Introduction

Welcome to First-Year Composition, an open-source textbook designed to support the work of undergraduate writers enrolled in composition courses! Although many of the topics addressed in these digital pages are written with first- and second-year students in mind, the content remains relevant for writers at any stage of writerly development.

You can navigate through this book in any way you choose. Feel free to read straight through—from Chapter One to Chapter Twelve—or jump around. Much of the information provided doesn’t build on knowledge from previous chapters, although occasionally you’ll want to head back to the table of contents if you feel like you need additional reading or support in understanding a particular concept. For citation information on copyrighted content, please visit our Works Cited page; attribution for Creative Commons licensed material can be found at the bottom of each individual page.

The aim of each chapter is to answer a question presented in the chapter’s title. The answers to these questions involve deep inquiry into the many rhetorical and structural nuances of composition work, and that’s why each chapter features multiple sections that unpack the complexity and critical thinking that goes into the writing process. To put it another way, all good writing begins with asking good questions. To learn more about the importance of asking questions, continue on to “Chapter One: Why Start with a Question?”