ILA+Double+Entry+Journal

 There are many ways to construct a double entry journal as they are used in lots of different teaching and learning settings for a wide variety of purposes, not just for analyzing literature. This range, however, is somewhat problematic, as it makes defining what goes into a ‘good’ DEJ much more difficult.
 * The Art of Double Entry Journaling **

In ILA, we’re looking for: Your responses must be clearly organized and presented. Use the paragraphing and structuring skills you have to help __make your ideas clear__. Be sure that you are making sense, that your writing flows, that you support ideas with sufficient __evidence,__ and that you __explain__ your ideas carefully. **Use PEE!** After a straightforward synopsis, go beyond the main points. Think about the passage as a whole; address its purpose and the elements that demonstrate this purpose. Consider the effects of significant components within the text. Ask yourself, ‘Why is this passage in the text? What’s the point of it?’ If you struggle to find a point then maybe it’s not a very good selection for a DEJ. If your teacher or examiner has given this passage to you to analyse, then there’s gotta be something in it … right?! These features are often inter-linked and support or rely on each other. When you identify the use of a literary device, don’t stop there. What idea is being put across here? Are other devices also being used to support this message? Or do the literary devices perhaps not support a message but each other? Use appropriate terminology in your discussion.   
 * COHERENCY/STRUCTURE **
 * INSIGHTFUL IDEAS ABOUT THE PASSAGE AND ITS PURPOSE **
 * APPRECIATION OF LITERARY FEATURES **
 * Some specific reminders for the //Ethan Frome// DEJ: **
 * Provide **opening sentences** which summarize what happens in the passage and provides your **chosen focus topic** and how the passage relates to it (essentially a mini introduction – maximum two sentences). In other words, one sentence should be a synopsis of the passage; the other should be your thesis statement.
 * O**rganize** your writing into three main paragraphs (per passage), following PEE paragraph structure. Therefore, each paragraph should start with a topic sentence.
 * Each point should be linked to an **aspect** of your focus topic//, rather than focusing on a particular literary feature//.
 * <span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: 'Garamond','serif';">Discuss __how__ **literary features** are used by the author, how they affect or highlight or demonstrate your focus topic and what else they do to link to author’s purpose etc. Highlight the literary terms you use so that you can be sure you are using heaps of them throughout your DEJ.
 * <span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: 'Garamond','serif';">Some good verbs to use: **
 * <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 110%;"> creates || <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 110%;"> conveys || <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 110%;"> develops || <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 110%;">portrays || <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 110%;">illustrates || <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 110%;">produces ||
 * <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 110%;"> underscores || <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 110%;">implies || <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 110%;">supports || <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 110%;">alters || <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 110%;">enables || <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 110%;">allows ||
 * <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 110%;"> contributes to || <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 110%;">facilitates || <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 110%;"> fosters || <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 110%;">parallels || <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 110%;">enhances || <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 110%;"> furthers ||
 * <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 110%;"> determines || <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 110%;">promotes || <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 110%;">aids || <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 110%;">symbolizes || <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 110%;">establishes || <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 110%;">suggests ||

e.g. ‘The angry tone of this passage //conveys// the frustration that Andreas feels at being put into prison by a government that he once trusted and respected.’ ‘The author’s use of punctuation //contributes to// the contrast between the old Andreas and his new heathen self.’ <span style="font-family: 'Garamond','serif';"> Consider the focus topic of unreliable narration as a means of portraying Frome as a tragic figure. If you know Starkfield, Massachusetts, you know the post-office. If you know the post-office you must have seen Ethan Frome drive up to it, drop the reins of his hollow-backed bay and drag himself across the brick pavement to the white colonnade: and you must have asked who he was. It was there that, several years ago, I saw him for the first time; and the sight pulled me up sharp. Even then he was the most striking figure in Starkfield, though he was but the ruin of a man. It was not so much his great height that marked him, for the “natives” were easily singled out by their lank longitude from the stockier foreign breed: it was the careless powerful look he had, in spite of a lameness checking each step like the jerk of a chain. There was something bleak and unapproachable in his face, and he was so stiffened and grizzled that I took him for an old man and was surprised to hear that he was not more than fifty-two. I had this from Harmon Gow, who had driven the stage from Bettsbridge to Starkfield in pre-trolley days and knew the chronicle of all the families on his line. “He’s looked that way ever since he had his smash-up; and that’s twenty-four years ago come next February,” Harmon threw out between reminiscent pauses. <span style="font-size: 10.5pt; font-family: 'Garamond','serif';"> || <span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: 'Garamond','serif';"> The opening passage of the novel presents the narrator’s first impression and subsequent interest in the history of the <span style="background: yellow none repeat scroll 0% 0%; -moz-background-clip: -moz-initial; -moz-background-origin: -moz-initial; -moz-background-inline-policy: -moz-initial;">protagonist, Ethan Frome. However, the <span style="background: yellow none repeat scroll 0% 0%; -moz-background-clip: -moz-initial; -moz-background-origin: -moz-initial; -moz-background-inline-policy: -moz-initial;">narration is established as unreliable, as it has been gleaned from a variety of different sources leading the reader to suppose that certain liberties have been taken and indicating that the narrator depicts Frome as a tragic and somewhat romanticized figure.
 * A Sample DEJ**
 * <span style="font-size: 10.5pt; font-family: 'Garamond','serif';"> <span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: 'Garamond','serif';">‘I had the story, bit by bit, from various people, and, as generally happens in such cases, each time it was a different story.

