All resources in VIVA Open Skills Academy

Great Writers Inspire: James Joyce

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Great Writers Inspire presents an illuminating collection of James Joyce resources curated by specialists at the University of Oxford. It includes audio and video lectures and short talks, downloadable electronic texts and eBooks, and background contextual resources.

Material Type: Lecture, Reading

Great Writers Inspire: Jane Austen

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Great Writers Inspire presents an illuminating collection of Jane Austen resources curated by specialists at the University of Oxford. It includes audio and video lectures and short talks, downloadable electronic texts and eBooks, and background contextual resources.

Material Type: Lecture, Reading

Great Writers Inspire: John Milton

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Great Writers Inspire presents an illuminating collection of John Milton resources curated by specialists at the University of Oxford. It includes audio and video lectures and short talks, downloadable electronic texts and eBooks, and background contextual resources.

Material Type: Lecture, Lesson, Reading

Horse of a Different Color: English Composition and Rhetoric

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In its premier edition, Horse of a Different Color: Composition and English Rhetoric is a textbook for English 101 students and faculty grown out of the belief that high-quality textbooks should be affordable and functional, providing materials that teach strong academic writing skills in a supportive, creative, and conversational manner that appeals to students and faculty. Considering the rising costs of textbooks coupled with the need for materials that match the course objectives and learning outcomes set by the Maricopa Community College District (MCCD), the English Instructional Council (EIC), and the Paradise Valley Community College (PVCC) English division, Horse of a Different Color: Composition and English Rhetoric has been written and designed to deliver academic writing basics in printed form to all faculty and students at a cost in line with MCCD’s Maricopa Millions Project. The text includes writing processes, “Rhetorical Strategies” descriptions and techniques, professional models, and actual PVCC student sample essays for use in the classroom. Questions following all readings and chapter material demonstrate the key concepts of each rhetorical strategy. All Modern Language Association (MLA) rules are current, as the material has been updated to reflect the changes in MLA Handbook, Eighth Edition, published in spring 2016. The “Grammar and Mechanics” section seeks to cover the most common areas concerning student writing with practice exercises. In addition, since PVCC college faculty composed the sections and/or accessed free materials through creative commons websites (with royalties paid to some professional authors or copyright holders of our “Sample Professional Essays” selections), Horse of a Different Color: Composition and English Rhetoric has the ability to be revised with feedback from its users.

Material Type: Homework/Assignment, Textbook

Introduction to Literature

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This course is designed to introduce students to the study, analysis, and interpretation of literature across multiple genres. Key topics include literary genres and conventions; how to read and write about literature; literary analysis; and readings and responses in the genres of poetry, drama, fiction, and creative nonfiction. Primary literary works and critical responses are included, as well as a collection of writing assignments aligned with course content and learning outcomes. This course was developed by faculty at Ivy Tech Community College, using original materials, as well as materials from NDLA.

Material Type: Full Course

Authors: Ivy Tech Community College, Lumen Learning

Mindful Technical Writing: An Introduction to the Fundamentals

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Welcome to Mindful Technical Writing: An Introduction to the Fundamentals, an open textbook designed for use in co-requisite course pairings of developmental writing and introductory technical writing, or indeed in other lower-division college writing courses that focus on building study skills alongside effective workplace and academic writing skills. It offers a no-cost alternative to commercial products, combining practical guidance with interactive exercises and thoughtfully designed writing opportunities.

Material Type: Textbook

Authors: Dawn Atkinson, Stacey Corbitt

The Open Access Companion to the Canterbury Tales – A new way to learn about old books

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The Open Access Companion to the Canterbury Tales (OACCT) is a volume of introductory chapters for first-time, university-level readers of Geoffrey Chaucer’s The Canterbury Tales. The chapters have been created and edited by professional scholars of Chaucer, and all material is released open access and free of charge for classroom, scholarly, and personal use. There are two kinds of material available here. Essay chapters explore each of the tales in relation to an engaging topic of broad general interest, while reference chapters provide key context and tools for understanding the Canterbury Tales and its time period. In the future, more material will be added to this project: teaching resources, reader contributions, and new essay chapters that consider tales from additional viewpoints and in relation to different topics.

Material Type: Reading

Author: Candace Barrington

Othello Teaching Project

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Inspired by Dr. Kim Hall’s video Why Study Shakespeare Today?, 2:46 (Folger Shakespeare Library, Jul. 11, 2012), this project seeks to link in conversation teachers and learners from diverse places and at different kinds of selective and open-admission, four-year and two-year educational institutions. Through assignments on and discussions of Shakespeare’s Othello, we can share thoughts on controversial social issues such as race, migration, politics, rule of law, sex, gender, and domestic violence. We can ask about the difficulties, drawbacks, and benefits of studying these topics in Shakespeare’s plays, begin conversations, and hear different perspectives.

Material Type: Homework/Assignment, Lesson, Reading

Author: Dr. Christine E. Hutchins

Publishing Blackness: Textual Constructions of Race Since 1850

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From the white editorial authentication of slave narratives, to the cultural hybridity of the Harlem Renaissance, to the overtly independent publications of the Black Arts Movement, to the commercial power of Oprah's Book Club, African American textuality has been uniquely shaped by the contests for cultural power inherent in literary production and distribution. Always haunted by the commodification of blackness, African American literary production interfaces with the processes of publication and distribution in particularly charged ways. An energetic exploration of the struggles and complexities of African American print culture, this collection ranges across the history of African American literature, and the authors have much to contribute on such issues as editorial and archival preservation, canonization, and the "packaging" and repackaging of black-authored texts. Publishing Blackness aims to project African Americanist scholarship into the discourse of textual scholarship, provoking further work in a vital area of literary study.

Material Type: Reading, Textbook

Rhetorical Styles

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In the Rhetorical Styles area of the Excelsior OWL, you’ll learn about different rhetorical styles or, essentially, different strategies for developing your essays and other writing assignments. These basic strategies are not all encompassing but will provide you with a foundation and a flexibility to help you as you engage in writing assignments in your introductory writing classes and beyond.

Material Type: Module

Survey of English Literature II

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A survey of British literature from 1789 to 1989, this course begins with the poetry of William Blake and ends with the prose of Chinua Achebe and the graphic fiction of Alan Moore and David Lloyd. The literature presented represents a complex range of forms or genres of writing, including poetry, non-fiction prose, and the novel. The course will chart the evolution of the British Empire, from the time of the French and Industrial Revolutions through the expansion of frontiers and the consequences of that expansion.

Material Type: Reading, Textbook

Author: Howard Tinberg

Thematic Reading Anthology

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This anthology is a curated collection of openly licensed primary texts, organized thematically, designed to be used as a reader in English composition courses. Includes personal essays, literature, video and audio files, Web writings, and long-form journalism, along with customizable assignments and instructor resources. This anthology was initially curated by Lumen Learning using materials from a variety of open sources.

Material Type: Full Course, Primary Source, Textbook

Victorian Women Writers Project- Home

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The Victorian Women Writers Project (VWWP) began in 1995 at Indiana University and is primarily concerned with the exposure of lesser-known British women writers of the 19th century. The collection represents an array of genres - poetry, novels, children's books, political pamphlets, religious tracts, histories, and more. VWWP contains scores of authors, both prolific and rare.

Material Type: Reading

Author: Indiana University Digital Library Program