Everyone Can Write Journals

People have been journaling or writing diaries for quite some time. Kids develop this usually in elementary school when their teacher will tell them to get out a blank sheet of paper and write down what they're doing this weekend or based on a special topic that they have been learning about and write down what it means to them. People usually believe that journaling is a waste of time, especially for educational purposes. While this may be true to some, others use journaling as a way to write down their feelings or just write anything down that is on their mind. Writing your thoughts down can make you feel better about yourself because you may feel that something has been lifted off your shoulders by letting that memory or feeling out of your system and onto a piece of paper.

People believe that no one actually influenced journaling or using a diary but journaling was brought to the public awareness by Dr. Ira Progoff in the 1960s when he offered a class in New York City called Intensive Journal Method (Adams). Then in 1978 it was used for personal growth and emotional wellness and by the 1980s it was used in schools for responses from students back to their teachers for them and for what they read in class (Adams). People say that the most common reports from people who write in journals or diaries are for putting thoughts and feeling on paper to give them some emotional clarity (Adams). Some therapists even use it in their classes to understand issues that the patients are having as well as to diagnose their problems (Adams). The oldest diaries came from Middle Eastern and East Asian cultures in the 2nd century AD (Wikipedia, "Diary").

Journaling is a way to deepen comprehension (Barlow, 44). There are so many ways to write a journal or a diary. It all just depends on a person's preference on what they are writing or talking about in their journal. There are some tips to writing a journal though that are said to help. One is to keep journaling stress-free. It is a place for people to write down their feelings or responses (Barlow, 44). Another is to allow one's writing to flow. It is alright to make mistakes in a journal, that's why it's called a journal. Just write down whatever comes to your mind (Barlow, 44). Encourage students to add illustrations or pictures to their journal (Barlow, 44). This will let some people get creative and some may be able to explain what their journal is talking about just by drawing pictures. Some people are artsy and by allowing students to do this could possibly encourage them to continue journaling all the time. The last is brainstorming in a journal. Some peoples ideas about a paper have come through journaling and just figuring out what to write about and how they could write about a certain topic (Barlow, 44).

The Earliest diarist known today is Samuel Pepys, whose diaries are preserved in Magdalene College, Cambridge and were published in 1825. He became known for taking the business side of using a diary into using it for more personal writing (Wikipedia, "Diary"). One of the most famous diarists though was a girl named Anne Frank, who wrote about the hiding she did during the Holocaust. After she had passed away her father edited her diary and arranged it for publication after World War II (Wikipedia, "Diary"). There is much more research that could be done about this subject and I'm looking forward to writing in my own journal my thoughts about life.

Works Cited

Adams, Kathleen. A Brief History of Journal Writing. Wheat Ridge, Co. The Rosen Group, 1999. Print.

Barlow, Bob. "Boost Writing Skills With Everyday JOURNALING." Instructor [1990] Aug. 2001: 44. Academic OneFile. Web. 6 Apr. 2014.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diary#History

Image URLs:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/primaryhistory/famouspeople/samuel_pepys/images/pepys_diary.jpg
http://www.clarku.edu/research/archives/goddard/diary.cfm