ACADEMIC JOURNAL INSTRUCTIONS

2004 Indian Program

(Modified from Rob Linrothe’s 2001 Handbook)

According to Webster's Unabridged Dictionary: a 'journal' is 'a daily record, as of occurrences, experiences or observations'.  We could call it a logbook, an ethnographic chronicle, and/or a journal of considered reflections.  Your academic journal will be, as you will see, all these things together.  A diary is almost always written for oneself, but with at least a wink to some other unknown future reader.  In this case, your journal will definitely be read by one or two others: the director and the assistant director. 

The journal will constitute a significant component of your grade for both the History and the Contemporary India courses, and it can also be an effective instrument for recording and analyzing field research for the directed field study.  The objectives of the journal are multiple:

1.  The journal will act as a supplement to your memory.  Over the course of the four months, you will be almost constantly encountering new people and places, and you will be continuously overwhelmed by intellectual and sensory stimuli.  Nonetheless, it is amazing how rapidly the factual details of yesterday's momentous encounter begin to blur in the shadow of tomorrow's equally intense experience.  In particular, the nuances of your own feelings about events will fade and will change with time.  So the journal can be an effective trigger for the memory.

2.  The journal will give you an opportunity to direct your consciousness more sharply to what you see, hear, smell, taste, and feel going on around you.  It is, in part, an ongoing exercise in observation, which will heighten your skills of attentiveness, now, for these purposes, and in the future.

3.  The journal will compel you into becoming more introspective.  The journey to an outward "other" is inevitably made along the path of self-discovery, and by keeping a record of not only of what you see, but how you perceive it, you will be able to chart your maturing self-understanding as well as your growing understanding and even absorption of aspects of Indian culture.

4.  The journal is designed to oblige you to consciously make cross-cultural and historical comparisons that will add breadth to your understanding of India and of yourself.

5.  And finally, and most grandly, the journal-writing process is designed to stimulate a deeper understanding of the nature of the human condition, of how understanding itself is attained (i.e. epistemology).

There are three sections or components to the journal: description, reaction and analysis. 

Description:  Here you will describe events, lectures, sites, and experiences with India and Indians.  In this mode, you attempt to narrate, in as objective a manner as you can, what you perceive as significant and noteworthy in your ongoing encounter with Indian culture(s).  This is an attempt at unprocessed observation. 

Reaction:   Here you will write down how you react(ed), responded or related to what it was you observed in what you described.  How did it make you think/feel/react at the time?  Now, as you re-experience in the act of narrating it, what do you think and feel about it, and what kinds of conclusions are you making about what you see going on around you in India?  This part should be grounded in specific experiences, but can reflect the patterns you are perceiving.

Analysis: After you have described events and your reactions to them, with some distance you can reflect on their meaning in terms of larger patterns.  Here I will expect you to place the events you describe into contexts that relate to your courses.

At least two entries per week are expected.  Each entry includes all three components (descriptions, reaction, analysis). 

I strongly encourage you to try to write the description first, and then your reaction, and finally what you think about it.  However, if you find another order more natural, that’s fine.  In any case, you must separate them in some way.  If you find that in the same passage you have alternated among the three, go back afterwards and indicate with different colored markers which sections you consider description, reaction and analysis.  All three must be present in the journals which you turn in from time to time over the course of the semester.  Occasionally, everyone in the group will be asked to select a short passage from her/his journal and share them by reading it aloud. 

Writing in these three different modes of the journal may seem awkward, artificial and cumbersome at first.  This will be true especially for those of you who are regular journal or diary-writers and are habituated to write descriptively and expressively in an integrated or spontaneous manner.  Nevertheless, for the purposes of this semester, you will be obliged to take up a different manner of journal writing. By channeling different layers of your direct experience -- what you see, and feel, and think -- into distinct narrative modes, you become aware of the multiple perspectives you bring to this profound experience.  It can lead you towards a sensitive appreciation of Indian culture(s), and insight into your own individual and shared cultural values.  Finally, it can propel you towards pro-active responsibility for your informed opinions and behavior.