I was wondering if anyone has taken first year English - The shorter genre. I'm thinking of taking it next year, but can't find too much info. How was it? And what was the reading list like?

Thanks

The reading isn't that bad, 2-3 short stories per week.

There were two essays, 500words and 1000words.

I found the workload to be a good amount. I personaly didn't like most of the material, but then again I don't really like english in general. I was never good at it and although I tried as hard I as could, it didn't turn out to well. Needed to take it for proffesional school if you were wondering why someone who sucks in english took the course. Also it was an evening course in term 2, worst decision in my life. I'm pretty impatient and sitting down for 2 hours was pretty brutal for me. I don't know what I'm going to do in my biology evening class >.<

Originally Posted by jhan523

The reading isn't that bad, 2-3 short stories per week.

There were two essays, 500words and 1000words.

I am also thinking of taking this course since it seems like there wont be too much to read compared to other english classes. Did you find that there was a lot to read? Were there only two essays for the entire course? Were there any weekly assignments? What was the midterm/exam like?

Thanks in advance!!

The midterms were replaced with the two essays. I didn't think there was a lot to read. There was one assignment given in the tutorial. I heard it differed from tutorial to tutorial. I had to analyze a poem and do a short 5-10minute presentation.

I thought the exam was alright, most of it was moderately easy to medium. However, I thought the essay was pretty hard.

Thanks a lot jhan523!

Could you also give me an idea of the reading list? Like, IF you remember, a few titles of the short stories/poets you guys tackled? (did you even do poetry?)

We did short stories, poetry and essays

Short Stories:
The Cask of Amontillado by Poe
The Yellow Wallpaper by Gilman
Paul's Case by Cathe
Phrases and Philosophies for the Use of the Young by Wilde
The Fly by Mansfield
A Rose for Emily by Faulkner
Where is the Voice Coming From? by Wiebe
Happy Endings by Atwood
Red Hot by Smyth
Boys and Girls by Munro
Swimming Lessons by Mistry

Poetry:
Digging by Heaney
My Papa's Waltz by Roethke
My Last Duchess by Browning
Cinderella by Sexton
One Day I Wrote Her Name Upon the Strand by Spenser
After a Great Pain, a Formal Feeling Comes by Dickinson
We Real Cool by Brooks
My Ledders by Halfe
The Sick Rose by Blake
The Red Wheelbarrow by Williams
The Fish by Moore
London by Blake
Salvation Army Blues by Clarke
Musee des Beaux Arts by Auden
Anthem for Doomed Youth by Owen
Blues Spiritual for Mammy Prater by Brand
Telephone Conversation by Soyinka

Essays:
A Modest Proposal by Swift
Introduction to A Vindication of the Rights of Woman by Wollstonecraft
Women Clamouring at the Gates by Mallick
Some Notes on the Story of Esther by Tregebov
Pretty Like a White boy by Taylor
Coming Out by Selvadurai
"I'm not Racist But..." by Bissoondath

I think the name of the course is a bit of a misconception.

"Short" pieces can be over 100 pages long. The difference between this course and 1AA3 is that the latter requires you to read novels; probably around one a week depending on length.

In upper year English courses, our "lighter" weeks are only around 250 pages, unless it's poetry and then it's about 50-100 pages. I doubt there would be a lot of a difference here (maybe 50 pages less)

I would actually assume the amount of reading you have in this course is comparable to 1AA3.

Also, after going over that reading list, there is a LOT of Nineteenth Century literature, which most people find very dry and difficult, as their grammar and word-use is different than ours.


Take English 1B03 or 1BB3 instead! The material is much more interesting!

what books do you read in 1b03/1bb3?

I took the courses awhile ago, so it may have changed quite a bit.

1BB3:
Popular Culture: A User's Guide.

I have used this book in probably 75% of my upper-year classes when writing essays. It's an easy to read book, has a huge glossary.

1B03
I had a coursepack. So there was a bunch of articles by different authors. I think almost all of them were from 1970 and onward. We talked about the media and it's representations, depictions of females in film, monstrous feminine, 9/11. Naomi Klein was one of them, if that helps.

Yeah, I was thinking of taking 1BB3, apparently I need a full year of english :\ I didn't do too well in 1A03 though. What is the difference in difficulty?

I would assume the difficulty is around the same. BUT I find it easier to do well in a subject if I find the class more interesting.

The Shorter Genres class, when I took it anyways, included 2 parts: the first was short stories, and by short, the prof (who was Dr. York, I believe-- she was awesome and I really enjoyed her lectures) really stuck to her words. At most, the stories were 10 pages long.

The second part was poetry. Poetry had more terms to remember, at least for me (I had learned very little about poetry in high school), but it was much more interesting that I had expected it to be. Again, Dr York really hit it out of the park; she made an area of study I had no interest in seem very compelling and easy to understand.

The essays, oh the essays. Both essays had VERY broad parametres, which were both good and bad. Good because you can choose to really focus on something that you are interested in, but bad because you are given very little structure to work with in terms of choosing a topic. That being said, I brought my very flimsy and (what I thought to be) completeyl unthought-out ideas to my TA and she was able to help me flesh the ideas out better.

The final exam was of medium difficulty, but I finished moderately ahead of the 2-hour timeline we were given. All in all, a great class for people are interested in a survey of shorter genres or can't read a book that you haven't chosen in a week or two.

Is it safe to say English 1B03 AND 1BB3 are easier than English 1A03??

No.

They're different courses covering different material, but should have a similar marking scheme and require the same amount of work.

how does this compare with the workload in ENG 1BB3?? I know they cover different materials but any distinction between the 2 will help thanx