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.
Short Description: Who Teaches Writing is an open teaching and learning resource …
Short Description: Who Teaches Writing is an open teaching and learning resource being used in English Composition classes at Oklahoma State University. It was authored by contributors from Oklahoma State University and also includes invited chapters from faculty and staff at institutions both inside and outside of Oklahoma. Contributors include faculty from various departments, contingent faculty and staff, and graduate instructors. One purpose of the resource is to provide short, relatively jargon-free chapters geared toward undergraduate students taking First-Year Composition. Support for this project was provided in part by OpenOKState and Oklahoma State University Libraries.
Long Description: Who Teaches Writing is an open teaching and learning resource being used in English Composition classes at Oklahoma State University. It was authored by contributors from Oklahoma State University and also includes invited chapters from other institutions both inside and outside of Oklahoma. Contributors include faculty from various departments, contingent faculty and staff, and graduate instructors. One purpose of the resource is to provide short, relatively jargon-free chapters geared toward undergraduate students taking First-Year Composition. Support for this project was provided in part by OpenOKState, Oklahoma State University Libraries, and the Claud D. Kniffin Professorship of Library Service and Education.
Word Count: 63162
(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.)
Greek and Latin Roots: Part I - Latin is part one of …
Greek and Latin Roots: Part I - Latin is part one of a two part series. This series examines the systematic principles by which a large portion of English vocabulary has evolved from Latin and (to a lesser degree) from Greek. This book focuses on Latin roots. A link to the second part focusing on the Greek roots can be found below. Part I will try to impart some skill in the recognition and proper use of words derived from Latin. There is a stress on principles: although students will be continually looking at interesting individual words, their constant aim will be to discover predictable general patterns of historical development, so that they may be able to cope with new and unfamiliar words of any type that they have studied. They will be shown how to approach the problem by a procedure known as “word analysis,” which is roughly comparable to the dissection of an interesting specimen in the biology laboratory. The text assumes no previous knowledge of Latin, and does not involve the grammatical study of this language—except for a few basic features of noun and verb formation that will help students to understand the Latin legacy in English. Although there will be some attention paid to the historical interaction of Latin with English, this text is definitely not a systematic history of the English language. It focuses on only those elements within English that have been directly or indirectly affected by this classical language. In order to provide the broadest possible service to students, the text emphasizes standard English vocabulary in current use. The more exotic technical vocabulary of science and medicine can be extremely interesting, but is explored in only summary fashion. Nevertheless, this text should be of considerable value, say, to a would-be botanist or medical doctor, if only by providing the foundation for further specialized enquiry.
Short Description: This open textbook is designed for those who are learning …
Short Description: This open textbook is designed for those who are learning Chinese as a second/foreign language in their first semester. It has eight chapters, covering topics including a brief introduction about the Chinese language, greetings, and self-introduction, hobbies, nationalities, family members and occupations, inviting friends to dinner, talking about food and beverage, making phone calls, and talking about classes and exams.
Long Description: This open textbook is designed for beginners learning Chinese as a second/foreign language. This book aims to introduce learners to standard Chinese pronunciation, character knowledge, basic conversational phrases, grammar and vocabulary use, and cultural knowledge. Throughout the eight chapters, learners will explore: greetings and self-introduction, hobbies, nationalities, family members and occupations, inviting friends to dinner, talking about food and beverage, making phone calls, and talking about classes and exams. Learning activities include audio recordings so students can listen to the pronunciation of vocabulary words and observe dialogue between speakers. The book also includes videos with captions, allowing learners to listen, watch, and read. Original interactive activities have been created by the author to facilitate the practice of target vocabulary and dialogues.
Word Count: 19508
ISBN: 978-1-62610-115-9
(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.)
A Holiday Ghost Story by Charles Dickens with Illustrations by John Leech …
A Holiday Ghost Story by Charles Dickens with Illustrations by John Leech
Short Description: This version of the classic holiday story has been slightly abridged and lightly adapted for advanced students of English language. The text includes comprehension checks, discussion questions, and collaborative activities. Order a print copy: https://www.lulu.com/en/us/shop/timothy-krause/a-christmas-carol/paperback/product-vqrgq7.html
Long Description: This version of the classic holiday story has been slightly abridged and lightly adapted for advanced students of English language. The text includes comprehension checks, discussion questions, and collaborative activities.
