english first journals

My Reading Journal Assignment

 

Preparation If I pinched you, you would feel pain. The cause and effect relationship would be clear: I pinched you, and you felt pain. What is not always as clear is the cause and effect relationship between ourselves as readers and the written word—in our case short stories. What exactly do we feel when we read this/that short story, and why exactly did we feel this way? How specifically did the story prompt or provoke us to feel? These questions will guide us as we produce our reading journal entries. In other words, what pinches you from the stories and what was the experience of this pinch like? I would like us to extend this guiding idea to both our non fiction and fiction readings.

For example, you will want to actually quote the readings and consistently speak to how the story specifically prompted you to think or feel this or that. Be careful not to be vague, rambling, or off topic. Think about how we have discussed the readings in class. We always return to the reading to express how it specifically promots meaning, thought, or feeling within us.

 

READINGS

 

Poe, The Tell Tale Heart

Poe, Review of Hawthorne: The Tale and Its Effect

Gioia and Gwynn, The Art of the Short Story

Gioia and Gwynn, The Elements of Short Fiction

Mansfield, Miss Brill

Munro, How I Met my Husband