This OER textbook has been designed for students to learn the foundational concepts for English 100 (first-year college composition). The content aligns to learning outcomes across all campuses in the University of Hawai'i system. It was designed, written, and edited during a three day book sprint in May, 2019.

Reprint of the original, first published in 1872.

Using a step-by-step approach to writing, this book reminds its readers (and writers) that every professional person is a professional writer. It motivates them to learn about writing, challenges them to find something interesting to write about, and offers guidance while developing ideas into paragraphs and essays. Collaborative activities, extensive coverage of the writing process, a thorough usage review, and in-depth, practical instruction in rhetorical, are just some of the effective teaching tools in this guide to producing better writing. It also features quotations and anecdotes about writing from such experts and successful authors as Ernest Hemingway, Susan Sontag, Ellen Goodman, Ken Macrorie, and more. Other reading selections include diverse topics and works by Maya Angelou, Anne Frank, Colin Powell, Alex Haley, Maxine Hong Kingston, and Gwendolyn Brooks. For preparation in the professional world of writing -- letters, reports, proposals, evaluations, presentations, and speeches.

Contribute a Verse: A Guide to First Year Composition combines a composition rhetoric manual with grammar and documentation instruction and resources. The textbook also includes a glossary of pertinent terms and ancillary instructor resources.

Rhetoric and composition is an academic discipline that informs all other fields in teaching students how to communicate their ideas and construct their arguments. It has grown dramatically to become a cornerstone of many undergraduate courses and curricula, and it is a particularly dynamic field for scholarly research. This book offers an accessible introduction to teaching and studying rhetoric and composition. By combining the history of rhetoric, explorations of its underlying theories, and a survey of current research (with practical examples and advice), Steven Lynn offers a solid foundation for further study in the field. Readers will find useful information on how students have been taught to invent and organize materials, to express themselves correctly and effectively, and how the ancient study of memory and delivery illuminates discourse and pedagogy today. This concise book thus provides a starting point for learning about the discipline that engages writing, thinking, and argument.