English Composition

Foreword Open Educational Resources (OER) are course materials that are free of cost and come with an intellectual property license that permits reuse and repurposing. It is important to make OER available at colleges and universities because students benefit by having access to essential course content without the cost of purchasing expensive textbooks.

This OER textbook has been designed for students to learn the foundational concepts for first-year college writing. In May 2019, English writing instructors from various campuses in the University of Hawai‘i (UH) system—Karyl Garland (University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa [UHM]), Ann Inoshita (Leeward Community College), Jeanne K. Tsutsui Keuma (Leeward Community College, Wai‘anae Moku), Kate Sims (Hawai‘i Community College, Pālamanui), and Tasha S. Williams (Leeward Community College)—collaborated to create this OER textbook. They were given three days and nights to complete a comprehensive, robust text that contains essential concepts for first-year writing at the college level, with facilitation support and copyediting from Book Sprints, the UHM Outreach College OER Project, and the UH ITS Online Learning team.

The team of instructors compared the learning objectives for first-year writing from across UH campuses system-wide. Although each campus had its own respective language regarding student learning objectives, there were many commonalities. Thus, for this textbook, we created the following learning objectives. After reading this text and applying writing skills, students should be able do the following:

• Demonstrate college-level writing on an assigned topic, with a clear purpose, in a form appropriate for an intended audience.
• Demonstrate critical thinking, effective use of study and college-success skills.
• Use a multi-step, recursive writing process that includes prewriting, drafting, editing, proofreading, and revising, including making use of written and oral feedback.
• Apply to writing the rules and conventions of grammar, word choice, punctuation, and spelling.
• Compose complex and well-reasoned essays that incorporate credible source materials following an appropriate style guide.

The content of this textbook is aimed at helping students meet these learning objectives. This textbook contains five sections:

(1) Success Skills for College Learning and Intellectual Growth, (2) The Writing Process, (3) Essay Structure, (4) Types of Essays, and (5) Research Skills. We wish you well on your academic journey, and we hope this First-Year Writing OER textbook supports you throughout your first college writing course and beyond.

A Student’s Story

Josh started college after being injured while working in construction. He hoped to earn a teaching degree and to work in a career that fit his family life. He thought that, given his past job—rising at an early hour, arriving on time, and working hard throughout an 8- to 10-hour day—he would find it easy to take on a full-time schedule of classes at the local community college. However, as the semester began, he struggled to maintain his weekly one-hour physical therapy appointments on top of 15 hours per week in the classroom, 5 hours per week of commuting to and from college, 25–36 hours per week of reading and studying for quizzes and class discussions, and still taking care of family and personal needs. He lost hours of sleep and found it difficult to stay awake in classes.

He considered dropping a course and decided to see his academic counselor. She took great care to speak with Josh about college success skills, starting with creating and adhering to a manageable schedule that would ensure that he had time for effective studying, for his personal needs, and especially for his family—the people for whom he had committed himself to earning a degree and becoming a teacher.