Digital library
Textbooks, references and open learning resources.
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The Odyssey
Homer · translated by Samuel Butler
The Odyssey is one of two major ancient Greek epic poems attributed to Homer. It is, in part, a sequel to the Iliad, the other Homeric epic. The Odyssey is a fundamental work in the modern Western canon, being the oldest extant piece of Western literature, second to the Iliad. Scholars believe the Odyssey was composed near the end of the 8th century BC, somewhere in Ionia, the Greek coastal region of Anatolia.
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English 96: Readings, Presentations, and Assignments
Paul Butera · City Colleges of Chicago
English 96 is an integrated reading and writing course designed to increase students’ critical thinking, reading, and writing abilities and to promote their academic literacy for long-term success. This course provides a structured, rigorous learning environment that nurtures student engagement through a shared, sustained classroom experience, and it fosters collaboration in a curriculum that respects students’ individuality and humanity and that prepares them to meet college-level expectations.
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ESL Integrated Advanced Reading/Writing 2 (2026)
Phuong Emily Bank and Rachel Cohen-Reyes · Evergreen Valley College
This OER (Open Educational Resources) textbook is designed for non-native speakers of English one level below English C1000, first-year college composition course. Divided into ten chapters, it focuses on the active reading process, writing and research processes, and the integration and connection of these three major skills. The last three chapters focuses on grammar within the context of writing and vocabulary expansion.
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Technical Communication
Chelsea Milbourne, Anne Regan, Morgan Livingston, and Sadie Johann · California Polytechnic State University
This text explores the principles of technical communication. In addition to producing clear and easy-to-read documents, students will also examine the rhetorical dimensions of writing for technical environments. The class begins by analyzing the argumentative and stylistic conventions that govern technical communication. Through this critical analysis, students determine which conventions constitute the field’s “best practices” and will learn to incorporate these within their own compositions.
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College Skills: Intermediate English Part 1
Christine M. Nowik · Harrisburg Area Community College
This text supports ESL 030: Reading and Writing I. Part II supports ESL 035: Reading and Writing II.
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Introduction to Literature
Lumen Learning · Lumen Learning
This collection is not a “course.” It is a collection of materials designed to assist instructors in teaching and presenting the concepts of Introduction to Literature. Instructors are urged to pick and choose the items that will add to their lesson plans; then instructors can make these items available to students. The material can be used in conjunction with other items instructors find or prepare, or the material can be used as a sole source for the class.
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Synthesis - Integrated Writing Skills for Advanced Students of ESOL
Timothy Krause · Portland Community College
This writing course for advanced students of ESOL offers an integrated approach to metacognition and critical thinking skills, research and source evaluation skills, standard composition and grammar skills, and academic vocabulary skills.
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Critical Thinking: Argumentative Reading and Writing (CID ENGL105)
Jill Bonds and Heather Evans · Coalinga College
This textbook is designed for an 8-week course. Created for Coalinga College’s English Argumentative Writing & Critical Thinking, it distills various OER resources into a framework base for faculty to expand on, whether focusing on argumentative writing or integrating critical thinking philosophies and research methodologies beyond a basic English class. Each section provides definitions and examples for faculty to add individual supplemental materials and ends with additional text options.
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College Success and Advanced ESL Writing
Talley Caruso · Chabot College
This textbook enables college success with a particular focus on ESL (English as a Second Language) students developing academic reading and writing skills. Designed to be both instructional and accessible, this resource blends foundational writing instruction with targeted support for multilingual learners, empowering students to grow as confident, critical readers and effective academic writers.
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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. It's flexible, functional, and zeroes in problems typically seen in writing of all types, from the eternal "there/they're/their" struggle to correct colon use. Units are organized from most simple to most challenging.
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Writing for Success
LibreTexts
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.
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Communication Beginnings - An Introductory Listening and Speaking Text for English Language Learners
Della Jean Abrahams · Portland State University
This textbook is designed for beginning-intermediate English language learners. It is composed of 7 chapters, each of which covers specific speaking and listening learning objectives and includes dialogues, interviews, discussions and conversation activities. Each chapter includes listening and speaking components such as dialogues, interviews, discussions and conversation activities.
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Critical Reading, Critical Writing
Howard Community College · LibreTexts
Curated and/or composed by the English Faculty at Howard Community College
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The Ideologies of Lived Space in Literary Texts, Ancient and Modern
Jo Heirman and Jacqueline Klooster · LibreTexts
This volume presents a number of essays on the ideological role of space in literary texts. The individual articles analyse ancient and modern literary texts from the angle of the most recent theoretical conceptualisations of space. The focus throughout is on how the experience of space is determined by dominant political, philosophical or religious ideologies.
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Tiny Tales from Africa: The Animals I (Gibbs)
Laura Gibbs · University of Oklahoma
Welcome to Tiny Tales from Africa: The Animals (volume 1). This is a collection of two hundred stories from Africa featuring animal characters, and each story is just 100 words long.
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Let's Get Writing
Elizabeth Browning, Kirsten DeVries, Kathy Boylan, Jenifer Kurtz, and Katelyn Burton · Virginia Western Community College
This introduction is designed to exemplify how writers think about and produce text. The guiding features are the following: (1) Every good piece of writing is an argument. (2) Everything worth writing and reading begins with a specific question. (3) Improving skills takes practice, feedback, and re-thinking, redoing, revising.
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English 101: Composition
Alisa Allkins · City Colleges of Chicago
This texts focuses on the teaching the evelopment of critical and analytical skills in writing and reading of expository prose.
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BenU Writing Colloquium
Scott Stillar, Wilson Chen & Maria Granic · Benedictine University
LibreTexts
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Nepos Hannibal
LibreTexts
LibreTexts
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Grammar Essentials
Excelsior Online Writing Lab · LibreTexts
The Grammar Essentials area of the Excelsior OWL will provide you with a thorough overview of punctuation, grammar and usage, and some of the most common errors students in the United States struggle with. And, by using a little humor, we hope that this introduction into grammar and punctuation (using zombies, memes, and funny stories) will be a little less painful than when you were in junior high and had to do things like memorize prepositions or diagram sentences.