LibGuides: OER Subject Guides: Literature and Writing

English and Writing

English Literature
Writing

Changing the Victorian Subject by Tonkin, Maggie; Madeleine Seys; Mandy Treagus; and Sharon Crozier-De Rosa
Publication Date: 2014

The essays in this collection examine how both colonial and British authors engage with Victorian subjects and subjectivities in their work. Some essays explore the emergence of a key trope within colonial texts: the negotiation of Victorian and settler-subject positions. Others argue for new readings of key metropolitan texts and their repositioning within literary history. These essays work to recognize the plurality of the rubric of the 'Victorian' and to expand how the category of Victorian studies can be understood.
EmpoWord: A Student-Centered Anthology & Handbook for College Writers by Abrams, Shane
Publication Date: 2018

EmpoWord is a reader and rhetoric that champions the possibilities of student writing. The textbook uses actual student writing to exemplify effective writing strategies, celebrating dedicated college writing students to encourage and instruct their successors: the students in your class.
This textbook is designed for students of first- and second-year college composition courses, but it is also a great tool for college prep students, more advanced writers, or independent learners. Early teachers are encouraged to use the textbook to support them in curriculum design, and experienced teachers can use it to supplement their tried-and-true methods.
English Literature: Victorians and Moderns by Sexton, James
Publication Date: 2014

English Literature: Victorians and Moderns is an anthology with a difference. In addition to providing annotated teaching editions of many of the most frequently-taught classics of Victorian and Modern poetry, fiction and drama, it also provides a series of guided research casebooks which make available numerous published essays from open access books and journals, as well as several reprinted critical essays from established learned journals such as English Studies in Canada and the Aldous Huxley Annual with the permission of the authors and editors.
From Clerks to Corpora: Essays on the English Language Yesterday and Today by Shaw, Philip; Britt Erman; and Gunnel Melchers
Publication Date: 2015

Why is the Isle of Dogs in the Thames called Isle of Dogs? Did King Canute's men bring English usage back to Jutland? How can we find out where English speakers suck their breath in to give a short response? And what did the Brontes do about dialect and think about foreign languages? The answers are in this collection of empirical work on English past and present in honour of Nils-Lennart Johannesson, Professor of English Language at Stockholm University.
The Ideologies of Lived Space in Literary Texts, Ancient and Modern by Heirman, Jo and Jacqueline Klooster
Publication Date: 2014

Inspired by the spatial turn in the humanities, this volume presents a number of essays on the ideological role of space in literary texts. The individual articles analyze ancient and modern literary texts from the angle of the most recent theoretical conceptualizations of space. The focus throughout is on how the experience of space is determined by dominant political, philosophical or religious ideologies and how, in turn, the description of spaces in literature is employed to express, broadcast or deconstruct this experience. By bringing together ancient and modern, mostly post-colonial texts, this volume hopes to stimulate discussion among disciplines and across continents.
Making and Unmaking in Early Modern English Drama: Spectators, Aesthetics and Incompletion by Porter, Chloe
Publication Date: 2014

Why are early modern English dramatists preoccupied with unfinished processes of 'making' and 'unmaking'? And what did the terms 'finished' or 'incomplete' mean for dramatists and their audiences in this period? Making and unmaking in early modern English drama is about the significance of visual things that are 'under construction' in works by playwrights including Shakespeare, Robert Greene and John Lyly.
Naming the Unnameable: An Approach to Poetry for New Generations by Evory, Michelle Bonzcek
Publication Date: 2018

Informed by a writing philosophy that values both spontaneity and discipline, Michelle Bonczek Evory’s Naming the Unnameable: An Approach to Poetry for New Generations offers practical advice and strategies for developing a writing process that is centered on play and supported by an understanding of America’s rich literary traditions. With consideration to the psychology of invention, Bonczek Evory provides students with exercises aimed to make writing in its early stages a form of play that gives way to more enriching insights through revision, embracing the writing of poetry as both a love of language and a tool that enables us to explore ourselves and better understand the world.
Rhetoric and Composition
Publication Date: Last updated 2017

The Rhetoric and Composition Wikibook was designed for use as a textbook in first-year college composition programs, written as a practical guide for students struggling to bring their writing up to the level expected of them by their professors and instructors.
Teaching Autoethnography: Personal Writing in the Classroom by Tombro, Melissa
Publication Date: 2016

