English homework help

Double Entry Journal for Reflecting on the Text

A dialectical journal is a dialogue between you and the text. You write down passages that engage you, make you curious, or elicit your reflection and analysis. This process is an important strategy in addressing both fiction and nonfiction works. By doing this assignment you will bring your prior knowledge and experience to the reading, construct meaning from the text, gain insight into the significance of the work, as well as analyze and synthesize elements of the text.

For this journal assignment, please select FIVE passages that engage you and that you find significant for some reason. Write a 2-3 sentence response to the passage you have chosen. For example, analyze the literary significance of a quote such as how it underscores the theme or heightens conflict, or respond to a social issue discussed in the text, or reflect on the consequences of a historical or political event. Always be reflective, thoughtful, and analytical in your observations. Be sure to avoid superficial comments such as “this part makes me so sad,” or “Why would this leader do that,” or “Drug abuse is bad.” Also, avoid simply restating or explaining what the passage says. Finally, avoid quoting all your passages in the first ten or fifteen pages of the reading assignment.

Sample Double Entry Journal

Passage or quotation from the text and page number	Page	Personal reaction, observation, realization, question, prediction
“I am an invisible man. No, I am not a spook like those who haunted Edgar Allan Poe; nor am I one of your Hollywood-movie ectoplasms. I am a man of substance, of flesh and bone, fiber and liquid—and I might even be said to possess a mind.”	1	How can he be invisible if he is “flesh and bone”? Does he appear and disappear? Is this a science fiction story? He say he possesses a mind, but can ghosts think?