Reading Journal:
you will select two readings or texts that you want to write about, submitting a journal entry that uses close reading analysis to advance an interpretation or argument about the text. While the form can be creative and/or personal in tone, it should adhere to a standard essay format with introduction, thesis statement, and supporting evidence for that thesis. Citations should be in MLA format.
The Reading Journal:
Provides space to use writing to more deeply understand the challenging texts we will study
Provides opportunity for intellectual dialogue in order to arrive at your written analyses
Provides foundation for exams and research project
How to “read closely” for depth and meaning:
Imagine you are in a dialogue with the text. You’re at the coffee shop or the bar, a park or your dorm—wherever you are, you and the text are in a deep conversation together and you are hanging on their every word—I mean really, you are fascinated.
That means not only are you hearing the overall message of what they are saying, you also are noticing how they are saying it, the different elements of form and layers of meaning.
When you read closely you want to own the text if you can (print it out or buy the book—or take notes on an online copy (IF you can be crystal clear that that’s all you’re doing online in class :>). And you also want to own the text, meaning you are fluent in it, have your own interpretation of it, and can speak knowledgeably about it (even if you have lots of questions).
Elements you want to “ask” your text about include:
Macro:
The overall plot, narrative, argument, or theme of the text
The sub-plots or points that make up the whole and that make it mean what you say it means in #1 (reverse outline in your notes or—better—the margins).
Characters: what are their motivations, their back stories? Why do they do what they do? How does that impact plot and theme?
Setting: where is the text set? What kinds of descriptions of nature and communities do you find in the text? How/why does this inform the plot, theme, or argument?
Context: when/where/how/by whom was the text made and how does this impact its construction?
Micro:
Word choice (“Why this adjective and not that?”)
Please use the Oxford English Dictionary, available in Horn Library databases, to look up words you don’t know, and even ones you do—you’ll be amazed at the layers of meaning lurking in the English language, all of which play into the meaning of the text.
Definitions—especially with Freud!
Images/Symbols/Metaphors (Most important for these is to notice patterns or repetitions: when something is repeated, even with slight variations, it is surely significant.)
You will do two of the Journal entries, each should use two of the materials provided. so 4 in total. Each should be two pages.
Some material that can ba used along with the attachments :
https://www.kanopy.com/en/product/long-nights-journey-day-0
https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2023/05/29/the-tortured-bond-of-alice-sebold-and-the-man-wrongfully-convicted-of-her-rape
