Recommended OER Texts and readings

In the Fall 2024 semester, 79 English sections used OER texts, which saved students over $155,000 in textbook costs! Please continue to use and explore OER texts for your classes!

For a collection of OER Resources for English 1102, view the pressbook by Jillian Grauman and Mary Childers.

Below is a list of separate OER texts and readings especially curated to align with our course objectives for ENGLISH 1102: Composition 2. You'll find materials for both yourself and your students. These sources have been vetted by the Composition Steering Committee and are *free* texts that you and your students can use as you work towards achieving the course objectives.

Many thanks go out to the folks at the Writing Commons, the authors and editors of Writing Spaces, and finally the WAC Clearinghouse.

OBJECTIVE 1

Practice writing as a process involving inquiry, research, feedback, and revision

Recommended Texts

A Rhetoric of Literate Action (2013)

FOR FACULTY:

"Managing Writing Processes and the Emergent Text"
by Charles Bazerman

A modern explanation of “writing processes” as situated, context-specific, and responsive within differences. Complicates the K-12 understanding of “writing process” (brainstorming, drafting, revising) that so many English 1101 students know and reorients them toward our course objectives.

Writing Spaces: Readings on Writing, Volume 2 (2011)

FOR YOUR STUDENTS:

"Ten Ways To Think About Writing: Metaphoric Musings for College Writing Students"
by E. Shelley Reid

Using comparisons to familiar events, this chapter will to enable you to help students realize that they already know a lot about writing well. Knowing they can write rhetorically--with an understanding of purpose and audience--will help students work with confidence and compose with power.

Recommended Readings

“What is the Writing Process” by Sarah M. Lacy, Melanie Gagich, and Terri Pantuso
“Failure is Not an Option” by Allison D. Carr

OBJECTIVE 2

Analyze rhetorical situations as they relate to discourse communities

Recommended Texts

Composition Forum 37 (2017)

FOR FACULTY:

"The Concept of Discourse Community: Some Recent Personal History"
by John Swales

This source is helpful both with respect to defining the term “discourse community” and by providing an updated take on the concept that is particularly aware of the global & digital environment we now live in. Swales shows how verbal and social behaviors adapt to new environments, providing students a rhetorical framework to "survive and flourish in their diverse educational environments."

Writing Spaces: Readings on Writing, Volume 2 (2011)

FOR YOUR STUDENTS:

"Murder! (Rhetorically Speaking)"
by Janet Boyd

This chapter asks students to participate in playful exercises that revolve around a hypothetical murder. While the facts remain the same, the rhetorical situations vary: you can invite your students to write as if they are detectives, coroners, eulogists, and lawyers. In each situation, the rhetorical demands are different. The progression of the writing exercises will help you and your students identify and define which rhetorical strategies they are already capable of employing and help them to think about how such strategies can apply to academic writing.

Recommended Readings

"Rhetorical Situation" by Terri Pantuso
“Murder! (Rhetorically Speaking” by Janet Boyd

OBJECTIVE 3

Identify an issue relevant to a discourse community, a research question, a research plan, and digital and/or print media and genre(s) in which to present research findings to an audience

Recommended Texts

A Rhetoric of Literate Action (2013)

FOR FACULTY:

"Emergent Motives, Situations, Forms"
by Charles Bazerman

This chapter articulates how writing requires extended work over time, with attention to motives, options, and actions. Bazerman attempts to undo what much of the K-12 has taught writing students, citing that the "school experience of writing becomes a general characterization of all writing...and [that gets] carried over to non-school situations in ways that are inappropriate." This chapter shows how the writing process should occur over time, allowing students to dislocate writing from school to witness consequences beyond that of a letter grade.

Writing Spaces: Readings on Writing, Volume 3 (2020)

FOR YOUR STUDENTS:

"Understanding Discourse Communities"
by Dan Melzer

This chapter uses John Swales’ definition of discourse community to explain to students why this concept is important for college writing and beyond. The chapter explains how genres operate within discourse communities, why different discourse communities have different expectations for writing, and how to understand what qualifies as a discourse community. The article concludes with writerly questions students can ask themselves as they enter new discourse communities in order to be more effective communicators.

Recommended Readings

“Features of an Argument” By Terri Pantuso

OBJECTIVE 4

Access the feasibility of the research inquiry.

Recommended Texts

Writing Spaces: Readings on Writing, Volume 2 (2011)

FOR FACULTY:

"Googlepedia: Turning Information Behaviors into Research Skills"
by Randall McClure

FROM THE ABSTRACT: How do you, as a teacher, help students in the process of moving into the virtual library for their research needs, while respecting and understanding the information behaviors they practice and prefer? Growing up in the digital age, students often come to our first year writing courses with a rich and varied set of technological skills and information behaviors...this chapter proposes that teachers challenge students to merge their current information behaviors with traditional information literacy strategies; it includes suggestions for helping students meet that challenge.

