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Open Textbook Library

Browse OER Textbooks from the University of Minnesota's Open Textbook Library. These textbooks are authored and peer reviewed by faculty or other accredited subject matter experts. Many of these textbooks are actively used to teach OER based courses at instiutions across the United States. 

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Analyzing meaning: An introduction to semantics and pragmatics
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CC BY-NC
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This book provides an introduction to the study of meaning in human language, from a linguistic perspective. It covers a fairly broad range of topics, including lexical semantics, compositional semantics, and pragmatics. The chapters are organized into six units: (1) Foundational concepts; (2) Word meanings; (3) Implicature (including indirect speech acts); (4) Compositional semantics; (5) Modals, conditionals, and causation; (6) Tense & aspect.

Subject:
Linguistics
Social Science
Material Type:
Textbook
Provider:
Language Science Press
Author:
Paul Kroeger
Date Added:
01/01/2015
Be Credible
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CC BY-NC
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Information Literacy for Journalism, Public Relations, Advertising and Marketing Students

Short Description:
This book teaches college-level journalism and strategic communication students to become information experts. If you use or adapt this book in your classroom please let us know, and tell us about your experience.

Word Count: 94398

(Note: This resource's metadata has been created automatically by reformatting and/or combining the information that the author initially provided as part of a bulk import process.)

Subject:
Applied Science
Business and Communication
Communication
Information Science
Journalism
Material Type:
Textbook
Provider:
Unversity of Kansas
Author:
Karna Younger
Peter Bobkowski
Date Added:
08/20/2018
Brehe’s Grammar Anatomy
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CC BY-SA
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Brehe’s Grammar Anatomy makes grammar accessible to general and specialist readers alike. This book provides an in-depth look at beginner grammar terms and concepts, providing clear examples with limited technical jargon. Whether for academic or personal use, Brehe’s Grammar Anatomy is the perfect addition to any resource library.

Subject:
Linguistics
Social Science
Material Type:
Textbook
Provider:
University System of Georgia
Provider Set:
Galileo Open Learning Materials
Author:
Steven Brehe
Date Added:
06/28/2019
Business English for Success
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CC BY-NC-SA
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Business English for Success is a creative solution to a common challenge across Business Communication courses: Business English or Business Presentations? Some classes place an equal emphasis on oral and written communication. If that's the case for you check out our text Business Communication for Success. If, however, your class places the emphasis squarely on written communication and writing proficiency, then Business English for Success is for you.

Subject:
Business and Communication
Communication
Material Type:
Textbook
Provider:
The Saylor Foundation
Provider Set:
Saylor Textbooks
Author:
Scott McLean
Date Added:
01/28/2013
CHN101: Elementary Mandarin I (Polley)
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CC BY-NC-SA
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This course is designed for learners with no background in Chinese. It introduces basic structures of the Mandarin Chinese language with emphasis on listening, speaking, reading and writing skills. Students will gain these four skills in standard Mandarin Chinese, attaining approximately the Novice-High level on the ACTFL-ETS (American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages) proficiency scale. Topics of conversation include basic greetings, names, family, work, study, and hobbies.

Subject:
Arts and Humanities
Languages
Linguistics
Social Science
World Cultures
Material Type:
Full Course
Provider:
LibreTexts
Author:
Carl Polley
Date Added:
05/05/2022
College Success
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CC BY-NC-SA
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College Success takes a fresh look at what it means, in today’s world, with today’s students, to be successful in college.Although many of the topics included—from study skills to personal health, from test-taking to managing time and money—will look familiar to those who have used student success texts that have been around for many editions, College Success takes a new approach. The focus is on realistic, practical tools for the students who need them. This is a book designed, frankly, for students who may have difficulty with traditional college texts. The style is direct and to the point. Information is presented concisely and as simply as possible. This is not a weighty tome that discusses student success—this is a manual for doing it.College student demographics have changed considerably in recent decades. More than a third of all students enroll not directly from high school but after a delay of some years. More students are working and have families. More students come from varied ethnic and cultural backgrounds. More students are the first in their family to attend college. More students have grown up with electronic media and now read and think in ways different from the previous generation. With these and so many other cultural changes, more students are not well prepared for a college education with the study skills and life skills they need to become successful students.For each student to get the most out of College Success and their college experience they must understand who they are as it relates to college. To that end, in every chapter students explore themselves, because success starts with recognizing your own strengths and weaknesses. Students make their own goals based on this self-assessment, determining what success in college really means for them as individuals. Interactive activities then help students learn the choices available to them and the possibilities for improving their skills. Skills are presented in step-by-step processes, tips for success in manageable highlighted displays. Most important, students always see the value of what they are reading—and how they can begin to apply it immediately in their own lives.College Success is intended for use in Freshmen Orientation, Study Skills or Student Success courses. A 2009 study revealed that currently nationwide, 34% of college freshmen do not return to their college for their sophomore year. This book is designed to help change that.

