Literature, Rhetoric, and Poetry Textbooks

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Informed Arguments: A Guide to Writing and Research - Revised Second Edition

Contributors: Pantuso, LeMire, and Anders

Publisher: Texas A&M University

License: CC BY-NC-SA

Welcome to composition and rhetoric! While most of you are taking this course because it is required, we hope that all of you will leave with more confidence in your reading, writing, researching, and speaking abilities as these are all elements of freshman composition. Many times, these elements are presented in excellent textbooks written by top scholars. While the collaborators of this particular textbook respect and value those textbooks available from publishers, we have been concerned about students who do not have the resources to purchase textbooks. Therefore, we decided to put together this Open Educational Resource (OER) explicitly for use in freshman composition courses at Texas A&M University. It is important to note that the focus for this text is on thesis-driven argumentation as that is the focus of the first year writing course at Texas A&M University at the time of development. However, other first year writing courses at different colleges and universities include a variety of types of writing such as personal essays, informative articles, and/or creative writing pieces. The collaborators for this project acknowledge each program is unique; therefore, the adaptability of an OER textbook for first year writing allows for academic freedom across campuses.

(10 reviews)

Prose Fiction: An Introduction to the Semiotics of Narrative

Contributor: Ribó

Publisher: Open Book Publishers

License: CC BY

This concise and highly accessible textbook outlines the principles and techniques of storytelling. It is intended as a high-school and college-level introduction to the central concepts of narrative theory – concepts that will aid students in developing their competence not only in analysing and interpreting short stories and novels, but also in writing them. This textbook prioritises clarity over intricacy of theory, equipping its readers with the necessary tools to embark on further study of literature, literary theory and creative writing. Building on a ‘semiotic model of narrative,’ it is structured around the key elements of narratological theory, with chapters on plot, setting, characterisation, and narration, as well as on language and theme – elements which are underrepresented in existing textbooks on narrative theory. The chapter on language constitutes essential reading for those students unfamiliar with rhetoric, while the chapter on theme draws together significant perspectives from contemporary critical theory (including feminism and postcolonialism). This textbook is engaging and easily navigable, with key concepts highlighted and clearly explained, both in the text and in a full glossary located at the end of the book. Throughout the textbook the reader is aided by diagrams, images, quotes from prominent theorists, and instructive examples from classical and popular short stories and novels (such as Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice, Franz Kafka’s ‘The Metamorphosis,’ J. K. Rowling’s Harry Potter, or Dostoyevsky’s The Brothers Karamazov, amongst many others). Prose Fiction: An Introduction to the Semiotics of Narrative can either be incorporated as the main textbook into a wider syllabus on narrative theory and creative writing, or it can be used as a supplementary reference book for readers interested in narrative fiction. The textbook is a must-read for beginning students of narratology, especially those with no or limited prior experience in this area. It is of especial relevance to English and Humanities major students in Asia, for whom it was conceived and written.

(6 reviews)

Writing Unleashed: Content and Structure - 3.0

Contributors: Priebe, Marman, and Anderson

Publisher: North Dakota University System

License: CC BY-NC-SA

Welcome to Writing Unleashed, designed for use as a textbook in first-year college composition programs, written as an extremely brief guide for students, jam-packed with teachers’ voices, students’ voices, and engineered for fun.

(5 reviews)

Bad Ideas About Writing

Contributors: Ball and Loewe

Publisher: West Virginia University

License: CC BY

We intend this work to be less a bestiary of bad ideas about writing than an effort to name bad ideas and suggest better ones. Some of those bad ideas are quite old, such as the archetype of the inspired genius author, the five-paragraph essay, or the abuse of adjunct writing teachers. Others are much newer, such as computerized essay scoring or gamification. Some ideas, such as the supposed demise of literacy brought on by texting, are newer bad ideas but are really instances of older bad ideas about literacy always being in a cycle of decline. Yet the same core questions such as what is good writing, what makes a good writer, how should writing be assessed, and the like persist across contexts, technologies, and eras. The project has its genesis in frustration, but what emerges is hope: hope for leaving aside bad ideas and thinking about writing in more productive, inclusive, and useful ways.

(12 reviews)

English Composition: Connect, Collaborate, Communicate

Contributors: Inoshita, Garland, Sims, Tsutsui, and Williams

Publisher: University of Hawaii Manoa

License: CC BY

This OER textbook has been designed for students to learn the foundational concepts for English 100 (first-year college composition). The content aligns to learning outcomes across all campuses in the University of Hawai'i system. It was designed, written, and edited during a three day book sprint in May, 2019.

(22 reviews)

Interpreting Love Narratives in East Asian Literature and Film

Contributor: Wallace

Publisher: University of California, Berkeley

License: CC BY-NC

This book explores the role of traditional East Asian worldviews, ethical values, and common practices in the shaping of East Asian narratives in literature and film. It offers a specific method for this analysis. The interpretive goal is to arrive at interpretations that more accurately engage cultural information so that narratives are understood more closely in terms of their native cultural rather than that of the reader/interpreter. Current neuroscience related to processes of perception and the attribution of meaning form the basis for the theory of interpretation offered in the first half of the volume.

(2 reviews)

A Guide to the Gothic

Contributor: Laredo

Publisher: University of North Texas

License: CC BY

A Gothic anthology of selections from more than 200 years of Gothic works in the public domain, this textbook covers major trends, tropes and periods in the development of Gothic literature from 1764 to the present.

Let's Get Writing!

Contributors: Browning, DeVries, Boylan, Kurtz, and Burton

Publisher: Virginia Western Community College

License: CC BY-NC-SA

This introduction is designed to exemplify how writers think about and produce text. The guiding features are the following:

(18 reviews)

Becoming America: An Exploration of American Literature from Precolonial to Post-Revolution

Contributor: Kurant

Publisher: University of North Georgia Press

License: CC BY-SA

The University of North Georgia Press and Affordable Learning Georgia bring you Becoming America: An Exploration of American Literature from Precolonial to Post-Revolution. Featuring sixty-nine authors and full texts of their works, the selections in this open anthology represent the diverse voices in early American literature. This completely-open anthology will connect students to the conversation of literature that is embedded in American history and has helped shaped its culture.

(8 reviews)

How to Make Notes and Write

Contributors: Allosso and Allosso

Publisher: Minnesota Libraries Publishing Project

License: CC BY-NC-SA

There are plenty of personal knowledge management systems out there, promising to help you take smart notes or link your thinking or build a second brain. And there are plenty of writing guides out there promising to teach you the elements of style. This book offers a simple and effective way to make effective notes on sources and your interpretations of them, then turn those thoughts into clear and compelling output.

(8 reviews)