English 353

To complete this course successfully, you will need each of the items listed below. These items should have been sent to you in the course package for English 353. If you find that you are missing any of them, please contact the Course Materials division of Athabasca University as soon as possible. If you live in Edmonton or Calgary, you may call the Learning Centre in your city and use the automated telephone attendant to connect with Course Materials (the extension is 6366). If you live within Canada or the United States, but outside of Edmonton or Calgary, you may call the automated attendant by dialing 1-800-788-9041 (extension 6366). If you live outside of Canada or the United States, or if you do not wish to use the automated system, you may call (780) 675-6366. You may write in care of Course Materials Production, Tim Byrne Centre, 4001 Hwy 2 South, Athabasca AB T9S 1A4. The e-mail address for Course Materials Production is cmat@athabascau.ca.

Textbooks

Baker, Sheridan and Lawrence B. Gamache. The Canadian Practical Stylist with Readings, Fourth Edition. Don Mills, ON: Addison-Wesley, 1998.

Dillard, Annie. Teaching A Stone to Talk: Expeditions and Encounters. New York: HarperPerennial, 1992.

Dillard, Annie. The Writing Life. New York: HarperPerennial, 1990.

Pivato, Joseph, ed. Caterina Edwards: Essays on Her Works. Toronto: Guernica, 2000.

Athabasca University Materials

English 353: Intermediate Composition Student Manual. Athabasca, AB: Athabasca University, 2003.

The Student Manual is designed to direct you through English 353. Pay particular attention to the commentary on each type of essay, and to the course outline, which indicates what you should be working on each week, and when you should submit assignments. The Student Manual also contains the instructions for your assignments and general Athabasca University student information.

Athabasca University Forms. The forms you need to submit the essay assignments or notify the University of a change in your status as a student are contained the the course materials package.

Notes on the Textbooks

The Canadian Practical Stylist with Readings by Sheridan Baker and Lawrence B. Gamache represents the standard formal approach to essay writing. It contains useful advice and many model essays in a variety of forms and styles. The recent edition of this book offers a useful new chapter—“The Writing Process.” Read this chapter first to begin the development of your personal writing process.

This book's thorough explanation of the multi-faceted writing process makes it an invaluable addition to your collection. The readings within it provide examples of how the writer's process translates into an essay. For each writing assignment you will be asked to read certain chapters and some of the accompanying essays. This combination allows you to understand, for example, how an expository essay is formed, while also providing you with the opportunity to read a well-crafted expository essay. In addition, there are some chapters which are not reflected in the particular essay sections, but will contribute to your writing process. It is strongly recommended that you familiarize yourself with the following readings in The Canadian Practical Stylist.

• Chapter 1: “The Writing Process: An Overview,” pp. 1-26
• Chapter 9: “Shun the Passive Voice,” pp. 274-276
• Chapter 12: “The Trouble with Grammar,” pp. 392-406
• Chapter 13: “Punctuation, Spelling, Capitalization,” pp. 407-436
• Chapter 14: “A Glossary of Usage,” pp. 437-466

The readings listed above will provide you with some of the tools required to write an effective essay. Although writing is a creative process, there is also a prescriptive dimension to it—by committing yourself to an understanding of the fundamentals, you will find it easier to write strong papers.

The Writing Life by Annie Dillard is an account—at times joyful, at times harrowing, always compelling—of what writing is like from the point of view of an accomplished writer of stories, essays and novels. It is a useful way to begin this course because it illuminates the reality of a writer's process.

Teaching a Stone to Talk, the other Dillard textbook, contains essays in Dillard's unique contemplative style: these may serve as models for your own contemplative essays.

Caterina Edwards: Essays on Her Works, edited by Joseph Pivato, illustrates the various essay forms found in this course: expository, comparison and contrast, persuasive and the research paper.

Note: The Centre for Language and Literature has a home page which includes resources for essay writing at

http://www.athabascau.ca/cll/essaywrite.htm.

Supplementary Materials List

Here are some book titles which may be useful for writing essays. Those followed by call numbers in bold face type may be ordered from the Athabasca University Library.

Barnet, Sylvan. A Short Guide to Writing about Literature. Boston: Scott, Foresman, 1992, 6th ed. PE 1479 .C7 B261 1992

Dodds, Jack and Judi Jewinski. The Ready Reference Handbook: Writing, Revising, Editing. Toronto: Prentice Hall Canada, 1998.

Kramer, Melinda G. et al. Prentice Hall Handbook for Writers. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall, 1995. PE 1408 .L513 1991

Lunsford, Andrea, R. Connors and Judy Segal. The Everyday Writer: A Brief Reference. New York: St. Martin's Press, 1997.

Rooke, Constance. The Clear Path: A Guide for Writing English Essays. Toronto: Nelson Canada, 1995. PE 1479 .C7 R777 1995

Stewart, Kay and Marion Kowler. Forms of Writing: A Brief Guide and Handbook. Toronto: Prentice Hall Canada, 1991. PE 1408 .F726 1991

Stewart, Kay, Chris Bullock and Marion Allen. Essay Writing for Canadian Students With Readings. Toronto: Prentice Hall Canada, 1998. (AU Library has PE 1429 .S73 1985 2nd edition.)