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On keeping a reading journal

Do you love reading? Would you like to interact with and remember most of the books, essays, and articles you read? Get a Journal or a notebook and call it your reading journal.

A reading journal allows you to Write down your reactions to the things you read. It gives you a chance to separate what a writer has said from the way you feel about the message. Reading another person’s work is a conversation. By reading, you’re listening to the words on the pages.

How you choose to interact with a Story or text depends on the impact it has on you. You might respond to it by arguing with it, asking questions, summarizing it for yourself, or connecting it to personal experience.

Write your thoughts, feelings, and ideas down in your reading journal. You can organize your journal to have separate sections: a part devoted to writing your summaries; a part for responding to the story or text; and a part for saving memorable quotes from your readings. You can also add a section for listing all the books you read.

When writing your summary ask yourself:

  • What is the author saying or trying to say?

If you decide to give a personal response to what the author has written ask yourself the following questions and answer them:

  • What do I agree or disagree with in this book, post, or article- and why?
  • What confused me about this reading?
  • What has been left unsaid?
  • What brought to mind a personal experience?
  • Did I learn anything new?
  • What would I add to this story or text?

You can consider why the author chose their title, how they organized the information, and how they developed supporting ideas to their main points. Write until you’re ready to stop. You don’t have to cover everything. Focus on the points or ideas which you find important.

Remember to only write in your journal after you are done reading the whole story. Reading and writing are different processes, and it is important to finish reading before deciding the impact the story or text has had on you. Use your journal when you are re-reading parts of the text you found important.

The more you write in your reading journal, the easier it becomes to comprehend and remember the books, blog posts, essays, and articles you read. Your journal also becomes an invaluable resource for reference when you want to brainstorm or expand on ideas you want to put into action or write about.



This post first appeared on The Griffin's Inkpot, please read the originial post: here

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On keeping a reading journal

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