English 121 JOURNAL GUIDELINES

(7% of final grade)

The purpose of the journal is to encourage you to write.  It is the one place in the coursework where grammar, spelling, and other writing issues are not graded.  What matters is that you write.

Grading of the journals will be on an A or F basis.  Either 20 pages are written, or they are not.  No partial credit (B, C, D grades) will be given.

Journals will be kept in thin, college-ruled notebooks or in unlined pages of a sketchbook.

Journals should be at least 8 1/2"x 11" in size.

Journal entries will be:

' single-spaced,

' of normal-sized handwriting,

' and occurring within normal margins.

' 1 page = writing on all lines of the page except the very bottom one.

' Items should be legible.  Print things, if your cursive is indecipherable.

' Keep it cleanno expletives. 

' If you want to type your entries and paste or staple them in, that is acceptable. For typed entries, use 12-point Times New Roman font, 1-inch margins all around and double space entries, on 8 1/2" x 11" paper.  One page = 250 words.

' Write in the journal page number (1-20) in the upper right-hand corner of each journal page.

' Content should be your own thoughts in English, not copied from elsewhere and not written by someone else for you. 

o No song lyrics or poems

o No class notes

o No rough drafts of other papers

o No in-class writing assignments

' If you wish to include lyrics, poems, cartoons, news and magazine articles, or drawings in your journal, you may create an appendix at the back of the journal to incorporate these or use the left hand page of the journal for taping, stapling, gluing or copying these items.  These will not count toward credit or total page count.

Journal Checkpoints

Get journal notebook okayed by me during the first two weeks of class.

♦10 pages are due _____________________ (see syllabus)

☻20 pages total are due _____________________(see syllabus)

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