Cluster 1 — English, Language & Writing

Overview

This course provides an introduction to business communications for students who wish to attend a post-secondary institution where English is the medium of instruction. The aim of this course is to prepare students to succeed in complex business communication tasks in writing, reading, and listening. This is a preparatory course for students most interested in improving their skills in a business/economic content area or taking further courses in Business related areas. It is designed from an ESL perspective; however, it is also appropriate for native speakers of English who are in need of business writing preparation.

Outline

• Module 1*: Economic Sectors
• Module 2: Management 1: Structure, Motivation, and Conflict
• Module 3: Management 2: Globalization and Gender Issues
• Module 4: Production
• Module 5: Marketing
• Module 6: Economics 1: Government and Taxation
• Module 7: Economics 2: Efficiency and Rationalization
• Module 8: Economics 3: Free Trade and Environmental Concerns
• * Each module has three lessons:
• Content-reading and listening
• Language use
• Writing

Objectives

• English 189 has been designed to meet the following objectives:
• to improve the listening, reading, writing, and critical thinking skills needed for academic success.
• to help you perform discipline-appropriate exercises and activities to develop the interpersonal, academic, and language skills necessary to succeed in a university or college environment.
• to provide you with basic information on economics and business to prepare you for further business studies.
• to give you practice in learning strategies that will enable you to become an independent, confident, and successful learner of business studies and business writing.
• to enable you to practice rhetorical methods of writing development that are common in business writing and correspondence.
• to help you understand the vocabulary and structure of the English language as it is used in academic writing.
• to develop your critical skills of self-evaluation.
• to provide you with the skills to deal with large quantities of academic reading and writing.

Evaluation

To receive credit for this course, you must achieve a grade of an least D (50 percent) on the final exam and an overall grade of at least C− (60 percent). You must also complete all of the assignments. Details of the assignments are in the Study Guide.

The final examination for this course must be requested in advance and written under the supervision of an AU-approved exam invigilator. Invigilators include either ProctorU or an approved in-person invigilation centre that can accommodate online exams. Students are responsible for payment of any invigilation fees. Information on exam request deadlines, invigilators, and other exam-related questions, can be found at the Exams and grades section of the Calendar.

Digital course materials

• Links to the following course materials will be made available in the course:
• Geffner, Andrea B. Business English: The Writing Skills You Need for Today’s Workplace. 6th edition. Hauppauge: New York, 2016.
• MacKenzie, Ian. English for Business Studies: A course for Business Studies and Economics students. Student’s Book. 3rd edition. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2010. (e-text)

Other materials

Students will access all other course materials online.

View Official AU Syllabus ↗

Overview

ADMN 233: Writing for Organizations is a course for students to improve their communication skills as they apply to the workplace. The ability to communicate effectively is essential for success in every career, from getting your desired job to submitting an impressive proposal to prospective clients or a formal report to senior executives. To succeed, you must be able to target your communications to the diverse needs of varying stakeholders.

In this course, you will develop foundational writing skills by improving your writing style and mechanics. You will also learn how to analyze audience and medium to create messages that build productive professional relationships.

ADMN 233 is an interactive and experiential course. This course provides a learning opportunity that simulates the contextual environment and situational factors of applying effective communication in the workplace.

Through a simulated work environment, you will interact with virtual coworkers and clients to complete tasks and assignments that mimic actual business communication problems and opportunities. Educational material and individual, iterative feedback will guide you through developing important professional communication skills essential to not only successfully complete the course but also to excel in your chosen career.

Topics include

• mechanics of writing
• professional communication style
• persuasion and rhetoric
• writing tone, inclusivity, and sensitivity
• report and proposal writing
• document design and information visualization
• audience analysis and targeted communications

Learning outcomes

• When you have successfully completed the course, you will have learned how to
• write professional quality messages that achieve your organization’s needs.
• apply a systematic process to plan, organize, and revise business messages.
• understand the needs of your audience to target your communications effectively.
• inform and persuade people through powerful business reports and proposals.
• apply design principles to present documents that promote readability and brand values.
• demonstrate sensitivity and empathy to language and tone.
• practise the mechanics of good writing, including proper grammar, punctuation, paragraphing, and syntax.
• communicate ethically, correctly, and effectively.
• In addition, as this course uses an innovative approach involving artificial intelligence, students who completed this course have reported gaining highly marketable experience in working with AI — a skill you can add to your resumé.

Evaluation

In ADMN 233, you will complete an initial writing assessment, experiential tasks and exercises, a brief report, a brief proposal, and a final examination.

