Reading Journal As you read your assignments, you are to make a reading journal entry. You may select from the following suggestions, all of which are designed to help you reflect on the ways you react to the reading. If you write your entries in cursive, each should be at least one page long (without skipping lines) but seldom longer than three pages long. If you wordprocess your entries, then skip lines and make each entry from one to three pages in length.
The GMU Writing Center Guide to Keeping
a Reading Journal
You'll find many ways to read a text. But keeping a journal as you read is one of the best ways of exploring a piece of writing. With this process you integrate reading and writing, and find that you can interact with the work more fully. Take in every detail, every description. Try to avoid hasty analysis because it can prevent you from understanding the meaning of the novel as a whole. Remember, to analyze anything fully you must have a complete understanding of it.
Don't feel overwhelmed. Just relax; notice and feel things. Associate ideas with other subjects, objects or feelings. Try the following three steps:
Return to the H andouts L ist -----Return to the W riting C enter
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THE DIALECTICAL JOURNAL
Through Jurassic Park
Introduction
A dialectical journal is a conversation between you and what you are reading. You simply write down passages that make you think or interest you and write about your thoughts. This process is an important way to understand a piece of literature. By writing about literature, you make your own meaning of the work in order to truly understand it. When you do this yourself, then the text belongs to you--you have made it yours. The passages are there for everyone to read; however, the connections and interpretations are uniquely yours. You are neither right or wrong in your response. So be willing to take risks and be honest.
Objectives
By doing this assignment you will:
* bring your own background and experience to the reading;
* construct your own meaning from the text of the novel;
* provide direct feedback to yourself and your teacher on your thoughts and understanding as you read;
* gain insight into the plot, action, and significance of events and details in the novel.
Procedure
* Journals are evaluated on the quality of your response.
* Select at least one passage for every 40 pages of the book. You will have 10 entries by the end.
* Select passages that YOU WANT to write about.
* Write a detailed response to the passage you have chosen.
* Simply read, think, and write as much as you can.
* Always be sincere about what you are saying in your writing.
* If you get stuck, use the following list to help you get started.
WRITE ABOUT: what you like, what you dislike, what seems confusing, what seems unusual, what you think something means, what personal connections you make, what predictions you can pose. Possible sentence lead-ins might begin like:
* I really don't understand this because. . .
* I really like/dislike this idea because. . .
* This idea/event seems to be important because. . .
* I think the author is trying to say that . . .
* This passage reminds me of a time in my life when . . .
* If I were (name of character), at this point I would . . .
* This part doesn't make sense because . . .
* This character reminds me of (name of person) because . . .
- What do you find interesting in this reading assignment? Summarize the point of interest and then discuss why you find it interesting.
- What do you find unclear in this reading assignment? Summarize the section you find muddy or foggy and explain what you think it means but why you're still uncertain.
- What do you find "linkable" in this reading assignment? Something may link up with your previous reading in this class or in others. Perhaps it links up with an experience you've had or a theory you're developing. Explain the linkages you see.
- What do you find stimulating or exciting in this reading assignment? Summarize the section and explain why you find it stimulating.
- What do you find contradictory in this reading assignment? The passage in question may seem to contradict something else the writer(s) has said; it may contradict your reading in another class or in another text in this class; it may contradict common sense; it may contradict your experience or expectation. Explain the contradictions and try to work out what you are going to think about the ideas associated with it.
- What do you find debatable in this reading assignment? Who would debate this passage and what arguments would he or she bring to the debate? What do you think about the possible positions one can take on the issue discussed in the reading?
- What do you find practical or useful in this reading assignment? It might be useful in your daily life now, in your professional life now or in the future, in your academic research as you prepare to write a paper. What specifically is useful, and how can it be used?
- Send comments to wac@niu.edu
All contents copyright (C) 1997. All rights reserved.
