Double Entry Journal

What's the purpose of a double-entry journal?
The purpose of double-entry journal (DEJ) is to give you an opportunity to express your thoughts and become more involved with what you read.

How does it work?
Divide your page into two with a vertical line down the center.  On the left side, copy down quotes from the original text that you find interesting, powerful. In the left-hand column, copy or summarize text that is intriguing, puzzling, powerful, or that connects to a previous entry or situation. In the right-hand column, write your reaction to the quotation or summary. The entry may include comments, questions, connections you make, and an analysis

What should I write?
Write your reactions to the quote that you chose. Your reactions can include your own opinions, disagreements, interpretations, descriptions of events in your life that the quote reminds you of, comments about grammar, and guesses about the meaning of new words. 

Your reactions to your reading can include, but are not limited to, one or more of the following:

• a paraphrase of a complex segment of text
• a possible explanation of a confusing material
• a main idea from the resource and why it is important
• a strong positive or negative reaction and an explanation of that reaction
• a reason for agreeing or disagreeing with the author
• a comparison and/or contrast of a passage with another resource or with prior knowledge
• a prediction based on evidence from the resource
• a question generated as a result of reading, viewing, or hearing the resource
• a description of a personal experience that relates to the resource

You may also evaluate the quality of what you are reading in your Double-entry Journal. Here are some suggestions:

• How current is the information?
• Is the author's information reliable? Does it agree or disagree with information in other sources?
• What is the author's/producer's purpose (e.g., to inform, to persuade, to entertain)?
• Does the author/producer have a point of view?
• Is the author/producer biased?
• How do the graphics (e.g., pictures, charts, graphs) contribute to an understanding of the information?
• Is the author's/producer's presentation logical? Does the author/producer support generalizations?
• the text's audience
• the text's main idea or main effect
• the text's organization, its forms and features of support used to create, enhance, and amplify the main idea or effect
• the text's style and tone
• author’s use of language
• character development
• discussion of plot; predictions of what may happen
• reflections on a text’s themes

How is a DEJ helpful?
Double-entry journals allow you to pick out the parts that YOU think are important, and to ask the questions that YOU have, instead of doing exercises that the teacher made up.  Doing your reading this way will help to improve your comprehension and vocabulary. It will also help you remember the material better.

Left Column	Right Column
Quote or summary from the text	Visual commentary (drawings, visual analogies, doodles)
Quote or summary from the text	Reactions (“This bugs, annoys, moves  . . . me because . . .”), reflections (”I wonder if. . .”), musings (“Hmmm…”), questions (“I wonder why…”) with possible answers (“Maybe because . . .”)
Quote or summary from the text	Connections Text to other text(s)—print, visual, aural Text to self To other people Text to world
Quote or summary from text	Significance in relation to piece as a whole; relating part to whole.
Quote or summary from text	Social Questions (Race, class, gender  issues)
Quote or summary from text	Naming Literary techniques
Quote or summary from text	Imitations or parodies of text’s content or style.
Quotes or summaries from text	In generating ideas for a paper, relating passages to your thesis.

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