Journal Writing Guidelines

From the Syllabus:

Homework and Journals: You will write, throughout the semester, in your journal both in-class and out-of-class assignments.

1. You will be expected to respond to everything you read or watch by writing in your journal; these should be at least a page long and should show evidence of analytical & critical thinking.

2. You will also be assigned short essay entries wherein you will analyze specific quotes or passages, summarize or paraphrase texts, and then respond, interpret, and comment on them. These entries will be assigned throughout the course, sometimes in the syllabus and other times announced in class.

3. The writer’s journal will function as an overlay to each unit. As you respond to what you read, see, write, and hear, you will also respond to your peers’ writing, your own writing , and you will develop metacognitive skills about your writing. In other words, you will learn how and why you do what you do in your writing –an important skill in self-critique. It is the intention that the writer’s journal will help you synthesize and better reflect on your experiences over the semester in preparation for the final exam essay.

It is crucial that you keep track of these assignments in your Writer’s Journal because the final exam will ask you to include parts of your journal in your essay. In other words, this journal can help you get good grades throughout the course.

Due Dates:

Journal entries will be collected randomly throughout the semester for homework credit.
They will also be collected in their entirety at the end of the semester with the final portfolio. This compilation should include any original graded copies as well as any that were revised and corrected.
Short Essay journal entries are firm deadlines—students should be prepared to use their entry for class discussion on that day, and it will be collected at the end of class time.

Instructions:

Read/Watch the assigned text for the class period.
Using the homework example as a guide, critique and analyze the text in any way desired for your response.

Responding = analyzing a strong emotional, historical, or physical reaction to a text.

Emotional – why was the text invoking these reactions?
Historical – what historical factors shaped the direction of the writing?
Physical – did the text motivate you to change something in your life? What in the writing produced this?

Critiquing = identifying the issues within a text and questioning their purpose.

Analysis of any kind asks, “Why does this work this way?”
Critique asks, “should it work this way?”

Analyzing = using any method to make sense of a text’s inner workings.

Literary analysis – examining the literary features in a text for their emotional effect on the reader
Rhetorical analysis – examining the persuasive features in a text for their motivational effects
Historical analysis – looking at the role of historical events in the meaning of a particular situation
Psychological analysis – looking at the personality, behavioral, or social features involved in a text
Or any other form of analysis desired.

Lastly, the journal can be used to practice answering the essay prompts used in the Major Assignments. This is a great way to start a draft of the paper!

Type your entry on a single page with standard MLA heading, including the journal entry number. Typical entries should be about ¾ to 1 full page in length, single-spaced.

Guidelines:

Expect to spend between 15 minutes and 1 hour on writing the assignment, though this may vary between students.
Though a journal is, by definition, informal, please remember that this will be shared in class discussions and read by the instructor.
Stick to PG-13 language
Practice using as much direct analysis as possible by dissecting lines or passages from the text.
Try to use full paragraphs whenever possible. If there are more insights and questions than paper, hit as many as possible and save the rest for the unit essay!