Journals

All students in SOC/CJS 321 are required to maintain a journal of items related to legal issues and social science.

Requirements: Students must purchase a folder with two pockets in which they can insert typed journal entries. Each entry must be a half page to a page long (double spaced) in arial 12 point font with an inch-and-a-half margin on the left hand side. Each time journals are submitted there must be two new separate entries. Each student's journal will be submitted four times over the course of the semester. If your journal entry is based on a written article or on the internet, i.e. if it is based on anything other than a television show or a personal experience, you must make a copy of the article and include it in your journal. Each time you submit your journal entries, please include all of your previous journal entries.

Topics: Each journal entry must report on an incident that relates to some aspect of the law or legal issues and it must indicate the nature of the assumptions and evidence being reported and include your evaluation of that evidence. Entries should relate to concepts that have been covered in class and the reading material over the previous three weeks.

Sources: Sources include newspapers, magazines, internet news sites (weblogs are not acceptable), television news reports, etc.. All stories on which journals are based should be news stories, not editorials or other opinion pieces. Students may also use personal or family experiences as journal entries (they need not be recent) but no more than one such entry at a time can be submitted and no more than two such entries can be used over the course of the semester. Each entry must clearly identify its source. For newspapers, magazines, internet sites, etc., normal citation style should be used. If it is based on a television program, indicate the title and date of the program. Newspaper or other articles that are brief and lack detail (e.g. are only a few sentences long) will not be suitable material for journal entries. Articles should be less than three months old and should refer to events less than three months old. They must be news articles, not editorials, op-ed pieces or blogs (i.e. news reports and not opinions).

Evaluation: On days when journals are due, students will be asked to volunteer to present one of their journal entries for the most recent period in class. Each student must present an entry at least once during the semester. There will be class discussion of these issues. Journals will be submitted to the instructor at the end of each such class for evaluation. All entries must be maintained in the journal for the entire semester. For the semester as a whole, journals will be worth 20% of the student's grade.

Feedback: Each time your journal is submitted, the first new page must be a response to all questions, comments or observations the instructor wrote in the journal when it was last submitted.

Schedule: For the Fall 2019 semester, journals are due September 17, October 10, October 29, and November 12. Journal entries will not be accepted late for credit (although they still must be submitted). They are due in class on the dates noted. If you have to miss that class for any reason, please submit your journal entries ahead of time.