Preface

Why This Text is Free

This book is an Open Educational Resource or an OER. OERs came about because many professors have realized that the growing cost of textbooks makes attending college too expensive for some students. College is already expensive, and the added cost of textbooks–some of which cost hundreds of dollars–means that some students aren’t able to purchase all of their textbooks. Without textbooks, many students fail their classes or don’t earn the grades they could have earned, had they been able to study the textbook. OERs provide the same valuable information that a costly textbook provides, but they are free. Most of the material in an OER like this one consists of materials that your professor has created or that the professor has discovered for free online. Many experienced writing teachers have licensed their textbooks and other materials so that others may use them at no cost, as long as the authors are given credit. Because of OERs, students now have access to essential course content without having to purchase expensive textbooks.

The content in this OER textbook will help you understand key concepts and skills that you need to write strong academic essays. In any college class, the textbook and your professor’s in-class or online instruction are the primary means by which you learn. Studying the textbook, therefore, is crucial to your success. You may print this textbook or parts of it, but you can also read it online and take notes. The key is to make sure you learn the concepts and skills discussed in the text. Think of this class as being co-taught by your professor and the textbook.

Admittedly, reading a textbook can be boring and therefore frustrating, but one of the ways you become a more educated person is to learn by reading. The world will present you with many, many dull texts to read, and you will have to understand those texts, so work hard to develop this crucial academic skill.

This textbooks includes chapters written by me, the author of the textbook, as well as chapters written by others and adapted/revised by me, and chapters borrowed from others, without adaptations or revisions. The book has a CC-BY-NC-SA 4.0 license, but the chapters used “as is” hold a separate license.

LICENSE

Finally, you’ll notice at the top of each chapter, there is a link to download & print the chapter individually.  Printing of the entire book from the browser is discouraged.

Below is a list of sources used to create this textbook, all of which are published with a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial Share-Alike 4.0 International License, except where otherwise noted. If you find any errors or wish to offer feedback to me, you may contact me at mary.cantrell at tulsacc dot edu.

Chapter 1: Adapted from “Your Use of Time” by Sonji Nicholas, licensed as CC-BY 4.0, published in Cornerstone Experience.

Chapter 2:  Materials adapted from “Constructing the Thesis and Argument–from the Ground Up” by Amy Guptill, published in Writing in College: From Competence to Excellence and from “The Structure of a Paragraph” by Gay Monteverde, published in Write On.

Chapter 3: Adapted from “List of Common Errors” from University of Wisconsin Writing Center.

Chapter 4: Adapted from “Reading Strategies – Interrogating Texts” by Susan Gilroy, published on the Harvard Library Website.

Chapter 5: Adapted from “Writing Summaries” by Melanie Gagich, published in A Guide to Rhetoric, Genre, and Success in First-Year Writing and “When to Quote, Paraphrase, or Summarize” published with a CC-BY 4.0 license in Choosing and Using Sources: A Guide to Academic Research.

Chapter 6: by Mary V. Cantrell

Chapter 7: Adapted from “Sentence Variety” by Dr. Karen Palmer, published in The Rough Writer’s Guide.

Chapter 8: Adapted from “Backpacks v. Briefcases: Steps Toward Rhetorical Analysis” by Laura Bolin Carroll with adaptations from Liz Delf, Rob Drummond, and Kristy Kelly, published in A Dam Good Argument.

Chapter 9: by Mary V. Cantrell

Chapter 10: by Mary V. Cantrell

Chapter 11: Adapted from “Quoting” by Melanie Gagich, published with a CC-BY 4.0 license in A Guide to Rhetoric, Genre, and Success in First-Year Writing,  and “Quoting and Paraphrasing,” University of Wisconsin Writing Center Handbook.

Chapter 12: Adapted from “Overcoming Writing Anxiety and Writer’s Block” by Carol Burnell, Jaime Wood, Monique Babin, Susan Pesznecker, and Nicole Rosevear, published with a CC-BY-NC 4.0 license in The Word on College Reading and Writing.

Chapter 13: Adapted from “The Purpose of the Literature Review,” from Writing The Literature Review, by Robert Lloyd; Daniel Mertens; and Matthew Vollrath, published with a CC-BY 4.0 license.

Chapter 14: by Mary V. Cantrell

Chapter 15: Adapted from Lynnda Brown’s “What is an Annotated Bibliography?” and Tulsa Community College Writing Center’s “Annotated Bibliography”

Chapter 16: Adapted from “Writing Introductory and Concluding Paragraphs,” published in College Composition I.

Chapter 17: Adapted from “Find the Good Argument,” published in A Dam Good Argument.

Chapter 18: Adapted from “Listening to Sources, Talking to Sources” published in Writing in College: From Competence to Excellence. and “Methods of Primary Research” published with a CC-BY 4.0 license in Writing and Research in the Disciplines.

Chapter 19 & 20: Both chapters from Writing Spaces. They are unchanged and licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

Chapter 22: This chapter, entitled “Making Sure Your Voice is Present,” is taken from the textbook, Informed Arguments: A Guide to Writing and Research. It is unchanged and is  licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

Chapter 23: Adapted from “Basic Structure and Content of Argument,” published in Informed Arguments: A Guide to Writing and Research.

Chapter 24: Adapted from “Revision Strategies,” which has a CC-BY-SA license, from English Composition.org.

Chapter 25: Adapted from “Style,” published in English Composition I.