Reading Journal Expectations Reading Journal 02
READING JOURNAL: INVESTIGATION & RESEARCH
Please view and read, then respond to the following:
Entry 1: (Video) Investigation, Art21 (Links to an external site.) (54:35)
Entry 2: Methodicity by Henk Slager
Need to response both of these two entries!!
The Reading Journal (RJ) assignments are written responses to each assigned reading or video. A reading journal is not your first impression about the text, nor a summary of its content. It is a layout of your experience reading the text and your personal reactions to and analysis of it. These assignments require you to use critical thinking and analysis and to draw connections between your own ideas and those of the authors. For example: were you surprised at how the writer described their viewpoints? Does the writer give you a new way of thinking about that topic? Was something shocking in the reading/video, or did it make you laugh – why? Does it connect to things you’ve heard in this class or other classes, or to other ideas you had? Does it help you think about art in a different way? What questions or confusions do you have about the topics presented? Be specific!!!
The Reading journal functions as proof of your engagement with and analysis of each reading. If you just summarize some key points of the text or tell me what you liked or disliked you have given insufficient proof of your engagement with the content and will be marked down. So, do not summarize what happened in the reading; tell me what happened inside of your head when you read the text. Importantly, you must be specific about what ideas or sections of the reading you are responding to. Though I don’t want a summary, I do want specific references to content in the reading so that I know you have actually read and engaged with it. Remember to always ground your analysis in relation to the actual content of the reading/video.
PLEASE REMEMBER TO PROPERLY QUOTE AND ATTRIBUTE (NAME) ANYONE ELSE’S WORDS IF YOU WISH TO REFER TO THEM THROUGH EITHER DIRECT QUOTES OR PARAPHRASE IN YOUR WRITING (more information about the consequences of plagiarism are below in the Academic Misconduct / Plagiarism Policy section).
Each of the readings and videos that are assigned weekly requires a single journal entry, clearly titled with the name of the article. Most weeks there are more than one readings/videos assigned, so please remember to write a separate response to each (separate them in one document by the article titles, or submit them as individual documents). Each journal entry should be at least 300 words in length, which works out to about half a page long (1.15 spacing).
Here are some suggestions about how to write your journal if you need guidance (You are welcome to see Sonja during office hours if you have more questions or confusions about the Reading Journal expectations):
- Read through the assigned reading (or watch the assigned video) to gain an overall understanding of the material.
2. Jot down your thoughts while, and just after, you read or view. Mark passages that stood out to you. - Go back to your notes and try to make them full sentences if they are not already.
4. While reading your notes consider your general impressions and then go back to those parts of the text or video that require more specific observations and analysis. You might use the following questions as a guideline (you do not have to answer them specifically; they are merely meant to help you focus):
- What are your overall impressions of the reading or video?
- What particular passages or details stand out to you? Why do you think they might be important?
- How does this reading/video relate to the themes we have been discussing in class so far? The themes of other sources? The themes of the course as a whole?
- How might your personal experiences or background relate to the reading/video?
- What questions do you have about the reading/video? What passages or ideas were difficult to understand?