<div class="row-fluid">
<div class="description user_content student-version enhanced">

&nbsp;
<h1 class="page-title">TBE- Introduction</h1>
<h2><strong>TBE- Syllabus</strong></h2>
<strong>Principles of Written English (Business English) </strong>

<strong>Course Description</strong>
<h4>It is <em>not </em>necessary to complete parts 1 and 2 in order to take part 3. There are no prerequisites except that you must know English well enough to take a course taught entirely in English.</h4>
<h4>Business Writing is the third part of the academic writing course. In this part, you will focus on reading and writing in different academic &amp; business disciplines. The course materials will be offered via readings, videos, and various types of homework assignments. There are suggested optional textbooks for additional writing work. You will participate in online discussions as well as peer review of your writing. You will complete one full essay for this part of the course.</h4>
<h2><strong>Recommended texts </strong></h2>
<h4><strong>Textbooks are not required. </strong>There are recommended eBooks.</h4>
<h4>1. <em>Principles of Written English 3</em>, by Maggie Sokolik, Wayzgoose Press</h4>
<h4>This workbook was written specifically for this course. It contains excerpts of the course material as well as extra writing materials. It is being provided for a low price of $2.99 US, by Wayzgoose Press.</h4>
<h4><a class="external" href="https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/424891" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/424891<span class="screenreader-only"> (Links to an external site.)</span><span class="ui-icon ui-icon-extlink ui-icon-inline" title="Links to an external site."><span class="screenreader-only">Links to an external site.</span></span></a></h4>
<h4 class="p1"><span class="s1"><a class="external" href="http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00JEDC0KM" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00JEDC0KM<span class="screenreader-only"> (Links to an external site.)</span><span class="ui-icon ui-icon-extlink ui-icon-inline" title="Links to an external site."><span class="screenreader-only">Links to an external site.</span></span></a></span></h4>
<h4>2. <em>50 Ways to Practice Writing</em>, by Dorothy Zemach, Wayzgoose Press</h4>
<h4>This very low-cost ebook ($0.99 US) gives you even more practice in writing.</h4>
<h4>Smashwords.com, <a class="external" title="writing" href="http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/332495" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/332495<span class="screenreader-only"> (Links to an external site.)</span><span class="ui-icon ui-icon-extlink ui-icon-inline" title="Links to an external site."><span class="screenreader-only">Links to an external site.</span></span></a></h4>
<h4>Apple iTunes: <a class="external" title="writing" href="https://itunes.apple.com/us/book/fifty-ways-to-practice-writing/id672532392" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">https://itunes.apple.com/us/book/fifty-ways-to-practice-writing/id672532392<span class="screenreader-only"> (Links to an external site.)</span><span class="ui-icon ui-icon-extlink ui-icon-inline" title="Links to an external site."><span class="screenreader-only">Links to an external site.</span></span></a></h4>
<h4>Also available  at Amazon.com: <a class="external" title="amazon" href="http://www.amazon.com/Fifty-Ways-Practice-Writing-ebook/dp/B00DREJGLA/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">http://www.amazon.com/Fifty-Ways-Practice-Writing-ebook/dp/B00DREJGLA/<span class="screenreader-only"> (Links to an external site.)</span><span class="ui-icon ui-icon-extlink ui-icon-inline" title="Links to an external site."><span class="screenreader-only">Links to an external site.</span></span></a></h4>
<h4>All <em>50 Ways to Practice</em> books are available as audiobooks as well. Find more information at: <a class="external" title="audio" href="http://wayzgoosepress.com/audiobooks.html" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">http://wayzgoosepress.com/audiobooks.html<span class="screenreader-only"> (Links to an external site.)</span><span class="ui-icon ui-icon-extlink ui-icon-inline" title="Links to an external site."><span class="screenreader-only">Links to an external site.</span></span></a></h4>
<h4>3. <em>50 Ways to Practice Grammar</em>, by Maggie Sokolik, Wayzgoose Press</h4>
<h4 class="p1"><a class="external" href="https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/417106" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/417106<span class="screenreader-only"> (Links to an external site.)</span><span class="ui-icon ui-icon-extlink ui-icon-inline" title="Links to an external site."><span class="screenreader-only">Links to an external site.</span></span></a></h4>
