Tips
Write down your thoughts--after reading an essay. How do your impressions change (or do they) after reading it? Do you feel any differently after finishing?

What emotions did it invoke: laughter, tears, smiles, anger?
Was it boring and meaningless? Record some of your reactions.
Sometimes the reading touches you, reminds you of your own life, as part of the larger human experience.
Are there connections between the essay and your own life? Or, does it remind you of an event (or events) that happened to someone you know?
Does the reading leave you with questions you would like to ask? What are they? Would you like to direct your questions at a something particular? What questions would you like to ask the author?
Are you confused about meaning? What do you not understand? Does the language confuse you?
Is there an idea that makes you stop and think, or prompts questions? Identify the idea and explain your responses.
What are your favorite lines/quotes? Copy them into and explain why these passages caught your attention.
How have you changed? What did you learn that you never knew before?
Who else should read this? Should anyone not be encouraged to read this? Why?

2 different approaches to journals.
for "Computer Fallout"

Journal example 1
When my family was young, we lived in Belleville, NJ, the town Russell Baker so lovingly writes about. As fate would have it, my mother went to grammar school with him in Belleville about 75 years ago and remained friends for a while after that. He is now a Pulitzer Prize winning well celebrated author, but he still remembers Belleville and the close knit families that lived there way back when my mom was a little girl. The family events he conveys in his essay were much like those my family and friends all shared.  Everybody knew everybody else, and neighborhoods seemed more friendly and comfortable than today. We had a huge Italian family; it was a carefree time of warmth and closeness. However, life moves very quickly, and things change. Last week I visited my mother in the nursing home where she stays. I brought with me a video produced by “Masterpiece Theater” for TV. I was excited to bring her this video; I picked it from the library because Russell Baker gave the introduction to the movie. I couldn’t wait until my mother saw him. I was not disappointed. Her entire face lit up when he popped onto the screen, and with wide moist eyes and trembling lips she softly declared, “He looks just the same as when he sat behind me in PS #8.”

An overview of what was read. Note important parts with important support. Do not retell the essay.

Summary:  for "Computer Fallout"
In this humorous short writing Baker recounts the virtues of writing with a computer. He makes a somewhat tongue in cheek comparison between this marvel of modern technology and the ancient typewriter which heretofore was the early newest technology. In an ironic twist he seems to bless the computer for the ease by which writing can be accomplished, yet condemns it as curious drawback. This mythical perfect sentence he continually alludes to of course will always remain elusive even with a Dell at your fingertips. Again and again he

 referees to pencils and paper and typewriters as if he is lamenting their passing, and it is up to him to save them from the ash heaps of yesteryear. A reader will be carried away by his ambiguity right up until the end when his real feeling of couched distain seems to suffice.

Depending on what was read, a Critical Response should includes much of the following.

Summary
A brief couple sentences summary

Meaning\Purpose

Attention to the author's point of view, including brief statement of the author's main idea (i.e., thesis or theme) Noted important "facts" and lines of reasoning the author used to support the main idea a presentation of the author's conclusion or suggestions for action if present
 

An evaluation of the author's work, including an assessment of the "facts" presented on the basis of correctness, relevance, and whether or not pertinent facts were omitted an evaluation or judgment of the logical consistency of the author's argument an appraisal of the author's values in terms of how you feel or by an accepted standard.

Once the analysis is completed, check your work! Ask yourself, "Have I read all the relevant (or assigned) material?" "Do I have complete citations?" If not, complete the work! The following steps are how this is done.

Now you can start to write the first draft of your expository essay/literature review. Outline the conflicting arguments, if any; this will be part of the body of your expository essay/literature review.

Ask yourself, "Are there other possible positions on this matter?" If so, briefly outline them. Decide on your own position (it may agree with one of the competing arguments) and state explicitly the reason(s) why you hold that position by outlining the consistent facts and showing the relative insignificance of contrary facts. Coherently state your position by integrating your evaluations of the works you read. This becomes your conclusions section.

Briefly state your position, state why the problem you are working on is important, and indicate the important questions that need to be answered; this is your "Introduction." Push quickly through this draft--don't worry about spelling, don't search for exactly the right word, don't hassle yourself with grammar, don't worry overmuch about sequence--that's why this is called a "rough draft." Deal with these during your revisions. The point of a rough draft is to get your ideas on paper. Once they are there, you can deal with the superficial (though very important) problems.

Consider this while writing:

• The critical essay is informative; it emphasizes the literary work being studied rather than the feelings and opinions of the person writing about the literary work; in this kind of writing, all claims made about the work need to be backed up with evidence.
• The difference between feelings and facts is simple--it does not matter what you believe about a book or play or poem; what matters is what you can prove about it, drawing upon evidence found in the text itself, in biographies of the author, in critical discussions of the literary work, etc.
• Criticism does not mean you have to attack the work or the author; it simply means you are thinking critically about it, exploring it and discussing your findings.
• In many cases, you are teaching your audience something new about the text.
• The literary essay usually employs a serious and objective tone. (Sometimes, depending on your audience, it is all right to use a lighter or even humorous tone, but this is not usually the case).
• Use a "claims and evidence" approach. Be specific about the points you are making about the novel, play, poem, or essay you are discussing and back up those points with evidence that your audience will find credible and appropriate. If you want to say, "The War of the Worlds is a novel about how men and women react in the face of annihilation, and most of them do not behave in a particularly courageous or noble manner," say it, and then find evidence that supports your claim.
• Using evidence from the text itself is often your best option. If you want to argue, "isolation drives Frankenstein's creature to become evil," back it up with events and speeches from the novel itself.
• Another form of evidence you can rely on is criticism, what other writers have claimed about the work of literature you are examining. You may treat these critics as "expert witnesses," whose ideas provide support for claims you are making about the book. In most cases, you should not simply provide a summary of what critics have said about the literary work.
• In fact, one starting point might be to look at what a critic has said about one book or poem or story and then a) ask if the same thing is true of another book or poem or story and 2) ask what it means that it is or is not true.
• Do not try to do everything. Try to do one thing well. And beware of subjects that are too broad; focus your discussion on a particular aspect of a work rather than trying to say everything that could possibly be said about it.
• Be sure your discussion is well organized. Each section should support the main idea. Each section should logically follow and lead into the sections that come before it and after it. Within each paragraph, sentences should be logically connected to one another.
• Remember that in most cases you want to keep your tone serious and objective.
• Be sure your essay is free of mechanical and stylistic errors.
• If you quote or summarize (and you will probably have to do this) be sure you follow an appropriate format (MLA format is the most common one when examining literature) and be sure you provide a properly formatted list of works cited at the end of your essay.

The wonderful thing about writing with a computer instead of a typewriter or a lead pencil is that it's so easy to rewrite that you can make each sentence almost perfect before moving on to the next sentence.

An impressive aspect of using a computer to write with One of the plusses about a computer on which to write Happily, the computer is a marked improvement over both the typewriter and the lead pencil for purposes of literary composition, due to the ease with which rewriting can be effectuated, thus enabling What a marked improvement the computer is for the writer over the typewriter and lead pencil The typewriter and lead pencil were good enough in their day, but if Shakespeare had been able to access a computer with a good writing program If writing friends scoff when you sit down at the computer and say, ''The lead pencil was good enough for Shakespeare One of the drawbacks of having a computer on which to write is the ease and rapidity with which the writing can be done, thus leading to the inclusion of many superfluous terms like ''lead pencil,'' when the single word ''pencil'' would be completely, entirely and utterly adequate.