Maintaining a Response Journal

A response journal allows you to reflect and record those reflections both as and after you read. It's a particularly good method of responding to a text when that text is complex, and it's a good method of generating ideas for writing. You can ask and try to answer questions in a response journal:

• What's the author's main idea or argument, and what are the important supporting points for that idea?
• Do I agree or disagree with the main idea or argument? Why?
• Does the information apply to something that I already know about?

A response journal also gives you the opportunity to record your own thoughts and reactions to the text.