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World Studies (Period A) 2007-2008 Mr.

Steele-Maley Instructions for Journals The journal is a place to record your responses to the reading that you do for this course. It is also a place where you can undertake the kind of reflection about values that is expected in this world studies course. This assignment will give you the chance to assess the relevance of the values for your own life while gaining a firm understanding of the values of many other cultures. Think of your journal not as a diary (which is about you) nor as reading notes (which are about the texts) but as an extended intellectual conversation about values, which you may or may not have in common with the authors of the course readings. Good conversationalists are inquiring, reflective, speculative, and mentally adventurous. Above all, they are critical thinkerspeople who ask penetrating questions, make shrewd connections, draw careful distinctions, and arrive at thoughtful judgments. These are the characteristics that youll want to cultivate in your own journal entries. Each journal entry should emerge from a close reading of some rich passage in the days reading. The best passages to analyze are ones that prompt you to ask and answer a question about values. A good journal entry will get you to dig deeper into the reading material in order to develop more complex and sophisticated judgments, all the while insuring that these judgments are carefully reasoned and tightly linked to specific evidence in the texts. Writing such an entry will help you better understand both World Studies and yourself. Guidelines for journals Keep your journal separate from your class notes and reading notes. Type your journals on a computer so youll have your own copy to use when studying for our class exams (you will be able to use them during the exams!) Write an entry before each class, basing it on a passage found in the reading for that day. Bring the entry to class. Dont fall behind and dont cook up entries after classes that simply recapitulate what was said during class. Start each entry separately or on a new page. At the top of the page, write the date and class theme, for example 9.05.07 Globalization. Begin the entry with a quotation from the days reading. If short, give the entire quotation; if long; give the beginning and end, with an ellipsis in the middle. Be sure to provide a citation (author, document title, book title, page reference). Then discuss the issues raised by the quotation as they relate to World Studies. Finally, offer some reflection about those issues insofar as they relate to your own values. Not counting the quotations, journal entries should be about 250-350 words (1 to 1 typed double-spaced pages). The writing can be informal, but it must be grammatical, with complete sentences and coherent paragraphs. The journal assignment covers the classes from September 7 to May 7 inclusive. You may skip up to 2 entries without penalty before winter vacation and up to 2 entries without penalty after winter vacation. I will check the journals periodically and grade them at the end of each trimester. The completed journal is due on May 7. It counts for a total 15% of the course grade.

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