Hannah Cooper

Journal Entry Analysis: Compare and Contrast

JD Meier, De Vinci, Jason Myer

Journal One: Lessons Learned from John Wooden, by JD Meier

A person that I admired at an early age and currently still admire is, John Wooden. John Wooden was one of greatest basketball college coaches of all time, leading UCLA’S basketball team to ten National Collegiate Athletic Association championship titles, and the record for most games won in a row (88). His legacy is far greater then breaking basketball records, for John was and is well-known for being an extremely positive role model and monitor to his players.

JD Meire, a best-selling author and fan of John Wooden, expresses his great admiration for the UCLA legendary basketball coach in a tribute journal article, Lessons Learned from John Wooden, describing how Wooden greatly impacted many areas of his own life. JD uses personal experience, direct quotes from Wooden, and makes a specific list of 25 examples of Wooden’s spoken values that stood out to him personally.

This informative journal provides insight on the feelings, respect, and admiration JD has for Wooden. He starts off the journal by using a direct quote from Wooden that reads, (“Peace of mind attained only through self-satisfaction in knowing you made the effort to do the best of which you’re capable.” – John Wooden). This writing technique quoting Wooden gives an instant idea of Wooden’s character, and provided the reader a better understanding of Wooden’s values. JD doesn’t write much about Wooden’s accomplishments as UCLA’S coach (although he acknowledges them), but further digs deeper into the life values he implicated to his players, which is noticeable in the second paragraph of the article. JD’s shares his personal experience when listening to Wooden for the first time in an interview. JD said that what stuck with him most about that first time he heard Wooden, was the “simple rules he lived by that helped him make meaning and find happiness.” I interpreted JD using this example in the beginning of his journal article as a way to set the tone and theme of the rest of the article. The tone showed appreciation and gratitude for Wooden having a positive impact on not only him, but many, many others.

JD lists the top twenty-five lessons that he took away from Wooden, which can be a writing convention. This can be a writing convention because it enhances the readability and highlights the main point, which is acknowledging the values Wooden imparted to JD.

Website to access article: http://sourcesofinsight.com/lessons-learned-from-john-wooden/

Journal 2: Hymn, by Jason Myers

Jason Myers uses a variety of writing techniques to portray a specific theme, writing conventions, and specific language in his poem Hymn.  

This particular writing piece falls under one genre of a poem. However there are many ways that a poem can be structured depending on what the purpose of the author is. He does not use a rhyming scheme in this. Instead he uses figurative langue to convey his message or theme. An example of the use of his figurative langue from a line in his poem goes, “just to slip the tongue around those two syllables, silk gloves tailored to contain exactly what they need & nothing.”  The genre of his poem can also fall under spirituality due to his reference of God.  I counted the poem being broken up into seven segmenting paragraphs. Using this techniques his main idea or concept is highlighted making is stand out to the reader. Another writing convention he also uses is dash marks at the end of some of his sentence in his punctuation, which allows the reader to reflect on what was just written. I feel this line in his poem depicts the theme, which is actions he felt he should have been doing or participating is as an early twenty year old. The line is, “singeing cry over the gulf between the soul & what the soul longs for.”

Journals by: De Vinci

Leonardo De Vinci wrote in a very unconventional style. Written text is read is mostly read from left to right, however De Vinci wrote most of his journals from right to left.  No one truly knows his reasoning behind the way he structured his writing this way, but there are theories as to why.  I have a theory of my own. De Vinci is known for his complex mind, brilliant ideas, inventions, and hidden meanings beyond the literal meaning of a word or phrase. The concepts he wrote about, I would argue were far beyond comprehension to most minds in his time. I say this because after reading a few of De Vinci’s journal entries and modern translations, its clear there is still confusion with some of his transcripts meanings. My theory behind his reasoning of writing right to left is that he sees the world and society backwards. He saw the structure of society and its norms, and observed how human behavior conformed to those norms--- however he didn’t want to conform. In other words, he wasn’t following any one culture, but creating new ones in which no one had thought of. Generally, and in the journal entries I read the genre of his writing was characteristics art, theories on psychology, new insight on astronomy, and science. It was difficult to find an original journal entry from De Vinci that is legible to read, so I read some of the translations by other authors, as well as looked at the original to compare. Many of De Vinci’s original pieces are manic, or in other words unorganized. However it isn’t about the organization, but more about the content he is coveying.

Journal Entry: https://archive.org/stream/noteboo00leon#page/852/mode/2up/search/852