Journaling » Literary Journal

Organized Journaling

admin — Fri, 27 Mar 2009 05:09:59 +0000

Wouldn’t things be easier if the events of our lives were recorded and stored in an organized manner? If you could go directly to the page you needed instead of spending endless time searching?

Personal Ponderings offers such convenience. Our Journals have separated life into three general categories, Personal, Spiritual and Literary. These Journals are organizational tools with tabs and index pages designed to put the experiences, thoughts or quotes you want at your fingertips.

The Power of Books

admin — Fri, 27 Mar 2009 04:45:50 +0000

Teaching a Junior High English class is where I found myself early one morning, starring into the eyes of 26 students who for the most part were not at all interested in the book they had been assigned to read. I was substitute teaching and was used to being in situations where the students weren’t very excited about their assigned work. Most of the time I just ignored the complaints, did my best to require silence, and sat down at the teachers desk with one eye on the class and the other on my own book. Today was different though, I picked up the assigned book and looked at the Title. “The Giver” – hadn’t I read that before? I asked the kids what it was about. I got a lot of negative responses like “it’s a stupid book”, “it’s retarded”, “it doesn’t make any sense”. As I waded through the sea of Jr. High commentary, I was able to put together the beginnings of a story that I was familiar with. Then it came into my head, many of the things I had written down about it suddenly returned. It was awesome! I know they say that if you write it down, it will become a part of you, you will recall it easier, etc. I even say that to others all the time. But when you experience it happening to you, its really cool. I knew that this book could change lives. I began visiting with the class about other books I had read that dealt with creating a perfect society. I shared information with them that they were too young to possess. I told them about Plato and the society he wrote about, Thomas Moore and his Utopia, Karl Marx and the Manifesto, the commonwealth tried by the Pilgrims who landed at Plymouth Rock and many utopian cities that have been tried since then. What kind of society did they want to live in? Did they like the one they were born into? What kind of society will they create? Did they know there were people in the world that wanted to create societies like the one in the story? It was the shortest class I ever taught. I hardly had any time to read the book to them, which is what I wanted to do instead of letting them read it themselves, and when I did they all listened intently – well most of them did – it was Junior High. I went home that day grateful for my Literary Journal, for the notes I had written, and that by some unknown power they came popping back into my head as if I had opened a file in my mind. I guess its true; The things we record become a part of us and can more easily be recalled. Also, you never know whose lives you may impact with the notes you write concerning the books you have read. Books are full of ideas that change lives, instigate wars, soften hearts, create societies, and so much more.

A Great Scholar Tool

admin — Fri, 27 Mar 2009 04:39:08 +0000

My daughter Leilani is a junior in college and plans to graduate in Anthropology with a minor in English. She was struggling with a passage in one of her books and asked me if I would help her with it. Now her books are all pretty deep into philosophy so they are replete with large vocabulary words that I don’t see often and a few I have never seen. So in order to try to help her, I had to backtrack a bit – much to her dismay – and figure out what was going on in the 2 previous pages.
I found myself at quite the disadvantage because I didn’t know the meaning of some of the words, so I asked Leilani if she knew what they meant. No, was her answer. I looked at her in amazement, how can you begin to figure out what the passage means if you don’t know the meaning of all the words in the passage? Well, I can pretty much figure out what they mean just by the other words around them, was her reply. But when we put that to the test, she found out she was wrong. So I had a teaching opportunity there that I just couldn’t resist, even though it would probably fall on deaf ears because she was only interested in me telling her what the passage meant. She wasn’t interested in how she might figure that out for herself and then have a better chance of remembering it the next time.
However, being the Mom I am, I snatched the opportunity anyway and got out our huge Oxford Dictionary. We proceeded to look up all the horribly long words. I was happy to see that she was jotting down the meanings of the words. Then I ventured to suggest that because this was her major, and these words would probably pop up again and because she might not want to carry the Oxford Dictionary around with her (they aren’t found in any of the smaller dictionaries we own), if she would just write the words down in the vocabulary section of her Literary Journal, they would be so easy to refer to again, both for spelling when she used them herself and for quick reference the next time she came across them. I also went just a little further and suggested that her notes for her core Anthropology Classes might be useful to her in the future and she could also file them under topic in the same Journal.
The teaching moment was seized upon and made enough of an impact on an independent mind that she might consider giving it a try. Perhaps a scholar she will yet be!

Literary Journal

admin — Mon, 09 Mar 2009 02:18:19 +0000

Finally! A tool that provides a safe place for powerful and personal thoughts. The Literary Journal is a depository for personal philosophy that remembers for you the impressive things you read. As a reading, writing, pondering, and study tool, the Literary Journal allows you to alphabetically organize notes from books, lectures, etc. Create your own list of quotable quotes and organize them by topic.

Have you ever wanted to refer to or recall something you read once, but just can’t quite remember it correctly, or find which book it was in? The Literary Journal is an easy to use organizer that will solve that problem, and also become a best friend. Imagine having all the principles and insights from your favorite authors in one place: wisdom and understanding will deepen!

It is as known fact that when we write things down they become part of us. Using the Literary Journal will help internalize those things and improve your ability to think, read, and write. It is the ultimate scholar journal and study tool. Because the principles are readily reviewable, practical application is more realistic. Enjoy a sense of accomplishment, seek scholarship, become part of “The Great Conversation” by using the Literary Journal.