English Usage and Usage Guides (3 credits)<\/p>\n
H.W. Fowler, the great English usage specialist, once said of the \u201csplit infinitive\u201d:
\nThe English-speaking world may be divided into (1) those who neither know nor care what a split infinitive is; (2) those who do not know but care very much; (3) those who know and condemn; (4) those who know and approve; and (5) those who know and distinguish.
\nConcerning this supposed \u201cshibboleth\u201d of English usage, which group do you belong to? (Or should that be: To which group do you belong?)<\/p>\n
This course will examine questions of usage, attitudes towards usage, and practices of writing usage guides in English.<\/p>\n
We will begin with a discussion of the types of usage manuals. We will compare the treatment of selected topics in a number of manuals. These will include more traditional and personal manuals such as Fowler\u2019s Modern English Usage<\/em> and Evans and Evans\u2019 A Dictionary of Contemporary English<\/em> Usage<\/em> as well as those based on the opinions of \u201cusage panels\u201d such as Harper\u2019s Dictionary of Contemporary Usage<\/em> and more contemporary, corpus-based guides such as The Cambridge Guide to English Usage<\/em> (2004). The Oxford Guide to Canadian English Usage<\/em> (1997) will be used as a point of departure in these discussions. Webster\u2019s Dictionary of English Usage<\/em> (1989) provides a historical perspective on matters of usage. We will consider such questions as how items are chosen to be included in a usage guide, how matters of usage are decided, and how usage entries are written.<\/p>\n In a selection of readings, we will survey attitudes toward English usage, ranging from prescriptive to descriptive, and will explore the question of usage panels and changing usage. The course will also include a historical component in which questions of English usage from the 18th<\/sup> century to the present will be examined.<\/p>\n Students will have the opportunity to participate in the revision of the Oxford Guide to Canadian English Usage, <\/em>work currently being undertaken by Professor Margery Fee of the UBC English Department. This work will include the researching of a usage question by the collection of data from the \u201cStrathy Corpus of Canadian English\u201d (a computerized corpus of Canadian English collected by the Strathy Unit at Queen\u2019s University). Students will spend time in the computer laboratory learning how to use a corpus program to collect data.<\/p>\n Pre-requisites<\/strong>: A course in Modern English grammar (e.g., ENGL 321 or ENGL 329) is recommended, but students who lack such a course may speak to the instructor concerning admission to the course.<\/p>\n Textbooks<\/strong>: Requirements and Course Evaluation<\/strong>: 20%\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Exercise #2 (Comparison of the entries for one letter in the Oxford and Webster\u2019s manuals OR Comparison of two readings)<\/p>\n 25%\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Group Project (Researching and drafting an entry for the revised Oxford Guide to Canadian English Usage<\/em>)<\/p>\n 35%\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Final Examination<\/p>\n Copyright<\/em><\/strong> English Usage and Usage Guides (3 credits) H.W. Fowler, the great English usage specialist, once said of the \u201csplit infinitive\u201d: The English-speaking world may be divided into (1) those who neither know nor care what a split infinitive is; (2) those who do not know but care very much; (3) those who know and condemn; […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7900,"featured_media":0,"parent":73,"menu_order":7,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-231","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/laurelbrinton\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/231","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/laurelbrinton\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/laurelbrinton\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/laurelbrinton\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7900"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/laurelbrinton\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=231"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/laurelbrinton\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/231\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":232,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/laurelbrinton\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/231\/revisions\/232"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/laurelbrinton\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/73"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/laurelbrinton\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=231"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nWebster\u2019s Dictionary of English Usage<\/em> (1989; reprint 2004)
\nOxford Guide to Canadian English Usage<\/em> (2001)
\nCustom course packet (available in the Bookstore)<\/p>\n
\n20%\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Exercise #1 (Comparison of a usage question in three manuals)<\/p>\n
\nAll materials of this course (course handouts, lecture slides, assessments, course readings, etc.) are the intellectual property of the Course Instructor or licensed to be used in this course by the copyright owner. Redistribution of these materials by any means without permission of the copyright holder(s) constitutes a breach of copyright and may lead to academic discipline.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"