The description of Ethan Frome is one suggestive of a tragic past deserving sympathy. Upon seeing the <span style="background: yellow none repeat scroll 0% 0%; -moz-background-clip: -moz-initial; -moz-background-origin: -moz-initial; -moz-background-inline-policy: -moz-initial;">protagonist for the first time, the <span style="background: yellow none repeat scroll 0% 0%; -moz-background-clip: -moz-initial; -moz-background-origin: -moz-initial; -moz-background-inline-policy: -moz-initial;">narrator admits that “the sight pulled [him] up sharp” indicating shock and pity, particularly as the natural <span style="background: yellow none repeat scroll 0% 0%; -moz-background-clip: -moz-initial; -moz-background-origin: -moz-initial; -moz-background-inline-policy: -moz-initial;">rhythm of the phrase places emphasis on ‘sight’ and ‘sharp’, two abrupt monosyllabic words. Likewise, the seemingly complimentary image of Frome possessing “the most striking figure in Starkfield” is undermined by harsh <span style="background: yellow none repeat scroll 0% 0%; -moz-background-clip: -moz-initial; -moz-background-origin: -moz-initial; -moz-background-inline-policy: -moz-initial;">consonance and <span style="background: yellow none repeat scroll 0% 0%; -moz-background-clip: -moz-initial; -moz-background-origin: -moz-initial; -moz-background-inline-policy: -moz-initial;">juxtaposed with his demoralizing portrayal as “the ruin of a man.” The “careless powerful look” of Frome develops an <span style="background: yellow none repeat scroll 0% 0%; -moz-background-clip: -moz-initial; -moz-background-origin: -moz-initial; -moz-background-inline-policy: -moz-initial;">image of strength and authority, though the <span style="background: yellow none repeat scroll 0% 0%; -moz-background-clip: -moz-initial; -moz-background-origin: -moz-initial; -moz-background-inline-policy: -moz-initial;">juxtaposition of this phrase with the reference to “something bleak and unapproachable in his face” and his “stiffened and grizzled” body shows the impact of his injuries on his person. The unbecoming <span style="background: yellow none repeat scroll 0% 0%; -moz-background-clip: -moz-initial; -moz-background-origin: -moz-initial; -moz-background-inline-policy: -moz-initial;">diction indicates that this man has suffered from a painful life and has shut himself down, becoming distant during the more than two decades of suffering he incurred, and is, indeed, worthy of our sentiments. Frome is made all the more tragic by the assertion that the events of his life have made him a prisoner of sorts as his movements are restricted much in the same way as his life. He is a once great man who has been hampered by “lameness… like the jerk of a chain”, a <span style="background: yellow none repeat scroll 0% 0%; -moz-background-clip: -moz-initial; -moz-background-origin: -moz-initial; -moz-background-inline-policy: -moz-initial;">simile which evokes the <span style="background: yellow none repeat scroll 0% 0%; -moz-background-clip: -moz-initial; -moz-background-origin: -moz-initial; -moz-background-inline-policy: -moz-initial;">image of Frome in an old-fashioned ball and chain used to imprison law breakers, dragging a heavy burden – most likely psychological as well as physical. Frome’s lameness has entrapped him in Starkfield and <span style="background: yellow none repeat scroll 0% 0%; -moz-background-clip: -moz-initial; -moz-background-origin: -moz-initial; -moz-background-inline-policy: -moz-initial;">foreshadows the telling of the unhappy events that have led to the ‘checking’ or holding back of a man who the narrator believes was deserving of something much more from life, yet could not break free. This perception of an imprisoned victim, nonetheless, suggests that the <span style="background: yellow none repeat scroll 0% 0%; -moz-background-clip: -moz-initial; -moz-background-origin: -moz-initial; -moz-background-inline-policy: -moz-initial;">narrator could have romanticized Frome’s <span style="background: yellow none repeat scroll 0% 0%; -moz-background-clip: -moz-initial; -moz-background-origin: -moz-initial; -moz-background-inline-policy: -moz-initial;">tragic hero status as Frome’s story is as broken as his body and spirit. Admitting that the story was assembled “bit by bit”, the narrator can only present a fragmentary version as reflected by the partitioned nature of the phrase as well as the overall compartmentalized sentence structure. Further, collecting the information “from various people” facilitates discrepancies in the telling, leading to a “different story” and leaving both narrator and reader to ponder the veracity of any tale. Even Harmon Gow, an elderly stage-driver, who appears to have a solid grasp of history, as he “knew the chronicles of all the families on his line” <span style="background: yellow none repeat scroll 0% 0%; -moz-background-clip: -moz-initial; -moz-background-origin: -moz-initial; -moz-background-inline-policy: -moz-initial;">ironically contributes to the uncertainty, providing only small parcels of information “ <span style="font-size: 10.5pt; font-family: 'Garamond','serif';">between reminiscent pauses”. The narrator, therefore, must close the gaps in the story, twenty-four years later, and he does so, but with a subjective, compassionate bent. <span style="font-family: 'Garamond','serif';"> ||