Revised: April 7, 1997
URL: http://www.engl.niu.edu/wac/readjrl.html
The GMU Writing Center Guide to Keeping
a Reading Journal
You'll find many ways to read a text. But keeping a journal as you read is one of the best ways of exploring a piece of writing. With this process you integrate reading and writing, and find that you can interact with the work more fully. Take in every detail, every description. Try to avoid hasty analysis because it can prevent you from understanding the meaning of the novel as a whole. Remember, to analyze anything fully you must have a complete understanding of it.
- Begin each new novel, play or poem without predetermined bias. If you decide in advance that all good art uses realistic settings and promotes your personal moral values, you close out the possibility of new experiences. You do not have to, nor should you, enjoy every work of literature that you read. But you should be willing to recognize that the imagination is limitless.
- Read slowly. This suggestion can't be stressed enough. If you roller skate through an art museum you won't see the paintings.
- Read with pen in hand. Underline key phrases, speeches by major figures, or important statements by the narrator. But don't limit yourself. Underline or highlight anything that seems important or striking. Take notes on ideas or questions (don't trust your memory). Write in the margins. Keep a list of the characters and/or major events on the inside of the front cover. Circle words used in special ways or repeated in significant patterns. Look up words that you don't know or words you think you know but seem to have a special weight or usage.
- Look for those qualities that professional writers look for in real life: conflict, contrast, contradiction, and characterization.
- Look for rhythm, repetition and pattern. Successful works of literature incorporate such structural devices in the language, dialogue, plot, characterization, and elsewhere. Pattern is form, and form is the shaping the artist gives to his or her experience. If you can identify the pattern and relate it to the content, you'll be on your way to insight.
- Ask silent questions of the material as you read. Don't read passively, waiting to be told the "meaning." Most authors will seldom pronounce a moral. Even if they do, a work of literature is always more than its theme. Use the questions devised by reporters: Who, What, When, Where. Why and How may take more study--such questions probe the inner levels of a text.
- Keep a reading journal. Record your first impressions, explore relationships, ask questions, write down quotations, copy whole passages that are difficult or aesthetically pleasing.
Don't feel overwhelmed. Just relax; notice and feel things. Associate ideas with other subjects, objects or feelings. Try the following three steps:
- Write first. Write what you see in the text.
- Next, write what you feel about what you see.
- Finally, write down your thoughts and feelings. This step helps you develop perceptions.
Return to the H andouts L ist -----Return to the W riting C enter
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
THE DIALECTICAL JOURNAL
Through Jurassic Park
Introduction
A dialectical journal is a conversation between you and what you are reading. You simply write down passages that make you think or interest you and write about your thoughts. This process is an important way to understand a piece of literature. By writing about literature, you make your own meaning of the work in order to truly understand it. When you do this yourself, then the text belongs to you--you have made it yours. The passages are there for everyone to read; however, the connections and interpretations are uniquely yours. You are neither right or wrong in your response. So be willing to take risks and be honest.
Objectives
By doing this assignment you will:
* bring your own background and experience to the reading;
* construct your own meaning from the text of the novel;
* provide direct feedback to yourself and your teacher on your thoughts and understanding as you read;
* gain insight into the plot, action, and significance of events and details in the novel.
Procedure
* Journals are evaluated on the quality of your response.
* Select at least one passage for every 40 pages of the book. You will have 10 entries by the end.
* Select passages that YOU WANT to write about.
* Write a detailed response to the passage you have chosen.
* Simply read, think, and write as much as you can.
* Always be sincere about what you are saying in your writing.
* If you get stuck, use the following list to help you get started.
WRITE ABOUT: what you like, what you dislike, what seems confusing, what seems unusual, what you think something means, what personal connections you make, what predictions you can pose. Possible sentence lead-ins might begin like:
* I really don't understand this because. . .
* I really like/dislike this idea because. . .
* This idea/event seems to be important because. . .
* I think the author is trying to say that . . .
* This passage reminds me of a time in my life when . . .
* If I were (name of character), at this point I would . . .
* This part doesn't make sense because . . .
* This character reminds me of (name of person) because . . .
