Why Keep a Reading Journal

Your reading journal will be a place to try out and explore ideas concerning our readings, lectures, and discussions without worrying too much about being evaluated. The point of the journal is to develop a regular, habitual practice of figuring out what you think of our course materials. If you add to your journal consistently and regularly, you’ll find that you will deepen your thinking and enhance your ability to make connections between different texts and ideas, and between the readings and your own life. By writing regularly in your journal you will also have a wealth of material and ideas to draw from when responding to discussions and preparing for essays.

Requirements

You will make at least one entry for each week, making sure to refer to every reading assigned that week. Your entry should be dated and given some sort of title or label. While you do not have to write extensively about each individual reading or author in the set, you should at least make some quick notes about main topics/themes for each one so you can remember them later. You must address all the readings (to some degree) in order to get full credit. The bulk of your journal entry should engage with the week’s reading in some way. Usually, you can use the weekly theme or lecture as a starting point, but if something really jumps out at you, then you should explore it!

What an Entry Should Look Like

Feel free to write in the first person (“I think…I don’t understand…I saw a similarity…”). Your journal response might include your general reactions to the literary work, questions you have about it, connections to topics from class discussions, or revisions to your earlier thinking after having the benefit of additional time for reflection.

Possible specific approaches include looking at a passage, episode, or even single sentence from the reading that puzzles, moves, or upsets you—it’s tempting to skate past those moments, but instead slow down and focus on them; considering the significance or motivations of a character from one of the stories that we read; comparing different readings to each other; debating with me or a fellow student about an idea from discussion. I encourage you to write about things that challenge and push you. You can also connect the course material to your own life experience – just remember that the focus should be on the text.

It’s okay to think about how you felt reading a particular text or whether you enjoyed it or not. Just make sure always then to ask yourself, why? What is important is why you found a particular text appealing or unappealing, why you had a particular emotional reaction, why you agreed or disagreed with particular aspects of a text. Responding to these second level questions can refine your thinking about literature, your knowledge of yourself, and your values.

Grading

Your journal entry is due at midnight on Tuesday for each unit, and each entry is worth 15 points. In evaluating your journals, I will not be grading your grammar, nor will I be critiquing your ideas. Rather, I will be looking for these things:

Length of entries: Are the entries at least 250 words or longer and do they include the date and a title or label?