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The Rat
SFN Regular
Canada
1370 Posts |
 Posted - 07/05/2010 : 16:19:10
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I know that information changes, so textbooks must, but is it really necessary to have university students buy a completely different textbook every year? I've heard that it's basically a way for the university and the writer to make a bit more money, and if this example is any indication they're not earning it. This is a direct quote from the $150 biology text my daughter was required to buy: "Microfossils are fossilised forms of microscopic life. Many microfossils are small." Well, DUH! The great textbook scam strikes again. There is absolutely no excuse for that crap, and never could be. Anyone who even tries to defend it is just as stupid.
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Bailey's second law; There is no relationship between the three virtues of intelligence, education, and wisdom.
You fiend! Never have I encountered such corrupt and foul-minded perversity! Have you ever considered a career in the Church? - The Bishop of Bath and Wells, Blackadder II
Baculum's page: http://www.bebo.com/Profile.jsp?MemberId=3947338590 |
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Dave W.
Info Junkie
USA
26022 Posts |
Posted - 07/05/2010 : 16:26:06 [Permalink]
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Who was the author of this book?
At the college level, the texts are specified by the teachers, are they not? My wife lucked out in that her Bio 101 and Bio 102 professors used the same gigantic book.
My wife has also worked hard on finding out which books were going to be used for which classes as early as possible, to help ensure that the bookstore would have used copies. Wait too long, and all the used books will be sold out. |
- Dave W. (Private Msg, EMail)
Evidently, I rock!
Why not question something for a change?
Visit Dave's Psoriasis Info, too. |
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dglas
Skeptic Friend
Canada
397 Posts |
Posted - 07/05/2010 : 20:40:16 [Permalink]
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I used to work in a university bookstore.
Don't get me started... |
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- dglas (In the hell of 1000 unresolved subplots...)
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The Presupposition of Intrinsic Evil
+ A Self-Justificatory Framework
= The "Heart of Darkness"
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Randy
SFN Regular
USA
1990 Posts |
Posted - 07/05/2010 : 20:55:05 [Permalink]
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Originally posted by The Rat
I know that information changes, so textbooks must, but is it really necessary to have university students buy a completely different textbook every year? I've heard that it's basically a way for the university and the writer to make a bit more money, and if this example is any indication they're not earning it. This is a direct quote from the $150 biology text my daughter was required to buy: "Microfossils are fossilised forms of microscopic life. Many microfossils are small." Well, DUH! The great textbook scam strikes again. There is absolutely no excuse for that crap, and never could be. Anyone who even tries to defend it is just as stupid.
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Maybe if the title of the book was "Microfossils, Green Eggs, and Ham"....that'd explain the simpleton direct quote. |
"We are all connected; to each other biologically, to the earth chemically, to the rest of the universe atomically."
"So you're made of detritus [from exploded stars]. Get over it. Or better yet, celebrate it. After all, what nobler thought can one cherish than that the universe lives within us all?"
-Neil DeGrasse Tyson |
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AnthroGeek
New Member
USA
38 Posts |
Posted - 07/06/2010 : 02:31:44 [Permalink]
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As a student entering my third year of undergraduate studies I can say there is a scam.
Most of my professors so far have acknowledged as such, but are obligated to require the newest of editions of books-state law?. This is particularly evident in intro classes where the editions come rolling out every year or so.
I also see it happening more in medical/nursing fields- really how many intro physiology and anatomy books need to be made. Some of my classmates have complained about book ranging in the hundreds of dollars. One mentioned having to buy a book that ran her $400!
In my field(anthropology), I am told to get books now that will be required in graduate work - Fleagle comes to mind - but many other texts have been suggested to me as well as being required later on - Asian history(my minor)books come to mind.
The professors are boxed in in many cases, as they have to require the current editions. Here it is a state law(so I am told by the professors) and part of their contract that when using a particular text that the newest edition is to be required.
From what I have heard from surgical/nursing students it is even worse. New editions all the time and the books run $600 plus in many cases.
I won't even go into the "buy back" of the books, as it a complete joke.
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A series of fun one-liners about various pseudoscientific claims and, even better, a concise description of the scientific method - Ken Feder on Skeptic Friends Network from "Frauds, Myths and Mysteries" |
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Dude
SFN Die Hard
USA
6891 Posts |
Posted - 07/06/2010 : 03:10:41 [Permalink]
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College textbooks are ridiculous.
I wouldn't want to encourage anyone to break any laws, but the torrent networks are a place to look for textbooks. The cheapest book I have to "buy" for the fall term this year is $150 new. Another is $250. So um, yeah. If you don't mind studying from a computer screen.....
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Ignorance is preferable to error; and he is less remote from the truth who believes nothing, than he who believes what is wrong.
-- Thomas Jefferson
"god :: the last refuge of a man with no answers and no argument." - G. Carlin
Hope, n.
The handmaiden of desperation; the opiate of despair; the illegible signpost on the road to perdition. ~~ da filth |
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Ricky
SFN Die Hard
USA
4907 Posts |
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The Rat
SFN Regular
Canada
1370 Posts |
Posted - 07/06/2010 : 18:37:52 [Permalink]
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Originally posted by Ricky
| Anyone who even tries to defend it is just as stupid. |
Poison the well much?
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I was referring to the specific quote. And I say again, anyone who even tries to defend writing of that calibre is a certifiable moron. |
Bailey's second law; There is no relationship between the three virtues of intelligence, education, and wisdom.
You fiend! Never have I encountered such corrupt and foul-minded perversity! Have you ever considered a career in the Church? - The Bishop of Bath and Wells, Blackadder II
Baculum's page: http://www.bebo.com/Profile.jsp?MemberId=3947338590 |
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Dave W.
Info Junkie
USA
26022 Posts |
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Machi4velli
SFN Regular
USA
854 Posts |
Posted - 07/07/2010 : 13:18:45 [Permalink]
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If at all possible, buy books online. University bookstores generally charge more.
My professors have usually tried to choose something cheaper if possible (sometimes there just isn't a good cheap book). Then again, most of my books are not updated too often, so it's not hard to get used ones. |
"Truth does not change because it is, or is not, believed by a majority of the people."
-Giordano Bruno
"The greatest enemy of knowledge is not ignorance, but the illusion of knowledge."
-Stephen Hawking
"Seeking what is true is not seeking what is desirable"
-Albert Camus |
| Edited by - Machi4velli on 07/07/2010 13:35:51 |
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Ricky
SFN Die Hard
USA
4907 Posts |
Posted - 07/07/2010 : 14:51:43 [Permalink]
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| "Microfossils are fossilised forms of microscopic life. Many microfossils are small." Well, DUH! |
It's rather impossible to comment on the writing from just a sentence, so it may be that it is indeed awful. None the less, I find it absurd to think that such a sentence would necessarily lead one to conclude the book is awful.
Definitions are sometimes poorly named. I'll have to do some more thinking to come up with an example in science, but mathematics is my expertise, so here is an example from math. In the field of differential geometry, there are things called covering maps, and there are things called smooth maps. However, a smooth covering map is not just a covering map which is smooth, no matter how much it sounds like it should be.
With this in mind, it is nice to reassure the reader that, "Yes, it is exactly what the name sounds like." |
Why continue? Because we must. Because we have the call. Because it is nobler to fight for rationality without winning than to give up in the face of continued defeats. Because whatever true progress humanity makes is through the rationality of the occasional individual and because any one individual we may win for the cause may do more for humanity than a hundred thousand who hug their superstitions to their breast.
- Isaac Asimov |
| Edited by - Ricky on 07/07/2010 14:52:55 |
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The textbook scam
