ENG 101: Effective Writing I
Fall 2006

Reading and Writing Journal

Keeping a Reading and Writing Journal

  NOTE: For midterm, your journal should contain the following items for ENG 101:
  • Into the Streets Reflection (If you don't have this, don't worry about it.)
  • In-class Essay written 8/31
  • List of texts you'll read for this class (even if you've changed it since you made the initial list)
  • A record of the time you've spent on your reading (Please don't make this up if you didn't keep it.  I'd rather read accurate information than have you scrambling to turn in something--that makes it "busywork," and I have no intention of assigning "busywork."
  • 1-2 reflections on your reading
  • Freewriting--OPTIONAL (Don't turn this in if it's too personal.)
  • Exercises based on freewriting: (1) writing about the freewriting process; (2) expanding a bland sentence with details

Professor Covert and I will be asking you to keep a response/reflection journal throughout the semester.  The same journal will serve in both classes, but we’ll be asking you to write a reasonable amount to satisfy requirements for two classes.

Ø      For ENG 101:  Effective Writing I, your journal will be one of the ways through which I check on your reading, since you will be choosing books rather than reading a list that I have selected.  That means that I’ll be asking for some reporting and comprehension checking journal entries (like a brief outline or summary of a particular chapter), as well as some entries that show you have given some thought to what you have read, that you are engaging with your reading (like a list of questions that come to mind as you read a particular chapter). 

Ø      The books you choose will also be your writing textbooks.  This means that you will learn things about writing from reading them—not how to write novels with plenty of symbolism (if you’ve read The Scarlet Letter, you know what I mean), but how to say things more clearly, perhaps, or how to establish your authority as a writer, or how to vary sentence length and paragraph length to keep your reader interested.  To learn from your reading this way, I will ask you to do some writing about a text that you’re reading (for instance, choosing a paragraph that you think is particularly effective in communicating the author’s point—or a paragraph that is very confusing—and analyzing what makes it work, or keeps it from working, by looking at word choice, sentence structure, even punctuation).  

Ø      I will also ask you to do some reflecting on your writing experience and habits, and perhaps to complete some writing exercises.  Some, or maybe most, of this writing will be completed during our class meetings. 

Ø      I will also ask you to keep track of the time that you spend on some of our activities (for example, keeping track of how hours you needed to do some research on a topic, or how many hours you spent drafting your essay).  Then, I may ask you to write a short reflection on what this tells you about your time management needs for research-based writing assignments.

If you review the kinds of activities summarized above, you will notice that some of them involve explaining, some exploring, others analyzing.  The synthesizing will come in the form of writing your formal essays over the course of the semester—and those essays will all include elements of explaining, exploring, and analyzing as well.

Your reading and writing journal will serve as a record of your individual reading, writing, and thinking experiences over the semester.  You will find it particularly useful when you are asked to write reflective midterm and end-of-semester introductions to your writing portfolio in ENG 101 or to reflect on your growth and development for PDP.