DIY: That Stuff Is Public, Yo!

Using a free library like Project Gutenberg Links to an external site. or Wikisource Links to an external site., locate the text of a work that you might be able to use in a composition/rhetoric or literature course.  Granted, finding literary sources here is much easier, but there is a lot out there that could be integrated into the comp/rhet curriculum.

Here are some basic tips:

• Use your knowledge: Think back on all the years you spent studying literature (if applicable; if not, apply yourself otherwise), and identify some good stuff that you think, or know, was published before 1923.
• Consider the target work's purpose for your course: For a composition/rhetoric course, for example, Twain's A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court Links to an external site. could be used, in whole or in part, as a means of opening meaningful discussions (see Oer Sample: Using Public Domain Texts) related to textual/rhetorical analysis, methods of conducting research, and argumentation.
• Think creatively and don't get frustrated: You may find that what you were looking for isn't available.  Maybe there just doesn't seem to be anything out there.  But, then, you may discover something like Tolstoy's Letters to Gandhi Links to an external site., and, suddenly, you have something that you can have your students read, discuss, and respond to.