Teaching Autoethnography: Personal Writing in the Classroom is dedicated to the practice of immersive ethnographic and autoethnographic writing that encourages authors to participate in the communities about which they write. This book draws not only on critical qualitative inquiry methods such as interview and observation, but also on theories and sensibilities from creative writing and performance studies, which encourage self-reflection and narrative composition. Concepts from qualitative inquiry studies, which examine everyday life, are combined with approaches to the creation of character and scene to help writers develop engaging narratives that examine chosen subcultures and the author’s position in relation to her research subjects.
Writing for Success by University of Minnesota Libraries (Adapted by)
Publication Date: 2015

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.
Writing in College: From Competence to Excellence by Guptill, Amy
Publication Date: 2016

Writing in College is designed for students who have largely mastered high-school level conventions of formal academic writing and are now moving beyond the five-paragraph essay to more advanced engagement with text. It is well suited to composition courses or first-year seminars and valuable as a supplemental or recommended text in other writing-intensive classes. It provides a friendly, down-to-earth introduction to professors’ goals and expectations, demystifying the norms of the academy and how they shape college writing assignments. Each of the nine chapters can be read separately, and each includes suggested exercises to bring the main messages to life.

The list above was created by Zach Claybaugh.

Open Readings from IRSC
This is a collaborative anthology, comprised of literary selections and contributions from the English faculty. This is also a "living" open-source textbook: Every semester, new additions of short stories, poems, plays, novels, and essays are added as requested.
"The Mill on the Floss" An Anthropocene Edition
From the site: "This edition recontextualizes Eliot's The Mill on Floss in the Anthropocene, highlighting key passages that take on new resonance in light of human disruption of the Earth System. It includes a critical introduction, annotations, suggestions for further reading, and additional resource collections. Prepared by Megan Butler, Francesca Colonnese, Rachel Dusin, Averie Freund, Mara Minion, and Zenia Rios for Jesse Oak Taylor's English 440/529 course, Spring 2020."

Writing Guide (with Handbook) [2021, updated 2023]
Writing Guide with Handbook aligns to the goals, topics, and objectives of many first-year writing and composition courses. It is organized according to relevant genres, and focuses on the writing process, effective writing practices or strategies—including graphic organizers, writing frames, and word banks to support visual learning—and conventions of usage and style. The text includes an editing and documentation handbook, which provides information on grammar and mechanics, common usage errors, and citation styles.
The RoughWriter's Guide: A Handbook for Writing Well [2020]
From the site: "The RoughWriter's Guide is a writing handbook designed specifically for Yavapai College students. The Guide provides students with help navigating academic writing, including all aspects of the writing process, MLA and APA formatting, and grammatical and mechanical issues."

EmpoWord textbook EmpoWord: A Student-Centered Anthology & Handbook for College Writers,

by Shane Abrams, Portland State University [2018]

EmpoWord is a reader and rhetoric that champions the possibilities of student writing. The textbook uses actual student writing to exemplify effective writing strategies, celebrating dedicated college writing students to encourage and instruct their successors: the students in your class.

Through both creative and traditional activities, readers are encouraged to explore a variety of rhetorical situations to become more critical agents of reading, writing, speaking, and listening in all facets of their lives. Straightforward and readable instruction sections introduce key vocabulary, concepts, and strategies. Three culminating assignments (Descriptive Personal Narrative; Text-Wrestling Analysis; Persuasive Research Essay) give students a chance to show their learning while also practicing rhetorical awareness techniques for future writing situations.

