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Posts tagged ‘textbooks’

15 Examples of Insane Textbook Writing

Writing textbooks has got to be pretty tedious work. So you can hardly blame the writers when they slip in something that seems a little bit… off. My theory is that one of three things happens:

#1. The writer slips something in to see if anybody notices.

A word chart that says "OMG WTF STFU PWN3D"

Best optometry chart ever.

A word problem with the heading: "When am I ever going to use this?"

The heading asks a very good question that the problem doesn’t really address.

A picture of a family posing with somebody in a Spongebob Squarepants suit. Caption: "Here is an American nuclear family comprised of mother, father, and two children. Please note that the large yellow kid with the poor complexion is not a member of this nuclear family."

Just don’t tell Spongebob he’s not a member. He’ll be crushed.

"This chapter might have been called 'Introduction,' but nobody reads the introduction and we wanted you to read this. We feel safe admitting this here, in the footnote, because nobody reads footnotes either." Whoever wrote this is my hero.

“This chapter might have been called ‘Introduction,’ but nobody reads the introduction and we wanted you to read this. We feel safe admitting this here, in the footnote, because nobody reads footnotes either.” Whoever wrote this is my hero.

Crying: (def) what you feel like doing after writing statistics textbooks.

This explains every other entry on this post.

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Books and Publishing, College Life, Education

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How Much of a Difference Does Renting Textbooks Make?

I’ve been out of college for a few years now, and it amazes me how much things have changed in the short time since I’ve been gone. A lot of things are much tougher. I don’t envy you guys’ tuition hikes. See the chart below from CNN Money:A chart displaying rising tuition rates. Tuition at a four-year private college has increased 60% in 10 years. Tuition at public four-year colleges has increased 104%.

No, I wasn’t getting out of college in the mid-80′s, that’s just the starting point of the scariest chart I could find. Let’s try not to think about what it’s going to cost to put our kids through school.

But there’s a lot I do envy about current college students. The main thing? You all have options. When I was in college, I bought all my books from the campus bookstore, so I was totally at the mercy of their pricing. I’d buy an $80 history book and sell it back at the end of the term for around $5 or $6. A few times I managed to get a book off somebody who had just finished a class, but that was about as savvy as anyone got. You could buy textbooks online, and a number of people did, but it wasn’t nearly as commonplace as it is today.

Nobody rented out textbooks though. That’s a new one. I hope current college students know just how lucky they are to have this as an option. (more…)

Category:

Bookbyte Stuff, College Life

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