To receive credit for ADMN 233, you must achieve a grade of at least D (50 percent) on the final examination and a minimum overall course grade of D (50 percent). The following table summarizes the evaluation activities for ADMN 233:

The final examination for this course must be requested in advance and written under the supervision of an AU-approved exam invigilator. Invigilators include either ProctorU or an approved in-person invigilation centre that can accommodate online exams. Students are responsible for payment of any invigilation fees. Information on exam request deadlines, invigilators, and other exam-related questions, can be found at the Exams and grades section of the Calendar.

Materials

• Registration in this course includes access to an online and simulated learning platform. This platform includes interactive and virtual discussions and exercises as well as extensive educational texts and videos.
• As this course makes continuous use of an interactive online environment and online videos, it requires students to have regular access to a desktop or laptop computer with high-speed Internet connection.
• It is not possible to download the course material and complete this course predominantly offline.
• Although you may be able to access the course website ahead of your start date, there is no early access to the simulation platform.

View Official AU Syllabus ↗

Overview

ENGL 155 is designed for students who require a preparatory course in writing skills. The major objective of the course is to improve students’ reading and writing abilities so they can succeed at the post-secondary level. Students will expand their vocabulary, increase their ability to analyze complex text, and improve their writing skills. The course includes paragraph and essay structure and a systematic grammar review.

Learning outcomes

• By the end of this course, students should be able to do the following:
• Shape their writing in accordance with audience and purpose
• Use effective theses and topic sentences to focus on main ideas
• Use effective organization and linking devices to develop ideas coherently
• Use acceptable grammar, punctuation, and sentence structure
• Use appropriate and effective vocabulary

Outline

• The course consists of the following eight units, each of which includes three lessons (grammar and mechanics; word study; and writing):
• Unit 1 – (introduction)
• Unit 2 – (paragraph writing)
• Unit 3 – (summary writing)
• Unit 4 – (process essay)
• Unit 5 – (comparison/contrast essay)
• Unit 6 – (cause-effect essay)
• Unit 7 – (argumentative/persuasive essay)
• Unit 8 – (personal essay and review)

Evaluation

To receive credit for ENGL 155, you must complete all the assignments, achieve a minimum grade of D (50 percent) on the final examination, and achieve a composite course grade of at least C– (60 percent). The weighting of the composite grade is as follows:

The final examination for this course must be requested in advance and written under the supervision of an AU-approved exam invigilator. Invigilators include either ProctorU or an approved in-person invigilation centre that can accommodate online exams. Students are responsible for payment of any invigilation fees. Information on exam request deadlines, invigilators, and other exam-related questions, can be found at the Exams and grades section of the Calendar.

To learn more about assignments and examinations, please refer to Athabasca University’s online Calendar.

Digital course materials

• Links to the following course materials will be made available in the course:
• Lipschutz, Gary, Sandra Scarry, and John Scarry. The Canadian Writer’s Workplace. 8th ed. Toronto: Nelson Education, 2017.

Physical course materials

• The following course materials are included in a course package that will be shipped to your home prior to your course’s start date:
• Brians, Paul. Common Errors in English Usage. 3rd ed., William, James & Co., 2013.

Other Materials

All other materials are available online through the course home page. English Language Support  materials are available online.

View Official AU Syllabus ↗

Overview

English 211: Reading Novels and Short Stories is a three-credit junior-level course in which you will use the methods of literary studies to analyze a variety of works of fiction.

The texts that you will study in this course include short stories and novels, ranging from the nineteenth to the twenty-first centuries, from writers of diverse backgrounds and nationalities. Through examining these works and the accompanying commentaries in the Study Guide, you will encounter major literary concepts, terms, and analytical strategies, with a particular focus on examining texts carefully in order to compose written critical analyses of their meaning.

By the end of the course, you will have considered how electricity can serve as a metaphor for foolish hope, traced the symbolic meanings of a granola bar wrapper, and been lied to by an old lady. In helping you develop a richer understanding of how fiction works, this course will serve as a foundation for further studies in literature and for your everyday encounters with literary and cultural texts of all kinds.

Outline

• Unit 1: Short Stories
• Through an examination of selected short stories, Unit 1 provides an introduction to close reading, analytical writing, and selected key concepts in literary studies as they relate to the assigned texts.
• Unit 2: Brother
• This unit examines David Chariandy’s novel Brother.
• Unit 3: Drive Your Plow over the Bones of the Dead
• This unit examines Olga Tokarczuk’s novel Drive Your Plow over the Bones of the Dead.
• Unit 4: Temporary
• This unit examines Hilary Leichter’s novel Temporary.

