English 353

Essay 1: The Expository Essay

Reading Assignments

1. In The Canadian Practical Stylist, read “The Writing Process” and the section on description, narration and exposition, pages 141-147.
2. Read the model essays listed below, from the same textbook.
   • Peter Gzowski, “And the Best Damn Stew-Maker Too,” pp. 191-194.
   • John McPhee, “Building a Bark Canoe,” pp. 194-199.
   • Stephen Jay Gould, “Wide Hats and Narrow Minds,” pp. 220-226.
   • George Orwell, “Politics and the English Language,” pp. 301-312.
   • Patricia Doyle-Bedwell, “Justice and Healing: A Teaching Journal,” pp. 76-79.
3. In Caterina Edwards read “Entrapped Women: Edwards' Short Stories,” pp. 19-38.
4. For an example of a student-written expository essay, read “Sample Student Paper: Double Narration in A Bird in the House,” pp. 370-387 in The Canadian Practical Stylist.

Essay Assignment (Week 4)

Write an expository essay of 750-800 words on any topic.

Essay 2: The Comparison and Contrast Essay

Reading Assignments

1. In The Canadian Practical Stylist, read the section on the comparison and contrast essay, pages 147-150.
2. Read the model essays listed below, from the same textbook.
   • Catherine Pigott, “Adding Weight to an Image of Beauty,” pp. 176-179.
   • Stephen Leacock, “The Rival Churches of St. Asaph and St. Osoph,” pp. 179-184.
   • Pat Deiter-McArthur, “ Saskatchewan's Indian People—Five Generations,” pp. 269-272.
3. In Caterina Edwards, read “Edmonton Versus Venice: The Whole Truth,” pp. 39-55. The optional reading is “Cinderella Revisioned,” pp. 83-96.

Essay Assignment (Week 8)

Choose one of the following topics and write a comparison and contrast essay of 750-800 words.

1. Write an essay in which you identify attitudes you or your friends have that contrast with those of another cultural group. Are these attitudes the result of advertising, social pressures, your own heritage or thoughtful reflection? Use Pigott's essay “Adding Weight to an Image of Beauty” as a model to develop your own thesis.
2. “I sensed that even the loveliest among [the women] felt they were somehow flawed.” Catherine Pigott (178) poignantly addresses the pressure women feel to meet an unnatural ideal of beauty. In “Entrapped Women: Edwards' Short Stories” Elizabeth Sarlo-Hayes explores the isolation of immigrant women. Compare the two essays.
3. Using the compare and contrast style, express how women function in the short essays you have read. Consider the themes of women and image, women and religion, and the struggles of an immigrant woman, as you construct your essay.
4. Write an essay in which you clarify or explain an object or concept by using a comparison. You might want to compare something as familiar as a large city with a small town, or an idea as complex as religious faith with skepticism or agnosticism.
5. In Stephen Leacock's “The Rival Churches of St. Asaph and St. Osoph,” Leacock compares two different churches. He claims, in the essay, that the failure of St. Osoph and the success of St. Asaph is the result of “the two men conducting the churches.” What reasons does he give for the success of Mr. Furlong? Does this implicitly suggest reasons for why Dr. McTegue is less successful?
6. Write an essay that compares two things. Decide if you will use mostly comparisons or contrasts. Will you use a block organizing method or an alternating organizing method?

Essay 3: The Persuasive Essay

Reading Assignments

1. In The Canadian Practical Stylist, read Chapter 7, “Straight and Crooked Thinking: Working with Evidence,” pages 113-117 and 336-337.
2. Review the section “Shun the Passive Voice,” pp. 274-276 in the same textbook.
3. Read the model essays listed below, from the same textbook.
   • Margaret Atwood, “Witches,” pp. 69-73.
   • Walker Percy, “From `The Depressed Self,'” pp. 98-101.
   • Margaret Visser, “Seeing Red,” pp. 105-107.
   • Wayne C. Booth, “What is an Idea?,” pp. 200-204.
   • Zoe L. Hayes, “Conference Reality Belies Its Theme,” pp. 231-234.
4. In Caterina Edwards, read “A Marriage of Life and Art,” pp. 17-18.

Essay Assignment (Weeks 11 and 12)

Write a persuasive essay of 800-1000 words on one of the following topics.

1. Write an essay presenting your views on a controversial subject. Acknowledge the opposition in the subordinate part of your thesis sentence, and arrange your points in order of increasing interest.
2. Write an essay which defines some common, and hence important, concept—prejudice, friendship, personality, success, individualism, fashion.
3. Consider Hayes' essay “Conference Reality Belies Its Theme”: “I learned that letting someone say her piece does not constitute giving her a voice” (234). When does this epiphany occur for her? Think about the subtext in this essay and use it to consider other areas in your life where a similar fallacy might exist.
4. “CE: Exactly. That experience of two languages can also make you aware of the difficulty of all communication.” (Caterina Edwards, p. 105) Discuss this statement.
5. Think of the complexities subsumed in the notion that translation and existence are interconnected. What dangers does this connection immediately highlight? Does translation beget existence? Conduct a formal argument.

Essay 4: The Contemplative Essay

Reading Assignments

1. In The Canadian Practical Stylist, revisit the section on description in Chapter 6, pp. 141-144.
2. Read all of the essays in Dillard's Teaching a Stone to Talk.
3. In Caterina Edwards read “Dialogue,” pp. 105-118. This interview between Caterina Edwards and Jacqueline Dumas has many of the personal and introspective qualities found in the contemplative essay form.

Essay Assignment (Week 15)

Write an essay of 800-1000 words on any topic using the contemplative form. It might be wise to discuss the topic with your tutor before you start writing.

Essay 5: The Research and Analysis Essay

Reading Assignments

1. In Caterina Edwards, read “The Social Construction of Subjectivity in Edward's The Lion's Mouth,” pp. 56-82.
2. Re-read Annie Dillard's The Writing Life. This is an effective way to measure your personal growth as a reader and, similarly, your practice as a writer. What did you notice in the second reading that you missed in the first?
3. Chapter 11, in The Canadian Practical Stylist, provides guidelines for producing a research paper, on pages 326-387.

There is also a listing of Canadian Reference Sources, on pages 388-390, which might prove helpful.

Essay Assignment (Weeks 18 and 19)

Write an essay in which you conduct your own analysis in the style of an essay or the form of an essay that you have read. Whether you document your research in your essay or not, the essay should be between 1200-1500 words.

1. Compare Dillard's writing style or essay form with that of one author in The Canadian Practical Stylist.
2. Compare the writing style or essay form of two authors in The Canadian Practical Stylist.
3. Write a critical analysis of Dillard's The Writing Life.
4. Select one writer in the course and discuss his/her theory on style.