Writing Duo Make Montana Tech Education More Affordable by Producing Third Open Textbook
July 19, 2024
Contact: Dr. Dawn Atkinson, 406.496.4728, datkinson@mtech.edu
Butte, Mont. – Writing instructors Dawn Atkinson and Stacey Corbitt have penned their third textbook, Advanced-Level Writing in the University Classroom and Beyond: Mindful Practices for Technical, Business, and Scientific Communication, which is available for download from the Open Textbook Library and OER Commons. Acknowledging gaps in existing commercial and open textbook catalogs, Atkinson and Corbitt set out to develop a comprehensive product that can be used in all upper-division writing courses taught at Montana Technological University—technical writing, business writing, scientific writing, and technical editing—and is freely available to students, instructors, and members of the public as a quality learning tool. The open-source textbook can be adopted as is or customized for learners and teachers in various classes and contexts thanks to its copyright permissions.
Textbook costs can be a crippling burden for students seeking the opportunities that higher education can bring, and Atkinson and Corbitt have sought to reduce such barriers by producing open textbooks that combine writing instruction with practical opportunities to build reading, notetaking, collaborating, editing, and researching skills—all vital to success in classrooms and workplaces. Their first two textbooks, Mindful Technical Writing: An Introduction to the Fundamentals and Intermediate College Writing: Building and Practicing Mindful Writing Skills, are already being used in Montana Tech writing courses, and the authors’ latest offering will see inaugural use at the institution in Fall 2024. It will save a full cohort of students enrolled in upper-division writing courses nearly $30,000 per year versus the commercial textbooks previously used at Montana Tech. Like Atkinson and Corbitt’s first two textbooks, which have been adopted at various institutions in the U.S. and abroad, it also has the potential for more widespread use since it is free of paywalls and can be found on popular sites for sourcing open educational resources.
Though Atkinson and Corbitt’s textbooks all emphasize hands-on skill-building work, the latest one also delves, in some detail, into the areas of document design, editing workflows, and research methods. Experiential learning is built into the chapters through team and individual projects, peer-review sessions, and chances to collect and analyze original research data. And the authors strived to make content and tasks approachable and applicable for undergraduate students pursuing STEM and other degree paths.
Atkinson and Corbitt are pleased to be able to make learning more affordable and accessible for Montana Tech students and are grateful for the support of Chancellor Les Cook and deans Michele Hardy and Ken Lee who helped to make the upper-division textbook a reality.
Montana Technological University is a premier STEM-focused university in Butte, Montana. As the special focus university in the state of Montana, Montana Tech offers transformational opportunities for all students through hands-on, applied, and experiential learning. Montana Tech has evolved into a dynamic institution which connects focused students to a network of people, opportunities, and experiences that empower them to change the world. Montana Tech offers world-class opportunities in science, technology, engineering, mathematics, health, and business. For more information, go to www.mtech.edu.