Because most students have never kept a personal journal in the sense that
I require,  I offer the following overview.

Personal journals are required because:
1.  the personal journal encourages the student to think and to read with more involvement;
2.  it is an efficient means of accumulating information, questions, and perceptions the student needs at his/her fingertips for discussion;
3.  the journal facilitates student self-discovery;
4.  and, it encourages honest thought and creative expression.

Just what is a Personal Journal?
One student writes, "I have always considered the journal to be a diary of some sort--that is a collection of thoughts and sometimes insights into various personal incidents, often sketched in some detail . . . . In my journal I hope to construct and convey my own view of the world as perceived through the various works which we read this semester."

Another student sees her journal a bit differently.  "My journal isn't actually going to amount to some kind of diary, the kind of frequent jottings we usually associate with a personal record.  What I write is primarily concerned with my interpretations of writers' and authors' ideas and their relevancy to life as I know it."

These two quotations touch upon important characteristics of the personal journal.  But--AP juniors (English Language and Composition students) will want to focus on how writers are effective and the effectiveness of their own writing;  AP seniors
(English Literature and Composition students) will want to focus on the what and how of literature as well as on the effectiveness of their own writing.  Remember this as you read on!

Notes and Jottings
The journal should contain the notes and jottings made while reading and thinking about the reading.  These help to discipline the reading process and intensify thought during reading.  A good reader does more than absorb what the writer has to say.  While pausing  to reflect and/or record a journal observation, the student may think of several related ideas that might not have been otherwise considered.  Notes and jottings also serve as memory devices, helping to keep track of the author's main ideas, the creative personal responses that often arise during reading, and the history of an ever-changing relationship between the student reader and a work of literature.

Notes:  the brief reminders the journalist makes to keep a record of the objective details and ideas  read, sometimes in the same words an author uses.  A record may be kept, for example, of Aristotle's very specific definition of tragedy, or of Machiavelli's statement of belief on the fundamental depravity of man, or the words of Hamlet's soliloquy on the nature of man.  The student's notes  may also criticize an author's facts and list objective evidence to be used later to refute the author's position.

Jottings:  the entries made to record  subjective  responses.  For instance, after reading the words in Oedipus, "Insolence breeds the tyrant . . ."  a reader's personal experience with a teacher might be recorded which serves to illustrate this point.  Or the student may read in Marx that "Communist society calls for the abolition of the Bourgeois individually, Bourgeois independence, and Bourgeois freedom. . ." and become indignant enough to scrawl a strident response.  Such personal responses ought to be jotted down in the journal while they are still hot.

Preparations for Discussion
Notes and jottings are not only good devices to help the student read, digest, and enjoy literature, but they are also good preparation for discussion.  Sometime a good classroom session is the result of some spontaneous insight, but more often
than not it occurs because the students have come prepared.  Those who take the time to note and jot will be prepared.  What has been journalized--whether details, ideas, questions, or subjective observations--will often be the best topics for discussion.  With good notes and jottings, the student should never be at a loss for a relevant discussion topic.
 

Questions for Discussion
Somewhere in the course of the reading, one or two questions will be asked about what an author says or how he says it.  The student may ask whether a point was worth making in the first place, or whether the author's solutions are reasonable, or the student may raise any number of questions incidental to the reading.  Sometimes a question asked by the reader will eventually be answered by the author.  This is a sign of good reading.  Often questions will be left unanswered.  Just what does Moby Dick represent?  What is the importance of music in Our Town?  Questions such as these are what good courses discuss;  those who take the time to write these types of questions in their journal and review them before class will likely be stimulating and enlightening class participants.

Working Out Individual Thoughts
Whereas the critical essay requires the student to work out thoughts on a single subject and combine them into a cohesive whole, the personal journal requires thinking on many subjects on a more informal and regular basis.  A moment's reflection on Christian Judaism may prompt a student to observe to himself:  "Perhaps the author of Job has no rational answer to the problem of evil because he has the wrong conception of God!"  The thought may or may not be prompted by something the student has read.  She/he may not have the slightest idea whether the idea is worth trying to develop, let alone consider it as the topic of an eventual critical paper.  Is the thought worth pursuing?  Of course!  Journals are made for such purposes.  Such a query may result in five pages of writing or only produce a paragraph.  In either case, the student has begun thinking on an important topic.  Any attempt to objectify thoughts by putting them into words produces more control over the thoughts.

Reviewing the Journal
While I collect and evaluate journals on a periodic basis, students should periodically review their own journals.  One such
appropriate occasion seems to be a day or two before they are submitted to me;  this is an appropriate time to reread entries and to add new comments and observations.  But an evening every now and then should also be set aside to reread entries, make comments, and expand [amplify] previously made observations.  Such a review enables readers to relate entries made early in the course to thoughts about later readings.  For example, an early entry in a journal might outline Plato's three-part distinction of the soul.  Later a student might read Freud's three-part division of the psyche and be struck with the similarities of the schemes.   Such correlations often come to mind when the student reviews his journal.  Periodic reviews also give opportunities to chart the development of individual thought, or even to make the discovery there has been no development.  Often a student will find that early subjective entries display a confusion and contradiction.  Later reading and class discussion why he was confused or the cause of the contradiction.  From another point of view, a student's early ideas may be surprising in retrospect.  Often students are not immediately certain of their insights.  The passage of time gives greater maturity to the evaluation of individual ideas.  As one student observed,  "I have to live with new ideas for a while before I can know what meaning they have for me."

The Journal After Discussion
The journal should also include reflections on discussions.  Journal entries go beyond a mere reporting of what was said.  They include reactions--and leave blank space for later comments.

The Journal As Preparation for Papers and Exams
A well-kept journal is the best preparation for papers and examinations.

Organization and Form
Let's not restrict ourselves by any rigid a priori notions of organization or form.  The form of a personal journal is very much the self.  Its organization is the self in progress of putting thoughts and experiences together.  Such an organization obviously will lead to entries that are disconnected, non-sequential, illogical, and occasionally meaningless.  "Do I contradict myself?  Very well, then I contradict myself!"  said Walt Whitman.

Miscellaneous
How much time should a student spend on a journal?  How long should it be?  Most worthwhile journals contain about three or four pages of writing for each reading and class discussion, but the length of entries will inevitable vary and no definite length can be prescribed.

A successful practice is to highlight with a felt tip pen what you believe to be the most significant twenty-five percent of your contributions.

Assessment and Evaluation of Journals
Because many students wonder how a journal is assessed and evaluated, I mention a few of the general principles which I follow.

Conscientiousness--Is the student really serious about putting herself/himself [thoughts, feelings, personal experiences] into the journal?  A perfunctory journal is easy to spot.  A student shows himself disrespect by taking lightly the responsibilities of a personal journal.

Objectivity--To what extent does the journal demonstrate an objective familiarity with what the authors have to say and how they said it?  Do the objective entries demonstrate unconnected factual notings, or do they reveal a sense of integrated synopsis or summation of author's thoughts on a fundamental question?

Value Judgments--Does the journal manifest a critical, inquiring mind?  Does it consistently show samples of coherent value judgments on issues from the readings, discussions, or topics formulated by the student?

Evidence of Use--Does the journal give evidence that a student has used it as a device for preparing for discussion [by formulating questions and topis for discussion], and as a device for resolving matters not settled in class [by replying to positions taken by others, or by resolving unsettled topics]?

Evidence of Personal Growth--Does the journal manifest any growth and maturity?  Is there a marked difference between early and late drafts.  Is evidence visible of increased efficiency in study patterns?  Does the journal give evidence of a sincere effort to formulate views and values other than those of the authors?

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