Word Count: 11147
ISBN: 978-1-63635-010-3
(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.)
In writing German 101, I have combined over ten years’ worth of …
In writing German 101, I have combined over ten years’ worth of my own classroom activities and lecture notes to save students from high textbook costs. Traditional textbooks often have too few examples or little explanation and require the additional purchase of an expensive, online learning program. As time went on, I found myself using the textbook so little that it seemed silly to require students to purchase it.
New words are introduced gradually in colored text boxes next to each concept. Sections can be combined to make the desired chapter length. For example, if you wish to cover the alphabet on day one, simply do that section first. I’ve placed it in the middle of chapter one because I prefer to gradually introduce it along with pronunciation as I go so that students begin to speak quickly and don’t grow disinterested. Every effort has been made to compare similarities and differences between English and German. Students whose native language is English can use that as a helpful resource to make learning German easier. English speakers, especially, tend to have trouble with the concept of cases. Therefore, I’ve taken the approach of focusing on the nominative case and present tense verb conjugations in chapter 1 with the accusative case in chapter 2. Chapter 3 reviews both cases and reinforces the old verbs with the imperative. The dative case will not be presented until German 102, to help prevent the mixing of these cases.
Short Description: This is an open textbook on Beginner Arabic for undergraduate …
Short Description: This is an open textbook on Beginner Arabic for undergraduate students who are taking Arabic in their first semester. It addresses letters and sounds of Arabic along with basic skills in reading, speaking and writing. The book can be used as a self-study resource or as the main textbook in beginning Arabic classes.
Long Description: This open textbook is intended for beginning students of Arabic in their first semester. This OER is unique in its presentation of Arabic language content through theme-based modules. Each theme is addressed through vocabulary, grammar, reading, speaking, and writing components. Each chapter includes self-check embedded quizzes that help learners digest language concepts. The book is also designed with teachers in mind. Each chapter includes pair work and group tasks that the teacher can implement in class and other parts that can be assigned as homework. The focus of the book is to build literacy in Standard Arabic structure in a simplified and sequenced approach while emphasizing speaking skills. By the end of this course, students will be well prepared for building their competence in a sequenced and organized manner in the following parts of this series.
Word Count: 6312
ISBN: 978-1-62610-108-1
(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.)
A freshman composition textbook used by the English Department of Virginia Western …
A freshman composition textbook used by the English Department of Virginia Western Community College (VWCC) in Roanoke, Virginia. It aligns with ENG 111, the standard first-year composition course in the Virginia Community College System (VCCS). The ten chapter headings are:
1. Chapter 1 - Critical Reading 2. Chapter 2 - Rhetorical Analysis 3. Chapter 3 - Argument 4. Chapter 4 - The Writing Process 5. Chapter 5 - Rhetorical Modes 6. Chapter 6 - Finding and Using Outside Sources 7. Chapter 7 - How and Why to Cite 8. Chapter 8 - Writing Basics: What Makes a Good Sentence? 9. Chapter 9 - Punctuation 10. Chapter 10 - Working With Words: Which Word is Right?
This book was created by the English faculty and librarians of VWCC using Creative Commons -licensed materials and original contributions.
This textbook was developed to meet two distinct yet related needs. The …
This textbook was developed to meet two distinct yet related needs. The more basic goal was to respond to the paucity of teaching materials suited to the needs of U.S. learners of Malayalam, particularly at the university level. Though some materials had previously been produced both in India and in the US, including three sets of materials co-written by the author, none were at all suited to the needs and purposes of American university students. Some of the author is earlier materials were ad hoc in nature, while the 510-page course written for Peace Corps volunteers concentrated on language for daily social interactions only. Both the Peace Corps materials and most of the materials written in India were written in Roman transcription, thus making no serious attempt to teach the Malayalam script or the skills of reading or writing.
The Malayalam ·materials produced in India by various scholars or teach~rs were not readily available in the West, and were moreqver designed for Indian learners for whom formal explanations of the grammar and culture are largely unnecessary, since many of the grammar and discourse conventions are similar or identical to those found in their own mother tongues. Thus the texts available at that time lacked much of what was essential to the Western learner of the language. A couple more sets of teaching materials have come out in: the intervening 20 years, and some may now be ordered via the Internet. A partial list of these materials appears in the prologue following lesson Twenty-five in this text. These books are, in general, designed to prepare the learner to handle everyday living situations in Malayalam, and as such can be useful adjuncts once the present volume has been thoroughly studied.
