Unit Four Reading Journal Checklist/Rubric
20 pt. Major Grade due start of class Thor’s Day, March 13
STAPLE ENTRIES TO RUBRIC WHEN YOU SUBMIT!!
You need:

At least ONE – Alexander Pope, Essay on Criticism (remember that in class you wrote
fifty words each on TWO – that would count as only ONE unless you elaborate/add)

At least FOUR – Jonathan Swift, Gulliver’s Travels

At least TWO – Jonathan Swift, A Modest Proposal

At least THREE from any of the following:
o Søren Kierkegaard, The Sickness Unto Death
o Psalm 19:14
o Hannah Arendt, On Revolution (“The hypocrite’s crime…”)
o Jaron Lanier, You Are Not A Gadget (“Digital Neoteny” “monstrous designs”)
o G. K. Chesterton, Orthodoxy (on Jesus and laughter)
o Jonathan Swift, “A Defense Of Mr. Gay” (lecture quotes on the job of satire)
o Francesco Goya, The Sleep of Reason
1. Quotation and 100 wd. Reflection from Pope, Essay on Criticism:
2. Quotation and 100 wd. Reflection from Swift, Gulliver’s Travels:
3. Quotation and 100 wd. Reflection from Swift, Gulliver’s Travels:
4. Quotation and 100 wd. Reflection from Swift, Gulliver’s Travels:
5. Quotation and 100 wd. Reflection from Swift, Gulliver’s Travels:
6. Quotation and 100 wd. Reflection from Swift, A Modest Proposal:
7. Quotation and 100 wd. Reflection from Swift, A Modest Proposal:
8. Quotation and 100 wd. Reflection from ________________________:
9. Quotation and 100 wd. Reflection from ________________________:
10. Quotation and 100 wd. Reflection from ________________________:
Reading Journals
Keeping a journal of words and thoughts is something writers and scholars have done
forever; it helps to grab information and ideas passing through your ears and eyes, and
helps you to file them in your mind. For Unit Two, you will submit a Reading Journal
consisting of twelve (12) quotations and reflections drawn from Unit Reading. This
counts for a 25 point Major Grade.
Your journal will take the form of a double-entry journal:
#

On the left side or at the top of each entry, quote word for word from the work
you are considering, and cite according to MLA Rules. Number each entry.

On the right side or at the bottom of each entry, write a reflection, at least 100
words, on the passage you quoted. Explain what the passage is “about,” why that
passage matters, and “reflect” on it – i.e., give an opinion, or explain how it
relates to you. This is graded for thinking, not grammar; don’t just fill up 100
words’ worth of space.
Examples: Quotation/Citation
1 She should have died hereafter;
There would have been a time for
such a word Tomorrow, and
tomorrow, and tomorrow ….
– William Shakespeare,
Macbeth V v 20-23
2 Of course I cannot break through
the wall by battering my head
against it if I really have not the
strength to knock it down, but I
am not going to be reconciled to it
simply because it is a stone wall
and I have not the strength.
–
Fyodor Dostoyevsky, Notes From
Underground. New York: Dover
Thrift Editions, 1992, p. 8.
Examples: 100 word reflection
Here Macbeth has just found out that his
wife is dead, and he doesn’t seem to care.
Basically he is saying that she was going
to die anyway, so why should he care?
And it also says she should have died
later because he doesn’t have time to deal
with it right now. This is especially sad
since the couple started out so happy,
sharing everything, and now Macbeth has
no feeling at all. It reminds me of one
time when my little brother wanted to
play and I was too busy and told him to
go away and he asked me why I didn’t
love him anymore.. That was a sad day.
Like Dostoyevsky’s narrator I have a hard
time accepting limits. This guy is in
prison and will not accept the reasons for
it. I have a hard time accepting the
reasons for anything that stands between
me and what I want, even when I realize
that wishes are impossible. I was never
quite able to dunk a basketball. I know
now that that is unlikely, but I haven’t
given up, though realism says I should do
so and find a more attainable goal.