This open educational resource was developed at Columbia College Chicago through a CARLI (Consortium of Academic Research Libraries in Illinois) SCOERs grant, part of the U.S. Department of Education's Open Textbooks Pilot Program based on the Affordable College Textbook Act. Illinois SCOERs (Support for Creation of Open Educational Resources) provides access to open textbooks and personalized learning tools for in-demand entry-level higher education courses.
"We are all authors of culture. Authoring Culture: Foundations of Twenty-First Century Writing is a resource for enriching your authoring of culture, for extending your ability to communicate with agency , a term that derives from the Latin verb agere, which translates as “to do” or “to take action.”"You can enact authority in nearly any writing situation. Authoring Culture: Foundations of Twenty-First Century Writing explores a set of concepts you can draw upon to analyze a wide range of rhetorical contexts, whether you are preparing to work on a writing assignment for class, completing a writing task at work, or writing out of personal interest or for social occasions."
-
Authoring Culture Audio, Chapter 01: Affordances
Columbia College Chicago
A podcast to accompany chapter one of Authoring Culture: Foundations of Twenty-First Century Writing. Columbia College Chicago faculty members Brendan Riley and Karl El Sokhn explore a key concept in writing, and Karl chats with students Anfisa Gladkikh and Sarah Driessen about their take on the idea. Length: 13:19.
-
Authoring Culture Audio, Chapter 02: Alphabetic Text
Columbia College Chicago
A podcast to accompany chapter two of Authoring Culture: Foundations of Twenty-First Century Writing. Columbia College Chicago faculty members Brendan Riley and Karl El Sokhn explore a key concept in writing, and Karl chats with students Ari Martin and Riley Brown about their take on the idea. Length: 11:26.
-
Authoring Culture Audio, Chapter 03: Arrangement
Columbia College Chicago
A podcast to accompany chapter three of Authoring Culture: Foundations of Twenty-First Century Writing. Columbia College Chicago faculty members Brendan Riley and Karl El Sokhn explore a key concept in writing, and Karl chats with students Vadym Valihun and Lila Kelley about their take on the idea. Length: 12:28.
-
Authoring Culture Audio, Chapter 04: Circulation
Columbia College Chicago
A podcast to accompany chapter four of Authoring Culture: Foundations of Twenty-First Century Writing. Columbia College Chicago faculty members Brendan Riley and Karl El Sokhn explore a key concept in writing, and Karl chats with students Maria Fernanda Freaner and Ryan White about their take on the idea. Length: 11:56.
-
Authoring Culture Audio, Chapter 05: Craft
Columbia College Chicago
A podcast to accompany chapter five of Authoring Culture: Foundations of Twenty-First Century Writing. Columbia College Chicago faculty members Brendan Riley and Karl El Sokhn explore a key concept in writing, and Karl chats with students Meghan Patnode and Sprig Velic about their take on the idea. Length: 14:11.
-
Authoring Culture Audio, Chapter 06: Ethos
Columbia College Chicago
A podcast to accompany chapter six of Authoring Culture: Foundations of Twenty-First Century Writing. Columbia College Chicago faculty members Brendan Riley and Karl El Sokhn explore a key concept in writing, and Karl chats with students Cristian Montero and Avery Petersen about their take on the idea. Length: 12:37.
-
Authoring Culture Audio, Chapter 07: Field
Columbia College Chicago
A podcast to accompany chapter seven of Authoring Culture: Foundations of Twenty-First Century Writing. Columbia College Chicago faculty members Brendan Riley and Karl El Sokhn explore a key concept in writing, and Karl chats with students Lila Kelley and Vadym Valihun about their take on the idea. Length: 14:32.
-
Authoring Culture Audio, Chapter 08: Genre
Columbia College Chicago
A podcast to accompany chapter eight of Authoring Culture: Foundations of Twenty-First Century Writing. Columbia College Chicago faculty members Brendan Riley and Karl El Sokhn explore a key concept in writing, and Karl chats with students Petey Holman-Herbert and Charles Metcalf about their take on the idea. Length: 10:32.
-
Authoring Culture Audio, Chapter 09: Image
Columbia College Chicago
A podcast to accompany chapter nine of Authoring Culture: Foundations of Twenty-First Century Writing. Columbia College Chicago faculty members Brendan Riley and Karl El Sokhn explore a key concept in writing, and Karl chats with students Fernanda Freaner and Ryan White about their take on the idea. Length: 12:03.
-
Authoring Culture Audio, Chapter 10: Kairos
Columbia College Chicago
A podcast to accompany chapter ten of Authoring Culture: Foundations of Twenty-First Century Writing. Columbia College Chicago faculty members Brendan Riley and Karl El Sokhn explore a key concept in writing, and Karl chats with students Meghan Patnode and Sprig Velic about their take on the idea. Length: 12:02.
-
Authoring Culture Audio, Chapter 11: Logos
Columbia College Chicago
A podcast to accompany chapter eleven of Authoring Culture: Foundations of Twenty-First Century Writing. Columbia College Chicago faculty members Brendan Riley and Karl El Sokhn explore a key concept in writing, and Karl chats with students Cristian Montero and Avery Petersen about their take on the idea. Length: 12:52.
-
Authoring Culture Audio, Chapter 12: Remix
Columbia College Chicago
A podcast to accompany chapter twelve of Authoring Culture: Foundations of Twenty-First Century Writing. Columbia College Chicago faculty members Brendan Riley and Karl El Sokhn explore a key concept in writing, and Karl chats with students Petey Holman-Herbert and Charles Metcalf about their take on the idea. Length: 11:04.
