While I reserve the right to pick up journals any old time, usually I pick them up during the midterm and at the conclusion of the course. I grade journals for completeness, development of thought, and whatever connections you can find between the readings. I will be looking for original impressions, not a repackaging of the class discussion . If you have three poems due on one day, you should have three responses written for your journal. Use the following questions as guides to help you respond to the text as you read it.
Students often average at least a paragraph per poem, around a page per short story.
The two exams will consist of essay questions, short answer questions, the matching of important critical terms with their definitions, and the identification of terms taken from the readings. I will hand out study sheets for both tests. Students tend to do well or badly on these exams depending on how much they keep up with other aspects of the class. Your research paper will concern a writer of particular interest to you. Some students have written essays about one theme in a novel.