This semester, you must keep a reading journal of questions or interesting ideas you encounter. Each entry should:
Plan on devoting 30 minutes per week to the journal (figure the equivalent of approximately 400 words, with variations for style). We will use them as prompts for classroom discussion and for in-class activities, so you should keep them with you every class period. Under the course schedule, any day marked "Journal Checkpoint" will be a checkpoint where you will be asked to offer a specific question or idea you wrote about the work at hand. That does not mean you should only write for those class periods. The weekly minimum is 400 words, but you should respond, at least briefly, to each section of our reading.
The journal is to help you develop your thoughts relating to the course themes, and to ask questions and make remarks about what you encounter in the text. You are welcome to get creative in your journal, and in fact, should plan on it. Possible methods include:
The journal should help you develop your understanding of the course problematics, issues in contemporary women's Anglophone literature, and should provide a basis for studying for your midterm and for your final projects.
- Ask particular questions you have about a passage/text
- Be a minimum of 400 words
- Be typed
Plan on devoting 30 minutes per week to the journal (figure the equivalent of approximately 400 words, with variations for style). We will use them as prompts for classroom discussion and for in-class activities, so you should keep them with you every class period. Under the course schedule, any day marked "Journal Checkpoint" will be a checkpoint where you will be asked to offer a specific question or idea you wrote about the work at hand. That does not mean you should only write for those class periods. The weekly minimum is 400 words, but you should respond, at least briefly, to each section of our reading.
The journal is to help you develop your thoughts relating to the course themes, and to ask questions and make remarks about what you encounter in the text. You are welcome to get creative in your journal, and in fact, should plan on it. Possible methods include:
- literary analysis of a section of the text (using one of the "lenses" we discuss in class or your own interpretive method)
- mimicry (try to write in the style of the author)
- rewriting (writing a passage from a different characters' perspective)
- personal connections (using your own experience to connect to the issues raised in the text, including expressing confusion or new insights)
- responses to political and social issues encountered
- poetry
The journal should help you develop your understanding of the course problematics, issues in contemporary women's Anglophone literature, and should provide a basis for studying for your midterm and for your final projects.
