Jim Roth’s Website

More on the Journal assignment

This week you begin your English 101 journal assignment which asks you to free-write at least 15 minutes a day, 5 days a week through the rest of the quarter. Though some journal entry topics are specified, most will be open (your choice). With these, you can write about anything you like, change topics in mid-journal anytime you want. The goal is to write words, lots of words, without concern that someone will read them. If you’re stuck and in need of an idea, googling "Journal Topics" will give you links to lots of writing topics. Finally, you may keep your journal entries in a physical notebook or in a single MS Word file; just be sure to number and date each entry.

What follows is a message to those of us who are motivated to do assignments only when we receive course points for them or when the instructor will check them carefully.

The journal assignment is pass/fail, rather than worth a certain number of points. One reason is that I want you to feel free to write however you want about whatever you want--your thoughts and feelings are your business and nobody else’s. A second reason, perhaps the more important, is that the assignment has an impact that is more elegant and fairer than a points award: those who do it will likely see substantial improvement in their writing (and their mood); those who don’t, won’t.

If you have any questions, please be sure to ask.

Good Writing!