how do you set up a dialectical journal??? please help this assignment is due to more!!! =]?

What is a Dialectical Journal?

A dialectical journal is another name for a double-entry journal or a reader-response journal. A dialectical journal is a journal that records a dialogue, or conversation, between the ideas in the text (the words that you are reading) and the ideas of the reader (the person who is doing the reading). This is what you must do in your journal—keep a dialogue with yourself. In your journal, have a conversation with the text and with yourself. Write down your thoughts, questions, insights, and ideas while you read. A dialectical journal can include all sorts of things: class notes, notes on discussions, notes on papers, reactions to readings. The important part is that you, the reader, are reading something and then responding to it with your feelings and ideas!

This is the format for a journal kept to analyze a novel or story etc. I don't know if that is your assignment or not - but here it is

Format:

Draw a vertical line in the middle of a page in your spiral notebook.

At the top left column, write the heading Text (quotes or paraphrases of the text entered here).

At the top of the right column, write the heading Reader Response (your own ideas entered here).

Make sure you record page numbers quotes and paraphrases in the left-hand column. This is required!

In the right column, write YOUR ideas/insights, questions, reflections, and comments related to the notations on the left.

When to write:

You recognize a pattern, such as a recurring symbol, an underlying conflict, repeated evidence of a theme, repeated evidence of something important about setting.

You discover a shift or turning point in the overall plot, in a character’s behavior, in the behavior of groups, etc.

Something puzzles or confuses you; you are having difficulty with a section of the text, and writing about it might help.

You agree or disagree with an observation in the explanatory text or a character’s words or actions.

You find something that makes you think about relevance of the play to today’s world or other historical eras.

You can identify with a character or situation.

You want to comment on the use of literary conventions, such as elements of tragedy (The Crucible is a modern tragedy.)