[ATTW-L] To Use a Textbook or Not to Use a Textbook. . .

[Johnson, Richard D]

Due to my obvious conflict of interest, I’m hesitant to put in my oar on this conversation. But, let me offer a defense of textbooks in as even-handed a way as I can.

As a WPA, I’ve observed (via student evaluations and complaints) that some instructors who go without a textbook overestimate how much learning they are able to convey to their students in the classroom and via PowerPoints. The instructor thinks they are explaining everything clearly. The student, though, leaves the classroom confused or can’t recall the material later when trying to write an assignment. A textbook gives students another resource that they can refer to if they didn’t understand the instructor’s lecture or if they want to review later. Plus, if you’re running an “active learning” classroom or an online course, a good textbook allows you to spend less time lecturing and more time learning by doing and mentoring in the classroom.

As for costs, the rentals and e-versions are much less expensive than people seem to realize. My daughter is a first-year BioChem major in college this year, and I don’t hesitate to pay $30 or $40 to rent a textbook or buy access to the online version. Often, the online versions have entire environments and resources that can help her learn the materials on her own. That’s also true of several textbooks in our field. They’re not PDFs of a book. They are full learning environments with many multimodal resources built in.

And, open textbooks are available if you’re looking for free. A few of them are quite good.

Finally (putting on my WPA hat again), if instructors are all teaching the course their own way, meaningful assessment is very difficult, especially in larger programs. Many of us need to ensure a level of consistency across sections, and we need to be able to demonstrate the value of the course with data. Using one or a few textbooks in the program is a good way to establish a somewhat consistent terminology, set of assignments, and course objectives and outcomes.

Deans, especially engineering deans, want a measure of consistency across sections, and they value assessment data that shows the course is achieving learning objectives. If they aren’t getting that consistency, they sometimes figure out that they can create their own technical communication programs in house.

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Professor Richard Johnson-Sheehan
Department of English
Purdue University
500 Oval Dr.
428 Heavilon Hall
W. Lafayette, IN 47907
rjohnso at purdue.edu<mailto:rjohnso at purdue.edu>
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From: ATTW-L <attw-l-bounces at attw.org> on behalf of "Tesdell, Lee S" <lee.tesdell at mnsu.edu>
Date: Tuesday, April 9, 2019 at 1:13 PM
To: "Hinson, Dr. Katrina" <KHINSON at tarleton.edu>, "attw-l at attw.org" <attw-l at attw.org>
Subject: Re: [ATTW-L] To Use a Textbook or Not to Use a Textbook. . .

Good question. I used Burnett, then later Johnson-Sheehan textbooks. I have gone now to 9 separate assignments/projects that I have created along with the Alred, Brusaw, Oliu handbook.

From: ATTW-L <attw-l-bounces at attw.org> on behalf of "Hinson, Dr. Katrina" <KHINSON at tarleton.edu>
Date: Tuesday, April 9, 2019 at 10:46 AM
To: "attw-l at attw.org" <attw-l at attw.org>
Subject: [ATTW-L] To Use a Textbook or Not to Use a Textbook. . .

I've been puzzling over this question for a while and thought I'd see what others thought. It's time for book orders to our bookstore ( both for fall and for summer). Each time I have to place an order for books, I'm always shocked by the price of the text and then knowing the bookstore is  going to have its own mark up. In particular, I'm questioning the need for technical writing textbook. I have seriously contemplated not using a textbook for this particular class because I'm somewhat certain that few students actually use it; some students can't afford it; and, good information is also easily available online.  I'm also thinking the only reason I require a textbook is because of a mental mindset that associates college with textbooks. Anyway, I thought I'd see what others felt about textbooks - to use or not use.

I look forward to hearing your input.

With regard,

Dr. Katrina L. Hinson

Dr. Katrina Hinson,
Ph.D. Rhetoric, Writing and Professional Communication
Assistant Professor of English
Tarleton State University
“progress not perfection"

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