UTA CARES GRANT PROGRAM

Creation of this OER was funded by the UTA CARES Grant Program, which is sponsored by UTA Libraries. Under the auspices of UTA’s Coalition for Alternative Resources in Education for Students (CARES), the grant program supports educators interested in practicing open education through the adoption of OER and, when no suitable open resource is available, through the creation of new OER or the adoption of library-licensed or other free content.  Additionally, the program promotes innovation in teaching and learning through the exploration of open educational practices, such as collaborating with students to produce educational content of value to a wider community. Information about the grant program and funded projects is available online.

Overview

Manual de Redacción is intended to allow Spanish students to have a more personalized and effective learning experience adjusted to the specific challenges they encounter in today’s global world. Furthermore, the content of our material responds to recent changes in the curriculum of the Spanish section of the Department of Modern Languages at UTA. I expect this material will guarantee our students’ success by providing them with valuable support as they transition from 3000 level courses to 4000 level ones in the areas of international business, bilingual education, Spanish linguistics, literature, translation, and culture. The chapters revolve around two main topics (“Los vicios de dicción” [The Stylistic Vices] and “Los falsos cognados” [False Cognates]) with a set of exercises to enhance the student learning. To complement the student learning experience, each chapter includes two  essays related to those grammar topics under discussion. The selected essays include the following: 1) Introduce students to Hispanic culture; 2) Explore some of the most relevant topics for Hispanic societies at large; 3) Foster the critical analysis of literary texts to enable the students to learn how to structure an essay, and provide knowledge about rhetorical and discursive strategies; and 4) Provide the students with the tools to conduct research in the field of Hispanic Studies. In addition, this project is aligned with the mission of Hispanic Serving Institutions to enhance retention and graduation rates of first-generation college students through the creation of mentorship programs.

Creation Process

A few years ago, our Spanish section at UTA changed the title of the course  SPAN 3315: Spanish Composition Through Literature to SPAN 3315: Spanish Composition. This change aimed to adapt the content Spanish faculty regularly teach to the professional and real needs of our students beyond literary studies, including areas such as translation and interpreting studies, business, and health, to name just a few.  Since most of the books available in the U.S. are designed to teach Spanish composition through literature, I had to adapt and create my own content and exercises over the past years, and supplement that content with readings and videos akin to the topics under discussion. When I first saw the call for applications for the UTA CARES Grant Program, I realized that this was the opportunity that I was seeking to systematize the materials that I had compiled and created over the past years of teaching Spanish Composition at UTA. In spring of 2018, 3 student researchers and I submitted an application for a UTA Cares program grant. Our project “Creating an Open Access Chapter for Spanish Composition” was awarded an “Innovation Seed Grant”  that enabled us to design Manual de Redacción, a textbook for SPAN 3315. During the AY 2018-2019, 4 student researchers from the Spanish Writing Center worked under my supervision in the design of content and exercises for Manual de Redacción, which I revised and edited during the Fall of 2019. The text was also revised by staff of the Open Educational Resources Office at UTA’s library system. Finally, the book was piloted during the Summer of 2020 by Spanish faculty Rosa Téllez.

About the Author

Ignacio Ruiz-Pérez is an awarded poet and a specialist in Latin American Literature, with a particular focus on twentieth-century poetry. He holds a Licenciatura from the University of Veracruz and a Ph.D. from the University of California at Santa Barbara. He is the author of Lecturas y diversiones: la poesía crítica de Eduardo Lizalde, Gabriel Zaid, José Carlos Becerra y José Emilio Pacheco (University of Veracruz Press, 2008), and Nostalgia de la unidad natural. La poesía de José Carlos Becerra (Cultural Institute of the State of Mexico, 2009; 2nd edition, 2011). His most recent book of poetry is Rumor de primavera interna en sueño negro (2021). He is a Professor of Spanish at the University of Texas at Arlington, where he also serves as Interim Chair at the Department of Modern Languages.