The Dialectical Journal/Blog
Effective students have a habit of taking notes
as they read. This note-taking can several forms: annotation, post it notes,
character lists, idea clusters, and many others. One of the most effective
strategies is called a dialectical
journal. The word “dialectical” has numerous meanings, but the one most
pertinent is the “art of critical examination into the truth of an opinion.” As
you read, you are forming an opinion about what you are reading (or at least
you are SUPPOSED to be forming an opinion). That opinion, however, needs to be
based on the text – not just a feeling.. Therefore, all of your opinions need
to begin with a text. To that end, you will need to create a dialectical
journal as you read your outside reading novel. You will then use this journal
to help you write your outside reading paper, and I will use it to gauge just
how interactive you are with your novel. This journal will be included as a
significant part of your paper – in fact, you will be unable to get anything
higher than a low “B” without completing the journal, so take it seriously.
The procedure is as
follows:
1.
As you read, pay close attention to the text.
2.
Whenever you encounter something of interest (this could be anything from an
interesting turn of phrase to a character note), write down the word/phrase
making sure that you NOTE THE PAGE
NUMBER. If the phrase is especially long just write the first few
words, use an ellipsis, then write the last few words.
3.
Then WRITE YOUR OBSEVRATIONS ABOUT THE
TEXT you noted or quoted. Please
separate this two things by a little space. You need to interact in detail with
the text. Make sure that your observations are THOROUGH, INSIGHTFUL, and FOCUSED CLEARLY ON THE TEXT.
for examples see:
http://shelbyap.blogspot.com/2009_01_01_archive.html
http://brandycollegeenglish.blogspot.com/search?updated-max=2010-02-25T22:40:00-08:00&max-results=7&start=7&by-date=false
http://collegeintroenglish.blogspot.com/2010_01_01_archive.html
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