Purpose of Assignment: The purpose of this assignment is to allow you to experience journaling as a stress management technique. Another purpose of the assignment is to help you reflect on the chapter readings and make application of the information to personal areas of your life.

Assignment:For this assignment you will be journaling in your book Managing Stress: A Creative Journal. Each day there are several chapters assigned in the journal. Complete the day's assignment carefully, taking time to thoughtfully write your response. You will type your responses. At the end of every week, you will submit your completed writings to me by uploading them through the assignment link on Blackboard. I will review and comment on what you have written. Weekly entries are due as indicated ono the course schedule.

Please write only information you feel comfortable sharing with me. You will be evaluated on the thoroughness of your response, your insight, and application of relevant readings (see examples below).

The course schedule identifies which chapters should be completed on which days. Where the schedule says "Choice", you are then free to select any of the chapters in the book that are not required to complete. One thing that would help you is do open your journal book to the Table of Contents, look at the course schedule on the web and identify by highlighting all required submissions. Those "chapters" in the Table of Contents that are not highlighted are available for you to choose from when you have the "Choice" option available.

Do not get behind. Also, before beginning, check out the differences between an "A" response and a "C" response below.

Exercise 1: Top Ten Stressors ... Make a list and then prioritize your top 10 stressors from the most stressful to the least stressful....describe each stressor in a couple of sentences so you really have a good focus on each one. (From Seaward, B.L. Managing Stress: A Creative Journal, 2004)

A "C" response	An "A" response
school homework friend car career etc....	school - there are so many different aspects of school that contribute to my stress, just beyond what you would ordinarily think of.. there are, of course, exams and papers, but also interacting with other people in class and, most stressful for me, working on group projects. As a perfectionist, it is difficult for me to work in a group and see some people who do not put in the same amount of work as myself. As a result, because I want to get a good grade, I often end up doing more than my share or even redoing projects myself. You can imagine the time pressure this creates on top of all the other things to do. Homework - Oftentimes there is homework that is just busywork. I find it hard to be motivated to do such work. Additionally, just when I have my week all planned out, some professor gives additional assignments or decides to give a quiz. This upsets my schedule and makes it difficult to plan. etc ...
Notice the difference between the two responses... the C response barely answers the question and provides just or not even all the information requested. The A response provides all the information requested and the response is supported with examples.

Submission: Write your responses in a Word Processing Program. Be sure to identify each journal entry by number and by theme (example ~ #1 Top Ten Stressors). Place all the entries for the week in 1 file and then upload them through Blackboad as an attachment. You must convert your file to a .rtf -- (go to File, Save As and then you will be able to select that format). Work submitted late -- that is, not by the deadline -- will be penalized 2 letter grades for each day late. No work is accepted more than 1 days late. The schedule is clearly outlined, with some built in flexibility but it is your responsibility to be organized.

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This page was last updated on 12.10.08 by Dr. Deborah A. Wuest, Ed.