Reading Essays Writing Nonfiction

Contents: Preface. I. Rudiments of appreciation of the English essay: 1. Joseph Addison: reflections in Westminster Abbey. 2. Charles Lamb: old China. 3. R.L. Stevenson: Aes triplex. 4. G.K. Chesterton: on running after one's hat. 5. George Orwell: shooting an elephant. Appendix. II. Steps towards the crafting of nonfiction: 6. Boswell's life of Johnson. 7. Jawaharlal Nehru: an autobiography. 8. Why travel or write about it? 9. Radio: an historical perspective. 10. An introduction to radio. Who are the imagined readers of this book? Apart from a small number of fellow colleagues involved in pedagogy this work should be of use to students interested in appreciating good English prose and then also being able to write some. Students of management science, Journalism and Mass Communication, creative writing and distance education are especially aimed at. We need to be reminded, that it is nonfiction that all educated people read newspapers, letters history life writing in its various forms accounts of processes and procedures etc. and sometimes create some of these. All of us have to write letters and applications and some of use in democratic societies may write letters to editors, or even essays for magazine, reports accounts of our travels, memoirs notes and anecdotes meant to be published or for broadcast on the local channel of the radio or on the television accompanied by visual support. The advanced teenagers may wish to make such activities their hobby if not career and the lessons in this book are aimed at them and at the teachers who teach or would wish to teach English prose to students at the higher secondary and the undergraduate levels who may love to read and write good English prose. (jacket)