Recommendations for Journal Responses
The Requirements: 10 entries, minimum of 1 page in length per entry. The written response is not
intended to be treated as a formal essay, in which the product—the essay itself—is the ultimate
goal; instead, the ultimate goal is the critical thinking you develop and demonstrate as you simply
respond to what you observe in the reading (i.e. “analysis”). In contrast to formal writing, these
entries should all be highly informal explorations of ideas and/or exercises of discovery! They
may simply be “gut reactions.” And, because journal entries are not assessed qualitatively in terms
of “correctness” of anything (content nor form), I have two simple requirements beyond the fact
that you need to respond to a reading: 1. be sure to address the whole text (not just the
beginning) and 2. Be sure to critically analyze it and inject your opinions/interpretations of it
(do not merely state what someone else says).
**BE PREPARED TO SHARE YOUR TOP CHOICE BY THE END OF THE SEMESTER**
The Choices:
Guy de Maupassant’s “Hautot and His Son” (40); V. S. Naipaul’s “The Night Watchman’s Occurrence
Book” (89); John Steinbeck’s “The Chrysanthemums” (103); Willa Cather’s “A Wagner Matinee”
(110); Katherine Anne Porter’s “The Jilting of Granny Weatherall” (188); Isabel Allende’s “If You
Touched My Heart” (296); Gish Jen’s “Who’s Irish?” (365); Will Eisner’s “Hamlet on a Rooftop”
(414); R. Crumb’s and David Zane Mairowitz’s “A Hunger Artist” (426); Sylvia Plath’s “Daddy”
(542); Eudora Welty’s “A Worn Path” (648); Toni Cade Bambara’s “The Lesson” (654); Amy
Hempel’s “There Will Be Quiet” (659); Zora Neale Hurston’s “Sweat” (705); Ha Jin’s “Love in the Air”
(834); ZZ Packer’s “Brownies” (843); Daniel Orozco’s “Orientation” (1009); B. Travern’s “Assembly
Line” (1018); Amy Tan’s “Two Kinds” (1117); Langston Hughes’s “One Friday Morning” (1228);
William Carlos Williams’ “The Use of Force” (1234); Tobias Wolff’s “Bullet in the Brain” (1244);
Amy Sterling Casil’s “Perfect Stranger” (1265); and William Faulkner’s “Barn Burning” (1320)
The Notebook also needs a section for daily notes (in-class and over homework readings) and
quizzes if necessary.
Another (third) section of the notebook is for the prewriting strategies for the three major essays.