Sharing with Shots
Shots give you the essence of books, but what is the essence of Shots?
Shots make great writing accessible and enjoyable: they open up and SHARE this world with all of us.
Shots are:
Short - and clear summaries
Helpful - in breaking the ice & introducing the work (or revising it later)
Accessible - because they're written to be understood
Refined - distilled, and concentrated
Engaging - because they're enjoyable and straight to the point
Making Learning Easier
Learning to get around on our own two feet doesn't begin with a sprint against Usain Bolt.
So when you start reading literature, for example, the last thing you need is to be force-fed 300 pages of Hamlet to get you in the mood for Shakespeare. Start gently: it's not a race.
"A mind is a fire to be kindled, not a vessel to be filled" * (Plutarch 47-125 A.D.)
You can download a book, thousands of books even, onto a Kindle, iPad, or whatever; but you can't download them directly into your brain complete with the knowledge to understand them – not yet anyway. Shame.
Shots 4 U
But never mind, Shots are the next best thing. Shots are basically summaries of the texts you're studying, written so that you can understand them, and designed to make your work easier for you. In each Shot you get the following:
- A brief introduction to the play/novel
- An overall summary of the plot/story, usually a page or two
- A more detailed scene-by-scene/chapter-by-chapter summary, which encapsulates everything in 20-25 pages
- All the quotations you need on the facing pages, directly referenced in the summary to which they relate
Use Shots to:
- Break the ice by giving you a quick, overall view of the work
- Speedily get you acquainted with the text and the storyline, so at least you know what's going on
- Make notes as you go in the sections provided (in the printed versions of Shots)
- Revise the work to help jog your memory before exams
- Provide you with, and help you learn, the quotations
- Read round the subject, i.e. Shots of other works by the same author.
All these things will calibrate your dials (so to speak), give you a sense of direction, and put the work in context so that studying the actual text falls into place straightaway. Shots are more easily understood than the originals, and will help you connect with them - though you'll still need to think for yourself.
And Finally...
One other thing: would it surprise anyone if teachers found Shots useful too? After all, they can't be expected to remember everything: there's a lot to read out there.