Learning outcomes

• When students have completed English 211: Reading Novels and Short Stories, they should be able to
• apply the skills of close reading in relation to the assigned texts
• analyze the ways in which relevant literary elements such as metaphor, irony, point of view, form, imagery, setting, and others operate within specific texts
• demonstrate a clear understanding of the ways in which particular themes and ideas are represented through both the form and the content of the assigned texts
• create thoughtful, insightful, well-written, and well-supported critical analyses of literature in essay form
• Note: Fluency in the English language is required for taking English 211. If you are unsure of your literacy skills, please use our English Language Assessment tool to assess your readiness for this course. Athabasca University also offers courses in English language and writing skills: ENGL 140: Grammar, ENGL 145: Reading and Writing for Academic Purposes, ENGL 155: Developing Writing Skills, ENGL 177: English for Academic Purposes, ENGL 189: English for Business.

Evaluation

To receive creditfor English 211, students must submit all three assignments in a form that is acceptable for grading (including the brief self-reflection that is part of each of them), obtain a minimum grade of 50% on the exam, and obtain a final course grade of at least D (50%). The weighting of the course assignments is as follows:

The final examination for this course must be requested in advance and written under the supervision of an AU-approved exam invigilator. Invigilators include either ProctorU or an approved in-person invigilation centre that can accommodate online exams. Students are responsible for payment of any invigilation fees. Information on exam request deadlines, invigilators, and other exam-related questions, can be found at the Exams and grades section of the Calendar.

Physical course materials

• The following course materials are included in a course package that will be shipped to your home prior to your course’s start date:
• Chariandy, David. Brother. McClelland & Stewart, 2017.
• Gardner, Janet E., and Joanne Diaz. Reading and Writing about Literature: A Portable Guide. 6th ed., Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2025.
• Leichter, Hilary. Temporary. Coffee House Press, 2020.
• Tokarczuk, Olga. Drive Your Plow over the Bones of the Dead. 2009. Translated by Antonia Lloyd-Jones, Riverhead Books, 2019.

Other materials

All other course materials, including a Study Guide, additional selected readings, and detailed course information, will be provided online.

View Official AU Syllabus ↗

Overview

ENGL 212 is a three-credit course in two parts. In Part 1, a wide variety of examples, from Shakespeare to Atwood, introduce the forms of poetry. Students will examine poetry’s themes, structure, style, and imagery.

Part 2 introduces the elements and forms of drama and provides a historical perspective on the development of drama, with reference to three plays: a tragedy from the early seventeenth century, a tragi-comedy from the late nineteenth century, and a modern comedy.

Learning outcomes

• ENGL 212 has five major learning outcomes. After completing this course, students should be able to:
• Classify poems and plays into the categories covered in the course by recognizing key traits and recalling representative titles and authors.
• Articulate the relationship between form and content in written works by identifying the links between poetic and dramatic categories, relevant figurative elements, and the content of a piece.
• Create interpretive argumentative analyses by crafting an explicit thesis, a central line of reasoning, and analytical support.
• Compare and contrast the similarities and differences in styles and themes in the works covered in the course by offering an evaluative argument, a transparent standard, and comparative analyses.

Outline

• ENGL 212 consists of nine units, organized in two parts:
• Part 1: Poetry
• Unit 1: Introduction to Poetry
• Unit 2: Lyrical Poetry
• Unit 3: Narrative Poetry
• Unit 4: Dramatic Poetry
• Unit 5: Free Verse
• Part 2: Plays
• Unit 6: Introduction to Drama
• Unit 7: Shakespearean Tragedy
• Unit 8: Naturalist Theatre
• Unit 9: Feminist Comedy

Evaluation

To receive credit for ENGL 212, students must complete and submit all of the assignments and write the Final Exam. Students must achieve a minimum grade of D (50 percent) on the Final Exam and an overall grade of at least D (50 percent) for the course.

Students will be evaluated on their understanding of the concepts presented in the course and on their ability to apply those concepts. The final grade in the course will be based on the marks achieved for the following activities.

The final examination for this course must be requested in advance and written under the supervision of an AU-approved exam invigilator. Invigilators include either ProctorU or an approved in-person invigilation centre that can accommodate online exams. Students are responsible for payment of any invigilation fees. Information on exam request deadlines, invigilators, and other exam-related questions, can be found at the Exams and grades section of the Calendar.

