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Forget Cliffs Notes; Condense Everything Into Txt
from the 2b?-Nt2b?-??? dept
There have been plenty of stories about how text messaging can be a way to boost a student's interest in reading, and lots of other stories about text messaging as a study aid for exams. It appears that one service is trying to combine the two ideas, creating greatly condensed versions of classic novels into a single SMS text message. This goes beyond Cliffs Notes. In fact, it's sort of like if you created a Cliffs Notes of a Cliffs Notes version of a story, and then reduced it to txt speak. For example, the entire Romeo & Juliet, for your mobile studying pleasure: "FeudTween 2hses- Montague&Capulet. RomeoMfalls_<3w/_JulietC@mary Secretly Bt R kils J's Coz &&is banishd. J fakes Death. As Part of Plan2b-w/R Bt_leter Bt It Nvr Reachs Him. Evry1confuzd-bothLuvrs kil Emselves." Okay, perhaps they're overstating the... um... educational value of these messages.
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Wow, is it me, or does it seem like text messages like that are HARDER to read (and write) then just cliff noting the cliff notes in English? I mean really, who really texts in that tone, especially since almost every cell phone with SMS capabilities has a T9Word function built in...
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i cant read that, go away sms demons!
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I'm with you guys...
What the hell does that say?!
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Re: I'm with you guys...
There is a feud between 2 houses, Montague and Capulet. Romeo Montague falls in love with Juliet Capulet and they marry secretly but it kills Juliet (makes her sad) when he is banished. Juliet fakes her death as part of a plan to be with Romeo, sends a letter but the letter never reaches him. Everyone is confused and both lovers kill themselves.
This took 5 times as long to read as the english equivalent and they managed to save like 9 keystrokes. Bad form.
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Re: I'm with you guys...
And you missed the fact that he was banished for killing her cousin (coz)...
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Re: We are missing the point.
We are missing the point people, why the hell do we want to bring Shakespeare to kids and teens to read? I say fuck Skakespeare, lets get some real books.
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Re: We are missing the point.
The original Shakespeare is easier to read than l33t.
I don't understand your argument at all, Mike. Are you frustrated because you have trouble reading it? There's a reason that Shakespeare is still considered one of the top English authors in history - everything he wrote was meaningful and original.
I hope you aren't suggesting that we should be reading The Wheel of Time in schools instead of Shakespeare?
Sure, kids will definitely enjoy reading them more, and then the concept of stories having depth and meaning that aren't on the surface will die and we'll all be collectively a little stupider.
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Re: We are missing the point.
Theres still stuff out there that is recant that has all the differant layers that kids can find interesting. The reason that we are stucking with the Shakespeare is because most teachers are just to lazy and aren't getting paid enough to come up with new lesson plans.
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Re: We are missing the point.
"Theres still stuff out there that is recant that has all the differant layers that kids can find interesting. The reason that we are stucking with the Shakespeare is because most teachers are just to lazy and aren't getting paid enough to come up with new lesson plans."
That is supposed to be a joke right? PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE tell me you are kidding, and that you promise not to ever say anything quite to ignorant, or stupid ever again.
Then repent for voting for W., twice – and then I will see if I can scrape together some respect for you.
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Only thing I got out of that was Romeo and Juliet fell in love and then killed themselves. But then again, that's because I know the story. Imagine a kid who doesn't know. It's just a bunch of jibberish to him/her.
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shakespeare is horrible literature. the Wheel of time series owns romeo and juliette. GG NO RE having to read deep in to books is a horrible thing to try to do, the author should state his or her point clearly.
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