Cliffs Notes

TITLE: In Cliff We Trust

AUTHOR: Sunah N. Kim

SETTING: Fifteen Minutes, p. 7

LIST OF CHARACTERS:

Cliff Hillegass, Cliffs Notes founder.

Spokesperson for Cliffs Notes.

Barbara Freeman, Assistant Professor of English and American Language and Literature.

Store 24 employee.

Senior at Harvard College.

ANALYSIS AND COMMENTARY:

Paragraph 1: Here Kim utilizes the "description" lee to set a tone of academic anxiety.

Paragraphs 2-5: Background information about Cliffs Notes, Inc. builds tension while raising important issues such as cheating and slacking off.

Paragraph 6: Kim turns to the academic point-of-view, employing fast food imagery to describe her subject.

Paragraphs 7-10: We learn of Harvard's hesitation to use Cliffs Notes as a valuable source. Professor Freeman is introduced as an authority to lend credibility to the topic.

Paragraph 11-13: Tension continues to build as Harvard senior confronts Cliffs Notes as a worthy study aid.

Paragraph 14: In the denouement, Cliff Hillegass gives his "goal of education" speech. This is a foreshadowing of Kim's conclusion to the article.

Paragraph 15: Here we encounter Kim's ironic twist on the theme of education. The senior reappears to remind us that in the end, the only truths are those which will be covered on the final exam.