Intellectual Journal

Your intellectual journal is not your notes. It is the body of work that you produce, including your best work, the latest revisions of assignments, and significant other writings.

The two constants every week in your journal will be an assignment and a synthesis.

You may also include the various products of in-class workshops in your journal.

Please label and date everything clearly.

Each week, you will select from a short menu of assignments (provided by the end of the previous week) and complete one in relation to the book for that week or some combination of book + theory or book +movie or book + other, depending on the assignment. For all assignments, you will be responsible for the cumulative load of ideas/information up to that point in the quarter. This doesn’t mean that you have to reference everything we’ve read, but your work should provide evidence of the accumulation of those ideas via the development of complex perspectives, rich thematic interests, and developing facility with the terms and discourses of our study. If you don’t find yourself consistently building on what you’ve already read and written, something might be wrong. As noted in the syllabus, you will develop these projects with the assistance of a writing tutor. It is up to you to plan your work each week so as to get the most out of your meetings with a tutor (for instance, by having a draft prepared).

Each week, you will complete a synthesis, at least one typed page, that explores the connections between the book, the theory, and the film. In a sense it is a summary or the week, but with an analytical, connective goal in mind.

Use a consistent style of citation in all of your papers.
Cite quotations and non-quoted use of the ideas of others. Provide citations for program material and any outside resources.