The Norton Anthology American Literature

The Journal

The reader response journal should serve more as a tool to assist you in reading works from The Norton Anthology: American Literature than as an assignment for me to grade. It will help you to read actively, as a participant in a conversation with the text. You will use it to record your thoughts, feelings and ideas – your reactions to the readings. A record of such reactions teaches you important analysis skills, but without the punitive consequences of a check for errors in grammar, spelling, and punctuation. I will assess mechanics skills in your essays and exams, but not so much in journal entries, which again serve you, not me.

When I grade these I will check for two qualities:

1. Length – each entry should be at least one typed page.

2. Analysis – you must not, under any circumstances, summarize the text. Assume I’ve read the piece. Don’t tell me the story, poem, essay, etc. all over again. Instead, react to it – talk back to it – in your own words. However, you must refer to details from the text in order to convince me you’ve read.

The Journal

The reader response journal should serve more as a tool to assist you in reading works from The Norton Anthology: American Literature than as an assignment for me to grade. It will help you to read actively, as a participant in a conversation with the text. You will use it to record your thoughts, feelings and ideas – your reactions to the readings. A record of such reactions teaches you important analysis skills, but without the punitive consequences of a check for errors in grammar, spelling, and punctuation. I will assess mechanics skills in your essays and exams, but not so much in journal entries, which again serve you, not me.

When I grade these I will check for two qualities:

1. Length – each entry should be at least one typed page.

2. Analysis – you must not, under any circumstances, summarize the text. Assume I’ve read the piece. Don’t tell me the story, poem, essay, etc. all over again. Instead, react to it – talk back to it – in your own words. However, you must refer to details from the text in order to convince me you’ve read.