<h4 class="p1"><span class="s1"><a class="external" href="http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00IVR5QDU" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00IVR5QDU<span class="screenreader-only"> (Links to an external site.)</span><span class="ui-icon ui-icon-extlink ui-icon-inline" title="Links to an external site."><span class="screenreader-only">Links to an external site.</span></span></a></span></h4>
<h4 class="p1">4. <em>50 Ways to Practice Reading, </em>by Belinda Young-Davy, Wayzgoose Press</h4>
<h4 class="p1"><a class="external" href="https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/254088" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/254088<span class="screenreader-only"> (Links to an external site.)</span><span class="ui-icon ui-icon-extlink ui-icon-inline" title="Links to an external site."><span class="screenreader-only">Links to an external site.</span></span></a></h4>
<h4 class="p1"><span class="s1"><a class="external" href="http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00A5U7R42" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00A5U7R42<span class="screenreader-only"> (Links to an external site.)</span><span class="ui-icon ui-icon-extlink ui-icon-inline" title="Links to an external site."><span class="screenreader-only">Links to an external site.</span></span></a></span></h4>
<h4>5.  <em>Pearson Writer</em>, Pearson Higher Education</h4>
<h4>Pearson Writer is a set of integrated writing tools, including grammar references, research aids, and writing editors, to help you with every aspect of your writing. They have created a website especially for this course. Their materials are available on a subscription basis, and the price varies with the length of time you want to access the materials.</h4>
<h4>You can find our <a class="external" href="https://www.pearson.com/us/higher-education/products-services-teaching/learning-engagement-tools/pearson-writer.html" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">course's Pearson website <span class="screenreader-only"> (Links to an external site.)</span><span class="ui-icon ui-icon-extlink ui-icon-inline" title="Links to an external site."><span class="screenreader-only">Links to an external site.</span></span></a></h4>
<h4></h4>
<h1 class="page-title">TBE- Writing in Other Disciplines</h1>
<strong>What's the discipline? </strong>
<table border="0">
<tbody>
<tr valign="top">
<td>
<h4>An academic <strong>discipline</strong> is also called a <strong>field</strong> or <strong>area</strong> of study. In higher education, most students will choose a discipline to pursue their studies. These disciplines arising out of centuries of history and ways of education, but in fact, there is no formal way of defining what discipline is or is not. Some disciplines are commonly known and are found in nearly every university. For example, most colleges or universities will allow the pursuit of the study of mathematics, biology, economics, or history.</h4>
<h4>There are many dozens of disciplines that have been identified. Look at this list from <a class="external" title="List of disciplines" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_academic_disciplines_and_sub-disciplines" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">wikipedia<span class="screenreader-only"> (Links to an external site.)</span><span class="ui-icon ui-icon-extlink ui-icon-inline" title="Links to an external site."><span class="screenreader-only">Links to an external site.</span></span></a>.</h4>
</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
<h4>Within a discipline are also subdisciplines.</h4>
<h4>For example, within history, a student might focus on only Russian history, or within biology, on plant biology.</h4>
<h4>Why does this matter to this course?</h4>
<h4>Different disciplines, or groups of disciplines, have specific expectations about writing within their field. These differences extend to ways of using research, to the acceptable syntax of a sentence. The sciences, for example, often favour passive sentences rather than active ones, in order to keep the focus of the written material on processes or substances, not on the person performing the work.</h4>
https://youtu.be/M-7RGRqDgLI
<h2><strong>identifying Types of Texts</strong></h2>
<h4>Every day, you probably deal with a variety of texts, and never really think about what makes them different from one another, except for the contents of the writing.</h4>
<h4>Look at the three examples below. You can probably identify them without being told what they are. But, what makes them different from one another?</h4>

