Oregon Writes Open Writing Text
Jenn Kepka
Copyright Year: 2018
Publisher: Open Oregon Educational Resources
Language: English
Formats Available
Conditions of Use
Attribution
CC BY
Reviews
This book covers a wide array of topics pertaining to college writing. Content areas include: analyzing and understanding the professor's assignment, undertaking the writing process, conducting research, distinguishing between rhetorical modes,... read more
This book covers a wide array of topics pertaining to college writing. Content areas include: analyzing and understanding the professor's assignment, undertaking the writing process, conducting research, distinguishing between rhetorical modes, and exercising critical thinking. Each chapter clearly outlines several learning objectives before launching into a thorough discussion of chapter material. This OER text includes an abundance of engaging examples to illustrate points the author is attempting to convey. These include advice from former students, quotes from professors, real life examples, and extended metaphors.
The content is accurate and well edited.
The majority of the content is relevant to today's (2022) classroom. Some examples, such as those in the critical reading chapter, are older references from history that students may have a hard time relating to as time progresses. The text is organized in a logical way so that if updates were needed, they would be easy to implement.
Language of the text is clear and easy to follow.
Voice, tone, and perspective of the book is consistent throughout. Book does a good job addressing both the student and professor's perspectives.
The book is divided into chapters and contains effective sub-sections within chapters. Incorporating a few more graphic images into this text would help break up the long passages of text.
Topics are presented in a logical order. The progression of the topics makes sense.
No navigational problems are apparent. Text boxes are clearly visible and are not distorted in any way.
No grammar errors were noticed. Content has been carefully edited.
Text includes some examples from history that are culturally inclusive.
Initially, I had a hard time grasping the purpose of the section titled "Murder, Rhetorically Speaking!" which discusses how students can cultivate their own tone, voice, and style by writing up a detailed murder case report. After closer reading, I was able to discern the purpose of this section, but it was not apparent at first. This section also seemed quite long.
Thorough yet without filler. Contains content for a full year of comp as well as developmental courses. Addresses writing basics, research, and standard rhetorical modes. Exercises and examples in multiple formats are provided. Essays about... read more
Thorough yet without filler. Contains content for a full year of comp as well as developmental courses. Addresses writing basics, research, and standard rhetorical modes. Exercises and examples in multiple formats are provided. Essays about writing itself are an additional and interesting way to explain content. Instructors do need to add their own sample essays/discussion questions.
Content addresses basic strategies in context and then builds on these approaches. Students can easily see the value in what they have been taught (K-12) and then build from there. Care is given to pronoun use. I spotted just one small typo.
The book covers expected content in a fresh and accessible way that is fully adaptable. A broad discussion of writing, the writing process, and research comprise the first half of the text. Chapters on standard, specific modes follow. Users can easily find and adjust content to suit their needs.
Many specific examples and exercises provide context and understanding of main ideas. Tone and voice are consistent and supportive. This text makes writing feel possible rather than overwhelming; the authors present as expert yet friendly guides who want students to excel. Care is taken to explain key ideas and terms throughout.
The book stands together as a whole. Sections are clearly identified and easy to follow.
Text very much lends itself to modular use suiting student needs. The section of paraphrase, for example, can be pulled out as a mini lesson in a variety of classes. I could use parts of this text in three or more of my current classes without content feeling choppy or disjointed.
Arrangement broadly addresses academic writing with a series of essays before focusing on writing process and research (then various modes). This approach is effective as it addresses big topics before specific applications. Critical reading at the end works as this module can be used simultaneously with any of the other sections. The specific modes are addressed according to increasing complexity; earlier techniques can be used to enhance approaches presented later in the text.
No problems noted. Author encourages users to retain accessibility if text is adapted.
No problems noted.
Author provides note (in the intro) on inclusive pronoun usage. Text seems neutral and inclusive.
I will be sharing this text with colleagues and exploring ways to use it in my classes. I am impressed with the simplicity yet thorough nature of this this approach and the easy way the chapters can be adapted. There is an effective balance here between supporting effective technique and encouraging creativity.
