Literature, Rhetoric, and Poetry Textbooks

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Cornelius Nepos, 'Life of Hannibal': Latin Text, Notes, Maps, Illustrations and Vocabulary

Contributor: Mulligan

Publisher: Open Book Publishers

License: CC BY

Trebia. Trasimene. Cannae. With three stunning victories, Hannibal humbled Rome and nearly shattered its empire. Even today Hannibal's brilliant, if ultimately unsuccessful, campaign against Rome during the Second Punic War (218-202 BC) make him one of history's most celebrated military leaders. This biography by Cornelius Nepos (c. 100-27 BC) sketches Hannibal's life from the time he began traveling with his father's army as a young boy, through his sixteen-year invasion of Italy and his tumultuous political career in Carthage, to his perilous exile and eventual suicide in the East.

(2 reviews)

Cicero, On Pompey’s Command (De Imperio), 27-49. Latin Text, Study Aids with Vocabulary, Commentary, and Translation

Contributors: Gildenhard and Hodgson

Publisher: Open Book Publishers

License: CC BY

In republican times, one of Rome's deadliest enemies was King Mithridates of Pontus. In 66 BCE, after decades of inconclusive struggle, the tribune Manilius proposed a bill that would give supreme command in the war against Mithridates to Pompey the Great, who had just swept the Mediterranean clean of another menace: the pirates. While powerful aristocrats objected to the proposal, which would endow Pompey with unprecedented powers, the bill proved hugely popular among the people, and one of the praetors, Marcus Tullius Cicero, also hastened to lend it his support. In his first ever political speech, variously entitled pro lege Manilia or de imperio Gnaei Pompei, Cicero argues that the war against Mithridates requires the appointment of a perfect general and that the only man to live up to such lofty standards is Pompey. In the section under consideration here, Cicero defines the most important hallmarks of the ideal military commander and tries to demonstrate that Pompey is his living embodiment.

(1 review)

Tacitus, Annals, 15.20-23, 33-45. Latin Text, Study Aids with Vocabulary, and Commentary

Contributors: Owen and Gildenhard

Publisher: Open Book Publishers

License: CC BY

The emperor Nero is etched into the Western imagination as one of ancient Rome's most infamous villains, and Tacitus' Annals have played a central role in shaping the mainstream historiographical understanding of this flamboyant autocrat.

(1 review)

PDX Journeys: Studying and Living in the US, Low-Intermediate Novel and Textbook for University ESL Students

Contributor: Calderón

Publisher: Portland State University Library

License: CC BY-NC

Each unit begins with a chapter of fiction about a teacher and students in one ESL class. Reading comprehension and reading skills exercises follow. Prefix and suffix vocabulary-focus exercises are included. Academic Word List vocabulary exercises help students build a strong foundation in both receptive and productive knowledge. The following chapters in each unit expand on unit themes through non-fiction articles focusing on academic preparation, international experiences, and cultural adjustment. Vocabulary is repeated and comprehension and reading skills are further practiced.

(7 reviews)

Writing the Nation: A Concise Introduction to American Literature 1865 to Present

Contributors: Berke, Bleil, and Cofer

Publisher: University of North Georgia Press

License: CC BY-SA

Writing the Nation: A Concise Guide to American Literature 1865 to Present is a text that surveys key literary movements and the American authors associated with the movement. Topics include late romanticism, realism, naturalism, modernism, and modern literature.

(23 reviews)

World Literature I: Beginnings to 1650

Contributors: Getty and Kwon

Publisher: University of North Georgia Press

License: CC BY-SA

This peer-reviewedWorld Literature Ianthology includes introductory text and images before each series of readings. Sections of the text are divided bytimeperiod in three parts: the Ancient World, Middle Ages, and Renaissance, and then divided into chapters by location.

(6 reviews)

Compact Anthology of World Literature

Contributors: Getty and Kwon

Publisher: University of North Georgia Press

License: CC BY-SA

A world literature class may be the first place that some students have encountered European works, let alone non-Western texts. The emphasis in this anthology, therefore, is on non-Western and European works, with only the British authors who were the most influential to European and non-Western authors (such as Shakespeare, whose works have influenced authors around the world to the present day). In a world literature class, there is no way that a student can be equally familiar with all of the societies, contexts, time periods, cultures, religions, and languages that they will encounter; even though the works presented here are translated, students will face issues such as unfamiliar names and parts of the story (such as puns) that may not translate well or at all. Since these stories are rooted in their cultures and time periods, it is necessary to know the basic context of each work to understand the expectations of the original audience.

(13 reviews)

Exploring Public Speaking - 4th Edition

Contributors: Barton and Tucker

Publisher: University System of Georgia

License: CC BY-NC-SA

In Exploring Public Speaking, especially in its second through fourth editions, we have attempted to create a usable, zero-cost textbook for basic public speaking courses or courses that include basic public speaking skills as one of their primary learning outcomes. The free, open nature of the text means that instructors are able to use all or part of it, and add their own materials.

(46 reviews)

Technical Writing

Contributors: Hamlin and Rubio

Publisher: Open Oregon Educational Resources

License: CC BY-NC-SA

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.

(28 reviews)

Conventions 101: A Functional Approach to Teaching (And Assessing!) Grammar and Punctuation

Contributor: Ramsey

Publisher: Open Oregon Educational Resources

License: CC BY-NC

This is a collection of cumulative units of study for conventional errors common in student writing. It's flexible, functional, and zeroes in problems typically seen in writing of all types, from the eternal “there/they're/their” struggle to correct colon use. Units are organized from most simple to most challenging.

(26 reviews)