Acknowledgements, Copyright, Intertextuality, & Collaborative Authoring

This book is a remix/mash-up of some of the best open-access and Creative Commons licensed texts that address composition. We have  included material from Bad Ideas About Writing edited by Cheryl E. Ball and Drew M. Loewe; Try This: Research Methods For Writers by Jennifer Clary-Lemon, Derek Mueller, and Kate Pantelides; Writing Spaces edited by Dana Driscoll, Mary K. Stewart, and Matthew Vetter; Introduction to Writing in College by Melanie Gagich; Writing Commons created and edited by Joseph Moxley; the Bad Ideas About Writing Podcast by Kyle Stedman; and ENG 102: Reading, Writing and Research by Emilie Zickel. Furthermore, new content has been created for this text by Harlow Crandall, Kate Pantelides, Erica Stone, and Elizabeth Williams. And this particular mashup was curated by Harlow Crandall, Kate Pantelides, Erica Stone, Lisa E. Williams, and Elizabeth Williams, with generous support from the MTSU Provost’s Office and the Tennessee Board of Regents.  Additionally, it was edited by Madonna Fajardo Kemp. We wish to extend our sincerest gratitude to all contributors, curators, and donors.

Our Philosophy

We are particularly indebted to Melangie Gagich and Emilie Zickel because, although we did not use all of their text, we cloned their book as a method of invention for our own text. We would highly recommend this process for others who may want to develop an OER text. When Melanie Gagich and Emilie Zickel decided to combine their individual textbooks into the source that is the parent for this one, they created a text that functions less like a formal textbook and more like a manual or guide to rhetorical concepts and writing genres, to composing in a college setting, and to helping students succeed in FYW. They created a text that is less prescriptive than traditional approaches and that allows for the picking and choosing of appropriate content by instructors and by students. This approach resonated with us, and we are deeply appreciative of their work.

Author listings are alphabetical, with the exception of new content developed for this textbook. For new content, we alternate author order to demonstrate the equal nature of our collaboration.  One of the central philosophies behind Open Access Educational Resources is the need for and importance of collaboration, as well as the sharing and “remixing” of the best available content. Our text was not written by one or even two authors; rather, it is a collection of a diverse array of viewpoints and writing styles, which, to us, exemplifies one of the many ways that our book is different from a traditional, print, academic textbook. The inclusion of work by multiple authors can also provide a starting point for conversations in writing class about how writing “actually works in the real world” (Wardle and Downs). In sum, we envision this text as a collection that allows instructors and students to use it in any way that complements their local programs and classrooms.

A Note About Citations

This text was written in and chapters have been edited to reflect the 8th edition of MLA.

A Note About the Use of Color

Within this text you will find links to works within the book, as well as to outside works.

Defined words have been presented in bold within the text. You can hover over or click on them to find definitions.

About the Authors

Harlow Crandall is a doctoral student at Middle Tennessee State University and the Program Assistant for General Education English at MTSU.

Shane A. McCoy is a Lecturer in the Department of English at Middle Tennessee State University. Dr. McCoy’s research interests include instructional scaffolding and curriculum design, feminist affect studies, Africana women’s literature, cognitive literary studies, the sociology of education, and social and emotional learning. Their work has appeared in Radical Teacher, The CEA Critic, The Journal of the African Literature Association, and Writing from Below.

Kate Pantelides is an associate professor and the Director of General Education English at Middle Tennessee State University. She teaches writing, rhetoric, and research classes for undergraduate and graduate students. Her research addresses research methods, feminist rhetorics, and writing program administration. Dr. Pantelides’ work has been published in College Composition and Communication, Composition Studies, Computers and Composition: An International Journal, and Composition Forum, among other venues.

Erica Stone joined the department of English at Middle Tennessee State University in Fall 2020. She teaches undergraduate courses in professional and technical writing and graduate courses in composition and rhetoric. She also serves as the Associate Director of General Education English and CO-PI for the Open Educational Resources (OER) Tennessee Board of Regents (TBR) Grant: https://www.mtsu.edu/oer/. As a teacher-scholar, she works at the intersection of technical communication, public rhetoric, and community organizing. Erica’s writing can be found in Kairos: A Journal of Rhetoric, Technology, and Pedagogy; Spark: A 4C4Equality Journal; Community Literacy Journal; Teaching English in the Two Year College; Basic Writing Electronic (BWe) Journal; and various edited collections. In her 2016 TED talk, she urges academics to engage with popular media, publish in open access spaces, and include communities in their research. Read more about her community-based work at www.ericamstone.com.

Elizabeth McGhee Williams is a doctoral candidate at Middle Tennessee State University where she teaches first-year writing courses. She has also worked as Program Assistant for the General Education English program. Williams’ research interests include feminist rhetoric, writing program administration, and discourse analysis. Her work has been published in Peitho and Rhetoric Society Quarterly.

Lisa Ellen Williams is faculty in the MFA in Visual Arts program at Watkins College of Art at Belmont University. In addition, she is a Learning Consultant at Vanderbilt University Medical Center. Her academic interests include culturally responsive teaching as well as activism and community outreach in Composition Studies; furthermore, her research and publications primarily examine feminist activism’s role in the evolving representations of female identities in horror and exploitation cinema.

Madonna Fajardo Kemp is a doctoral student at Middle Tennessee State University and teaches at The University of Tennessee at Chattanooga and Chattanooga State Community College. Kemp’s research interests include the rhetorical environment of breast cancer patients, the Rhetoric of Health and Medicine, and FYC. Kemp has earned the 2016 TYCA-SE Nell Ann Pickett Award and has served as an editor for several university-level texts.

Creative Commons Licensing

This book is licensed under Creative Commons as CC-BY-NC-SA 4.0.

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