Writing Spaces: Readings on Writing, Volume 2 (2011)

FOR YOUR STUDENTS:

"The Complexity of Simplicity: Invention Potentials for Writing Students"
by Colin Charlton

FROM THE ABSTRACT: Students struggle with getting started on writing projects. In this chapter, you will find innovative invention strategies explained and modeled, based on student experiences. By including questions to prompt thinking as well as writing, and student examples, this chapter can help you show students how to transform their uncertainty about finding a writing topic into an opportunity to make new connections between texts, people, and ideas.

Recommended Readings

“Failures in Evidence: When ‘Lot’s of Quotes’ Can’t Save a Paper” by Emilie Zickel

OBJECTIVE 5

Build a body of research in the various stages of the research process.

Recommended Texts

Writing Spaces: Readings on Writing, Volume 2 (2011)

FOR FACULTY:

"Googlepedia: Turning Information Behaviors into Research Skills"
by Randall McClure

FROM THE ABSTRACT: How do you, as a teacher, help students in the process of moving into the virtual library for their research needs, while respecting and understanding the information behaviors they practice and prefer? Growing up in the digital age, students often come to our first year writing courses with a rich and varied set of technological skills and information behaviors...this chapter proposes that teachers challenge students to merge their current information behaviors with traditional information literacy strategies; it includes suggestions for helping students meet that challenge.

Writing Spaces: Readings on Writing, Volume 2 (2011)

FOR YOUR STUDENTS:

"The Complexity of Simplicity: Invention Potentials for Writing Students"
by Colin Charlton

FROM THE ABSTRACT: Students struggle with getting started on writing projects. In this chapter, you will find innovative invention strategies explained and modeled, based on student experiences. By including questions to prompt thinking as well as writing, and student examples, this chapter can help you show students how to transform their uncertainty about finding a writing topic into an opportunity to make new connections between texts, people, and ideas.

Recommended Readings

“Research Concepts” –Chapter Eight of Empoword: A Student Centered Anthology and Handbook for College Writers by Shane Abrams
“Basic Structure and Content of Argument” by Amanda Lloyd et al.

OBJECTIVE 6

Evaluate the credibility of a variety of sources.

Recommended Texts

Writing Spaces: Readings on Writing, Volume 2 (2011)

FOR FACULTY:

"Walk, Talk, Cook, Eat: A Guide to Using Sources"
by Cynthia R. Haller

FROM THE ABSTRACT: Teaching students to write well with sources involves much more than teaching them to summarize, paraphrase, quote, and provide documentation. You can use this dialogue, in which a college student seeks writing advice about using sources from an online professor, to help students understand what it means to use sources thoughtfully, appropriately, and rhetorically.

Writing Spaces: Readings on Writing, Volume 3 (2020)

FOR YOUR STUDENTS:

"Assessing Source Credibility for Crafting A Well-Informed Argument"
by Warrington, Kovalyova, & King

FROM THE ABSTRACT: This article walks students through how to use critical reading strategies to help them select credible sources for their research papers and helps them understand how critical reading assignments they may have completed earlier in the semester have prepared them for the difficult task of selecting sources.

Recommended Readings

“Interacting with Sources”--Chapter Nine of Empoword: A Student Centered Anthology and Handbook for College Writers by Shane Abrams

OBJECTIVE 7

Analyze arguments presented in sources.

Recommended Texts

Writing Spaces: Readings on Writing, Volume 2 (2011)

FOR FACULTY:

"Walk, Talk, Cook, Eat: A Guide to Using Sources"
by Cynthia R. Haller

FROM THE ABSTRACT: Teaching students to write well with sources involves much more than teaching them to summarize, paraphrase, quote, and provide documentation. You can use this dialogue, in which a college student seeks writing advice about using sources from an online professor, to help students understand what it means to use sources thoughtfully, appropriately, and rhetorically.

Writing Spaces: Readings on Writing, Volume 3 (2020)

FOR YOUR STUDENTS:

"Assessing Source Credibility for Crafting A Well-Informed Argument"
by Warrington, Kovalyova, & King

FROM THE ABSTRACT: This article walks students through how to use critical reading strategies to help them select credible sources for their research papers and helps them understand how critical reading assignments they may have completed earlier in the semester have prepared them for the difficult task of selecting sources.

