As a student in HUM 103, you will track your evolving reactions to literature in a reading notebook. Notebook entries are a way of helping you to become conscious of various factors influencing your responses to texts and to become accustomed to writing about those responses.

Notebook entries are to be kept on the computer. They are due an hour before each class meeting, and should be sent to me by email (thury@post.drexel.edu).

Each notebook entry is to consist of at least 400 words.

You will be graded on notebook entries, but your grade will focus not on the rightness of your response but on the effort you have put into the entry. This may include the following factors: is the entry on time? is it too short (shorter than it needs to explain its points clearly)? is it complete? does the entry make sense? does it represent an attempt to deal with the text in question (or: are you always putting the same two ideas down in entry?)?

Notebook entries should be informal writings, not complete essays. In looking at your notebook entries, I will feel no interest in your grammar or spelling. In evaluating your entries, I will be considering your thinking about the stories and the themes discussed in class. Entries which are too general or do not show thought and development of ideas will be considered less successful than those that show your ongoing, evolving understanding of what you are reading and how you react to it.

You will be assigned a variety of different kinds of topics to write about in your notebook:

Standard notebook entries. The SNB has three parts:

a. Engage (described in your textbook, p. 19-21)

b. Reflect and Analyze (p. 47)

c. Establish Significance (p. 48)

The class schedule above will specify the subject you are to write about.

Free notebook entries. If there is no other assignment for a given date, you may write a free entry on a reading of your choice. The entry is to have the characteristics of a standard notebook entry (a, b, and c, unless noted otherwise).

Questions assigned from the textbook.

Literature labs. These exercises will involve tracking your response as you go through a literary work.