What Is OER?
- Databases
- Composition Textbooks / Readers
- Literature Textbooks / Courses
- Handbooks & Writing Resources
- Creative Writing Textbooks
Databases
The CSU MERLOT system provides access to curated online learning and support materials and content creation tools, led by an international community of educators, learners and researchers.
OER Commons is a public digital library of open educational resources. Explore, create, and collaborate with educators around the world to improve curriculum.
Open Courseware is a free and open publication of material from thousands of MIT courses, covering the entire MIT curriculum.
SUNY’s Openly Available Sources Integrated Search (OASIS) is a search tool that aims to make the discovery of open content easier. OASIS includes textbooks, courses, modules, and more.
George Mason University’s OER Metafinder Database searches across 21 different sources of open educational materials.
Open Culture curates free cultural and educational media available on the web, including video, courses, audio, ebooks, and more.
The Digital Public Library of America is a searchable catalog that aggregates existing digitized content from major sources such as libraries, archives, museums and cultural institutions.
English Composition Textbooks / Readers
Open Textbook Library: A wide-ranging list of literature and composition open access textbooks.
List of English / Composition OER content from San Bernardino Valley College.
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.
The Word on College Reading and Writing: 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. It includes examples, exercises, and definitions for just about every reading- and writing-related topic students will encounter in their college courses.
About Writing: A Guide – This writer’s reference condenses and covers everything a beginning writing student needs to successfully compose college-level work, including the basics of composition, grammar, and research.
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.
A Guide to Rhetoric, Genre, and Success in First Year Writing: This textbook includes information on the writing process, paragraphing, rhetorical modes, multimodality, research, and other topics essential for first year college writing.
Bad Ideas about Writing is an effort to name bad ideas and suggest better ones. Some of those bad ideas are quite old, such as the archetype of the inspired genius author, the five-paragraph essay, or the abuse of adjunct writing teachers. The project has its genesis in frustration, but what emerges is hope: hope for leaving aside bad ideas and thinking about writing in more productive, inclusive, and useful ways.
88 Open Essays is full of essays that could supplement other OER rhetoric and writing texts that lack readings. All of the essays in this reader are versatile rhetorically and thematically on topics like education, the environment, politics, or health.
Thematic Reading Anthology: A reader containing essays on food, technology, politics, debt, health care, and other issues.
English Literature & Literary Criticism Textbooks / Courses
English Literature: Victorians and Moderns
Victorians and Moderns is an anthology that provides annotated teaching editions of many of the most frequently-taught classics of Victorian and Modern poetry, fiction and drama. It also includes a series of guided research casebooks which make available numerous published essays from open access books and journals.
British Literature I Anthology: From the Middle Ages to Neoclassism and the 18th Century
British Literature I Anthology: Featuring over 50 authors and full texts of their works, this anthology follows the shift of monarchic to parliamentarian rule in Britain, and the heroic epic to the more egalitarian novel as genre.
British Literature II: Romantic Era to the Twentieth Century and Beyond
British Literature II: Featuring 37 authors and full texts of their works, the selections in this open anthology represent the literature developed within and developing through their respective eras. This completely-open anthology will connect students to the conversation of literature that has captivated readers in the past and still holds us now.
Open Modernisms Anthology Builder
Open Modernisms Anthology Builder: Open Modernisms is an open, Creative-Commons-licensed online platform that allows teachers and scholars to build custom anthologies of out-of-copyright primary materials for the period 1850–1950.
The Compact Anthology of World Literature I (Vol. I-III: Ancient to Renaissance)
The Compact Anthology of World Literature I: This peer-reviewed World Literature anthology includes introductory text and images before each series of readings. Sections of the text are divided by time period in three parts: the Ancient World, Middle Ages, and Renaissance, and then divided into chapters by location.
The Compact Anthology of World Literature II (Vol IV-VI: 17th Century to Contemporary)
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.
Writing and Literature: Composition as Inquiry, Learning, Thinking, and Communication
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.
Becoming America: An Exploration of American Literature from Precolonial to Post-Revolution
Becoming America: Featuring sixty-nine authors and full texts of their works, the selections in this open anthology represent the diverse voices in early American literature. This completely-open anthology will connect students to the conversation of literature that is embedded in American history and has helped shaped its culture.
Writing the Nation: A Concise Introduction to American Literature 1865 to the 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.
The Open Anthology of Earlier American Literature
The Open Anthology of Earlier American Literature: Readings include Native American and Ethnographic texts, Alvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca, Susanna Rowson, Edgar Allen Poe, and others. This anthology is one of many as a part of a project of open access Earlier American Literature anthologies
The American Novel Since 1945 (Full Course)
The American Novel Since 1945: The course traces the formal and thematic developments of the novel in this period, focusing on the relationship between writers and readers, the conditions of publishing, innovations in the novel’s form, fiction’s engagement with history, and the changing place of literature in American culture.
MIT Open Courseware (Literature Courses)
Full list of MIT Open Courseware Literature courses. Each course listed contains syllabus, lecture notes, assignments, and other related resources.
Creating Literary Analysis (Literary Criticism)
Writing about Literature through Theory is designed to appeal to multiple audiences: the text can be used in introductory classes on literature, in composition classes that focus on literature, and in literature classes designed for English majors.
A Guide for Making Open Textbooks with Students
A Guide for Making Open Textbooks with Students: A handbook for faculty interested in practicing open pedagogy by involving students in the making of open textbooks, ancillary materials, or other Open Educational Resources. Includes case studies and examples.
Writing Handbook Textbooks & Resources
Boundless Writing: Introductory information on research, style, grammar, punctuation, sentence mechanics, and more... all in one place.
Brehe’s Grammar Anatomy makes grammar accessible to general and specialist readers alike. This book provides an in-depth look at beginner grammar terms and concepts, providing clear examples with limited technical jargon. Whether for academic or personal use, Brehe’s Grammar Anatomy is the perfect addition to any resource library.
College ESL Writers: Applied Grammar and Composing Strategies for Success is designed as a comprehensive grammar and writing e-text for high intermediate and advanced level non-native speakers of English.
Creative Writing Textbooks
Naming the Unnameable: An Approach to Poetry for New Generations offers practical advice and strategies for developing a writing process for poets that is centered on play and supported by an understanding of America's rich literary traditions.
Towards an Open Anthology of Poetry: A student curated collection of poetry organized by theme.