by Dean Traylor

Created on: August 12, 2009   Last Updated: March 01, 2010

There is something dishonest about Cliff's Notes; however, it's not in terms of cheating. The yellow-and-black, annotated booklets are great guides for developing reading comprehension skills for a complex novel. It seems to work well after a student has read a chapter in a book and uses the booklet to get a clearer understanding of the story's plot. Also, teaching methods such as anticipatory reading (getting to know what's going to happen in the story before you actually read it) seems to work well with some of the questions the thin yellow booklets offer.

Despite its usefulness, it is one of the most abused learning tools in the American public school system. Over ambitious students swamped with school work use them as short-cuts for actually reading the novels. Others, looking to avoid reading all together, use them without ever opening the book it was meant to demystify. For this reason, a helpful booklet has become the bane of high school English classes across the country. And, as a result, Cliff's Notes - while not academically dishonest as a learning tool - fosters dishonesty.

Most students in high school are looking at those four years as the last step before adulthood. Many will consider college while others will try to find a trade after those final four years is done. In the way of the post-secondary world, however, is the high school English class. Most, if not all, high schools require four years of English. That's more than any other course offered through the school system. And, as a result, an ever increasing amount of reading is needed to pass the courses. In California, an English class standard (set by the state) will call for at least two or three novels to be read by the end of each year. This doesn't take into account summer reading lists, the amount of short stories, and supplemental reading assignments. For a high school student taking six to seven courses in math, science and social studies, the workload can be daunting. And, as a result, many will look for short-cuts to remedy this situation.

Cliff's Notes were not supposed to be short-cuts. They were available to students as a means to help them comprehend and understand stories such as Nathanial Hawthorne's "The Scarlett Letter," Herman Melville's "Moby Dick" or William Shakespeare's "Hamlet." These stories are some of the finest example of English literature. And, they are some of the most complex stories in the language, as well. Cliff's Notes for these stories helped to demystify

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