This text was conceived and designed to go beyond social conversation to prepare the Western learner to use the language as a research tool. To meet this goal the skills pf literacy in Malayalam are essential, but this is only a beginning. It is also necessary to have some familiarity with the formal style of the language, used in most types of written matter and in platform and other types of formal speaking. This is still a need uniquely met by this text. The irony is that our student audience has grown and diversified, so that the textbook for the Malayalam classes here at Texas must serve two rather different types of students. There are still a number of graduate students who seek out Malayalam as a research tool for their academic work. fu the past dozen years or so the Malayalam classes are being taken by increasing numbers of second generation Malayalis who have either been born in North America or spent most of their lives here. They are normally undergraduates whose goals do not include doing academic research in Kerala. They are mainly interested in being able to communicate better with relatives in Kerala and their interest in literacy extends mainly to being able to write letters to grandparents or other non-English-speaking relatives. The majority of lessons containing conversations with friends and family members in the book can still serve their purposes well.
The second need to be met by this textbook was that of a reference grammar which could be used by linguists to glean accurate information about various aspects of the Malayalam language such as its phonology, syntax (grammar), 'semantics, and discourse. This type of reference grammar could serve both specialists in other Dravidian languages, as well as general linguists examining a specific feature in many unrelated languages.
Volumes in Writing Spaces: Readings on Writing offer multiple perspectives on a …
Volumes in Writing Spaces: Readings on Writing offer multiple perspectives on a wide-range of topics about writing. In each chapter, authors present their unique views, insights, and strategies for writing by addressing the undergraduate reader directly. Drawing on their own experiences, these teachers-as-writers invite students to join in the larger conversation about the craft of writing. Consequently, each essay functions as a standalone text that can easily complement other selected readings in writing or writing-intensive courses across the disciplines at any level.
College ESL Writers: Applied Grammar and Composing Strategies for Success is designed …
College ESL Writers: Applied Grammar and Composing Strategies for Success is designed as a comprehensive grammar and writing etext for high intermediate and advanced level non-native speakers of English. We open the text with a discussion on the sentence and then break it down into its elemental components, before reconstructing them into effective sentences with paragraphs and larger academic assignments. Following that, we provide instruction in paragraph and essay writing with several opportunities to both review the fundamentals as well as to demonstrate mastery and move on to more challenging assignments.
Persuasive Writing at Oregon State University Short Description: Arguments are all around …
Persuasive Writing at Oregon State University
Short Description: Arguments are all around us. Everywhere we look, someone is trying to get our attention, change our minds, or sell us something. Learning about how persuasion works will make you a more thoughtful and skeptical consumer of all that content, so that you can come to your own conclusions and recognize the underlying assumptions that inform those attempts to persuade you. This book is about analyzing others' arguments and crafting your own. The rhetorical choices that you make as a writer–from evidence to structure to tone–impact how your audience will receive your ideas. Using those tools effectively will help your voice be heard. Data dashboard
Word Count: 96049
ISBN: 978-1-955101-34-9
(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.)
This is an OER textbook for Creative Writing courses. Most creative writing …
This is an OER textbook for Creative Writing courses. 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.This has just been updated to include MORE accessibility AND Creative Commons licenses that are more in harmony than the previous versions.
In the age of Buzzfeeds, hashtags, and Tweets, students are increasingly favoring …
In the age of Buzzfeeds, hashtags, and Tweets, students are increasingly favoring conversational writing and regarding academic writing as less pertinent in their personal lives, education, and future careers. Writing and Literature: Composition as Inquiry, Learning, Thinking and Communication connects students with works and exercises and promotes student learning that is kairotic and constructive. Dr. Tanya Long Bennett, professor of English at the University of North Georgia, poses questions that encourage active rather than passive learning. Furthering ideas presented in Contribute a Verse: A Guide to First-Year Composition as a complimentary companion, Writing and Literature builds a new conversation covering various genres of literature and writing. Students learn the various writing styles appropriate for analyzing, addressing, and critiquing these genres including poetry, novels, dramas, and research writing. The text and its pairing of helpful visual aids throughout emphasizes the importance of critical reading and analysis in producing a successful composition. Writing and Literature is a refreshing textbook that links learning, literature, and life.
