Reading journals are designed to help you connect the ideas we are studying to the analysis of literary works.
Choose a text from the course library and read it carefully.
Select a scene from the text (if responding to poetry, select a stanza or respond to a short poem). Like in a movie or play, a scene in a story or play is a section with a common setting and characters. When the setting or characters change, you have a new scene.
Come up with a question about how that scene relates to an overall theme of the text. For example, you might write:
“How does the scene in Ethan Frome where Ethan watches Mattie at the church dance relate to the themes of social and geographic isolation?”
In 300+ words, perform a close reading of the scene that answers the question you posed. Be sure to use direct quotations from the text.