In this survey text, readers will explore the foundations of American education through a critical lens. Topics include the teaching profession, influences on student learning, philosophical and historical foundations, structures of schools, ethical and legal issues, curriculum, classroom environment, and the path forward.
Material Type: Textbook
Composition I focuses on principles of writing, critical reading and essay composition using rhetorical styles common in college-level writing (narrative, example/illustration, compare/contrast, cause-and-effect, argument).
Material Type: Textbook
College ESL Writers: Applied Grammar and Composing Strategies for Success is designed as a comprehensive grammar and writing etext for high intermediate and advanced level non-native speakers of English. We open the text with a discussion on the sentence and then break it down into its elemental components, before reconstructing them into effective sentences with paragraphs and larger academic assignments. Following that, we provide instruction in paragraph and essay writing with several opportunities to both review the fundamentals as well as to demonstrate mastery and move on to more challenging assignments.
Material Type: Textbook
This OER is a writing handbook and resources for English grammar and punctuation.
Material Type: Textbook
Building Blocks of Academic Writing covers typical writing situations for developing academic writers, from prewriting and research through expressing themselves online. Developmental work in different types of paragraphs—descriptive, narrative, expository, persuasive—allows students to build capacity for longer essays. Each chapter includes review questions with a Canadian focus that instructors can assign to help students practise the skills developed in the text.
Material Type: Textbook
Examples and quizzes to reinforce understanding of APA and MLA style and formatting. A quiz bank is available in XHTML or Moodle XML format. These can be imported into a learning management system for students to check their understanding.
Material Type: Assessment, Homework/Assignment, Interactive
First-Year Composition was created to act as a guide for instructors and students to achieve composition course objectives and to create a consistent, cohesive experience across composition courses at universities in Colorado and Wyoming. We have provided a variety of assignments that can be adapted to various teacher interests and student experiences with writing.
Material Type: Textbook
An oral history narrative mini-project that can be used in, for example, an English or Humanities course. Calls for students to present a "snapshot" of their pre-COVID-19 day and asks them to reflect on how their lives have changed. Includes links to related articles/readings.
Material Type: Homework/Assignment
The layout of our book implies there is a beginning, middle, and end to a writing course, but because writing is both an art and a skill, people will find their own processes for learning, improving, and using these skills. Writing processes differ because we are each looking for a workable schemata that fits our way of thinking. Try out a variety of writing processes and strategies, and find what works for you. If you are not uncomfortable on this journey, you simply are not stretching yet. A quick glance through the book will show you that it deftly covers the basics, which are always important to review as you get ready to build onto your scaffolding. Reminders of terminology that form the foundation of a discipline—as well as explanations, descriptions, and examples of their use in a basic education—are in chapters such as “Critical Reading,” “Writing Basics: What Makes a Good Sentence,” “The Writing Process,” “Punctuation,” and “Working with Words.” These are, of course, fundamentals that you have worked with throughout your education, learning in each course skills and habits that elevate your reading, writing, and thinking abilities. This college writing course will ensure that you take another step up to college and professional writing. This text is different in its emphasis on research skills and research writing. The form you will learn, the building blocks of that form, the formality, and the sacrosanct crediting of sources is explained here from English professors and our instructional librarian at the college. Leaning on questions that lead to searches for answers that lead to arguments that present your understanding, the chapters “Critical Reading,” “Rhetorical Modes,” and “Argument” will fill out your growing appreciation of and comfort with the research form in everyday life. From the discussion of source types to guidance through the research process to the models of essay deconstruction, you will find that the expectations and language of this text begin with the college-level student in mind. Working through this text will elevate you into the next stage of writing for a 21st century student and professional.
Material Type: Textbook
This collection grew out of my work as a librarian with English instructors at Northwestern Michigan College as they struggled to adapt their composition courses to use Open Educational Resources in order to save their students the cost of an expensive commercial textbook. Composition textbooks include samples of writing that are copyrighted and cannot be printed or shared. This collection is intended to provide instructors with a wide variety of nonfiction examples of good writing that they can use to teach composition. A smaller collection was my final project for the Creative Commons Librarian Certificate program which I completed in March of 2019. These essays were collected from online magazines that offer their articles under Creative Commons licenses. A few are from individual authors who generously agreed to give their work an open license in order to share it for this collection.
Material Type: Reading
An interactive approach to conveying the values of academic integrity, clarifying the meaning of plagiarism, and introducing the basics of citations, quoting and paraphrasing.
