Okay, I have to take a few minutes and vent. I have to. If I don't, I'll end up doing it in the reading journal and I'm pretty positive my grade on those will be low enough. I don't need to make it lower.
I hate these damn things.
I like reading the essays. They're interesting! I don't like analyzing them. I hate this part: "Spend more time talking about how the writer does what he/she does, and less on what story the essay tells."
Why do I hate it? Because I suck at it. I can read the essay and I can probably sum up then overall purpose or point of it in a sentence. But identifying who the writer does what he/she does? That's where I get stumped.
I read for pleasure. I read for escapism. I write for the same reasons. Something in me slams on the brakes and throws up mental barriers when I try to exam what I've read. "No, sorry, that's not why you read. Stop right there!" is the message my brain sends out whenever I try to analyze something I've read.
I know I'm doing poorly on the reading journals, even without having the grade from the first set back yet. I hate when I get bad grades. I try to stick to the instructions and do what is required, but I keep veering away from that. Trying to write a half-page for each essay is a challenge. Me, who has always prided myself on being able to write as much as is required for anything, about anything. I can't squeeze out a half page because I'm trying not to spend too much wordage on recapping the essay.
I really, really, really hate these reading journals. If I could just read the essays, then write my thoughts and impressions and interpretations of them, it would be easier. But identifying what the writer does, and how they do it? I'm afraid my brain just doesn't work that way.
Okay. Back to finishing the journals. I really didn't put them off until the last minute on purpose. I've just been so busy with work and school and deadlines and studying that hte 12th got here too fast.
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I agree with you a 100 persent. I can read an essay, like what I read and still do it all wrong. I have submitted my reading journal not sure if I am doing it right. English have never been a strong subject for me but yet I put forth 100 persent into it right or wrong. Good luck we both need it. The only thing that is accomplished by failure is that you nevered tried in the beganning.
ReplyDeleteSo, let me jump right in here and say that the reading journals are universally despised. Having said that, though, my defense is if I don't make you write them, (1) most students wouldn't read the essays, and (2) students wouldn't have a clue about what makes a good essay. Structure, organization, diction, technique--these are important to essay writing, even the types of essays you write in this class. You need to pay attention to how writers do what they do.
ReplyDeleteHaving been a student, I am well aware that most do not do half the work an instructor assigns, and, for the most part, it shows. Analysis is a higher-order thinking skill--when you can "decode" an author's technique, you can incorporate the techinique into your own writing. It helps improve the structure and organization of your own work--and you might learn something about scene, using detail, etc.
So, whine all you want. Just do it!
K. Smith
Eng. 226
::laughing!:: It was done! It was done! Promise! :)
ReplyDeleteAnd I do understand why it's an assignment, and why it's important.
But that doesn't effect the frustration, or the deep-seated and long-standing dislike I hold for doing this type of thing. Doesn't mean I won't do it, or won't try my best - it just means I don't like it.
But I don't like hole-punch 300 pages worth fo reports and putting them binders. I do it anyway because I get paid to do it.