<hr />

<strong> Example 1</strong>
<h4>In his own official report, Forrest makes no mention of the massacre. He does make much of the fact that the Union flag was not lowered by the Union forces, saying that if his own men had not taken down the flag, “few, if any, would have survived unhurt another volley.”<sup>5  </sup>However, as Jack Hurst points out and Forrest must have known, in this twenty-minute battle, “Federals running for their lives had little time to concern themselves with a flag.” <sup>6</sup></h4>
(Source: <a class="external" title="sample 1" href="http://bcs.bedfordstmartins.com/resdoc5e/pdf/Hacker-Bish-CMS.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">http://bcs.bedfordstmartins.com/resdoc5e/pdf/Hacker-Bish-CMS.pdf<span class="screenreader-only"> (Links to an external site.)</span><span class="ui-icon ui-icon-extlink ui-icon-inline" title="Links to an external site."><span class="screenreader-only">Links to an external site.</span></span></a>)

<hr />

<strong>Example 2</strong>
<h4>William Butler Yeats wrote two poems that are together known as the Byzantium series. The first is "Sailing to Byzantium," and its sequel is simply named "Byzantium." The former is considered the easier of the two to understand. It contains multiple meanings and emotions, and the poet uses various literary devices to communicate them. Two of the most dominant themes of this poem are the desire to escape from the hardships of this world and the quest for immortality.</h4>
(source: <a class="external" title="sample 2" href="http://www.roanestate.edu/owl/Deep.html" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">http://www.roanestate.edu/owl/Deep.html<span class="screenreader-only"> (Links to an external site.)</span><span class="ui-icon ui-icon-extlink ui-icon-inline" title="Links to an external site."><span class="screenreader-only">Links to an external site.</span></span></a>)

<hr />

<strong>Example 3</strong>
<h4>Desensitization (converse of secondary sensitization) is distinguished from habituation (converse of primary sensitization) by the explicit expression of memory rebound and recovery effects in the post-stimulation response. In the rat, desensitization of the vagally-induced Hering-Breuer reflex is abolished by lesioning the pneumotaxic center or systemic administration of the noncompetitive NMDA receptor antagonist MK-801.</h4>
(Source: <a class="external" title="sample 3" href="https://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/732/01/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">https://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/732/01/<span class="screenreader-only"> (Links to an external site.)</span><span class="ui-icon ui-icon-extlink ui-icon-inline" title="Links to an external site."><span class="screenreader-only">Links to an external site.</span></span></a>)

<hr />

<h4>Even if you don't understand what these samples of writing say, you can start to notice some differences. Example 1, for example, relies heavily on quotations, while Example 3, you see that sentences are made up of multi-syllabic nouns and some form of the verb 'be'.</h4>
<h4>Each of these samples, and in fact, each discipline, also has specialized vocabulary.  Sample 2 shows some specialized vocabulary in writing about literature:  <em>literary devices, themes,</em> and <em>poems</em>.</h4>
<h4>Although there may be some differences in writing expectations between disciplines, all academic writers in all fields need to write clear, concise, and grammatically correct sentences, use proper punctuation and show critical thought.</h4>
<h4>As you read different types of texts, think about what makes them identifiable:</h4>
<ul>
 	<li style="list-style-type: none;">
<ul>
 	<li style="list-style-type: none;">
<ul>
 	<li>
<h4>What are the specialized vocabulary items in the text?</h4>
</li>
 	<li>
<h4>Is there a dominant type of sentence structure, such as the passive voice? (For example: "The experiment was done" <em>not</em> "We did the experiment.)</h4>
</li>
 	<li>
<h4>How are quotations or other research used?</h4>
</li>
 	<li>
<h4>Is the first person (<em>I,</em> <em>me, </em>or <em>we</em>) used, or is the writing impersonal?</h4>
</li>
 	<li>
<h4>What else do you notice that makes it seem like it belongs to a particular discipline?</h4>
</li>
</ul>
</li>
</ul>
</li>
</ul>
<h4><em>(Example 1 is from history, example 2 is from literature, and example 3 is from medicine.)</em></h4>
<h1 class="page-title">TBE- Interrogating a Text &amp; Note-Taking</h1>
What does "interrogate" mean? To interrogate means to ask questions in order to seek answers or information that the person questioned considers personal or secret. (pronunciation: <a class="external" href="http://click.reference.com/click/nn1ov4?clkpage=dic&amp;clksite=dict&amp;clkld=0&amp;clkdest=http%3A%2F%2Fstatic.sfdict.com%2Fstaticrep%2Fdictaudio%2FI02%2FI0253300.mp3" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">interrogate<span class="screenreader-only"> (Links to an external site.)</span><span class="ui-icon ui-icon-extlink ui-icon-inline" title="Links to an external site."><span class="screenreader-only">Links to an external site.</span></span></a>)

Watch the video to see how this word applies to reading and writing.

