Dialectical Journals
One of my goals this year is to help you consistently enter into a dialogue with what you read. In order to help you develop this skill, you will be keeping a dialectical journal throughout the course. This journal should be kept in a composition notebook that looks just like this one:
You may decide to decorate, cover, or otherwise make it you own but it should be this size (9 ¾ X 7 ½ ) and contain at least 100 pages. You will periodically turn the journal in and I do not want varied sizes, shapes and weights to carry.
Set up the page:
Fold the paper so that the line runs from top to bottom (lengthwise). On the left side of the line, copy the part of the text you are responding to using proper format:
“Always put quotation marks around what you copy from a book. Then place the author and page number in parenthesis after the quote.” (Monahan 34)
Selecting a quotation to respond to:
- A quotation does not need to be dialogue (something a character says).
- Do not let the length of a quotation keep you from selecting it. The important thing is that the quotation makes you think.
- When you write the quotation down, be sure you include enough surrounding context so that you can remember its importance.
Remember, since you are picking the quote your commentary in the “making notes” section should be substantial. A few comments is not sufficient.
On the right side of the line write your comments about the quote. These fall into many different categories. Some options are:
- Ask questions you would like to pose to the author. Since the author can’t answer you, you will have to write the answers yourself.
- Make connections between the quotation and whatever it reminds you of from some previous reading, viewing or living experience
- Rewrite the quote from another narrator character’s point of view, or provide what you think another narrator or character’s perspective on that quotation might be
- Identify the element of plot represented in the quotation. This might be done in a diagram (plot pyramid or chart) or written out.
- Counterarguments to the quotation you have chosen
- Personal narrative connecting the quotation to your own experience
- Prediction of how the piece will end – what it will lead you to believe
- Analysis of one passage and its relationship to the meaning of the story as a whole
Dialectical Journal Example
|
Taking notes (quotations taken from your reading) |
Making notes (your response to the quotations you selected) |
|
“The house on Mango Street is ours, and we don’t have to pay rent to anybody, or share the yard with the people downstairs, or be careful not to make too much noise, and there isn’t a landlord banging on the ceiling with a broom.” (Cisneros 3) |
She is listing experiences people who rent homes and apartments might have experienced as well. This might pull those readers closer to her through common experience. It also serves to pull the reader who has never rented into her narrative. She lists multiple inconveniences and negative aspects of this lifestyle (paying rent, sharing yard, having to be quiet) and this begins to create an image. While Esperanza’s family no longer has to deal with these problems their neighbors on Mango Street do. It provides a window into a lifestyle. |
|
“But my mother’s hair, my mother’s hair, like little rosettes, like little candy circles all curly and pretty because she pinned it in pincurls all day, sweet to put your nose into when she is holding you, holding you and you feel safe, is the warm smell of bread before you bake it, is the smell when she makes room for you on her side of the bed.” (Cisneros 6) |
This long list of similes and metaphors describing her mother’s hair must be important. She describes her father’s hair in one sentence – as well as the hair of the other family members. The repetition of “holding you” is a clue as well. She obviously has a strong connection to her mother and it must be the most important relationship in her life – at least in her family. Other evidence of this closeness is the association of a smell – the smell of bread – with her mother. Olfactory memories are some of the strongest. It reminds me of smell associations I have. Like Coppertone sunscreen and the trip my husband and I took to Pie de la Cuesta just before we moved away from Mexico. Every time I smell it I am transported back to that carefree time – and for this reason I keep buying it. Warm bread connotes comfort and care. It takes time an patience to bake bread – just like being a mom. |