GUIDELINES FOR JOURNALS AND LOGS
Journal Keeping
Writing in a journal will give you more practice
writing and thinking, and also develop a body of work from which to draw
assignments. Note that a journal is not a diary, a record of daily
activities, but a notebook of ideas, speculations, projections, conversations
with yourself. Throughout the course you will be given topics to write
journal entries on, each connected in some way with a past or future communication;
at the end of the course you will be asked to hand in the twenty-four required
entries along with any you completed on your own which you care to attach
as evidence of your thinking during the semester. You are encouraged
to generate entries of your own in which you explore ideas for papers and
strategies for drafting and revising work in progress.
You can keep either a handwritten journal
or a word-processed journal. For the written journal set aside a
portion of your notebook or a separate notebook for journal entries, preferably
using loose-leaf paper so that you can hand in individual entries without
having to hand in the entire journal. For the word-processed journal set
aside a separate folder on your disk and make each entry a separate file.
In either case try to spend twenty-five minutes minimum on each entry and
don't wait until you have an ideal structure in your head to write.
Journal entries allow you to write and see what develops--they don't demand
coherence and logical structure as a formal paper does. Be sure you
date or number the entries so that you can later trace for yourself any
development in your writing and so that you can hand them in at the end
of the semester in the order in which they were written.
Note: For handwritten journals use
standard size notebook paper and remove any jagged edges before handing
entries in, if you use wirebound paper. Write clearly, as you will
not be asked to copy or type these, but only hand them in as is.
For word-processed journals at least check the spelling and grammar before
printing out each entry, so that the hard copy is readable.
An exemplary journal entry: This example will give you
an idea of what I think is a good journal entry, one which is thoughtful
and thorough, the criteria I use to evaluate the success of class journals.
This entry is in response to a Speculation which asks students to consider
how they might revise the paper just returned to them. Notice that
this student has been both specific and and analytical about the problem
posed in the entry rather than general and vague; the entry is serving
his purpose by helping him to think through concrete characteristics of
his writing at the same time that it serves my purpose of giving him an
occasion to explain his thinking to me. The student might well be
capable of making the necessary revisions in his paper without writing
a journal entry first, but the journal entry gives him an occasion to think
about strategies and ideas, to develop his plans for what he might do,
so that he is prepared for the revision rather than simply launching himself
into it. Often journal entries can help solve problems before they
arise.
I have just read through
Communication #2, and I have re-read the comments you made on the paper.
They were all legitimate criticisms of my paper. I feel that I really
didn't do justice to this paper, in regards to the time spent on it.
It really was only a two-draft paper. I got away with it with a score
of generally good, because I made the scene come alive. I remembered
it so brilliantly that I told it well. The problem I did have was
the lack of attention to detail in the paper.
I need to come out and hit
the reader with some real graphic scenes. I need to make the reader
feel as if they are right there with me, blow for blow with the coach I
hated so much. I also need to let the reader know a little more background
on why I hated the man so much. This is not a boring incident that
happened in my life, but the way I have told the story is really boring.
The story really does no justice to the impact that this incident had on
my life. I could even go into some more detail about how I feel now
about authority figures who are incompetent.
Now that we have gotten
two communciations back, I am starting to get a good feel on how well I
write and my strengths and weaknesses. I have a real good way of
relating the stories to the reader, but I am ignoring the fact that I have
to give the reader detail. I have to really start making these stories
come alive. The two stories that I have related to you were both
strong, emotional stories that had a great impact on how I think and feel
about people from my hometown and school. Now, I need to relay the
color and vividness of these events that I experienced, so maybe they will
feel the same way that I now do. If the reader can't take from the
story how the author feels, then it is not a good story.
I need to give my stories
more character. They need a place and time. The reader needs
to know the feel of the place, the pulse. Is the place being described
a boring place or is it alive? The reader needs to see more of my
story. They need to be able to relate to the details of the story
so they can fully understand my feelings.
Writing Logs
Writing logs are records
of work-in-progress, notations of workshop sessions. Log entries
will be made frequently throughout the course in the last five minutes
of the class period. You should buy a pack of 5" X 8" lined notecards
and carry them to each class. On the top line write:
Last Name, First Name
Date
Generally I will ask you to respond to a specific question, most often
something like, "What did you work on today and how far did you get?" or
"Identify and assess quickly how well the work-in-progress you worked on
today is coming and what specifically affects how well it's coming?"
I will review these to identify what problems need to be addressed, what
confusions cleared up, what writers rescued at the next workshop. Please
note that these will always be brief, in-class, and spontaneous; your journal
will give you room for more developed and sustained reflection.
Below are samples
of Writing Log entries. The best entries are those that are specific
and thorough, demonstrating analysis by the writer and providing information
to the reader; the weakest entries are those which generalize briefly,
convey little information to me, and demonstrate little thought on the
writer's part. Like the journal the writing log is a task performed
chiefly to benefit the writer, but it has to be thoughtful and thorough
enough that the reader looking over your shoulder has a concrete understanding
of the entry.
This first example
is useful to the student as well as useful to me. I learn something
concrete about her thinking concerning writing; she focuses on something
concrete that might need attention and in the course of doing so discovers
some tactics to overcome a problem she feels she has.
In
my past experience as a writer I have had difficulty arranging my thoughts
in a manner which made sense. A lot of times I have to go through
my writings and switch paragraphs or take parts of paragraphs and switch
them with others. I may be able to help this problem by thinking
more about what it is I want to say before I start to write. I could
maybe make a more in-depth outline before I start, just to organize my
thoughts more. Also, knowing more about the topic of the writing
may help.
The second example, like
the first, is a response to a question about the aspects of the student's
writing that will need attention during the semester. Notice that
it does reveal the nature of the student's writing--he's right about what
he needs to do and his log entry is evidence of the writing problems he
mentions--but notice also that it doesn't serve his needs very much.
It is too slight, too telegraphic, too undeveloped; it is perfunctory and
uncommitted and doesn't give the student much opportunity to think.
I
need to convey my ideas better. . . more development . . . grammer . .
. express myself (thoughts) in writing skills.
In this third example the
student simply records where the work in progress is going to go.
It is a good log entry for me because it tells me what the focus of the
paper will be and gives me an idea of what to talk to the writer about,
and it is a good log entry for the writer because it helps him think about
the focus of the work he still has to do on it.
I
am writing about one experience in Algebra while I am taking a test (in
the 9th grade). I am trying to do it by just relating what I am thinking
to the reader. How my dad's going to kill me, how I know someone
is cheating off me, and that I know the teacher hates me and knows that
I'm flunking the test. Basically, it's just the thoughts of a ninth-grader
taking an algebra test that he has no idea how to do. It is really
fun to write and is going pretty smoothly.
There aren't right answers in logs and journals and not every entry will
be uniformly thoughtful and thorough, but these samples should give you
some idea of what I take to be entries of value to the people writing them
and what I hope to find in at least a majority of the entries I read during
or at the end of the course.
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