Four separate sets of journal entries will be due on the dates below, either in class or by email the same day. Here is the list -- numbers in parentheses mean "any x number of questions on the author mentioned":

Week 03 (09/08): Conrad (6 q's), Housman (4).

Week 07 (10/06): Sassoon (3); Owen (3); Yeats (6), Woolf (6), Joyce (6).

Week 11 (11/03): Eliot (6), Orwell (6).

Week 15 (12/01): Beckett (6), Burgess (6).

*Please skim the study questions before you read the text to which they refer, to get the sense of what you might look for. Then read the questions more carefully while you are reading the assigned text, marking the ones that seem most interesting so you can write about them for your journal entry on the relevant author. (I have provided page numbers where appropriate, often citing phrases to help you anchor your response. Moreover, the questions almost always refer to the text sequentially, from beginning to end.)

*I suggest that you do journal entries on a word processor so you can save a copy for your own use in developing paper topics. But if you handwrite, please write legibly and make yourself a photocopy. Bring journals to class on the due dates. Please staple the whole set together -- don't use paper clips, binders, etc.

*Label the authors and questions so I know what you're addressing.

*You can do more than the specified number of questions, but the extra questions don't mean you should should skip some other author -- the point is to read all the texts and respond to all of them.

*Responses will vary in length to suit the complexity of the question. Many responses will require a short paragraph. There's no need to respond exhaustively -- just thoughtfully. Here is a good sample response to a question on Yeats' "Among School Children":

4. How does this [the eighth and final] stanza assert the speaker's dignity in the face of advancing age and death? How does the stanza employ the organic metaphor to describe the process of living, dying, and creating art? (2112)

Here the speaker reflects upon his attempt to remember what it was like to be a child. The romantic organic metaphor "great-rooted blossamer" implies that life is an inseparable process from beginning to end; so, too, the dancer is completely immersed in the dance. But this all seems ironic since by the end of the poem, the still self-reflective, if moved, speaker remains distant from the children and from his childhood aspirations. He remains outside the experience he describes, misunderstood and, perhaps, misunderstanding.

*My questions should help you develop ideas for papers, participate in discussions, and learn more from comments in class. Responses should show an honest attempt to come to terms with the material. They aren't "answers" to rigid test questions -- notice that I didn't treat the Yeats stanza as if it were only about "asserting dignity"; I felt like addressing the stanza on somewhat different terms, so I did. And responses don't have to be perfect -- it's fine if they are just thoughtful first responses based on a first reading. One learns, paradoxically enough, by both "slow exposure" and unpredictable, exponential leaps of insight and connection-making. Expecting 100% comprehension on a first reading isn't realistic -- deep learning doesn't happen that way.

*The journals take the place of a midterm exam. Cumulatively, they will count for 30% of the course grade. While I don't plan to assign specific grades to each journal set (check marks for "properly done and on time" and a brief comment if there seems to be something missing would be more like it), here's how the grading for the journal requirement as a whole will go:

A: all journal sets turned in complete and on time; responses are specific and consistently thoughtful -- neither vague remarks nor simple yes/ no statements.

B: all journal sets turned in, but occasionally skimpy and/or slightly incomplete in terms of numbers. Also, journals turned in late will receive no more than a B.

C: one of the four journal sets missing, but all others completed satisfactorily and on time. Alternatively, all sets turned in, but consistently skimpy and/ or incomplete in terms of numbers.

D: two or more journal sets missing, and/or many responses clearly not thoughtful enough to suggest serious engagement with text, or many responses so incomplete as to suggest failure to read assigned texts.

F: student has failed to turn in any journal sets. Anyone who does this would probably have to earn an "A" in all other components (attendance, final, paper) just to pass the course. Not a good idea....