Guidelines for the Reading Journal

The reading journal is a place to respond to the reading at your own pace and in your own way. Grammar, style, and structure do not count at all in my assessment of your journal; the only thing that matters is whether or not you got somewhere with the text and/or concept you are working with, “somewhere” being defined loosely. Don’t bother with introductions, corrections of grammar or spelling, or conclusions; don’t worry about abrupt shifts in topic if that’s the way your thinking leads you. Do engage as substantively as possible with the texts and/or concepts, and try go as far as you can with your ideas. Do try to go beyond (or in a different direction from) class discussion; the point here is what you think, not what has been said in class. Wind up your brain and see what it wants to spill out.

Format. You should turn in your journal on Moodle in .doc or .docx format (talk to me if you don't use Word). Date your entries and single space them.

Content. You are required to write a certain number of entries on various categories of topics (cognitive science concepts, longer creative works, shorter creative works, theoretical works--see below and the journal grade sheet). How you respond, however, is up to you, so long as you address the concept or text you are writing about explicitly and substantively and your entries are specific enough to make it clear that you have read the text you are discussing carefully. You may approach the materials of the class as a critic, a theorist, or a creative writer, although the requirement to address texts and concepts explicitly means that for the most part any creative writing entries you include in the journal should be accompanied by non-fiction commentary linking the creative writing entries to specific texts or concepts.

The key to reading journal entries is that they must be substantive, but they don’t necessarily have to be successful. You do not have to write anything like a finished paper in each journal entry (fortunately for both of us!), or even come up with a workable understanding of every concept or passage you write about. Entries that test out an interesting idea about a text or concept only to conclude that the idea doesn’t work can be extremely useful. You should use these journals as a way of solidifying and extending your thinking about the texts as you read them and/or after we have discussed them, NOT as a way of expressing carefully polished, fully worked out ideas. If one of your ideas really takes off, great. If not, that's OK too.

However, entries which skim over the surface of a text or concept without engaging with it in a thoughtful way are not acceptable. It is perfectly all right (indeed it is very useful) to say something like, “this concept completely baffled me” or “I really hated this section of the text,” IF you go on to discuss specifically what it is that you disliked or couldn’t understand, and use that as a springboard for speculating thoughtfully about the text or concept at hand. It is not acceptable to record such responses (or their opposites, “I understand this perfectly” or “I really liked this”) and leave it at that. Entries which are so vague or so insubstantial or so ungrounded in textual specifics that they could have written by someone who had not read the text will not count towards fulfillment of the reading journal requirements (although you're welcome to write anything you like as additional entries).

How the journal will be graded. To give you as much flexibility and freedom as possible, I will grade your journal on a contract system.

To get a B or higher, you must do the following in your journal over the course of the term:

• Write at least 18 entries total.
• Write entries on at least 6 different cognitive science concepts that we discuss in class.
• Write at least 2 entries on each of the longer works, as listed on the grade sheet.
• Write entries on at least 4 different shorter works, and at least 6 total entries on the shorter works, as specified on the grade sheet.
• Write at least 2 entries on each of the three theoretical texts on the grade sheet, and at least 7 total entries on theoretical works.
• Turn in your journal times on the dates specified on the syllabus (5 times total), with at least one new entry in the journal each time you turn it in.
• Spread out your entries over the course of the term, or least not fall too far behind a 1.5 postings/week schedule. (To be caught up in your journal, you should be within 1 entry of 3.5x entries, where x = the number of times the journal has been due. If you are 1 or 2 entries behind when you turn in a journal, that will result in a 1 point deduction; if you are more than 2 entries behind, that will result in a 2 or 3 point deduction, depending on how far behind you are.)

To get an A, you must fulfill the minimum requirements listed above and your journal entries, taken as a whole, must maintain a high standard of originality, intellectual ambition, interpretive subtlety, sophistication, willingness to engage with the texts and concepts, keenness of perception, and so on--in general, the overall quality of thought in your journal must be high. Borderline grades (B+, A-) are possible.

If you do not meet the minimum requirements listed above, I will make deductions from your grade. Deductions will be determined on a case by case basis, but in general you should expect the following:

• If you do not write a sufficient total number of substantive entries, I will deduct 5 points for each missed entry. I might take smaller deductions for entries which are only minimally substantive. Writing fewer than 10 postings will result in an automatic F.
• If you do not write a sufficient number of entries in one or more categories, I will deduct 5 points for each missing posting missing from a category. Here too, I might make smaller deductions for entries which are only minimally substantive.
• If you miss a due date for the journal, I will deduct 10 points for each due date you miss. Missing the final exam will result in a 20 point deduction.
• If you are late for a due date for the journal, I will deduct 2 points for each calendar day the journal is late, up to 10 points.
• If you fall significantly behind a 1.5 posting per week schedule, and especially if you clump your postings together in such a way that it seems you did not engage in sustained attempt to understand the material but simply got your postings out of the way at the last minute, I will deduct up to 10 points. As noted above, to be caught up in your journal on any given due date, you should be within 1 entry of 3.5x entries, where x = the number of times the journal has been due.

I will not necessarily give you a higher grade for writing more than the minimum number of entries, but I will base my evaluation on the best of the entries you write, so long as they meet the criteria above. For example, if you write only two entries on Galatea 2.2 but you write 5 entries on Dickinson's Poems, I will base my assessment on the best two Dickinson entries but I will take into both entries on Galatea 2.2. I might, but do not consider myself obligated to, combine multiple entries which are only minimally sustantive to count as a full entry.

Uusally, my comments on individual entries will be reactions, not evaluations. My intention is to try to enter into a conversation with you as a fellow student of the texts, not as a professor “correcting” your ideas. Accordingly, I will comment whenever and wherever something you say interests me or provokes me to respond, whether that’s five times for one entry or once in a whole journal. My comments will usually have little or nothing to do with my evaluation of your journal, which I will carry out on a separate grading form.