Dear Students

Here are some features that make for a good journal. 

1. The journal should be sturdy enough to withstand repeated handling.
2. It should have your name and address in case you mislay it somewhere.
3. The pages could be numbered and you could keep a running index added 
   at the back (since you don't know how long it will be.) 
4. Write every other page. This keeps it neat, and you can add stuff.
   Use ink since pencil smears. Use correction tapes (or whiteout) for
   errors. Draw pictures with a ruler. Your grandchildren may someday
   come across your Math 402 journal!
5. The style matters too. Right now, telegraphic entries, key-words
   and phrases, or just a bunch of formulas might be enough to jog
   your memory. But tomorrow? next month? next year? decade? Besides,
   English is a good language, use it!
6. Please note, the journal is not a requirement in this edition of 
   402, although I'll give you a grade on it if you wish. So don't
   just transfer raw class notes in an undigested form to your journal.
7. What about handouts? They are part of the lectures, so you can't
   just paste them into your journal. But by all means rework them 
   put their content into the journal. You might want to refer to it
   on a test. 
(8. Put the handouts into your portfolio, along with corrected 
   homework and quizzes.)

Let me say something on how to use a journal,

1. Before a test. 
   Writing up journal entries, preferably "from memory" though you'll 
   need to "look it up" too, rehearses your long-term memory like nothing
   else (except possibly, explaining the material to somebody else.)

2. During the test:
   You've done your job if you don't even refer to the journal. But there's
   always the odd formula you don't remember right. Or, how about facing
   a question you haven't a clue on. Was there maybe something in the course,
   and in the journal similar to it? 
 
   However, resist the temptation of writing an open-journal test the way 
   you might have gotten used to writing tests in the past. Namely, don't
   brain-dump. Don't free-associate bits and pieces that just might be
   relevant to the answer. With the help of a journal, I do expect coherent
   arguments without unmotivated equations and badly labelled pictures. 

   If you can't quite get it together, say so. Preface a paragraph by 
   "I think the following ideas were part of the proof, but I don't recall
    all the details." Of course, this should not be necessary with a 
    journal. You have every opportunity to have composed it correctly.