Keep a record of ALL YOUR OWN WORK in your journal. The journal will become a clear record of your reading, surfing through SAC [ID], and studying other course materials and completing exercises defined in week-by-week listings in the course ACADEMIC CALENDAR [ID]. The journal is of distinct importance and use to you because =
YOU WILL BE ALLOWED TO CONSULT YOUR JOURNAL AT EXAM TIMES
YOU WILL NOT BE ALLOWED TO CONSULT YOUR LECTURE NOTEBOOK AT EXAM TIME
The journal will contain the following five types of entries =
(1) notes on journal-worthy course exercises
(2) notes on readings [ID]
(3) notes on discussion group topics (as guided by your Instructor)
(4) draft-essays [ID]
(5) Exams [ID]
The Journal serves as the most important gauge of your work.
Table of Contents of this Explanatory Page =
Thoughts about "Reading" in the Academic
Setting [Hop to new page then return]
Your Journal and Your Lecture Notebook are Different
What Should You Enter in the Journal, and How Much?
The Journal's table of contents and bibliography
When is the journal due?
Become Map Savvy
Make a Backup Copy of Your Journal
Final Words on the Concept of the Journal
---
Your journal and your Lecture Notebook are different
Do not record lectures in your journal. Put lecture notes in the separate lecture notebook. Lectures are MY WORK. Do feel free to record in your journal all work that is follow-up from lectures. You should use lecture notes to guide further textbook, SAC or library reading which you may then record as YOUR WORK in your journal.
---
What Should You Enter in the Journal, and How Much?
Some course exercises will be completed within one week, some will stretch through the whole term. Some of the exercises (like number one, "purchase the journal") obviously require no entry in the journal. Others (like the MAP ROOM tour [ID]) do call for a written record. Be smart about what is most journal-worthy in the exercises, and use your eight hours of work outside class wisely. The week-by-week readings in the textbook, SAC and (possibly) the library do require constant attention, and should be entered in the journal from the early days to the end of the term.
How much should you read and write? Limit yourself to eight hours of course work outside of class time. Put in the time, and you'll be happy with the results. We guarantee it.
Take guidance from lectures and discussion-group Instructor, and follow your own interests and instincts. Branch out on occasion to readings embedded in SAC entries, especially when you come across them as you follow LOOPS suggested in the course webpage syllabus.
Here we touch on one of the most difficult but useful skills this course will ask you -- and the journal will allow you -- to cultivate. Work constantly to familiarize yourself with the central issues of the course, as defined by me, by the syllabus, by your discussion group Instructor, and in SAC. But at the same time, develop your own interests, guided still by me, by the syllabus, by your discussion group Instructor, and by SAC. Follow the lead provided by the course structure without losing your own identity. You could describe this skill as an ability to adjust to your environment but also to thrive individually.
Table of Contents and Bibliography
Work on the the journal-worthy exercises should be entered in the order you do them. For example, you may take up one exercise on a sequence of journal pages, interrupt it with work on another, recorded on the next sequence of journal pages, then take up the original exercise again on a third sequence of journal pages. This works for you and for your readers because your Table of Contents, kept as a register of your work in the first several pages of the journal, will provide guidance to work on any given exercise, even when it is distributed over several different sections of your journal. Typically, the Table of Contents will list exercises, weekly topics (as indicated in the course ACADEMIC CALENDAR) and/or titles of the readings you have done, listed in the order in which you do them.
Organize your reading and writing as you wish, but you need not expand your time commitment. The standard 8 hours/week can be distributed over any number of different reading and writing schedules, but if you deviate much from the broad outline in the syllabus, be sure to come see me or your discussion group Instructor, so we can help you alter your reading/writing plan, and so we can make a note in your journal to remind us of your particular variation on the general syllabus.
We will read your journal and the results of your work on exercises at least three times. The course hand-out syllabus [ID] specifies those "due-dates" or deadlines.
We will not expect all exercises to be complete as of first submission, but we will expect to find the results of your progress in that direction, guided by your excellent table of contents.
Notice "at least three times" above. We are very happy to look at journals more often on a simple advisory basis. Come see us with your journal during office hours or by appointment, as often as you like. This journal-based course is very different from what you might be familiar with. We are confident you can do it, but we also know that we can help you to get untracked and adjusted, especially in these early weeks. Come see us!
You know or will soon learn how to pace yourself. Steady work is good, about 8 hours per week, but sometimes you will have reason to give more time one week than the next, etc.
Feel free to put photocopy outline maps in your journal. You may fill these outline maps with as much hand-written information as you wish. An outline map filled in by you can be called YOUR WORK and belongs in the journal. [Here's an example of a good outline relief map of Eurasia.]
We recommend that you learn to sketch outline maps yourself, and that you do so occasionally in your journal. This is a good way to consolidate your grasp of relevant geography. In turn, grasp of geography seriously expands your ability to remember the events that take place on the geo-physical "stage". Remember that your outline or hand drawn maps can include dates and other key words.
DO NOT INSERT IN YOUR JOURNAL MAPS WITH PRE-PRINTED NARRATIVE.
---
Make a Backup Copy of the Journal
It is wise to photocopy your journal to create a "backup" copy. A good time to photocopy your journal would be just before submitting on each of the three occasions. At the time of the second submission (midterm exam), copy the pages since the last copy was made. At the time of the third submission (final), copy the pages since the midterm. If for some reason the original is lost, you have a copy to fall back on.
---
Final Words on the Concept of the Journal
A central concept here is this: When you "process" information from a source through your eye and onto the blank page by hand, while in the process of analysis and synthesis of the information [ID], you will remember it better, you will "make it your own". And your journal will preserve a record of that work, for your instructors to see, but for you to see and use, perhaps for years to come.
And that's what we want you to do with the history before us in this course = MAKE IT YOUR OWN.
The Golden Rule of the journal is this: Record everything in it that you think you might find useful when you write midterm and final exams. Record everything you need in order to compose draft essays. Record your work on each journal-worthy enumerated assignment in the course syllabus.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
