♣Gawain♣]

I don't know about Sparknotes, but I'll tell you this(although probably you'll not read this), it's like Wikipedia. It's only a resource.

 

[Rokusasu]

Our teachers recommended Sparknotes to us for revision purposes, so no, it's not cheating if you get down some notes and write them in your own words if you have to use them for an assignment. :3

 

[La Foudre]

YES.

I had to read Little Women and two other books over the Summer.. I really, really enjoy reading but Little Women was beyond boring to me. So yeah, Sparknotes ftw.

 

[Yamikarasu]

I was supposed to read The Grapes of Wrath last summer, but I never really got around to it, and instead I watched the movie and read the summery on Sparknotes. I'm pretty sure I know the same amount about the book then if I had actually read it.

Spoiler:

Jim Casey is Jesus! OMG! :O

 

[Rich Boy Rob]

I've never used Sparknotes, but our Teachers are always encouraging us to use it. It's only cheating if you plagiarise.

 

[PokeBal33]

i dont think its cheating, i have used spark notes and Cliff notes before.

 

[Syrex]

Sparknotes isn't cheat.

When I was in my English 12 class last year, we got an assignment and we HAD to use sparknotes.

 

[Feign]

I used the internet version of the sparknotes when I couldn't be bothered to read the book. XD

And I still got an 84% in that English course.

It's not cheating either, technically, the intention is for you to learn or find out what it is the teacher is asking in the story, since you can't sparknotes summarizes it for you.

Now a note though, I only used sparknotes for small quizzes in terms of asking about various story things, like plot, symbolism etc. which is what I assume you are somewhat doing (a small assignment that wouldn't require sources to begin with).

Of course though, for assignments that do require sources, sparknotes would be useless in and of itself anyway.

 

[Nick]

I use SparkNotes all the time whenever I don't understand anything going on in whatever we're doing in English class. I use it as a resource, like many others, for essays, term papers, projects and the like. I've found that my teachers enjoy seeing in the bibliography and whatnot that I included SparkNotes as part of my term paper and had the decency to cite it.

So long as you don't copy word for word what SparkNotes says, I don't categorize it as cheating.

But, The Great Gatsby is my favorite novel and there are symbols on just about every page. Some of the characters (such as Daisy and of course Gatsby) can even be described as symbols themselves if used in the proper context.