As editor/curator Jenn Kepka modestly explains in the Introduction to Oregon Writes, this textbook provides a comprehensive introduction to college writing thanks to a collaborative effort led by Kepka that included writing instructors,... read more
As editor/curator Jenn Kepka modestly explains in the Introduction to Oregon Writes, this textbook provides a comprehensive introduction to college writing thanks to a collaborative effort led by Kepka that included writing instructors, librarians, media and learning support specialists, program and college administrators, and the Open Oregon Educational Resources Project. I am excited to use Oregon Writes in my first-year writing classroom for students taking their first university-credit level writing course. In Oregon, we call that Writing 121 but it will vary of course depending on where you're reading this from. Developing textbooks at the statewide level might seem to risk narrowing the scope of a first-year writing course (aren't the goals teaching students to write at the university level so they can pass their other courses, well universal goals?). However, in practice, writing practices in the classroom do become somewhat standardized at the state level in a place like Oregon through the department of education and ongoing collaboration between administrators and educators at the state's universities, colleges, and K-12 schools. In Oregon, Writing 121 is one of the only graduation requirements required at all of the state-funded (though not much anymore) universities and colleges. As such, having a common, open textbook that comprehensively addresses the key writing skills and approaches that we want our students to be capable of achieving is remarkably valuable. I am excited to adopt the textbook for my WR 121 courses at the University of Oregon during the 2020-21 school year and to begin adapting them to fit with my teaching style and department level learning outcomes. I love that I'm invited to embrace open pedagogy and make this book "my own" as well.
Oregon Writes is a collection of creative commons licensed essays and textbook chapters from a wide range of previously published materials. This first edition of the book has been vetting a wide range of collaborators prior to publication. As such, there is a strong sense that these materials have been edited and updated to accurately reflect common best practices in the teaching of college composition.
For my students and I, Oregon Writes is Highly Relevant. At the university-level, I've learned that students who develop an inquiring mind and the critical and sympathetic reading skills will develop the writing skills they need to not just survive but fully embrace their most challenging college courses. While teaching this book, I'm going to move Unit 5 on critical reading, because to write well for college you really do have to step-up your critical reading skills. In one of the best upper-division courses in my secondary education major as an undergraduate, the professor (a full-time middle school teacher by day) taught me to think of reading, writing, and speaking as inseparable human activities that manifest in the same areas of the brain. In the chapter "Research and Critical Reading" Pavel Zemilansky similarly explains that he likes to think of reading and writing as inseparable activities. The more I teach first-year college writing, the more I realize how vital it is for students to slow down the world enough to deeply focus on what they are reading. Chapter 1 does a great job of making relevant the fact that first-year writing courses remain essential for all college students by preparing them for any writing task they will face along the way to graduation. Chapter 5 reminds us that writing courses and good writing textbooks like Oregon Writes also prepare students for the reading challenges that lie ahead in challenge courses across all majors and minors across the university.
Again, thanks to the comprehensive vetting process of materials led by editor Jenn Kepka, the chapters selected for the book are all very well written and suitable for high school/college-level readers. Clarity and concision are hallmarks of the book. The formatting of learning outcomes, writing activities, and other graphic elements adds to the clarity and readability as well.
Overall, the text has a consistent look and feel that work well for a textbook. The chapters are written as chapters and not essays, which means that although each chapter has a different author, there is enough consistency in voice that some readers may not even notice the difference in authors. By the time students enter a first-year university-level writing course, they have likely already written many essays before, starting in elementary school when they take their first state-wide assessments. So it makes sense to jump right into a discussion of thesis statements and the writing process. Amy Guptill's chapter "Constructing the Thesis and Argument from the Ground Up" provides an excellent discussion and examples of how a well-written thesis can move writers past the standardized 5-paragraph essay most students are still taught in elementary and middle school and never quite learn how to shake. Students unfamiliar with a 5-paragraph, 3-part thesis essay, get to learn about it before Guptill deconstructs it. While I would like to see a chapter on sympathetic reading and developing questions perhaps preempt the ever dominant focuses on THE THESIS, I can always rearrange things to suit my own needs. Part 3 of the book does great job of setting up students for writing a basic research essay. I'm not entire sure how I feel about the consistency of these chapters as they are intended to align with learning outcomes in Oregon. Not every college requires or even wants students doing research in WR 121 before they develop their critical reading and rhetorical analysis skills a little further and are ready for advanced writing courses required in for their majors where research can be more targeted so these chapter may have to be adjusted based on what is required where you are teaching first-year writing.
