English Composition 2

Composition 2 is an expository writing course requiring more advanced writing skills than Composition 1, yet reviewing and incorporating some of the same skills. This course teaches research skills by emphasizing the development of advanced analytical/critical reading skills, proficiency in investigative research, and the writing of persuasive prose including documented and researched argumentative essays. A major component of this course will be an emphasis on the research process and information literacy.

Material Type: Full Course, Textbook

English Composition I (ENGL 101)

English 101 focuses on the analysis of basic human issues as presented in literature with an emphasis on analytic reading, writing and discussion, and on development of argumentative essays based on textual analysis, with attention to style, audience and documentation. By writing several analytical, thesis-driven essays which show engagement with and understanding of a variety of texts, students will practice the critical thinking, reading and writing skills which comprise an important component of college and university studies as well as clear, audience-appropriate communications in other professional settings.This class is comprised of a series of three units, each of which is centered around an essay assignment. For each unit, in addition to the essay itself, you‰ŰŞll be asked to respond to reading assignments and to complete exploratory writing assignments. You‰ŰŞll do a lot of reading and writing, and your instructor will ask you to respond to ideas from our texts, from specific assignments, and from each other. Login: guest_oclPassword: ocl

Material Type: Full Course, Homework/Assignment, Lecture Notes, Lesson Plan, Reading, Syllabus

Successful Writing

This source consists of an open textbook organized around making students successful writers. Topics include higher order concerns, such as the writing process and lower order concerns, such as advice on grammar and word choice.

Material Type: Textbook

Author: Scott McLean

Psychological Factors of Consumerism-Analysis in Composition

The focus of this lesson is to provide reading material and strategies for idea development for an analytical essay. The topic is on consumerism and the readings will be based on two articles: “Psychological Factors” and “The Black Box” of Consumer Behavior.” Students will also be asked to select an advertisement of a product that they regularly buy for themselves. The class discussion of the readings and images will foster a community of idea sharing which will translate well as supporting points in response to the writing prompt which will be given to students for their next essay assignment.

Material Type: Lesson Plan

Author: Alexandra Della Fera

Analytical Essay - The Pictures Generation and the Selfie

The focus of this lesson is to provide reading material and strategies for idea development for an analytical essay. The reading will be based on the article “The ‘Pictures Generation” and students will be also asked to select a selfie image of themselves or of another person. The class discussion will foster a community of idea sharing which will translate well as supporting points in response to the writing prompt which will be given to students.

Material Type: Lesson Plan

Author: Alexandra Della Fera

English Composition 1

Composition I focuses on principles of writing, critical reading and essay composition using rhetorical styles common in college-level writing (narrative, example/illustration, compare/contrast, cause-and-effect, argument).

Material Type: Full Course, Textbook

A Poem of Possibilities: Thinking about the Future

After reading John Updike's "Ex-Basketball Player," students write poems describing themselves five years in the future. The teacher takes the poems and mails them to students in five years.

Material Type: Activity/Lab, Lesson Plan

Writing About Literature: The Basics

This chapter introduces students to the basics of reading literature. It introduces students to subjective and objective reading, and goes over the basic ideas behind reading for plot, character, setting, and theme. Learning objectives are: Ask subjective and objective questions about what they have read; Learn the meanings of “tone,” “diction,” and “syntax.”; Identify the major elements of a plot; Identify character, setting, and theme; Differentiate between internal and external conflict.

Material Type: Textbook

Writers on Writing Assignment

Students find Writers on Writing quotes, respond to them in short journal entries while also reading several works of literary fiction. Several essay topics finally are assigned, each asking them to incorporate in some way what they have learned about writing from some of the world's masters.

Material Type: Module

Author: Alan Mitnick

Style for Students: A Writing Guide

Whether planning a paper, running a grammar check, completing a report, composing an email, puzzling over a usage or grammar issue, or writing a resume or online portfolio, you are bound to find the material and examples you need in Style for Students Online.