Resources for Open Technical Communication Courses [2020, updated 2021]
"The OER Guide for WR 227 Instructors: Using Open Educational Resources (OERs) in WR 227 Courses aims to help instructors make sense of and sort the massively decentralized and varying content of existing OERs available to support technical and professional writing courses. This guide is intended as a resource for introductory technical writing course instructors to adapt an existing course to integrate OER resources, or, to build a new course with all-OER student resources. This guide was developed for the specific use of WR 227 instructors at Portland State University and across Oregon; however, the material in the guide or its presentation is not tied to any particular course and is therefore also useful for instructors of introductory technical writing and professional writing courses more broadly."
English Foundations
An open textbook designed for the beginning college writing student, covering main ideas, meaning and bias, critical analysis, using sources, and other topics

World Literature OER

Multicultural Women's Literature [2022]
Openly licensed anthology focused on the theme of the Multicultural Women's Literature. Contains: American Indian Stories by Zikala-Sa (Gertrude Bonnin); Diaries of Court Ladies of Old Japan by Izumi Shikibu et al.; The Diwan of Zeb-un-Nissa by Zeb-un-Nissa; Hawaii’s Story by Hawaii’s Queen, Liliuokalani; Kamala: a story of Hindu life by Krupabai Satthianadhan; Life Among the Piutes: Their Wrongs and Claims by Sarah Winnemucca Hopkins; Life of Harriet Beecher Stowe by Harriet Beecher Stowe; Memoirs of an Arabian Princess by Emily Ruete (Salamah bint Saïd; Sayyida Salme, Princess of Zanzibar and Oman); Nightmare Tales by H.P. Blavatsky; Ratanbai: a sketch of a Bombay high cast Hindu young wife, by Shèvantibāi M. Nikambé.; Two Years in the Forbidden City by the Princess Der Ling; The Tale of Genji by Lady Murasaki Shikibu.
Open Anthology of Early World Literature in English Translation [2015]
A collection of free and open primary texts in digital formats for the study of early world literature in English translation. Multiple English translations are provided for comparison and study, as well as open secondary and supplemental resources.
Compact Anthology of World Literature [2016]
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.
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The introductions in this anthology are meant to be just that: a basic overview of what students need to know before they begin reading, with topics that students can research further. An open access literature textbook cannot be a history book at the same time, but history is the great companion of literature: The more history students know, the easier it is for them to interpret literature.

These works can help students understand the present, as well. In an electronic age, with this text available to anyone with computer access around the world, it has never been more necessary to recognize and understand differences among nationalities and cultures. The literature in this anthology is foundational, in the sense that these works influenced the authors who followed them.

A word to the instructor: The texts have been chosen with the idea that they can be compared and contrasted, using common themes. Rather than numerous (and therefore often random) choices of texts from various periods, these selected works are meant to make both teaching and learning easier. While cultural expectations are not universal, many of the themes found in these works are.
Compact Anthology of World Literature II: Volumes 4, 5, and 6 [2018]
The Compact Anthology of World Literature, Parts 4, 5, and 6 is designed as an e-book to be accessible on a variety of devices: smart phone, tablet, e-reader, laptop, or desktop computer. Students have reported ease of accessibility and readability on all these devices.
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Although the text is designed to look like an actual book, the Table of Contents is composed of hyperlinks that will take you to each introductory section and then to each text. The three parts of the text are organized into the following units:

Part 4—The Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries

Unit I: The Age of Reason

Unit II: The Near East and Asia

Part 5—The Long Nineteenth Century

Unit I Romanticism

Unit II Realism

Part 6—The Twentieth Century and Contemporary Literature

Unit I Modernism

Unit II Postcolonial Literature

Unit III Contemporary Literature

Texts from a variety of genres and cultures are included in each unit. Additionally, each selection or collection includes a brief introduction about the author and text(s), and each includes 3 – 5 discussion questions. Texts in the public domain--those published or translated before 1923--are replicated here. Texts published or translated after 1923 are not yet available in the public domain. In those cases, we have provided a link to a stable site that includes the text. Thus, in Part 6, most of the texts are accessible in the form of links to outside sites. In every case, we have attempted to connect to the most stable links available.

The following texts have been prepared with the assistance of the University of North Georgia Press in its role as Affordable Learning Georgia's Partner Press.

Affordable Learning Georgia partners with the University of North Georgia Press to assist grantees with copyright clearance, peer review, production and design, and other tasks required to produce quality Open Educational Resources (OER). The University Press is a peer-reviewed, academic press. Its mission is to produce scholarly work that contributes to the fields of innovative teaching, textbooks, and Open Educational Resources. Affordable Learning Georgia Textbook Transformation Grant funds may be used for services provided by the Press.
World Literature I: Beginnings to 1650 [2015]
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.