Welcome to Composition at Colorado Mesa University!
We want what you want—a free composition textbook that does it all:
- demystifies the writing process
- zeroes in on key specifics
- feels authentically casual (written by real human writing instructors)
- sequences readings in an effective step-by-step progression
- enhances content with photos, videos, links, text boxes, pull quotes
- formats to any size of screen
So we collected a plethora of smart and fun essays from the first six volumes of Writing Spaces and did all of the above to create what you see here!
What we REALLY want that you want?
To help students successfully find their voice, analyze how language works, construct their argument within a conversation, deeply engage with every level of the process, navigate the nuances of rhetoric and genre, and create dynamic multimodal texts that appeal to and resonate with a real audience …
… so that students can tap into their power to change the world.
The readings are organized accordingly, into six thematic units for two semesters of composition instruction. The order of the chapters is intended to coordinate with an instructor’s in-class examples, discussions, activities, and workshops as the course builds toward one major assignment per unit, allowing students to apply what they’ve learned. Overviews are linked below and describe the unit’s purpose, potential assignments, and summaries of the included essays. Instructors could assign every reading in the given sequence or select which ones best apply to their course.
| Comp I | Comp II |
| Finding Your Writing Voice | Deepening the Writing Process |
| Analyzing Language & Rhetoric | Navigating Rhetoric & Genre |
| Constructing an Academic Argument | Creating Multimodal Texts |
We hope the materials offered here make first-year composition a little more straightforward, a little more interesting, and a lot more fun.
This collection has been initiated and edited by Nikki Mantyla, a writing instructor in the CMU department of Languages, Literature and Mass Communication, with the much appreciated assistance of librarian Anne Bledsoe and professors Dr. Tiffany Kinney and Dr. William Wright.
The project was funded by a 2023–2024 Colorado Open Educational Resources (OER) CMU institutional grant titled More CMU MORE: More Colorado Mesa University Maverick Open Resource Educators. The Pressbooks space has been generously donated by the OER Council Professional Development subcommittee within the Colorado Department of Higher Education.
Composition at CMU is licensed CC BY-NC-SA, but each essay within the text retains its own creative commons license, specified at the bottom of the page. Any editorial additions/changes to the articles have been labeled as clearly as possible in captions, footnotes, text boxes or brackets to preserve the usage rights of the original authors.
