The Pennsylvania Alliance for Design of Open Textbooks (PA-ADOPT) is pleased to announce the immediate availability of our tenth free and open eTextbook: A Guide to Composition by Dr. Sandra Leonard, Associate Professor of English at Kutztown University.

“A Guide to Composition is an introduction to college writing and research. The text begins by defining basic principles of rhetoric and composition using popular texts such as advertisements, speeches, and news media. This textbook then moves to the specific genres of narrative and argument. Elements of the writing process are emphasized throughout the text in addressing writing center use, idea generation, library use, peer review, and ethical attribution including some discussion of A.I. Each chapter is written by current or former Kutztown University faculty and students, making it particularly well-suited to Kutztown University students; however, chapters two through eight are particularly inviting to wider audiences. Each chapter contains a number of writing process activities that may be useful as classroom activities or homework assignments.”

PA-ADOPT is made up of four participating institutions from the Pennsylvania State System of Higher Education: Cheyney University, Kutztown University, Millersville University, and West Chester University. The PA-ADOPT project is aimed at addressing gaps in the open eTextbook marketplace, improving student learning, and mitigating rising student costs. It is funded by a grant from the U.S. Department of Education’s Open Textbook Pilot Program, and the eTextbooks created by the consortium are released as Open Educational Resources (OERs)

All of PA-ADOPT’s faculty cohorts have been filled, but if you are a WCU faculty member who is interested in building their own OER eTextbook, please contact Marc Drumm, Senior Instructional Designer in the Teaching & Learning Center and Principal Investigator of PA-ADOPT, at mdrumm@wcupa.edu.