Recommended Readings

“Summary and Response”--Chapter Five of Empoword: A Student Centered Anthology and Handbook for College Writers By Shane Abrams

“Analysis and Synthesis”--Chapter Six of Empoword: A Student-Centered Anthology and Handbook for College Writers by Shane Abrams

“Interpretation, Analysis and Close Reading”--Chapter Four of Empoword: A Student Centered Anthology and Handbook for College Writers by Shane Abrams

OBJECTIVE 8

Develop research-supported arguments that address an issue relevant to a discourse community.

Recommended Texts

Situating Writing Processes (2019)

FOR FACULTY:

"Writers as Situated Process Researchers"
by Hannah J. Rule

This chapter focuses on teaching writing students how to employ data collection and organizational processes to structure and situate one's writing. Rule frames student writers as "curious process researchers [who can] cast processes as on-the-spot responses to shifting contexts and genres that exert control and shape their writing."

Writing Spaces: Readings on Writing, Volume 2 (2011)

FOR YOUR STUDENTS:

"Beyond Black on White: Document Design and Formatting in the Writing Classroom"
by Klein & Shackelford

FROM THE ABSTRACT: Formatting can be a challenge to teach and learn. This chapter provides you with an overview of how the Modern Language Association (MLA) format choices in typography, spacing, and image placement adhere to the standards of basic design. By understanding the theory the MLA rules are based upon, you can help students learn to apply good design principles to any document.

Recommended Readings

“Argumentation” –Chapter Seven of Empoword: A Student Centered Anthology and Handbook for College Writers by Shane Abrams
“Basic Structure and Content of Argument” by Amanda Lloyd et al

OBJECTIVE 9

Incorporate responses from instructor(s) and peers as part of the revision and editing process.

Recommended Texts

Bad Ideas about Writing (2017)

FOR FACULTY:

"When Responding to Student Writing, More is Better"
by Muriel Harris

In this chapter Harris challenges the longstanding expectations of placing extensive feedback on student writing, arguing that "Decreasing the amount of teacher response can lead to closer attention to those matters instead of getting lost in trying to cope with an overload."

Writing Spaces: Readings on Writing, Volume 3 (2020)

FOR YOUR STUDENTS:

"How to Write Meaningful Peer Response Praise"
by Ron DePeter

FROM THE ABSTRACT: This chapter is a guide for students in composition classes, and aims to help them understand the importance of giving and receiving detailed, conversational praise; it presents scenarios for conceptualizing how to write praise, provides sample student writing excerpts that invite students to practice writing praise, offers and analyzes examples of different types of student-authored praise comments, and provides an array of approaches to writing praise comments.

Recommended Readings

Purdue OWL Feedback Guide

OBJECTIVE 10

Create researched print and/or digital texts that respond to rhetorical situations.

Recommended Texts

Situating Writing Processes (2019)

FOR FACULTY:

"Writers as Situated Process Researchers"
by Hannah J. Rule

This chapter focuses on teaching writing students how to employ data collection and organizational processes to structure and situate one's writing. Rule frames student writers as "curious process researchers [who can] cast processes as on-the-spot responses to shifting contexts and genres that exert control and shape their writing."

Writing Spaces: Readings on Writing, Volume 2 (2011)

FOR YOUR STUDENTS:

"Beyond Black on White: Document Design and Formatting in the Writing Classroom"
by Klein & Shackelford

FROM THE ABSTRACT: Formatting can be a challenge to teach and learn. This chapter provides you with an overview of how the Modern Language Association (MLA) format choices in typography, spacing, and image placement adhere to the standards of basic design. By understanding the theory the MLA rules are based upon, you can help students learn to apply good design principles to any document.

Recommended Readings

OBJECTIVE 11

Use suitable methods of citation

Recommended Texts

Writing Spaces: Readings on Writing, Volume 2 (2011)

FOR FACULTY:

"Annoying Ways People Use Sources"
by Kyle D. Stedman

FROM THE ABSTRACT: This chapter draws attention to the rhetorical nature of a writer’s choices when citing sources, emphasizing that readers may feel emotions like annoyance (or worse) when authors fail to cite in the ways expected by the audience. You can help your students avoid “annoying” rhetorical behaviors with this chapter, a brief primer on citation conventions for the Modern Language Association style. Students will enjoy reading about each “annoyance,” illustrated through positive and negative examples designed to show both the most common ways that writers make these mistakes and practical ways to fix them.

Writing Spaces: Readings on Writing, Volume 2 (2011)

FOR YOUR STUDENTS:

"Everything Changes, or Why MLA Isn’t (Always) Right"
by Janice Walker

FROM THE ABSTRACT: Citing sources for an academic writing project can seem a bit like trying to hit a moving target—the rules keep changing (they’re more like guidelines anyway). In this chapter, you and your students can explore citation as a rhetorical practice, one which does not always fit within the boundaries of traditional style guides but that nonetheless follows a logic that students can learn.

Recommended Readings

Purdue Owl