Hi! Okay last year, I never bought the course ware because the readings in it were never assigned. They were just essays and articles the prof thought you might enjoy. Or they might have been assigned, I don't remember (but I don't think they were), anyway nothing in it was ever on the exam. But I had Dr. Strauss and it's a different prof now so I don't know if the course ware is important or not. The Little Penguin Handbook may or may not be required; the imortant part is that the handbook somes with a password to My Canadian Comp Lab which gives you TONS of help for essays but more importantly there is an online quiz that is MANDATORY for students to complete worth 5% of your grade. Also, it's mandatory that you get more than 75% on the quiz (or you don't pass the class). Essentially, it's just testing your English skills as a first year student cominmg from hs. However, last year one student made a big deal over it saying that the uni can't make us buy a book that will be part of our mark, so ultimately, the book was void and the 5% added to your exam mark (if you chose not to do the quiz). As an English student, I find My Little Penguin Handbook absolutely invaluable and have used it for every class I have every taken, so I would suggest that you buy it!
I bought the textbook, read the first chapter, and never read the rest. I think I should have, though. I probably would have benefitted. I don't know what different TAs discuss; mine was pretty laid back and we often discussed articles instead of textbook chapters, but other TAs may strictly stick with textbook information. I ended the class with a 10. However, I was really involved with class participation and a lot of the textbook material had been covered in Dr. Brophy's Long Genre class, so I guess I was lucky. I dunno, all the material just really stuck with me I guess. I also had a really excellent TA.
Read my course review on ICS3! This is a great class!
http://www.macinsiders.com/showthrea....html?p=274628
I hope this helps!
EDIT: I just thought: even though I didn't read entire chapters of the text, I did read parts. I looked up definitions and looked up certain things I was writing my essay about. I also went through material that she said would be covered on the exam (and ultimately
was on the exam). So yeah, even though I didn't read it week-to-week, I would say that you should have it.