Chapters are well organized to be of similar length and the text is effectively formatted with learning outcomes and writing activities interspersed to break up the text. A few chapters are longer than I would assign and as I've mentioned I would rearrange some of them to fit my curriculum but the Pressbooks format or downloadable PDF make it super-easy to redesign and rearrange. One of the strengths of the book not being single-authored is that there's no risk that the book is overly self-referential. You can rearrange as needed without losing continuity. It's a little hard to tell if the Writing Exercises are meant to be "assignments" or just thought experiments so each person who adopts the book will have to figure that out and let students know how to use those sections.
Since the book is organized around learning outcomes expected for all writers, there is a familar feeling to it for those of use teaching first-year writing on a regular basis. Parts 1-3 of the book (and Part 5?) are clearly organized to guide students through a traditional first-year essay where they have to develop an argumentative essay that uses a thesis to keep the writer centered on consistently developing that argument. Chapters on thesis development, organization strategies, pargraph writing, and research development support this central focus on the thesis as the dominating logical stucture of the well-written essay. Part 4 expands the conversation with chapters on a wide variety of other rhetorical modes: narrative, descriptive, process analysis, etc. The issue I have with organizing the book this way is that many of those rhetorical modes do not require a thesis in the same kind of way. Thesis writing is particular to argumentive writing and while some narrative writing may be thesis-driven some clearly is not. By centering the book on thesis and research development and then throwing all of these other modes of writing at students, I am worried at how confusing this could be. I've also commented above on how I think Chapter 5 would be better suited to earlier in the book to create a somewhat more cohesive structure (at least for my way to teaching).
Pressbooks are just a little bit confusing to use the first time as it's not entirely intuitive to know how to open up the book but once you get used to them they look great and are easy to use. Oregon Writes has engaging interface, though perhaps universal design would suggest a sans seriff font. I've started playing with copying and pasting from the web book into my course websites and it's working well for me.
Looks pretty perfect to me!
Is foregrounding the thesis-driven essay and Western logical structures that date back to Aristotle's cultural insensitive in 2020? There are no culturally insensitive examples or offensive language. Perhaps in the references and quotations of famous writers, greater attention could be given to inclusion but that would require some reauthoring of several chapters. A chapter on socially just writing would be a welcome addition.
Excited to be able to adopt this book!
The textbook appropriately covered all the areas for a first-year English composition course. Each section heading was able to be expanded to display the sub-topics covered in each section and the sub-topics were clearly defined. read more
The textbook appropriately covered all the areas for a first-year English composition course. Each section heading was able to be expanded to display the sub-topics covered in each section and the sub-topics were clearly defined.
While the Oregon Writes Open Writing Text provided information from a variety of sources, they all provided accurate, unbiased information.
Since Engish composition is based on the rhetorical principals and critical reading strategies that do not significantly change over the course of time, the material presented in the text remains relevant. New information can easily be added to the sections if necessary.
The content of the textbook is easily accessible. Complex or unfamiliar terms are followed by clear explanations and examples to aid comprehension.
All of the chapters begin by stating the learning objectives. Many of the chapters offer student exercises and student advice.
Each section is divided into smaller sub-topics that make it easy to assign with the exception of Part 5 - Critical Reading. The only sub-topic in this section is Research and Critical Reading. Critical reading is an important skill with which many students struggle. It would be beneficial to have a section for just critical reading and then later connect the critical reading to the research process. Addressing how to read scholarly and academic journals with more than just the suggestion of "be prepared to spend a little more time processing the information" would be helpful.
Critical reading an essential component of the English composition course. It would be helpful to have one of the beginning sections devoted to developing critical reading skills as many of the writing assignments are based on articles and stories that need to be read and analyzed prior to writing.
There were no interface or navigation issues, and all display features were clear. I would, however, like to be able to search the entire textbook for keywords and not have to search one section at a time.