Subject:
Business and Communication
Communication
Education
Social Science
Social Work
Material Type:
Reading
Textbook
Author:
Anonyous
Date Added:
02/21/2011
Communication in the Real World: An Introduction to Communication Studies
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CC BY-NC-SA
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Communication in the Real World: An Introduction to Communication Studies overviews the time-tested conceptual foundations of the field, while incorporating the latest research and cutting-edge applications of these basics. Each chapter will include timely, concrete, and real-life examples of communication concepts in action. A key feature of this book is the integration of content regarding diversity and organizational communication in each chapter through examples and/or discrete sub-sections. Discussions of diversity are not relegated to feature boxes. Also integrated into the content are examples that are inclusive in terms of race, gender, sexuality, ability, age, marital status, religion, and other diverse identity characteristics.

Subject:
Business and Communication
Communication
Material Type:
Textbook
Provider:
University of Minnesota
Provider Set:
University of Minnesota Libraries Publishing
Date Added:
01/01/2016
Effective Professional Communication: A Rhetorical Approach
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CC BY-NC-SA
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Word Count: 108374

(Note: This resource's metadata has been created automatically by reformatting and/or combining the information that the author initially provided as part of a bulk import process.)

Subject:
Applied Science
Arts and Humanities
Business and Communication
Communication
Engineering
Visual Arts
Material Type:
Textbook
Provider:
University of Saskatchewan
Author:
Corey Owen
Rebekah Bennetch
Zachary Keesey
Date Added:
08/31/2021
Ethical Use of Technology in Digital Learning Environments: Graduate Student Perspectives
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CC BY
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Short Description:
This book is the result of a co-design project in a class in the Masters of Education program at the University of Calgary. The course, and the resulting book, focus primarily on the safe and ethical use of technology in digital learning environments. The course was organized according to four topics based on Farrow’s (2016) Framework for the Ethics of Open Education.This is the first of 2 Versions of this pressbook. Click on Volume 2 for information.

Long Description:
This book is the result of a co-design project in a class in the Masters of Education program at the University of Calgary. The course, and the resulting book, focus primarily on the safe and ethical use of technology in digital learning environments. The course was organized according to four topics based on Farrow’s (2016) Framework for the Ethics of Open Education. Students were asked to review, analyze, and synthesize each topic from three meta-ethical theoretical positions: deontological, consequentialist, and virtue ethical (Farrow, 2016). The chapters in this open educational resource (OER) were co-designed using a participatory pedagogy with the intention to share and mobilize knowledge with a broader audience. The first three chapters in the book discuss specific ethical considerations related to technologies such as Artificial Intelligence (AI) , social networking services (SNS), and 3D printing. The next four chapters shift to a broader discussion of resource sharing, adaptive learning systems, STEM, and assistive technologies. The final two chapters discuss admissions and communications that need to be considered from an institutional perspective. In each of the nine chapters, the authors discuss the connection to the value of technology in education, and practical possibilities of learning technologies for inclusive, participatory, democratic, and pluralistic educational paradigms.

Word Count: 56853

ISBN: 0-88953-438-1

(Note: This resource's metadata has been created automatically by reformatting and/or combining the information that the author initially provided as part of a bulk import process.)

Subject:
Applied Science
Arts and Humanities
Business and Communication
Communication
Computer Science
Education
Higher Education
Philosophy
Special Education
Visual Arts
Material Type:
Textbook
Provider:
University of Calgary
Author:
Barbara Brown
Michele Jacobsen
Verena Roberts
Date Added:
12/28/2020
Exploring Public Speaking: 4th Edition
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CC BY-NC-SA
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Instructors: The Third Edition includes a set of test banks which are not available to the public. For access to these resources, please contact Dr. Barbara Tucker at btucker@daltonstate.edu.

Exploring Public Speaking: The Free College Public Speaking Textbook began as the brainchild of Dr. Kris Barton, Chair of the Department of Communication at Dalton State College. It also was made possible through a generous Textbook Transformation Grant in 2015 from Affordable Learning Georgia, a highly successful program of the University System of Georgia. Dr. Barton asked me to help him author/compile the text.

The goal was to provide a high-quality, usable, accessible, and low-cost textbook for the hundreds of students who take COMM 1110 at Dalton State College every year. This course is required of all degree-seeking students. We have been able to save students hundreds of thousands of dollars already with this text. Unexpectedly and happily, the text has also been downloaded close to 14,000 times (as of August 2018) all over the world and has been adopted at many other institutions.

Dr. Barton and I worked on creating the textbook from July 2015 until May 2016, with the goal of going live with the text in Summer of 2016. Tragically Dr. Barton passed away in early May, a reality that still does not seem real. He has been greatly missed as a friend, colleague, father, scholar, teacher, and mentor.

