The Writing Journal
Goals
All students are required to keep a writing journal throughout this course. The purpose of the journal is not only to keep you thinking in English when you are not in class but to also improve your breadth of expression in English. The main idea behind the journal is that it will increase your ability to get your feelings and ideas down on paper in English. It will also work as a brainstorming activity to give you ideas about what you might want to write about later.
Think of the journal as a free writing exercise. Be creative and try to have fun with it.
How it’s Done
In this course we will be doing what is called a dialogue journal online. Students will post their entries in a message board on the Internet and others will check these entries and write a response. It is important that students no matter what the option put some time and effort into writing the response. You want your response to be meaningful and interesting: remember someone is actually going to read it.
The concept behind the dialogue journal is that we need to get used to the idea that we write for a communicative purpose. Writing is not merely an introverted practice; something we do for self-gratification. We write to tell someone something; to communicate feelings, facts, or ideas. Get used to having an audience and trying to write something that has an interesting meaning and purpose for them. Also, try to enjoy it. Your journal does not need to be true or serious. It just has to be communicative.
Here is a sample journal entry:
Friday, March 5, 2010 11:30 pm
I saw the strangest thing on the subway tonight. There were all sorts of drunkards which is normal this late on a Friday night, but there were these two foreign girls and they were trying to talk to all the young guys in the car in English and even if they had a girlfriend with them. They must have been drunk, but that was still very strange and I felt I should do something but I wasn’t sure what to do – tell them to be quiet and behave. The other people in the subway car were visibly upset and getting angrier by the moment and then, really quickly, they were gone. After they left people started to say terrible things about them, so I felt so bad.
Seeing drunk people acting up on the subway makes me really upset, but it is not as bad as people’s reactions to them. They ignore them and then get angry afterwards. Sadly, I’m not sure I’m that different. I never confront them unless I have to I just wait, like tonight for them to go away or for me to run away. We all live in the same world but we never really deal with each other. Sad.
Essentials
The writing in your journal should be informal. Do not worry about grammar, organization or
structure when you are writing in your journal. You are supposed to get your ideas down on paper in any way, shape, or form you can. Rather, worry about your ability to explain and describe things clearly, not forming topic sentences, or having logical connections.
It’s important to write in your journal EVERY DAY (except weekends). It does not really matter what you write: it’s the process that’s important. For that reason, having an electronic version online is something accessible to you very easily throughout the day, by means of an internet phone or personal computer. Your journal should be like a dear friend who you enjoy talking to. When you have something to say; say it to your journal in English. Try to have fun with it.
If you have the right attitude toward your journal, it does not have to be a chore or merely a school assignment. Don’t put your journal off. Get used to just writing down what you are thinking or seeing or feeling when you are waiting for a friend, riding on the bus or the subway, any time when you are free to write a few lines.
Conclusion
Your entries can be short or long. They can be about a movie you saw or a song or person you like. Just make sure you write something every day. Try hard to make your journal your friend. If you forget to write often or for a long time, your journal might become your worst enemy. It should not be too hard to make sure that this does not happen. The journal is an important part of the writing component of this course. Just do it.