Creative Writing

Journals

Your journal is a place for you to record your thoughts, ideas, dreams, opinions, worries, questions etc. It should reflect your reactions or thoughts. 
It is somewhere that you can write and express yourself, without having to worry about the spelling, grammar and punctuation. Your teacher will not be marking your work but will comment and add his or her own thoughts to what you have written. 
Your journal is private and will not be shared with others unless you are willing to do so. Sometimes you may not want anyone to read your journal. That is okay. 

It might be something that you want to keep secret. You can write a poem, in a story or letter letter format or any way that suits your purpose. 
Twice a term your teacher will ask you to carefully re-read your journal entries and choose 3 -4 excerpts that can be re-written and presented in a journal portfolio. You might choose the best, funniest or most interesting. Your teacher will be looking to see that you are thinking carefully about your work and deciding which entries you think are suitable for others to read. 
Oh no! I don't know what to write. Don't Panic. Look at the Journal prompts sheet (see http://english.unitecnology.ac.nz/resources/units/creative_writing/prompts.html) for different ideas. Check out your writing ideas book. 
Journal Writing (see http://library.thinkquest.org/J001156/forms of writing/sl_historical_journal.htm?tqskip=1)

© Ministry of Education, Wellington, New Zealand (First published 1998)