In this elementary textbook, Philip S. Peek draws on his twenty-five years …
In this elementary textbook, Philip S. Peek draws on his twenty-five years of teaching experience to present the ancient Greek language in an imaginative and accessible way that promotes creativity, deep learning, and diversity. The course is built on three pillars: memory, analysis, and logic. Readers memorize the top 250 most frequently occurring ancient Greek words, the essential word endings, the eight parts of speech, and the grammatical concepts they will most frequently encounter when reading authentic ancient texts. Analysis and logic exercises enable the translation and parsing of genuine ancient Greek sentences, with compelling reading selections in English and in Greek offering starting points for contemplation, debate, and reflection. A series of embedded Learning Tips help teachers and students to think in practical and imaginative ways about how they learn. This combination of memory-based learning and concept- and skill-based learning gradually builds the confidence of the reader, teaching them how to learn by guiding them from a familiarity with the basics to proficiency in reading this beautiful language. Ancient Greek I: A 21st-Century Approach is written for high-school and university students, but is an instructive and rewarding text for anyone who wishes to learn ancient Greek.
Writing for Success is a text that provides instruction in steps, builds …
Writing for Success is a text that provides instruction in steps, builds writing, reading, and critical thinking, and combines comprehensive grammar review with an introduction to paragraph writing and composition. For questions about this textbook please contact textbookuse@umn.edu
How Arguments Work takes students through the techniques they will need to …
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.
Third revision, August 2017. Welcome to Writing Unleashed, designed for use as …
Third revision, August 2017.
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.
This textbook was created by Dana Anderson, Ronda Marman, and Sybil Priebe - all first-year college composition instructors at the North Dakota State College of Science in Wahpeton, ND.
Writing guides abound, but The Simple Math of Writing Well is one …
Writing guides abound, but The Simple Math of Writing Well is one of a kind. Readers will find its practical approach affirming, encouraging, and informative, and its focus on the basics of linguistic structure releases 21st-century writers to embrace the variety of mediums that define our internet-connected world. As Harrop reminds us in the opening chapters of her book, we write more today than ever before in history: texts, emails, letters, blogs, reports, social media posts, proposals, etc. The Simple Math of Writing Well is the first guide that directly addresses the importance of writing well in the Google age.
From Competence to Excellence Short Description: Return to milneopentextbooks.org to download PDF …
From Competence to Excellence
Short Description: Return to milneopentextbooks.org to download PDF and other versions of this textNewParaWriting in College: From Competence to Excellence is designed for students who have largely mastered the conventions of high-school level writing and are now rising to meet more the advanced expectations of college. Students will find in Writing in College a warm invitation to think of themselves as full, self-motivated members of the academic community. With concise explanations, clear multi-disciplinary examples and empathy for the challenges of student life, this short textbook both explains the purposes behind college-level writing and offers indispensable advice for organization and expression.
Long Description: Writing in College: From Competence to Excellence is designed for students who have largely mastered the conventions of high-school level writing and are now rising to meet more the advanced expectations of college. Students will find in Writing in College a warm invitation to think of themselves as full, self-motivated members of the academic community. With concise explanations, clear multi-disciplinary examples and empathy for the challenges of student life, this short textbook both explains the purposes behind college-level writing and offers indispensable advice for organization and expression.
Word Count: 37285
ISBN: 978-1-942341-21-5
(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.)
Short Description: Write Here, Right Now: An interactive Introduction to Academic Writing …
Short Description: Write Here, Right Now: An interactive Introduction to Academic Writing and Research utilizes PressBooks to create and host a writing e-textbook for first year university students that would effectively integrate into the flipped classroom model.
Long Description: Write Here, Right Now: An interactive Introduction to Academic Writing and Research utilizes PressBooks to create and host a writing e-textbook for first year university students that would effectively integrate into the flipped classroom model. The textbook could also be used for non-flipped classroom designs, as the embedded videos, diagrams and linked modules would act as an all-in-one multimedia textbook geared towards multiple learning styles and disciplines. The components of the textbook, including the embedded videos, could be swapped in and out in order to accommodate a professor’s best idea of his/her own course design.
Word Count: 72471
(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.)
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