American college English
Subtitle: a handbook of usage and composition
By: [by] Harry R. Warfel, Ernst G. Mathews [and] John C. Bushman.
Contributors: Mathews, Ernst Garland, joint author.; Bushman, John C. 1914- joint author.
Publisher: American Book Co.
Published: 1949
Place of publication: New York
Language: eng
Format: Hardcover
Number of pages: 656
Subjects: English language -- United States -- Rhetoric -- Handbooks, manuals, etc.; English language -- United States -- Usage -- Handbooks, manuals, etc.
Genres: Handbooks, manuals, etc.
First sentence: Getting Started
The college student has an excellent practical reason for learning to write: he cannot get very far toward graduation without this ability. With rare exceptions, the courses the student takes will require that he write what he knows. In most courses he must write hour examinations, finals, and term papers. In many courses he exhibits the knowledge he has acquired almost entirely by means of the written word. It is, therefore, very much to his advantage to be able to put words, sentences, and paragraphs together effectively.
College composition has a larger purpose than the development of the ability to write one's way through courses. It offers the student the means to express himself effectively in his collegiate and later social relationships. It provides the fundamental training necessary for the writing of successful business and professional letters and reports. It teaches discriminating reading so that the student will be able to judge intelligently the newspapers, magazines, and books he reads for recreational and vocational purposes. A writing course is a general education. It supplies the student with ideas (through the media of assigned reading and class discussion), and it requires him to work deliberately at giving them clear, smooth, logical, and effective expression. It provides him practice in examining and sharpening his thoughts. Because the course calls primarily for writing rather than extemporaneous speaking, the student can give special care to the form of his expression; he can experiment with numerous revisions of sentences, paragraphs, and whole compositions. He can thus become aware of the size and variety of the English vocabulary and achieve great skill in its use. By trying his hand at a variety of forms—letter, news article, feature article, editorial, essay, biographical sketch, factual report, book review — he can test his command over his accumulated knowledge and chart his intellectual growth.
Description: This book presents a year's work in English composition for college students. Six preliminary chapters lay the foundation for the English language activities common to all college courses: writing, reading, outlining, note-taking, examination writing, speaking, and oral reading. More than two hundred theme subjects are suggested in the first chapter, and each chapter thereafter provides additional suggestions. Usually the first assignment in elementary college English is a composition. For this reason Chapter I gives instructions for choosing a subject, limiting a topic, and getting under way. During the time this first paper is being prepared and graded, the student can read the other preliminary chapters. In a very real sense these chapters will serve to orient the student in all college courses requiring reading, speaking, and note-taking. A special section is devoted to the writing of answers in quizzes and examinations. The chapter on speaking is not designed to give a short course in speech so much as to draw attention to desirable qualities of voice and posture in speaking and oral reading.
The handbook contains sections on English grammar, sentence structure, punctuation, mechanics, letter writing, use of the dictionary, vocabulary building, spelling, levels of usage, and diction. Besides a glossary of commonly misused words, there are sections on precision and vividness. The handbook presents the best contemporary American usage, including acceptable colloquial usage in its appropriate setting. Functional in its approach, it devotes special attention to the common errors in the use of pronouns, verbs, dangling constructions, and spelling. Every important item is dealt with in all phases of the subject. Particularly noteworthy is the chapter on spelling, in which the problems of spelling are considered in relation to pronunciation.