https://youtu.be/d2_IZhEhTRw
<h2><em><strong>Note-Taking and Annotating</strong></em></h2>
<h4>Learning to write within a field always starts with interacting with texts. There are two main ways of interacting: note-taking and <strong>annotating</strong>. Note-taking involves writing your thoughts as you read a text. Annotating means underlining or highlighting important words or phrases. Both of these activities can be done whether you are reading online or reading printed material.</h4>
<h4><strong>Instructions</strong></h4>
<ol>
 	<li>
<h4>Determine what you need. Annotating on paper requires highlighters as well as pens or pencils. You can also use sticky notes if you don't want to write directly in a book. If you are annotating online, be sure you know your software so you understand how to highlight and annotate it. If you cannot do that online, keep really good written notes, or consider printing out the material to annotate and note-take by hand.</h4>
</li>
 	<li>
<h4>Read the first paragraph in order to identify the main idea of that paragraph. Try to find a sentence or passage that tells what it is about. Underline or highlight it. Continue and do the same thing for all the paragraphs in the reading.</h4>
</li>
 	<li>
<h4>Read over all your highlighted areas and then write a short summary of them. If you are doing this on paper, use a pencil or a pen, write your summary directly in the book or on the paper. If you are using a computer, type it out in a comment box, or in an online file.</h4>
</li>
 	<li>
<h4>Find any other important ideas in the reading such as repeated keywords, phrases, or themes. Circle or highlight the keyword or phrase. If you are annotating literature (such as a story or poem), circle imagery, metaphors, themes or other things, like flashbacks or allusions.</h4>
</li>
 	<li>
<h4>Continue with the remaining rest of the reading. Keep practicing!</h4>
</li>
 	<li>
<h4>Remember to write down bibliographic details such as the author, title, publisher, publication type. You may need this for a bibliography--be sure you copy it exactly and check your spelling.</h4>
</li>
 	<li>
<h1 class="page-title">TBE- Short Stories, Understanding Fiction</h1>
<h2><strong>Why read fiction?</strong></h2>
<h4>Why should you read fiction or poetry? In today's busy world, many people feel that reading fiction is a waste of time or that following the news or nonfiction are more valuable pursuits.</h4>
<h4>The following article explains the benefits of reading fiction.  If you don't understand some of the vocabularies, make a note of the words and look them up after you read. Think about the ideas here. Then, discuss your thoughts on reading fiction in the forum area below.</h4>
&nbsp;

<hr />

<h2><strong>Your Brain on Fiction</strong></h2>
<h4>With all the noise from our digital devices, the old-fashioned value of reading novels can seem useless. However, new support for the value of fiction comes from an unexpected field: brain science also called <em>neuroscience</em>.</h4>
<h4>Brain scans show what happens when we read a detailed description, a metaphor or an emotional discussion between characters in the story. Stories, this research shows, stimulate the brain and even change how we behave in our own lives.</h4>
<h4>Researchers have known for many decades that there are certain parts of the brain involved in our understanding of written words. However, scientists have recently discovered that stories activate many other parts of our brains as well, explaining why we may feel like we are part of the stories we read. When we read words like “roses,” “perfume” and “skunks,” for example,  the language-processing area of our brains responds, but another part of our brains, where we process smells, also responds.</h4>
<h4>In a 2006 study, researchers in Spain asked participants to read words with strong odour associations, along with neutral words. While they read, their brains were scanned by a functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) machine. When subjects looked at the words “perfume” and “coffee,” the part of their brains responsible for sensing smells "lit up"; when they saw the words  “chair” and “key,” this region stayed dark.</h4>
<h4>The way the brain understands metaphors has been studied. Some scientists say that figures of speech like “a rough time” are so familiar that they are treated like any other word or phrase. However, in another experiment, subjects read a metaphor involving texture. In this case, the part of the brain responsible for sensing texture through touch became active. Metaphors like “The singer had a velvet voice” and “He had leathery hands” lit up the sensing part of the brain, while phrases that meant the same thing, like “The singer had a pleasing voice” and “He had strong hands,” did not.</h4>
<h4>Researchers have discovered that words describing motion also stimulate parts of the brain that are different from language-processing areas. In a French study, participants' brains were scanned as they read sentences like “Jean grabbed the object” and “Robert kicked the ball.” The scans showed activity in the <em>motor cortex</em>, which controls the body’s movements. In addition, this brain activity was located in one part of the motor cortex when the movement in the story was done with an arm, and in another place in the motor cortex when it was a movement done by a leg.</h4>
<h4>Therefore, the brain, it seems, does not make a large distinction between reading about an experience and experiencing it in real life. In each case, the same brain regions are active. Keith Oatley, a professor of psychology and a published novelist, proposed that reading produces a vivid simulation of reality, one that “runs on minds of readers just as computer simulations run on computers.” Fiction — with its many details, imaginative metaphors, and close descriptions of people and their actions — offers a rich copy of real life. Indeed, novels go beyond simulating reality to give readers a unique experience: the chance to enter into other people’s thoughts and emotions.</h4>
<h4>The novel, of course, is a wonderful way to explore human interaction. There is evidence that just as the brain responds to descriptions of smells and textures and movements as if they were real, it also treats the interactions among fictional characters as something like real-life social behaviour.</h4>
<h4>A psychologist analyzed 86 brain scan studies and concluded that there was a large overlap in the brain networks used to understand stories and those we use in interactions with other individuals, such as interactions in which we’re trying to understand others' thoughts and feelings.  Narratives offer a unique chance to identify with characters’ desires and frustrations and to guess at their motives and understand their interactions with friends, family, and enemies.</h4>
<h4>Reading helps our real-life social skills, other research suggests. Two studies, published in 2006 and 2009, show that people who frequently read fiction are better able to understand other people, empathize with them, and see the world from their points of view.  A 2010 study found a similar result in very young children: the more stories that were read to them, the stronger their understanding of human interaction. This effect is also shown by watching movies but, interestingly, not by watching television.</h4>
<h4>Fiction, it turns out, is a useful simulation of reality.  Just as computer simulations can help us understand complex problems, such as forecasting the weather or flying a plane, novels, stories, and drama can help us understand social life. These results confirm the experience of readers who have felt enlightened by a novel, who have compared themselves to characters in a story, or felt a strong attraction to a challenge faced by the hero. It has been said that reading great literature improves us as human beings. Brain science now shows this is truer than we may have believed.</h4>

