OER: Open Educational Resources

"This writer's reference condenses and covers everything a beginning writing student should need to successfully compose college-level work. The book covers the basics of composition and revising, including how to build a strong thesis, how to peer review a fellow student's work, and a handy checklist for revision, before moving on to a broad overview of academic writing. Included for those students who need writing help at the most basic level are comprehensive sections on sentence style and grammar, verbs, nouns and other tenets of basic grammar. Finally, the sections on research and citation should help any student find solid evidence for their school work and cite it correctly, as well as encouraging an understanding of why citation is so important in the first place. This is a guide that is useful to writing students of all levels, either as a direct teaching tool or a simple reference." - works with ENG 101 & ENG 105

This textbook guides students through rhetorical and assignment analysis, the writing process, researching, citing, rhetorical modes, and critical reading. Using accessible but rigorous readings by professionals throughout the college composition field, the Oregon Writes Writing Textbook aligns directly to the statewide writing outcomes for English Composition courses in Oregon.

Introduction to College Writing is a textbook that provides instructions for writing essays at the college level. It contains chapters on rhetorical awareness, the writing process, organization, development & support, critical thinking, and writing basics.

The Worry Free Writer is the product of over 20 years of experience in teaching composition. Dr. Palmer directs students through the Writing Process, while teaching them a simple Writing Formula that they can use to help take the stress out of writing for academic purposes. This text is a comprehensive textbook for first year composition, including instruction for standard essays covered in ENG 101, as well as writing the literature based essays typically covered in ENG 102. In the first part of this text, students learn how to write an analysis, an evaluation, and an argument with step by step instructions. Additionally, the book includes mini-grammar reviews of common writing errors, an introduction to MLA and APA formatting, and a guide for publishing work to the web. In the second half of the text, students learn how to write about literature, with a step by step guide for writing a poetry analysis, a critical lens analysis of a short story, and a literary comparison between an essay (creative non-fiction) and another piece of literature.

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.

"This writer's reference condenses and covers everything a beginning writing student should need to successfully compose college-level work. The book covers the basics of composition and revising, including how to build a strong thesis, how to peer review a fellow student's work, and a handy checklist for revision, before moving on to a broad overview of academic writing. Included for those students who need writing help at the most basic level are comprehensive sections on sentence style and grammar, verbs, nouns and other tenets of basic grammar. Finally, the sections on research and citation should help any student find solid evidence for their school work and cite it correctly, as well as encouraging an understanding of why citation is so important in the first place. This is a guide that is useful to writing students of all levels, either as a direct teaching tool or a simple reference." - works with ENG 101 & ENG 105

(version 3.0) "Research assignments—resulting in final products such as term papers, essays, posters, multimedia projects, blog posts, 3-D models, etc.—are a common requirement in college courses, but they can also be a source of stress when you aren’t sure what to do. This guide is intended to decrease your stress and increase your comfort with such assignments." - works with ENG 105

"The web gives us many such strategies and tactics and tools, which, properly used, can get students closer to the truth of a statement or image within seconds. For some reason we have decided not to teach students these specific techniques. As many people have noted, the web is both the largest propaganda machine ever created and the most amazing fact-checking tool ever invented. But if we haven't taught our students those capabilities is it any surprise that propaganda is winning?
This is an unabashedly practical guide for the student fact-checker. It supplements generic information literacy with the specific web-based techniques that can get you closer to the truth on the web more quickly." - works with ENG 105

The Worry Free Writer is the product of over 20 years of experience in teaching composition. Dr. Palmer directs students through the Writing Process, while teaching them a simple Writing Formula that they can use to help take the stress out of writing for academic purposes. This text is a comprehensive textbook for first year composition, including instruction for standard essays covered in ENG 101, as well as writing the literature based essays typically covered in ENG 102. In the first part of this text, students learn how to write an analysis, an evaluation, and an argument with step by step instructions. Additionally, the book includes mini-grammar reviews of common writing errors, an introduction to MLA and APA formatting, and a guide for publishing work to the web. In the second half of the text, students learn how to write about literature, with a step by step guide for writing a poetry analysis, a critical lens analysis of a short story, and a literary comparison between an essay (creative non-fiction) and another piece of literature.

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.

