ENGL 1313: Computer Assisted College Writing I

Fundamentals of College Composition (FCC) is a compact, college level writing text that presents the underlying grammatical structures of Standard American English in a format that is understandable without prior formal grammar training. The book's purpose is to improve the clarity and precision of undergraduate writing. College instructors know that far too many undergraduates write poorly. University English departments teach literature, not fundamental writing; university writing departments teach higher level creative-commercial writing, not fundamental writing. Other disciplines must focus on teaching course content, and have precious little time to devote to improving their undergraduate's composition skills. A popular reaction to the undergraduate writing dilemma has been to institute discipline-specific writing classes. These classes tailor writing assignments to their particular disciplines, and a wide array of specialized writing texts are being published to meet the needs of these specialty writing courses. Often, Strunk and White's Elements of Style (ES) is used as a companion to these texts. ES is an excellent volume, but it was written in 1908 for a classification of students who possessed solid foundations in formal grammar studies.