-
Authoring Culture Audio, Chapter 13: Story
Columbia College Chicago
A podcast to accompany chapter thirteen of Authoring Culture: Foundations of Twenty-First Century Writing. Columbia College Chicago faculty members Brendan Riley and Karl El Sokhn explore a key concept in writing, and Karl chats with students Ari Martin and Riley Brown about their take on the idea. Length: 13:46.
-
Authoring Culture Audio, Chapter 14: Additional Key Concepts
Columbia College Chicago
A podcast to accompany chapter fourteen of Authoring Culture: Foundations of Twenty-First Century Writing. Columbia College Chicago faculty members Brendan Riley and Karl El Sokhn explore a key concept in writing. Length: 10:06.
-
Authoring Culture Audio, Chapter 15: Conversation Metaphor
Columbia College Chicago
A podcast to accompany chapter fifteen of Authoring Culture: Foundations of Twenty-First Century Writing. Columbia College Chicago faculty members Brendan Riley and Karl El Sokhn explore a key concept in writing. Length: 11:52.
-
Authoring Culture: The Foundations of Twenty-First Century Writing
The Authoring Culture Collective
"Authoring Culture: Foundations of Twenty-First Century Writing is an open educational resource (OER) designed for use in college-level first-year writing courses, but is also useful in college courses that assign writing projects, and in a wide array of other writing situations outside of class.
Authoring Culture is distributed under a Creative Commons license, so it is freely available for you to use and you are free to modify it. Just make sure you provide attribution to the original project authors in accordance with the Creative Commons license. Our aim in releasing Authoring Culture as an OER is to make it as accessible and useful for you as possible." The OER mixable text, along with podcasts and videos, is found on LibreText. Length: 112 pages, with links to chapter podcasts and videos.
-
Authoring Culture Video, Chapter 01: Affordances
Rejon Strong
A student video offering insight and explanation of the material in Authoring Culture, Chapter 1, "Affordances." The author is Rejon Strong with collaborators Tyler Cruse and Sophia Duron. The piece was produced in the Foundation of Twenty-First Century Writing, Spring semester, 2025 taught by Dr. Brendan Riley. Length: 04:07.
-
Authoring Culture Video, Chapter 02: Alphabetic Text
Cassandra Hernandez
A student video offering insight and explanation of the material in Authoring Culture, Chapter 2, "Alphabetic Text." The author is Cassandra Hernandez with collaborator Winter Brooks. The piece was produced in the Foundation of Twenty-First Century Writing class during the Spring semester, 2025, taught by Dr. Brendan Riley. Length: 04:36.
-
Authoring Culture Video, Chapter 03: Arrangement
Izabella Valenciana
A student video offering insight and explanation of the material in Authoring Culture, Chapter 3, "Arrangement." The author is Izabella Valenciana with collaborator Aidan Johnson. The piece was produced in the Foundation of Twenty-First Century Writing class during the Spring semester, 2025, taught by Dr. Brendan Riley. Length: 03:55.
-
Authoring Culture Video, Chapter 04: Circulation
Aidan Johnson
A student video offering insight and explanation of the material in Authoring Culture, Chapter 4, "Circulation." The author is Aidan Johnson with collaborator Izabella Valenciana. The piece was produced in the Foundation of Twenty-First Century Writing class during the Spring semester, 2025, taught by Dr. Brendan Riley. Length: 04:09.
-
Authoring Culture Video, Chapter 05: Craft
Alina Yastrebova
A student video offering insight and explanation of the material in Authoring Culture, Chapter 5, "Craft." The author is Alina Yastrebova, with collaborators Sean Munoz and Anthony Miocic. The piece was produced in the Foundation of Twenty-First Century Writing class during the Spring semester, 2025, taught by Dr. Brendan Riley. Length: 04:17.
-
Authoring Culture Video, Chapter 06: Ethos
Anthony Miocic
A student video offering insight and explanation of the material in Authoring Culture, Chapter 6, "Ethos." The author is Anthony Miocic with collaborators Sean Munoz and Alina Yastrebova. The piece was produced in the Foundation of Twenty-First Century Writing class during the Spring semester, 2025, taught by Dr. Brendan Riley. Length: 04:25.
-
Authoring Culture Video, Chapter 07: Field
Taryn Yahn
A student video offering insight and explanation of the material in Authoring Culture, Chapter 7, "Field." The author is Taryn Yahn with collaborator MacKenzie Oberlin. The piece was produced in the Foundation of Twenty-First Century Writing class during the Spring semester, 2025, taught by Dr. Brendan Riley. Length: 04:41.
-
Authoring Culture Video, Chapter 08: Genre
Sofia Duron
A student video offering insight and explanation of the material in Authoring Culture, Chapter 8, "Genre." The author is Sofia Duron with collaborators Tyler Cruse and Rejon Strong. The piece was produced in the Foundation of Twenty-First Century Writing class during the Spring semester, 2025, taught by Dr. Brendan Riley. Length: 05:39.
-
Authoring Culture Video, Chapter 09: Image
Tyler Cruse
A student video offering insight and explanation of the material in Authoring Culture, Chapter 9, "Image." The author is Tyler Cruse with collaborators Rejon Strong and Sofia Duron. The piece was produced in the Foundation of Twenty-First Century Writing class during the Spring semester, 2025, taught by Dr. Brendan Riley. Length: 07:52.