Introduction to Criminal Justice - CJ&101

Each student will keep a journal of current stories in the news related to criminal justice. This will give students the opportunity to relate current events to topics we are studying in class, and will help students gain experience in research, writing, and critical thinking. The journal is worth 10% of your grade; it is important that you do it every week.

The journal must be turned in once each week. It may be turned in any class day during the week. The deadline each week is Friday at the start of class. Any journal turned in after the start of class on Friday will be accepted for the next week.

You will be given a folder to use as your journal. You need to add TWO things to your journal each week: (1) a current news story related to criminal justice, and (2) your entry about the news story. Each week you will add another story and another entry to your journal and turn it back in.

(1) Story:Find acurrentnews story that relates to criminal justice online, in the newspaper, or in a magazine. It must be in this week's news. You need one story per week. It must relate to the criminal justice system, and could be local, statewide, national, or international. Make sure the date and the source of the news story are on the page.

(2) Entry:On the next page, write your entry.It must be at least 250-words (one page).

1. Important- Why is the story important? Why is it a news story?
2. Even more important- How does it relate to what we are studying in class?
3. Most important- Why did you choose this story? What is interesting about it?
4. And absolutely the most important-your opinions, reactions, analysis and ideas about the story. Give it some thought...

***These are only guidelines. You can include additional information you want in your entry, butdo not summarize the story; I can read the story myself. Analyze it. I want your analysis and reaction.***

You willnotget credit:

1. If you don't have both the news storyandthe entry
2. If the news story and the entry are nothole-punchedandhooked intothe journal
3. If the story isn'trelated to criminal justice
4. If the story is notcurrent(that week's news)
5. If your entry istoo short(less than 250 words)
6. If your entry is mainly asummaryof the news story
7. If Ican't readit because of bad handwriting or printing