No grammatical errors that would detract from the content.
None of the material that appeared in the textbook was offensive in any way.
I particularly liked the section on differentiating between a reaction and a response to the text.
While this text discusses summarizing in different sections, its very brief. I wish the text covered more about summaries. The thesis section is very well done as well as the research section. I also really like the source evaluation checklist. read more
While this text discusses summarizing in different sections, its very brief. I wish the text covered more about summaries. The thesis section is very well done as well as the research section. I also really like the source evaluation checklist.
Content is accurate and unbiased.
Textbook is up to date, has clear examples that can be understood in this time period and in the future and if there are parts that will be outdated in the future, it should be easy to update.
The book is clear, especially because of the layout. Rather than having endless words on a page, bullet points and other various formatting is used in order to emphasize on points more clearly.
The first chapter didn't really fit with the rest of the book since it was less about writing and more about preparedness. I think its fine to talk about both, but only if writing is still discussed in all chapters.
I would personally skip sections and not start from beginning to end of book, but I could see many ways that the textbook could be used, including using it from start to finish.
All topics are presented logically.
The only issue I found is that it's not easy to go to the previous pages you were on. The only way I found to do this is to click the back button several times. Would be nice if it was a scroll feature instead, though this may be more of a website issue and less about the book.
I did not notice any grammatical issues throughout the text.
I found a few examples that are focused on American writing and not writing from other cultures. For example, when talking about the 5 paragraph essay, the author makes the assumption that all students are familiar with this format and they should move past this way of writing. As an ELL instructor, I know my students are not familiar with the 5 paragraph essay and therefore need that as an introduction to writing in English. I also noticed language used that demonstrates assumptions being made about student (you have no doubt been drilled on the need for a thesis) or the way in which they talk about unclear storytelling. Storytelling differs immensely depending on the culture you are coming from, so not telling a story in chronological order may be the norm for some.
The text thoroughly covers the topics of writing and can be used effectively for college composition. The table of contents is clear and a list of sources is provided. While an index is not included, the table of contents is clear enough to... read more
The text thoroughly covers the topics of writing and can be used effectively for college composition. The table of contents is clear and a list of sources is provided. While an index is not included, the table of contents is clear enough to provide thorough navigation and easy access to material.
The content is both accurate and unbiased in its guidance covering the specific purpose of composition, teaching students rhetorical modes, analysis, and effective writing techniques.
The content is highly relevant with a compilation from existing experts and not likely to become dated. Writing is explored in a manner that applies to all beginning writers.
The text is highly accessible with a conversational tone. Several excerpts provide situations for classroom analysis. A sample paper and brief section on MLA formatting may be helpful to students.
The terminology is consistent and maintains a logical framework in its coverage of basic techniques commonly used in composition.
The easily divisible text is advantageous to the instructor. Sections are clearly divided allowing instructors to cover the content as necessary. Each chapter is designed in a manner that it can be incorporated with additional material and/or taught individually.
The text is extremely well-organized and provides a solid overview of writing techniques and thesis planning.
Book chapters are brief enough to avoid any significant interface issues. The text is so straightforward that any excerpts are unlikely to confuse readers.
I did not notice any grammatical errors. The text is clearly written and well-organized.
The text is culturally sensitive and inoffensive in its focus of writing.
This book provides an excellent overview of writing. Terms are explained thoroughly and the conversational tone encourages student engagement. As an instructor, I would highly recommend this book for use in a composition course. It is organized in a manner that allows instructors to break it into sections for lessons, and simple enough for freshman students to follow. Additionally, it encourages critical thinking processes that students need to develop.
Table of Contents
- Introduction
- Part 1: Situation and Analysis
- Part 2: The Writing Process
- Part 3: Research
- Part 4: Rhetorical Modes
- Part 5: Critical Reading
Ancillary Material
About the Book
This textbook guides students through rhetorical and assignment analysis, the writing process, researching, citing, rhetorical modes, and critical reading. Using accessible but rigorous readings by professionals throughout the college composition field, the Oregon Writes Writing Textbook aligns directly to the statewide writing outcomes for English Composition courses in Oregon.
About the Contributors
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