Imagine this: it’s the day before your AP Language and Composition assessment, and you’re panicking. You haven’t read The Great Gatsby, you’ve been disregarding your English teacher’s rants on its themes of high society, romance, and the American dream, and have no clue about it other than that Leonardo DiCaprio plays the lead role in the 2013 film adaptation(which you also haven’t seen). How can you write an essay on a topic you know nothing about?

   The solution for many teenagers comes in the form of SparkNotes. According to its website, SparkNotes’ mission is to “help you(the student)make sense of confusing schoolwork”. The website claims to be run by graduates of top colleges, and works with English experts to put together studying resources for its users.

   SparkNotes has proved to be a valuable asset, with 78.6% of Eastern’s AP Language and Composition students using the site in some form, whether as an alternative to class readings or as a learning tool.

 “Asking a student to not use Sparknotes for an AP English class is like asking a student to not use a TI calculator for AP Calculus”, said an anonymous student. “The student shouldn’t solely rely on a machine to do all of their work, but sometimes it’s necessary to gain a better understanding of information”. 

   SparkNotes is a major time saver, providing students with a summary of the themes of their assigned reading without having to spend hours diving into the content themselves. This is one of the site’s major benefits, since many students are so overloaded with work that they don’t have time to dedicate to deep diving into the material of their English class. They believe using the website is a way to “work smarter, not harder”, and see it as an way to complete their assignments in a time efficient manner. 

   The other major draw of SparkNotes comes from the shortening attention span of modern students. Apps like TikTok and Instagram have made students used to digesting content in one-minute chunks, making them lack the level of focus they had prior. By placing it’s content in easy to process bullet points rather than large paragraphs, SparkNotes aids students in learning the concepts of their English classes. It is also helpful as a translating tool, due to many students being unable to interpret older literature, such as that of Shakespeare.

   While using SparkNotes certainly has many benefits, it is not without its downfalls. For one, it does not provide the same grasp of content as analyzing a novel from your own interpretation. Without forming an opinion prior to using the site, students essentially allow a stranger on the internet to dictate their comprehension of content. There are no specifically credited people writing for SparkNotes, meaning users could be trusting the opinion of someone with little to no experience in the English field.

   Reading a novel traditionally also has its own set of advantages. It improves students’ vocabulary and world view, and provides them insight into societal themes that are still relevant in modern day. Without reading a novel, students do not truly develop their own understanding and grasp of the material.

   Overall, while flawed, SparkNotes can be a valuable asset to students if used wisely. If students read the content and develop their own opinions and use the site to reinforce concepts, it can prove to be a valuable studying tool. The choice is in the hands of the users.