Definition: a book in which one keeps a daily record of events and experiences.
Synonyms: journal, memoir, chronicle, log, logbook, weblog, blog, vlog
Example 1
Tuesday 20 October 1942
Dearest Kitty,
My hands still shaking, though it’s been two hours since we had the scare. I should explain that there are five extinguishers in the building. The office staff stupidly forgot to warn us that the carpenter, or whatever he’s called, was coming to fill the extinguishers. As a result, we didn’t bother to be quiet until I heard the sound of hammering on the landing (across from the bookcase). I immediately assumed it was the carpenter and went to warn Bep, who was eating lunch, that she couldn’t go back downstairs. Father and I stationed ourselves at the door so we could hear when the man had left. After working for about fifteen minutes, he laid his hammer and some other tools on our bookcase (or so we thought!) and banged on our door. We turned white with fear. Had he heard something after all and did he now want to check out this mysterious looking bookcase?
It seemed so, since he kept knocking, pulling, pushing and jerking on it.
I was so scared I nearly fainted at the thought of this total stranger managing to discover our wonderful hiding place…Extract from Anne Frank's diary
Example 2
28 May 1911
"A typical day starts at 8 for breakfast at 8.30 – tho’ some are always late…
For breakfast we have porridge, tea and coffee, bread and butter and some dish such as fried seal and bacon or scrambled ‘Tru-egg’. The porridge is excellent but as all 25 of us like it there is never quite enough.
Afterwards I start work immediately, which consists of cutting sections, learning German, using the microscope, writing the diary or reading books. When fine I go for a walk, but walks in the dark are most uninteresting. The others fill in their mornings in various ways. Sunny Jim and Charles are always busy with their meteorological gadgets, setting them up, repairing or taking them down. The ponies are regularly exercised when the weather permits.
Cherry puts in the day typing copy for the South Polar Times or building a stone-hut in which to flense sealskins. Bill is always sketching or painting and Teddy Evans has plenty of work with chart making and working up the summer’s surveying data. Ponting is regulalrly engaged in taking prints form negatives he made in the summer, or in taking flashlights.
Lunch is at 1.30 and consists of bread (or biscuit) and butter with potted meat, jam and cheese on alternate days, also tea and cocoa. Dinner is at 6.30 and is always a 3 course meal – soup, meat and pudding. After each of the meals a good many sit at the table smoking and talking for a long time. The table breaks up into 2 or 3 groups each with its own subject and there is a general buzz of conversation."
A diary page from Frank Debenham, an Australian on the British Antarctic Expedition 1910 to 1913
Diary writing conventions – tips
- Write a greeting / salutation – ‘Dear Diary’
- Use relevant date, a refer to place of writing
- Selectively use an informal register – ellipsis, elision, contractions, note form, colloquial lexis
- However be selective and make sure you refer to a number of these features in your commentary to show you understand the conventions of diary writing
- Address your future self - ‘Don’t ever forget that feeling of being part of a team.’ Include action / follow up points – ‘Tomorrow I’m going to take plenty of water with me.’
- You can also write more than one entry to the diary. But be very careful how you do this. Don't write more than 3 entries and be careful not to repeat the same information.
SOME FOLLOW UP WORK
DIARY - Read the example DIARY EXTRACTS above and identify conventions, key features, identify how the text addresses audience and purpose, uses genre conventions and creates specific effects from an audience.
KEY FEATURES - DIARY – private audience – future self / next day or years. Sometimes diary writer’s consider the possibility of their diary being published at some point in the future.
For the purpose of the exam – write a greeting salutation and a completing salutation to end. Use a selective informal register. Use selectively – ellipsis, elision, contractions, colloquial lexis, bullet points or note form – listing sentences. If you use informal register you MUST make sure you refer to this in your commentary with a variety of quotations / examples. Refer to your future self and refer to follow up or action points. Rember the content of the source article is the primary information to be addressed.
CONVENTIONS – a way in which something is usually done –such as structure, layout, address heading[s] – see above.
COMMENT – on function[s] of the convention within the context of the diary
TEXT - Link to the private audience, purpose, genre, wider context, attitudes to topic[s]and topic[s]themselves
EFFECT – identify the intended effect of the CONVENTION on an audience / reader
LANGUAGE FEATURES – identify language and literary features common to DIARIES. Find a good quotation - short and contains strong language features - comment on these and show effects on readers.
FOLLOW UP
READ and become familiar with DIARY EXTRACTS. You will find many examples online. They are usually relatively short, accessible and on interesting topics.
Identify a 300 - 400 extract and identify conventions, language features, good quotations, make brief comments about function of the language feature and on effects on readers.
