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When I was teaching high school, I always had my students keep a journal. I would provide a list of topics each week from which they could choose, or they could come up with their own topics. They were required to make entries in their journals each week and at a certain point, they turned them in to me for evaluation.

I didn’t grade their journals with a harsh red pen. Though I certainly encouraged them to write as grammatically correct as they could, I was mainly interested in helping them to get their thoughts out on paper. They whined and complained at first, but eventually this became one of their favorite parts of the class I believe.

I think one of the most surprising things to them was that I actually read their journals when they turned them in to me. It took a good bit of time, but it was always worth it to me. I found out interesting things about them as individuals, and I wrote notes back to them. I took the opportunity to encourage them whenever I could. They would always get so excited to see if I had written notes to them on the day their journals were returned.

Journaling Can Help You See Your Own Progress

This experience has stuck with me over the years, and I have found at various times in my life that keeping a journal is a very powerful thing. I don’t do it all the time; I wish I would take the time, but I don’t. However, at times through the years, it has been a cathartic exercise to write down my feelings and thoughts to help me analyze various facets of my life. I have encouraged many people through the years to write down their feelings in a journal, especially during periods of difficulty. It becomes a way to see your own progress as you work through it all and it can be quite an amazing experience.

Keeping a Journal Can Serve More Than One Purpose

In the online class I am now teaching, I just recommended to my students that they begin keeping a journal as a way to practice their writing skills. Simply writing down the activities and events of each day, paying attention to sentence structure, subject-verb agreement, verb tenses, etc. to put into practice what we are working on in class.

Using good grammar in speaking is one thing; using it in writing is another – and then there is the punctuation! Oh my! For many adults who have been out of school a long time, this is quite daunting.  Some have jobs which do not require a lot of writing, so finding a way to put grammatically correct writing skills into practice is a challenge. I think keeping a journal sounds like a great idea. They will get the benefit of documenting their daily life and putting their writing skills to the test at the same time. Hmmm, I wish I would have thought of this before now.

Do you keep a journal? Do you have a journaling experience to share? Leave me a comment!