SparkNotes
From Free net encyclopedia
Image:Sparknotes1.gif SparkNotes is an Internet-based youth-oriented education product. In December 2002, SparkNotes, with millions of registered users (as of Jan 2005 around 10 million) became the most popular stand-alone education site on the Internet. Originally a collection of free online study guides for books and associated message board services, current owner Barnes & Noble now markets printed versions of the guides in the United States in a format similar to that of CliffsNotes, which Barnes & Noble no longer sells. The website also offers several pay-per-use premium services related to SAT tests that enjoyed great popularity in their non-pay-per-use days. Like CliffsNotes, SparkNotes is banned in several schools because of a perceived cheating problem, wherein some students circumvent lengthy reading assignments by reading the SparkNotes instead. As a result of the popularity of SparkNotes, some teachers have begun incorporating SparkNotes materials directly into their lesson plans.
Image:Sparknotes.JPG Recently, SparkNotes has expanded their base and has started to include more study guides. These include translations of Shakespeare in modern English with the original English side-by-side, guides to a variety of standardized tests, and Daily Sparks, which are page-a-day exercises for high school teachers. SparkNotes has also recently moved into more broad-ranging educational publishing with books like the well-received Poetry Classics, and is rolling out a series of college guides throughout 2006, culminating in regional college guides and a book entitled Treasure Schools, which is a guide to colleges and universities that offer outstanding student experiences but that are often overlooked for bigger names.
This website has exhibited marked expansion, beginning as solely literary guides and now a multi-faceted enterprise which includes College Admissions Aid and AP test prep even in the form of crossword puzzles. SparkNotes is also the publisher of FlashKids, a series of educational books for K-8 students.
Projected to expand even more within the next few years, SparkNotes has become an emblem of the recent college-oriented counterculture around the country, and now even outstretches study guides, encompassing a section on their website known as SparkLife, where things anywhere from The OC to student's AP class load are discussed. By December of 2002, the SparkNotes website was receiving 25 million hits per week, though this number fluctuates according to the educational calendar, reaching its peaks during the school year, and slowing considerably during the summer.
SparkNotes was originally a part of the popular website The Spark, but it ultimately outlasted that site.