keeping a journal

A journal, unlike your class notes, goes beyond the simple act of recording what transpires in the classroom. The journal allows you to record dialogues with yourself regarding the meaning of the experience. In a journal, the writer can accomplish what T.S. Eliot expresses in The Dry Salvages. "We had the experience but missed the meaning,/And approach to the meaning restores the experience/In a different form." In a journal, the student writes, not to fulfill an exercise, but to learn. "Learning about a subject means more than memorizing axioms, dates, and formulas. You also need to develop general intellectual skills that will allow you to understand the discipline in its entirety, that is to approach it intelligently, knowing what questions to ask, where to discover the answers to those questions, and, finally, how to develop and organize your own ideas about the subject. A body of knowledge about the material is fundamental, but a student of any subject should also learn how to acquire and
interpret additional knowledge. . . .

. . ., writing is one of the most important intellectual activities that you do in college, for writing is not simply a method of communicating what you know about a subject; it is an extremely useful tool for assisting you in a variety of tasks, from observation to argument. From making simple lists to analyzing and synthesizing complex data, intellectual functions, especially the more complex ones, 'seem to develop most fully only with the support system of verbal language--particularly, it seems, written language.' The most useful writing in this kind of writing is what we call "private" writing, that is, writing you do for yourself." (Elaine P. Maimon, et al. Writing in the Arts and Sciences)


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Reasons for Keeping a Journal

To gain self-knowledge--to assist you in formulating the thoughts and half-formed ideas you have in your unconscious

To develop the habit of writing. Writers learn to write by writing. Keeping a journal helps allay some of the fears of the "blank page." Keeping a journal encourages self-expression and helps the writer to develop his/her talent.

To give form to confusion of everyday life.

To help in perceiving and observing more critically and sensitively.

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Subject Matter

Impressions: Take note of what you experience. Be concrete, using as much detail as necessary to accurately record what you feel.
The current situation: Summarize an event or experience that has taken place in class. Record your attitude or point of view regarding the experience in detail.

Revisionism: Choose an awkward or unpleasant moment and rewrite the experience so that the situation turns out more to your satisfaction.
The path not taken: Imagine a situation that turned out badly (perhaps because of reluctance to risk something important). What might have happened if, at the critical moment, you made the risky decision?

Controversy: Argue a position open to debate or dispute; take the unpopular side; try to find an unusual angle to support. (Remember, arguments are based on well chosen evidence; don't simply make pronouncements which are
justified by emotional response ("knee jerk reaction")

Reminder: The journal is not a diary of your daily activities. Use the journal to record thoughts and impressions, to remember the past, to plan for the future. Approach the writing of the journal as an journey into the unknown. In the words of T. S. Eliot in Little Gidding: "We shall not cease from exploration/And the end of all our exploring/Will be to arrive where we started/And know the place for the first time." In keeping a journal you discover new things about
yourself you may not have considered or realized before. Take Eliot's advice and "Fare foreward, travellers! Not escaping from the past/Into different lives, or into any future;/You are not the same people who left that station/Or who
will arrive at any terminus."

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article source:
http://www.nd.edu/~fys/gettingstarted.html