Intellectual Property Teaching Practices in Introductory Writing Courses
Nicole Nguyen · The WAC Clearinghouse; Parlor Press eBooks · 2011
How will today’s undergraduate writers be confronted with copyright and intellectual property (IP) issues once they leave the safety of the composition classroom? As an undergraduate professional writing student at a land-grant, Big 10, research-extensive institution, I came across the challenges of working within the bounds of IP issues, particularly in presenting my work online. Many of my professional writing classes involve a Web-related element, including several courses that required a final digital portfolio with examples of work done for that particular class. Inside the classroom, I had few questions as to what I could post online and who would be able to see it—I considered these Web postings as exist-ing in a vacuum, with the instructor and the class as my audience. However, when I purchased my own domain name and bought my own Web space, created my personal Web site and digital portfolio, and began tell-ing people about it (via word of mouth and posts on social-networking sites like Facebook and Livejournal), I realized that my work no longer existed in a vacuum. Conceivably, anyone with Internet access could get to my Web site and see—and potentially take from or use—my work. When I searched for ways to protect my material, I was unsatisfied with the options available to me, such as Creative Commons licensing. Putting a copyright symbol at the bot-tom of every page was the most straight-forward way to protect my intellectual property, but if I did find that someone had infringed on my copyright, how would I be able to enforce my rights? And, more importantly, why hadn’t I been exposed to these kinds of issues in my professional writing classes? This ques-tion is the driving force behind my research.