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Constructing Prose
Welcome to the research guide for English Usage. This guide contains research materials and links to help you make this class a success.
On this page, find course information and a quick list of resources to get you started.
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Course Catalog Information
Required Textbooks
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The Elements of Style by Call Number: Ref. 808 St89e2ISBN: 1640320741Publication Date: 2017-09-11The Elements of Style is the definitive text and classic manual on the principles of English language read by millions of readers.
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It Was the Best of Sentences, It Was the Worst of Sentences by Call Number: UnavailableISBN: 9781580087407Publication Date:In this wickedly humorous manual, language columnist June Casagrande uses grammar and syntax to show exactly what makes some sentences great—and other sentences suck. Great writing isn't born, it's built—sentence by sentence.
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Linguistics: A Graphic Guide by Call Number: UnavailableISBN: 9781848310889Publication Date:Covering thinkers from Aristotle to Saussure and Chomsky, Linguistics: A Graphic Guide reveals the rules and beauty that underlie language, our most human skill.
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On Writing Well by Call Number: 808.042 Z66o2ISBN: 9780060148041Publication Date:On Writing Well, which grew out of a course that William Zinsser taught at Yale, has been praised for its sound advice, its clarity, and for the warmth of its style. It is a book for anybody who wants to learn how to write or who needs to do some writing to get through the day, as almost everybody does.
Links are to copies available in the library. These may not be the same editions you need for your class.
Best Bets
The following can help you start your research.
See the Recommended Resources tab for more extensive lists of suggested materials.
Databases
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Gale Literature Resource Center
Gale Literature Resource Center is Gale’s most current, comprehensive, and reliable online literature resource, offering the broadest and most representative range of authors and their works, including a deep collection of full-text critical and literary analysis for literary studies.
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Humanities International Complete
Humanities International Complete provides the full text of hundreds of journals, books, and other published sources from around the world.
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International Journal of English Studies
Covers developments in the general field of English studies, including the fields of language and linguistics, language learning and teaching, literature, and cultural studies.
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Journal of Research in Reading
Features reports of empirical studies in reading and related fields, and reviews of relevant literature.
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A Dictionary of Modern English Usage by Call Number: eBookISBN: 9780199535347Publication Date:No book had more influence on twentieth-century attitudes to the English language in Britain than Henry Fowler’s Dictionary of Modern English Usage. It rapidly became the standard work of reference for the correct use of English in terms of choice of words, grammar, and style.
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How to Write a Sentence by Call Number: 808.042 F529hISBN: 9780061840531Publication Date:In this entertaining and erudite New York Times bestseller, beloved professor Stanley Fish offers both sentence craft and sentence pleasure. Drawing on a wide range of great writers, from Philip Roth to Antonin Scalia to Jane Austen, How to Write a Sentence is much more than a writing manual—it is a spirited love letter to the written word and a key to understanding how great writing works.
English at Northwestern
These links will take you to official NWOSU university pages.
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School of Arts & Sciences
The departments within the school offer a total of fifteen majors and twenty minors at the undergraduate level and a master of arts in American studies at the graduate level.
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English, Foreign Language & Humanities
The Department of English, Foreign Language & Humanities offers a broad range of courses leading to the bachelor of arts degree in English or English education. Students may also pursue a minor in English, writing, or Spanish.
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EnglishThe English Program at Northwestern Oklahoma State University offers a full range of courses in American, British, and world literature in addition to courses in creative writing, film studies, technical writing, and advanced composition in order to prepare students for academic and non-academic professional endeavors.