Digital course materials

• Links to the following course materials will be made available in the course:
• Baldick, Chris. The Oxford Dictionary of Literary Terms. 4th edition, Oxford University Press, 2015, https://doi.org/10.1093/acref/9780198715443.001.0001.  (AU Library)
• Ibsen, Henrik. Hedda Gabler. Translated by Edmund Gosse and William Archer, Lerner Publishing Group, 2015. ProQuest Ebook Central. (AU Library)
• MacDonald, Ann-Marie. Goodnight Desdemona (Good Morning Juliet). Vintage Canada, 1998.
• Shakespeare, William. The Tragedy of Othello, the Moor of Venice. Edited by Barbara A. Mowat and Paul Werstine, Folger Shakespeare Library, 2025, https://www.folger.edu/explore/shakespeares-works/othello/read. (AU Library)

Other materials

All other materials are available online.

View Official AU Syllabus ↗

Overview

ENGL 255 focuses on essay writing at the university level. In order to improve the necessary skills, students study examples of good writing, do a brief introductory assignment, write a short summary, develop an annotated bibliography, and complete three essays covering different styles and purposes. The course is designed to recognize students’ personal interests, objectives, and learning styles.

ENGL 255 provides some grammar review but assumes at least a senior high school level of competency in both grammar and composition.

Learning outcomes

• By the end of this course, you should be able to
• summarize, quote, and paraphrase
• use effective research methods and proper citation techniques
• adapt to various writing requirements that call for a variety of rhetorical modes
• think and write critically
• write effective essays that meet first-year university expectations for content, organization, style, mechanics, and grammar

Outline

• Unit 1: Writing Paragraphs
• Unit 2: Writing a Summary
• Unit 3: Writing an Expository Essay
• Unit 4: Writing an Annotated Bibliography
• Unit 5: Writing a Research Essay
• Unit 6: Writing an Argumentative Essay

Evaluation

To receive credit for ENGL 255, students must complete and submit all of the assignments and write the final exam. They must achieve a minimum grade of D (50 percent) on the final exam and an overall grade of at least D (50 percent) for the course. Assignments not submitted by the course contract completion date (end of active registration) receive a grade of 0.

Students will be evaluated on their understanding of the concepts presented in the course and on their ability to apply those concepts. The final grade in the course will be based on the marks achieved for the following activities.

The final examination for this course must be requested in advance and written under the supervision of an AU-approved exam invigilator. Invigilators include either ProctorU or an approved in-person invigilation centre that can accommodate online exams. Students are responsible for payment of any invigilation fees. Information on exam request deadlines, invigilators, and other exam-related questions, can be found at the Exams and grades section of the Calendar.

Materials

• This course either does not have a course package or the textbooks are open-source material and available to students at no cost. This course has a Course Administration and Technology Fee, but students are not charged the Course Materials Fee.
• All other materials are available online.
• Year 3 – Frist Semester
• BUSINESS AND ADMINISTRATION CLUSTER

View Official AU Syllabus ↗

Overview

This course provides an introduction to university studies for students who wish to attend a postsecondary institution where English is the medium of instruction. The aim of this course is to prepare students to succeed in complex academic tasks in writing and reading. This is a general academic preparatory course designed from an ESL perspective. However, it is also appropriate for native speakers of English who are in need of general academic and writing preparation.

Outline

This course is composed of six units, which are each divided into three or more lessons drawn from the instructional material in The Canadian Writer’s World. In many cases supplementary material is also available, along with helpful online exercises. The first lesson in each unit, on structure and language, tackles one or more elements of English grammar and usage. The second lesson, on reading, presents a selection of essays that exemplify a particular way of organizing and communicating ideas. The third lesson, on writing, which may be subdivided into two or more sections, looks at how those essays have been composed and offers a number of exercises to practice the necessary skills. Each unit ends with an assignment that asks you to reflect on your progress through the course and to compose a piece of writing that demonstrates your understanding of the skills that were practiced in that unit.

Evaluation

To receive credit, you must complete all the assignments and achieve a minimum grade of 50 percent on the final examination and a composite course grade of at least C– (60 percent). The weighting of the course assignments is as follows:

The final examination for this course must be requested in advance and written under the supervision of an AU-approved exam invigilator. Invigilators include either ProctorU or an approved in-person invigilation centre that can accommodate online exams. Students are responsible for payment of any invigilation fees. Information on exam request deadlines, invigilators, and other exam-related questions, can be found at the Exams and grades section of the Calendar.

Digital course materials

• Links to the following course materials will be made available in the course:
• Gaetz, L., Phadke, S., & Sandberg, R. (2019). The Canadian writer’s world (3rd ed.). Pearson Canada.

Other Resources

All learning resources will be available online.

View Official AU Syllabus ↗