Material Type: Full Course, Textbook

Portfolio Rubric

Mark A. Tambone and  Alan Mitnick, Passaic County Community CollegeProf. Mitnick and I developed this portfolio rubric during a redesign phase of our Composition II course. The portfolio scoring rubric is used during final portfolio review conferences at the end of each term. While this scoring rubric aids the professor in awarding a final portfolio grade, it may also be used by a writing student throughout the term as an informative guide as to what must be in a successful process portfolio.    This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License

Material Type: Module

Authors: Mark Tambone, Alan Mitnick

Process Chart for Writing Assignments

Mark A. Tambone, Passaic County Community CollegeI created this process chart to aid students through the entire writing and editing process. Additionally, this chart helps students remain mindful of proper time management and scheduling which is needed in order to utilize our tutoring services.   This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License 

Material Type: Module

Author: Mark Tambone

Analytical Essay - Using Non-Fiction to Analyze Poetry

This lesson will focus on understanding poignant ideas from Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s significant lecture “The Danger of a Single Story” and applying them to the poem “How to Be a Real Indian” by Kenzie Allen. Class discussion will serve as a laboratory for idea sharing which will be needed for ideas for the class’s next analytical essay.

Material Type: Lesson Plan

Author: Alexandra Della Fera

Analysis of Short Fiction - Composition 102

In this lesson, students will learn how to analyze and decipher crucial details in the short story “The Women” by Tom Barbash in response to questions put forth to them in their writing prompt. This exercise will help to strengthen their critical thinking and reading comprehension skills, while their writing skills will be challenged through a response to a writing prompt resulting in a formal essay. The lesson will also ask students to recall and integrate ideas from an earlier reading entitled “How to Read Like a Writer” by Mike Bunn.

Material Type: Lesson Plan

Author: Alexandra Della Fera

College Writing

Textbook for introductory composition, focusing on writing processes, essay writing, and research writing.

Material Type: Full Course, Textbook

Author: Susan Oaks

Great Writers Inspire from Oxford Podcasts

From Dickens to Shakespeare, from Chaucer to Kipling and from Austen to Blake, this significant collection contains inspirational short talks freely available to the public and the education community worldwide. This series is aimed primarily at first year undergraduates but will be of interest to school students preparing for university and anyone who would like to know more about the world's great writers. The talks were produced as part of the Great Writers Inspire Project which makes a significant body of material freely available on the subject of great works of literature and their authors.

Material Type: Lecture

Authors: Alex Pryce, Ankhi Mukherjee, Helena Kennedy, Jon Mee, Judith Luna, Julian Thompson, Kathryn Sutherland, Linda Gates, Sophie Duncan, Tiffany Stern

Great Writers Inspire: Early Modern Drama on the Page and Stage

Many books and university courses, trying to compensate for a history of the neglect or mistrust of plays as performance, use the phrase "from page to stage" to think about the dramatic possibilities of their texts. In fact, for the early modern theatre, the phrase needs to be the other way around--from stage to page. Plays were performances first, and only later, and then only sometimes, books. This section of Great Writers gathers resources--podcasts, eBooks, websites--to explore the two interconnected lives of the early modern play--as an event in time and space on the stage of the Globe or Blackfriars theatre, and as a material printed object, on sale to Elizabethan and Jacobean readers in the booksellers' quarter around St Paul's Churchyard.

Material Type: Diagram/Illustration, Lecture, Reading

Authors: Emma Smith, Kate O'Connor, Katherine Duncan-Jones, Tiffany Stern

Introduction to Theatre

Lecture notes, internet links and vocabulary lists for a core curriculum Introduction to Theatre college level course.

Material Type: Lecture Notes

Author: Valerie Brugh

The Open Anthology of Earlier American Literature

An OER Anthology of Earlier American Literature to 1899

Material Type: Primary Source, Textbook

Author: Robin DeRosa

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

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.

Material Type: Textbook

Authors: Amy Berke, Jordan Cofer, Robert R. Bleil