"Writing in College is designed for students who have largely mastered high-school level conventions of formal academic writing and are now moving beyond the five-paragraph essay to more advanced engagement with text. It is well suited to composition courses or first-year seminars, and valuable as a supplemental or recommended text in other writing-intensive classes. It provides a friendly, down-to-earth introduction to professors' goals and expectations, demystifying the norms of the academy and how they shape college writing assignments. Each of the nine chapters could be read separately, and each includes suggested exercises to bring the main messages to life.Students will find in Writing in College a warm invitation to join the academic community as novice scholars and to approach writing as a meaningful medium of communication. With concise discussions, clear multidisciplinary examples, and empathy for the challenges of student life, Guptill conveys a welcoming tone. In addition, each chapter includes Student Voices: peer-to-peer wisdom from real SUNY Brockport students about their strategies for and experiences with college writing. While there are many affordable writing guides available, most focus only on sentence-level issues or, conversely, a broad introduction to making the transition. Writing In College, in contrast, provides both a coherent frame for approaching writing assignments and indispensable advice for effective organization and expression." - works with ENG 105

Whether you are a seasoned scholar, a curious student, or simply a lover of literature, we invite you to embark on a journey through the pages of American Literature Before 1860 and discover the enduring legacy of American letters before the dawn of the Civil War.

This anthology of American Literatures Prior to 1865, is organized chronologically into four units, focusing on Colonial Literature, Literature of Native American Perspectives and Discovery, Literature of Nineteenth Century Reform, and Literature of the New Nation. It includes introductions to the many authors included to enhance the reader’s contextual understanding of the chosen texts. This anthology is essential reading for any student or scholar of Early American literature.

- works with ENG 112 & ENG 125

This book is an anthology of American Literatures After 1865, a new revision of the open educational resource entitled Writing the Nation: A Concise Introduction to American Literature 1865 to Present. It contains works that have been newly introduced to the public domain and provides direct links to reading materials that can be borrowed for free from Archive.org.

"Since America's founding, the diversity of American writers has shaped its literature. Authors and poets of the past have created a colorful collection of works that are still studied today alongside contemporary works. Writing the Nation: A Concise Introduction to American Literature 1865 to Present, is designed to continue the preservation of famous American literary works in the minds of college students. Readers will encounter a comprehensive collection of over seventy-five short stories, poems, and novel selections that encompass the distinct writing styles of the writers and eras. The text takes students on an academic journey of American Literature from the period of Late Romanticism to Modernism and the present. Each chapter begins with brief writer bios and includes a concise introduction to the time period and how certain societal, economical, and political factors influenced writers in that era. Featured authors and poets include favorites such as Walt Whitman, Mark Twain, and Flannery O'Conner among many more. This anthology provides an opportunity for students to engage in extensive analysis of American works, both past and present." - works with ENG 112 & ENG 125

This book is designed to help us understand the many changes to U.S. journalism and imagine new futures for it – futures in which it can serve as an even more useful tool for promoting a well-functioning society. But, before we can imagine new futures, we must take a step back and examine the institution of U.S. journalism through a critical and in-depth lens. This book aims to offer just that. It provides a conceptual foundation for understanding the development, logic, and practice of journalism in the United States; describes some of the key challenges, tensions, and opportunities it has faced, is facing, and will likely face; and offers guidance to help individuals develop the skills needed engage in impactful journalism.

This online educational resource is designed to provide students with an introduction to the field of journalism in a society that expects immediate, accurate and useful information. The goal of this resource is to prepare students to become practicing journalists and to increase media literacy even among those who do not intend to pursue journalism as a career.

This textbook is designed to provide a foundational news writing course for a myriad of majors, including print, digital, audio and broadcast journalism, communications, advertising, social media and public relations.

Intro to Journalism offers practical strategies for news and features writing. It also includes interviewing tips, media ethics principles, and media law concepts.

“Writing Fabulous Features” teaches the art and craft of feature writing to help readers learning to write non-fiction with flair through examples, expert insights, writing techniques and quick tips.

Welcome to Mindful Technical Writing: An Introduction to the Fundamentals, an open textbook designed for use in co-requisite course pairings of developmental writing and introductory technical writing, or indeed in other lower-division college writing courses that focus on building study skills alongside effective workplace and academic writing skills. It offers a no-cost alternative to commercial products, combining practical guidance with interactive exercises and thoughtfully designed writing opportunities.

This open textbook offers students of technical writing an introduction to the processes and products involved in professional, workplace, and technical writing. The text is broken up into sections reflecting key components of researching, developing, and producing a technical report. Readers will also learn about other professional communication, designing documents, and creating and integrating graphics. Written especially for an academic setting, this book provides readers with guidance on information literacy and documenting sources. This book was collected, adapted, and edited from multiple openly licensed sources.

