Skip to Main Content

OER - Education: Composition and Grammar

Pedagogy and Instruction

Beyond Dichotomy: Synergizing Writing Center and Classroom Pedagogies

Steven J. Corbett, George Mason University

Beyond Dichotomy explores how research on peer tutoring one-to-one and in small groups can inform our work with students in writing centers and other tutoring programs, as well as in writing courses and classrooms.

Conventions 101: A Functional Approach to Teaching (And Assessing!) Grammar and Punctuation

Chauna Ramsey, Columbia Gorge Community College

This is a collection of cumulative units of study for conventional errors common in student writing.

Foundational Practices of Online Writing Instruction

Foundational Practices of Online Writing Instruction addresses the questions and decisions that administrators and instructors most need to consider when developing online writing programs and courses.

Teaching Autoethnography: Personal Writing in the Classroom

Melissa Tombro, The Fashion Institute of Technology

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.

The Word on College Reading and Writing

Carol Burnell, Clackamas Community College
Monique Babin, Clackamas Community College
Susan Pesznecker, Portland State University

Written by five college reading and writing instructors, this interactive, multimedia text draws from decades of experience teaching students who are entering the college reading and writing environment for the very first time. 

Writing Spaces Web Writing Style Guide

The Writing Spaces Web Writing Style Guide was created as a crowdsourcing project of Collaborvention 2011: A Computers and Writing Unconference. College writing teachers from around the web joined together to create this guide (see our Contributors list). The advice within it is based on contemporary theories and best practices. While the text was originally written for students in undergraduate writing classes, it can also be a suitable resource for other writers interested in learning more about writing for the web.

Writing Spaces: Readings on Writing Vol. I

Dr Charlie Lowe, Grand Valley State University
Dr Pavel Zemliansky, James Madison University

Volumes in Writing Spaces: Readings on Writing are collections of Creative Commons licensed essays for use in the first year writing classroom, all written by writing teachers for students.

Writing Spaces: Readings on Writing Vol. II

Dr. Charlie Lowe, Grand Valley State University
Dr. Pavel Zemliansky, James Madison University

Volumes in Writing Spaces: Readings on Writing are collections of Creative Commons licensed essays for use in the first year writing classroom, all written by writing teachers for students.

Composition

English Composition 1

Introductory composition with an emphasis on essay writing in common rhetorical styles

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).

 

Writing in College: From Competence to Excellence

Author:

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.

About Writing: A Guide

Robin Jeffrey, Klamath Community College

This writer’s reference condenses and covers everything a beginning writing student should need to successfully compose college-level work.

Exploring Perspectives: A Concise Guide to Analysis

Randall Fallows, University of California Los Angeles

The reason why Randall Fallows wrote Exploring Perspectives: A Concise Guide to Analysis is simple: to help give students a better understanding of how to discover, develop, and revise an analytical essay. Here is how his 5 chapter book goes about doing just that:

Writing for Success

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.

Beginning with the sentence and its essential elements, this book addresses each concept with clear, concise and effective examples that are immediately reinforced with exercises and opportunities to demonstrate, and reinforce, learning

Writing In College: From Competence to Excellence

Amy Guptill, SUNY Brockport

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.

 

Introduces students to the writing process as a means of developing ideas into clear, correct, and effective writing. Lumen Learning

Additional resources

Copy(write): Intellectual Property in the Writing Classroom

Martine Courant Rife, Lansing Community College
Shaun Slattery, DePaul University and the University of South Florida Polytechnic

The editors of Copy(write): Intellectual Property in the Writing Classroom bring together stories, theories, and research that can further inform the ways in which we situate and address intellectual property issues in our writing classrooms.

 

Reading With My Eyes Open: Embracing the critical and the personal in language pedagogy

Gerdi Quist, University College London

Untangling the various approaches to language teaching and their history, Gerdi Quist maps recent thinking in language studies at university. Using an interdisciplinary theoretical framework, drawn from educational philosophy, cultural studies, intercultural studies and language pedagogy, the author discusses the many tensions and currents in contemporary language teaching.

Teaching Autoethnography: Personal Writing in the Classroom

Melissa Tombro, The Fashion Institute of Technology

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.

The Centrality of Style

Mike Duncan, University of Houston-Downtown
Star M. Vanguri, Nova Southeastern University

In The Centrality of Style, editors Mike Duncan and Star Medzerian Vanguri argue that style is a central concern of composition studies even as they demonstrate that some of the most compelling work in the area has emerged from the margins of the field.

 

WAC and Second-Language Writers: Research Towards Linguistically and Culturally Inclusive Programs and Practices

In WAC and Second-Language Writers, the editors and contributors pursue the ambitious goal of including within WAC theory, research, and practice the differing perspectives, educational experiences, and voices of second-language writers.

WAC Partnerships Between Secondary and Postsecondary Institutions

Working with educators at all academic levels involved in WAC partnerships, the authors and editors of this collection demonstrate successful models of collaboration between schools and institutions so others can emulate and promote this type of collaboration.

Working With Academic Literacies: Case Studies Towards Transformative Practice

Kathy Harrington, London Metropolitan University
Mary Lea, Open University
Sally Mitchell, Queen Mary University of London
Theresa Lillis, The Open University

The editors and contributors to this collection explore what it means to adopt an "academic literacies" approach in policy and pedagogy.