A book review of Unjournaling: Daily Writing Exercises That Are Not Personal, Not Introspective, Not Boring by Dawn DiPrince and Cheryl Miller Thurston
Stars: *****
Routledge (2006)
Writing Exercises
112 pages
Disclosure: I received a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. This post contains affiliate links.
Summary: Some students just don’t want to share intimate details about their thoughts, feelings and lives―at least, not with others in a class or group. That’s where Unjournaling comes in. All the writing prompts in this book are entirely impersonal but completely engaging for both kids and adults.
Two examples of the 200 writing prompts include:
- Write a paragraph about a girl named Dot, but use no letters with a dot (in other words, no i or j).
- Why on earth would Yankee Doodle stick a feather in his cap and call it “macaroni”? Come up with a plausible explanation.
The book includes sample responses to all of the questions―a helpful tool for anyone who gets stuck with a topic and wants to see how it can be done!
Unjournaling
This book is listed as grade 7-adult but I’m using it with my grade 3 and 6. I just expect a longer and neater answer from my older student. It would work just as well with my highschooler as well and I may use it next year with her for English class.
I like the idea of getting the kids to write more but without making it hard or personal. I didn’t always like my journal at school because we had to write about our day and the teacher would write comments back. Sometimes I didn’t like her commenting on my personal thoughts.
The book is laid out in a fun way, haphazardly. You can see inside the book at Amazon to see what I mean and see some more sample prompts.
My kids didn’t necessarily enjoy writing time because they really dislike it in general. However they did appreciate being able to choose which one they wrote about instead of being told what to write about. It’s a nice combination of making lists, poems, paragraphs, sentences and such. Some are shorter and some are longer.
Half the book is the 200 prompts and the other half of the book are sample answers for each prompt if your child is completely lost on how to start. I’m not sure it’s needed but it’s better to have it and not need it, then need it and not have it.
I recommend using this book in your homeschool or classroom or for adults who want to practice their writing skills.
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