The journal rewards effort and participation.
Short writing assignments, 1 page, for a personal journal will be required. This week you will write your thoughts on the materials that you were required to view for class. The goal is to help you to make concrete connections between class material and your personal observations.
Be sure to answer the question: What have the materials covered in class this week prompted me to consider?
Journal writings will not be graded for quality as a paper would be. If you have completed all assigned journal entries in a sincere manner, you will receive full credit for the journal in your final grade. That credit will be lessened only if you are lacking certain journal entries, or your entries are unacceptably brief or intentionally do not address the topic. The journal will not be judged negatively for unintentional errors in writing or punctuation. In other words, the journal is one place where a better writer will not necessarily get a better grade. The journal rewards effort and participation. It provides an opportunity to succeed no matter where you are starting from if you sincerely dedicate yourself.
Journal entries are used as tools for student reflection. By consciously thinking about and comparing issues, life experiences, and course readings, students are better able to understand links between theory and practice and to generate justifiable, well-supported opinions. This kind of writing assignment is meant to be interactive, as students engage with ideas and experiences that bring about questions, comparisons, insights, criticisms, speculations, and tentative conclusions.
