Compulsory English — Reading & Writing in English (C.Eng.401)

Part of BFA Syllabus in Nepal · BFA at Tribhuvan University (TU)

Compulsory English is the Tribhuvan University compulsory language course taken in the first year of the four-year Bachelor programs under the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, including the BFA. The contents below are transcribed from the official TU Curriculum Development Centre syllabus document (course code C.Eng.401).

Quick facts

Course overview

The course lets students explore the art of reading and writing. They engage with different patterns of writing, read essays and stories tied to those patterns, and work through the rhetoric of the language. Students practise the "four levels of interacting with texts," important for comprehending the art of reading and writing.

Main objective: improve students' writing in English through practice of different patterns of writing — narration, description, comparison and contrast — and develop critical reading.

Course contents — units

Each of the five units carries 20 marks.

Unit I — The Writing Process

• Reading to Write: Becoming a Critical Reader
• Brent Staples — "Cutting and Pasting: A Senior Thesis"
• Invention
• Arrangement
• Drafting and Revising
• Editing and Proofreading

Unit II — Patterns of Writing: Narration and Description

Narration

• Sandra Cisneros — "Only Daughter"
• Bonnie Smith-Yackel — "My Mother Never Worked"
• Martin Gansberg — "Thirty-Eight Who Saw the Murder Didn't Call the Police"

Description

• Jhumpa Lahiri — "Rice"
• Suzanne Berne — "Ground Zero"
• Heather Rogers — "The Hidden Life of Garbage"

Unit III — Patterns of Writing: Cause and Effect, Comparison and Contrast

Cause and Effect

• Stan Cox — "The Case Against Air Conditioning"
• Lawrence Otis Graham — "The 'Black Table' Is Still There"
• Guillermo del Toro and Chuck Hogan — "Why Vampires Never Die"

Comparison and Contrast

• Bruce Catton — "Grant and Lee: A Study in Contrasts"
• Bharati Mukherjee — "Two Ways to Belong in America"
• Amy Chua — "Why Chinese Mothers Are Superior"

Unit IV — Patterns of Writing: Definition and Argumentation

Definition

• Judy Brady — "I Want a Wife"
• Meghan Daum — "Fame-iness"
• Gayle Rosenwald Smith — "The Wife-Beater"

Argumentation

• Jennifer Halperin — "No Pay? Many Interns Say, 'No Problem'"
• Alex Tabarrok — "The Meat Market"
• Daniel Engber — "Let Them Drink Water!"

Unit V — Critical Reading for Writing

Interactions: Four Levels of Interacting with Texts —

• "Yudhisthira's Wisdom"
• "The Brave Little Parrot"
• "A 1996 Commencement Speech"
• "The Wretched Stone"
• "Marriage Is a Private Affair"
• "Scientific Inquiry: Invention and Test"
• "The Stub Book"
• "Keeping Errors at Bay"
• "The Telegram on the Table"
• "A Tale"
• "Why Go to University"

Evaluation

Prescribed texts

• Kirszner, Laurie G. Patterns for College Writing: A Rhetorical Reader and Guide (12th Edition). Boston, New York: Bedford / St. Martin's, 2012.
• Lohani, Shreedhar and Moti Nissani. Flax-Golden Tales: An Interdisciplinary Approach to Learning English. Kathmandu, Nepal: Ekata Books, 2008.

Source: Tribhuvan University, Curriculum Development Centre — official Compulsory English (Reading & Writing in English, code C.Eng.401) curriculum document. The same standing committee also prescribes a third-year compulsory English course ("Reading & Writing Across the Disciplines").