<hr />

<h4>Adapted from: <a class="external" href="http://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/18/opinion/sunday/the-neuroscience-of-your-brain-on-fiction.html" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">http://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/18/opinion/sunday/the-neuroscience-of-your-brain-on-fiction.html<span class="screenreader-only"> (Links to an external site.)</span><span class="ui-icon ui-icon-extlink ui-icon-inline" title="Links to an external site."><span class="screenreader-only">Links to an external site.</span></span></a></h4>
<h4></h4>
<h4><strong>How to Read Fiction?</strong></h4>
<h4>Every field has different types of text, requiring different types of reading. Watch the video, which explains some of the specialized knowledge you need to read fiction.</h4>
</li>
</ol>
https://youtu.be/QeV3IWDcT_g
<h2><strong>HHumourand Irony</strong></h2>
<h4>Irony is a figure of speech. Writers use irony in different ways:</h4>
<h4>• <em>Verbal irony</em>: When a word’s intended meaning is different from its actual meaning. For example, imagine it is a very stormy day, and a character says, “What beautiful weather!” Another way a writer might use irony is in naming a character. If a character in a story is always sad or angry, and the author names that character “Happy,” this is an ironic use of a name.</h4>
<h4>• <em>Situational irony</em>: When a situation ends differently than what is expected, or what would be normal, we call it situational irony. For example, in the “Gift of the Magi,” a short story by O. Henry, the husband and wife each sell a prized possession to buy the other a gift. The husband sells his watch to buy his wife some beautiful hair combs, and the wife cuts and sells her hair to buy her husband a watch chain.</h4>
<h4>Determining whether something is ironic is not always easy. The website <a class="external" title="is it ironic" href="http://www.isitironic.com/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">http://www.isitironic.com/ <span class="screenreader-only"> (Links to an external site.)</span><span class="ui-icon ui-icon-extlink ui-icon-inline" title="Links to an external site."><span class="screenreader-only">Links to an external site.</span></span></a>posts examples of things that might be ironic, and lets users vote on whether something is ironic or not.</h4>
&nbsp;

<strong>Additional TBE Sections are: </strong>
<ul>
 	<li class="hd hd-2 unit-title"><strong>Writing about Reading</strong></li>
 	<li class="hd hd-2 unit-title"><strong>Creative Writing</strong></li>
 	<li class="hd hd-2 unit-title"><strong>Academic &amp; Scientific Writing</strong></li>
 	<li class="hd hd-2 unit-title"><strong>Abstract Writing</strong></li>
 	<li class="hd hd-2 unit-title"><strong>Business &amp; Technical Writing</strong></li>
 	<li><strong>Social Science Reading &amp; Writing </strong></li>
 	<li><strong>Writing Business Emails, Memos, and Communications </strong></li>
 	<li><strong>Writing Business Statements, and Legal agreements.</strong></li>
 	<li><strong>Understaning Business Terminologies in Law, Real Estate, Accounting, Finance, Marketing, and Management. </strong></li>
 	<li><strong>Business Presentations and Reports. </strong></li>
</ul>
<em>To continue and complete the assignments, please follow the Study Package Email on TBE. </em>

&nbsp;

</div>
</div>