The launch of the book proceeded; however, due to the loss of Dr. Barton, the ancillaries were not finished. In Summer 2017 I took on a significant revision and updating which I named the Second Edition. I included in that edition information on college student success in the appendices. In January 2018, a colleague, Matthew LeHew, and I won a grant from the University System to create the ancillaries and improve the format for more accessibility. I decided to remove the “Dalton State” from the title and most examples for wider appeal. An appendix on library research retains the information for specific use of Roberts Library on our campus.

Over 90% of the book is original with Dr. Barton, me, or other colleagues at Dalton State College. Some parts, specifically from Chapters 9, 10, and 15, are adapted from another open resource public speaking text whose author prefers not to be cited.

This Third Edition, along with including necessary updates and being formatted with different software, includes four more appendices: one on online speaking, one on APA, one on humor and storytelling in public speaking, and one on Dalton State’s Library. I have also tried to clarify concepts, to provide “case studies” to show the rhetorical process, and include more outlines and examples.

We think this book is especially useful in coverage of PowerPoint, audience responsiveness, ethics in public speaking, special occasion speeches, and structure of speeches. Three ancillaries are available: electronic “flash cards” for study, Powerpoints on the 15 main chapters, and test banks for the 15 main chapters.

Thank you for downloading Exploring Public Speaking, and the co-authors and I truly wish you happy teaching and learning with it. We welcome input. If you choose to use it, let us know at btucker@daltonstate.edu.

Subject:
Business and Communication
Communication
Material Type:
Textbook
Provider:
University System of Georgia
Provider Set:
Galileo Open Learning Materials
Author:
Barbara Tucker
Kristin Barton
Date Added:
09/22/2016
A Grammar of Moloko
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CC BY
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This grammar provides the first comprehensive grammatical description of Moloko, a Chadic language spoken by about 10,000 speakers in northern Cameroon. The grammar was developed from hours and years that the authors spent at friends’ houses hearing and recording stories, hours spent listening to the tapes and transcribing the stories, then translating them and studying the language through them. Time was spent together and with others speaking the language and talking about it, translating resources and talking to Moloko people about them. Grammar and phonology discoveries were made in the office, in the fields while working, and at gatherings. In the process, the four authors have become more and more passionate about the Moloko language and are eager to share their knowledge about it with others.

Subject:
Linguistics
Social Science
Material Type:
Textbook
Provider:
Language Science Press
Author:
Dianne Friesen
Date Added:
06/28/2019
A Grammar of Pite Saami
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CC BY
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Pite Saami is a highly endangered Western Saami language in the Uralic language family currently spoken by a few individuals in Swedish Lapland. This grammar is the first extensive book-length treatment of a Saami language written in English. While focussing on the morphophonology of the main word classes nouns, adjectives and verbs, it also deals with other linguistic structures such as prosody, phonology, phrase types and clauses. Furthermore, it provides an introduction to the language and its speakers, and an outline of a preliminary Pite Saami orthography. An extensive annotated spoken-language corpus collected over the course of five years forms the empirical foundation for this description, and each example includes a specific reference to the corpus in order to facilitate verification of claims made on the data. Descriptions are presented for a general linguistics audience and without attempting to support a specific theoretical approach, but this book should be equally useful for scholars of Uralic linguistics, typologists, and even learners of Pite Saami.

Subject:
Linguistics
Social Science
Material Type:
Textbook
Provider:
Language Science Press
Author:
Joshua Wilbur
Date Added:
06/28/2019
Grammatical theory: From transformational grammar to constraint-based approaches
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CC BY
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This book introduces formal grammar theories that play a role in current linguistic theorizing (Phrase Structure Grammar, Transformational Grammar/Government & Binding, Generalized Phrase Structure Grammar, Lexical Functional Grammar, Categorial Grammar, Head-​Driven Phrase Structure Grammar, Construction Grammar, Tree Adjoining Grammar). The key assumptions are explained and it is shown how the respective theory treats arguments and adjuncts, the active/passive alternation, local reorderings, verb placement, and fronting of constituents over long distances. The analyses are explained with German as the object language.

Subject:
Linguistics
Social Science
Material Type:
Textbook
Provider:
Language Science Press
Author:
Stefan Müller
Date Added:
02/28/2020
A Guide to Technical Communications: Strategies & Applications
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CC BY-NC
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Short Description:
A textbook focused on developing both technical and professional communication skills

Word Count: 18883

(Note: This resource's metadata has been created automatically as part of a bulk import process by reformatting and/or combining the information that the author initially provided. As a result, there may be errors in formatting.)