Material Type: Textbook
This writing style guide covers the fundamentals of English usage and writing. It includes sections on grammar and mechanics, editing, formatting, academic citation and research documentation, including the latest MLA and APA style guidelines. A useful supplement to any academic writing course. This guide is primarily based on material from Lumen Learning’s English Composition I: Process-Based course and Joe Schall’s Style for Students, with supplemental videos by David Rheinstrom from Khan Academy’s Grammar.
Material Type: Full Course
This composition textbook is designed to serve undergraduate-level writing courses. This book was designed for Composition I (ENGL 1301) and Composition II (ENGL 1302) courses—specifically, to meet the Academic Course Guide Manual (ACGM) expectations for these courses as defined by the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board. The most-distinctive feature of this book is 100+ models essays written by students. Model essays appear as links at the ends of chapters. The Table of Contents contains hyperlinks that open individual chapters.
Material Type: Reading, Textbook
A Guide to Academic Writing written by a sociologist who specializes in the sociology of food among other subjects.
Material Type: Textbook
From the site: "In the Oregon State Guide to English Literary Terms, our professors define common literary devices and offer short lessons on how to use them in essays and other forms of literary criticism. The series is designed to be a free, online, creative commons (CC BY) resource for high school and college English teachers and students, offering them tools to engage meaningfully with challenging literary texts. To see the videos, please click on the links below. To support dual language instruction, we have added Spanish as well as English subtitles to many of our videos. If you would like to read the English or Spanish transcripts of our videos, please click on their titles and you will be directed to pages dedicated to each term."
Material Type: Case Study, Data Set, Lecture Notes
From the site: "In the Oregon State Guide to Grammar, our professors define grammar terms, explain grammatical conventions, identify parts of speech and constructions, and help students toward a better awareness of their own linguistic intuition. The video series is designed to be a free, online, creative commons (CC BY) resource for high school and college English teachers and students, offering them tools to engage meaningfully with challenging grammatical issues."
Material Type: Data Set, Reading, Student Guide
From the site: Writing Guide with Handbook aligns to the goals, topics, and objectives of many first-year writing and composition courses. It is organized according to relevant genres, and focuses on the writing process, effective writing practices or strategies—including graphic organizers, writing frames, and word banks to support visual learning—and conventions of usage and style. The text includes an editing and documentation handbook, which provides information on grammar and mechanics, common usage errors, and citation styles. Writing Guide with Handbook breaks down barriers in the field of composition by offering an inviting and inclusive approach to students of all intersectional identities. To meet this goal, the text creates a reciprocal relationship between everyday rhetoric and the evolving world of academia. Writing Guide with Handbook builds on students’ life experiences and their participation in rhetorical communities within the familiar contexts of personal interaction and social media. The text seeks to extend these existing skills by showing students how to construct a variety of compelling compositions in a variety of formats, situations, and contexts. Publish date December 2021
Material Type: Textbook
From the source: "Who Teaches Writing is an open teaching and learning resource being used in English Composition classes at Oklahoma State University. It was authored by contributors from Oklahoma State University and also includes invited chapters from faculty and staff at institutions both inside and outside of Oklahoma. Contributors include faculty from various departments, contingent faculty and staff, and graduate instructors. One purpose of the resource is to provide short, relatively jargon-free chapters geared toward undergraduate students taking First-Year Composition. Support for this project was provided in part by OpenOKState and Oklahoma State University Libraries."
Material Type: Textbook
In the age of Buzzfeeds, hashtags, and Tweets, students are increasingly favoring conversational writing and regarding academic writing as less pertinent in their personal lives, education, and future careers. Writing and Literature: Composition as Inquiry, Learning, Thinking and Communication connects students with works and exercises and promotes student learning that is kairotic and constructive. Dr. Tanya Long Bennett, professor of English at the University of North Georgia, poses questions that encourage active rather than passive learning. Furthering ideas presented in Contribute a Verse: A Guide to First-Year Composition as a complimentary companion, Writing and Literature builds a new conversation covering various genres of literature and writing. Students learn the various writing styles appropriate for analyzing, addressing, and critiquing these genres including poetry, novels, dramas, and research writing. The text and its pairing of helpful visual aids throughout emphasizes the importance of critical reading and analysis in producing a successful composition. Writing and Literature is a refreshing textbook that links learning, literature, and life.
Material Type: Textbook
The Process of Research Writing is a web-based research writing textbook (or is that textweb?) suitable for teachers and students in research oriented composition and rhetoric classes.
Material Type: Textbook
