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Journal Requirements
for EH 220 (1-Y)

John Tatter
Professor of English

Your journal consists of two parts, both of which are to be sent to me as Microsoft Word documents attached to e-mail messages. The first part has to do with your service experiences. Within 48 hours after each service-learning session, including the initial conversation you have with your partner as you choose your service activity, you should respond to what you experienced. Before writing, You should talk about each session with your partner, but then you should go off by yourself and write alone. What particular things happened during the session? What didn't happen that you hoped would happen, or that you feared would happen? What made you feel good? What made you feel uncomfortable? What made you feel disappointed? What made you feel confused? What gave you a feeling of accomplishment or satisfaction? Why exactly did you feel these things? Beyond your personal feelings, what connections can you make between your service and the literature you are reading?

For example, you might comment on how the contrasting settings in Bambara's "The Lesson" show how large a gap there was between African-Americans and affluent white Americans during the 1960s and 1970s. You might also comment on the narrow point of view of the narrator, Sylvia, who thinks that all "white folks" are "crazy" based on her one encounter with a white woman wearing a fur coat during the summer. That narrow point of view, as unfair as it might seem to a white reader, is very similar to the narrow point of view that many white people have had about African-Americans -- seeing one African-American out of work, they have assumed that all African-Americans are lazy. Sylvia's "lesson" about "white folks" becomes a lesson for the reader about "black folks." Do your service experiences offer similar lessons to you and your partner?

The second part of your journal will be your responses to the Intellectual and Cultural activities that you attend as part of your class requirements. Within 48 hours of the event you must send me a journal entry that records your response to that event. Use part of each entry to summarize briefly what you experienced, and then go on to record your response. Consider following the "what," "how," "why" format that you will use in your first paper. What was your reaction? How did the speaker evoke that reaction? Why did you as a unique individual respond the way you did? Be sure to provide specific examples for the "how" and "why" parts.

You should write for no less than a half-hour (probably 2-3 pages) in each case. Sometimes you will write much more. Remember that details are the heart of good writing. You will not make yourself understood to others, and you will not be able to re-read the journal five years from now and understand yourself, if you do not base your statements and ideas on specific examples.

John D. Tatter, Birmingham-Southern College, jtatter@bsc.edu