An open textbook that gives students an overview of the kinds of writing they'll be expected to do in upper-level college courses, the workplace, and beyond. The book covers the main elements of technical communication and provides students opportunities to put those elements into practice. It explores how writers locate, create, and deliver technical information.

from: Rod Library, University of Northern Iowa with support from North American Review Press.
"This free and open access textbook introduces new writers to some basic elements of the craft of creative writing. The authors—Rachel Morgan, Jeremy Schraffenberger, and Grant Tracey—are editors of the North American Review ... The primary audience for this textbook, however, is the new writer, someone who may be enrolled in an introductory class, or perhaps someone who is trying to learn about the craft of creative writing on their own. No matter what brought the writer to this resource, we attempt to break things down to demonstrate principles of what we think makes good writing. We discuss the three genres that we publish in the NAR..."

Each exercise is formatted to be as user-friendly as possible. The creative writing instructors who have offered their classroom expertise first offer an overview of the exercise and a rationale for its objective. This introduction is followed by step-by-step instructions. Many instructors have included, with permission, examples from their students. Almost all the exercises are adjustable for various levels—from high school to the graduate classroom—and we hope this anthology will be a useful and edifying tool for teachers at all stages of their career.

This is an OER textbook for Creative Writing courses. //Hi. Most creative writing textbooks cover the "big guys" of literature: poetry, nonfiction, and fiction. This textbook is different in two ways, then, because not only does it attempt to cover MORE genres, but it is also a free textbook. More for free? What the what? Yes, it's true.//

Welcome to Introduction to the Short Story!
Short stories are often used to explore everyday human experiences and offer a snapshot of life, often leaving readers with lingering questions or insights. A short story is a brief, self-contained work of fiction that typically focuses on a singular theme or idea, capturing a moment, an event, or a character’s emotional or psychological experience in a concise format. Unlike novels, which allow for extended development of characters, plot, and setting, short stories often aim for a sharp, impactful narrative, using economy of language and a limited scope to deliver powerful messages or evoke deep emotions.
This course is a literature course which examines selected short stories, emphasizing the history of the genre. It involves critical reading and writing.

Exploring Movie Construction & Production contains eight chapters of the major areas of film construction and production. The discussion covers theme, genre, narrative structure, character portrayal, story, plot, directing style, cinematography, and editing. Important terminology is defined and types of analysis are discussed and demonstrated. An extended example of how a movie description reflects the setting, narrative structure, or directing style is used throughout the book to illustrate building blocks of each theme. This approach to film instruction and analysis has proved beneficial to increasing students’ learning, while enhancing the creativity and critical thinking of the student.

Since the early 1900s, filmmakers and theorists have argued over the question of what differentiates film from the other arts of literature, painting, theater and photography. Film, also known as cinema, or movies, refers not just to moving images and the telling of stories, but also to the celluloid or film stock upon which these moving images were printed. For well over a century, film has profoundly impacted our world and the ways in which we perceive ourselves and others. However, we have also had an impact upon the medium. Surrounded as we are in society by a constant barrage of images from television, cell phone and compu­ter screens to digital ad screens in subways, department stores and airports, moving images have become so ubiquitous that we fail to recognize how trained we already are in reading images. We often neglect to give these images the careful, critical consideration they require to develop an appreciation for their construction, and the different kinds of audiovisual expe­riences in which they invite us to participate.

A free and open-source introduction to the art and science of moving pictures, offering in-depth exploration of how cinema communicates, and what, exactly, it is trying to say.

Business Communication: Five Core Competencies is a practical, engaging book designed to help undergraduate students and business professionals develop competence and build confidence in their business writing skills. Readers will learn about the five core competencies of business communication: professional, clear, concise, evidence-driven, and persuasive. They also will learn strategies for applying each of these competencies across a range of real-world business scenarios. Each chapter includes Communication Tips, Your Turn Exercises, and how-to advice for writing a variety of business messages.

Business Writing For Everyone is an inclusive guide to writing in the workplace. The book takes a process-oriented, storytelling approach to composition: focusing less on genre and more on the decisions that effective business communicators make. Business Writing For Everyone also contains interactive H5P activities for students to test their learning, and activities for further reflection that instructors can use in the classroom or assign as homework.

Fundamentals of Business Communication 2nd Edition is an updated version of Fundamentals of Business Communication. The resource provides a comprehensive overview of current concepts readers need to understand when communicating professionally in the digital age. We wanted to redesign this new edition with Universal Design for Learning principles in mind. We hope the activities and assignments instructors design and use along with this resource will embody UDL principles as well. If you are new to UDL, cast.org is a great place to start.

This modern, open-source guide to technical and professional writing explores workplace composition through theoretical and practical applications. Discussions of multiple writing genres will assist you in understanding how to apply for jobs, how to compose clear and precise business communications once the job has been acquired, and how to create documents -- such as proposals and reports -- that will be instrumental in helping to advance your career.