Subject:
Business and Communication
Communication
Material Type:
Full Course
Textbook
Provider:
Ohio State University
Author:
Leah Wahlin
Lynn Hall
Date Added:
01/01/2016
How Arguments Work: A Guide to Writing and Analyzing Texts in College (Mills)
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CC BY-NC
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How Arguments Work takes students through the techniques they will need to respond to readings and make sophisticated arguments in any college class. This is a practical guide to argumentation with strategies and templates for the kinds of assignments students will commonly encounter. It covers rhetorical concepts in everyday language and explores how arguments can build trust and move readers.

Subject:
Business and Communication
Communication
Composition and Rhetoric
English Language Arts
Reading Informational Text
Material Type:
Assessment
Full Course
Homework/Assignment
Textbook
Provider:
LibreTexts
Author:
Anna Mills
Date Added:
11/15/2021
Humans R Social Media - Open Textbook Edition
Unrestricted Use
CC BY
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Social media and humans exist in a world of mutual influence, and humans play central roles in how this influence is mediated and transferred. Originally created by University of Arizona Information scholar Diana Daly, this Third Edition of the book Humans are Social Media uses plain language and features contributions by students to help readers understand how we as humans shape social media, and how social media shapes our world in turn.

Subject:
Business and Communication
Communication
Material Type:
Textbook
Provider:
University of Arizona
Date Added:
05/14/2021
Information Strategies for Communicators
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CC BY-SA
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The definitive text for the information search and evaluation process as practiced by news and strategic communication message producers. Currently used at the University of Minnesota School of Journalism and Mass Communication; JOUR 3004W/V, Information for Mass Communication.

Subject:
Business and Communication
Communication
Material Type:
Textbook
Provider:
University of Minnesota
Provider Set:
University of Minnesota Libraries Publishing
Date Added:
01/01/2015
Integrated and Open Interpreter Education
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CC BY-NC
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The Open Educational Resource Reader and Workbook for Interpreters

Short Description:
This Open Educational Resource (OER) on interpreting offers authors and readers free and open access to current, relevant, easy-to-access, and free materials. The editors have created a space where emerging scholars in the field of signed language interpreting make contributions with the ability to revise as the interpreting studies discipline and the scholars, themselves, develop and change. This OER provides faculty and students readings and practical application experiences that connect program specific coursework and concepts across the interpreter education curriculum emphasizing the holistic nature of the field of interpreting.

Long Description:
The purpose of this OER project is to develop current materials targeting newer scholars as authors who have conducted current research, but have not had an opportunity to publish. In this project, each of the five editors will develop and/or compile a collection of reading and ancillary materials on a specific content area. Contributions will be made in written English or digitally recorded American Sign Language (ASL). All contributors retain rights to their own work and may reuse in traditional and transformative ways as OER approaches continue to advance. As authors continue to grow, they are encouraged to remix (create new content over time) and redistribute materials they have developed.

The goal of this OER is to offer faculty and students readings and practical application experiences that connect program specific coursework and concepts across the interpreter education curriculum emphasizing the holistic nature of the field of interpreting.

Additionally, there are different needs for those students who are native English speakers and those who are native/primary users of ASL. We also envision other interpreter educators using the materials. Thus, we expect that the readings and activities will be revised (adapted) as needed.

Courses and topics for this project include interpreter mindset, pre-interpreting skills and knowledge, technical skills, reflective practice, linguistics, cultural intelligence, multicultural competencies, meaning transfer, and coaching.

Word Count: 38589

ISBN: 978-1-63635-025-7

(Note: This resource's metadata has been created automatically by reformatting and/or combining the information that the author initially provided as part of a bulk import process.)

Subject:
Education
Linguistics
Social Science
Material Type:
Textbook
Provider:
Open Oregon Educational Resources
Author:
Amanda Smith
Elisa Maroney
Sarah Hewlett
Date Added:
06/13/2019
Intercultural Communication
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CC BY-NC-SA
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Intercultural Communication examines culture as a variable in interpersonal and collective communication. It explores the opportunities and problems arising from similarities and differences in communication patterns, processes, and codes among various cultural groups. It explores cultural universals, social categorization, stereotyping and discrimination, with a focus on topics including race, ethnicity, social class, religion, gender and sexuality as they relate to communication.

Subject:
Business and Communication
Communication
Material Type:
Textbook
Provider:
University of Missouri St. Louis
Author:
Shannon Ahrndt
Date Added:
12/07/2020
Intercultural Communication for the Community College
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CC BY-NC-SA
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In the quest to explore the multiple facets of intercultural communication, this book is divided into three general areas: foundations, elements, and contexts. The foundations cover the basic principles associated with communication studies and culture. The elements move beyond the basics into self, identities, verbal, and nonverbal process associated with communication and culture. Contexts explore all the different environments such as media, business, and education, in which intercultural communication occurs.

Subject:
Business and Communication
Communication
Material Type:
Textbook
Provider:
OpenOregon
Author:
Karen Krumrey
Date Added:
07/08/2019