Welcome!

Prior to my adaptation, this course was created from materials originally developed by the State Board of Community Technical Colleges (SBCTC) of Washington State.  American Literature 1 is a modified version of the Lumen American Literature I text. The original version of this book was released under a CC-BY license and is copyright by Lumen Learning.

The changes to this book listed are released under a CC-BY-SA license and are copyright by Joshua Dickinson of Jefferson Community College in Watertown, NY.  I also adapted a Writer’s Handbook resource for the College that goes into far more depth in coverage of the writing process and MLA style.

List of Changes

• Added Instructor Resources in private view.
• Added several student resources, including every part except Reader-Response Criticism.
• Added the following lectures to the Reading and Responding to Literary Texts part: Academic Writing Review; Troubleshoot Your Reading; Not Taking Sides is Like That Beetlejuice Waiting Room Scene. . . ; Tragedy and Comedy; How to Avoid Plagiarizing; When Interpreting, Avoid Relativism (Because I Think So); Proper Source Use in Paragraphs; Connecting Reading & Writing: The Voice You Hear Response; With Analysis, Focus Upon Functions or Effects; Analysis is a Breaking Down of a Whole into its Parts; Paragraph Menu Settings Use No Extra Spaces; and Annotation: Why Mark Up Your Texts?; and Irony.
• Added the Creation Myths section.
• In Early American and Puritan Literature (1650-1750), added pages Samuel de Champlain; Pocahontas to Her Husband, John Rolfe; Feminism Response Pocohontas to Her Husband, John Rolfe; Edwards Rhetorical Grid Assignment; Mary Rowlandson Captivity Narrative; Rowlandson Paragraph; and Anne Bradstreet; and Edward Taylor Poems and Obstacle Course.
• Added the part on Herman Melville featuring both Benito Cereno from The Piazza Tales and Moby-Dick as replacements for the (hidden) Uncle Tom’s Cabin novel.
• Added Emerson Translation Activity to the Romantic Literature part.
• In the Writing About Literature section, added Works Cited Entries: What to Include; Checklist: Using Quotations Effectively; How not to Write the Introduction and Conclusion; Using Sources: Blending Source Material With Your Own Work; The Paragraph Body: Supporting Your Ideas; and How Might I Avoid Letting Sources Take Over?
• Added About the Author section to End Matter.

Where possible, I listed URLs as well as hyperlinking so that users of print copies of the text could locate the source.

You are free to use, modify or adapt any of this material providing the terms of the Creative Commons licenses are adhered to.