The journal assignment is intended to provide a structured place to record ideas about the learning process. You will be writing about significant issues developed in the readings, class discussions, and your own writing and thinking. This is a useful way of synthesizing ideas as they develop; the writing later may provide a rich resource of ideas and more sophisticated connections between concepts, reading, theories, etc. than would have been possible had you forgone the currency of the journal writing.

Critics think about how communication works and they think about it in ways that are different from the average person. Many of the best critics are able to explain not only what they think about, but also how they think. The goal of this journal is to foster reflection about the critical process in order to provide you with your own data giving you insight about how you do your thinking.

[Put this heading at the top of each page]
Week #, date. Journal entry # Name:
 

Description of stimulus to write. Here you will briefly explain the reading, quotation, statement, problem, insight, etc. that caused significant thinking in you.
 

Linkage to other ideas, concepts, quotations, articles, etc.
 

Insight generated by the connections you=ve drawn.
 

Each entry will clearly indicate the format above, will develop significant ideas (this is not a personal diary of events, but a record of critical thinking activity), and be a minimum of 300 words to be accepted.

1. See examples of journal entries in the back of the reading packet.