Fiction In Action : Whodunit (Creative Commons Edition)
Fiction In Action : Whodunit (Creative.Commons.ver.1)
by Adam Gray and Marcos Benevides
World's First Free-to-Share Commercial ELT Textbook !
On February 21st, 2010 with the agreement of co-authors Adam Gray and Marcos Benevides, Fiction in Action: Whodunit, was released under a Creative Commons license. As far as we know, this made it the world's first free-to-share commercial ELT textbook.
In addition to the free-to-share, pay-what-you-can eBook edition, the title is also offered in a traditional print edition.
The eBook you can download below. Download for free or pay the price you feel like paying (choose from the options on the menu) then come back and download. Immediate delivery—hitting the download key is the only shipping involved!
(The print version of Whodunit is available here)
What is Fiction in Action?
Fiction in Action: Whodunit is something not seen before, a textbook designed to act as a bridge to extensive reading. Over 12 units encompassing two original six-chapter stories, the book introduces students to the hows and the pleasures of reading accessible fiction in English. Fiction in Action focuses on extended and connected passages in one genre—in this case, the detective story—familiarizing students with the language, style and literary conventions associated with this form of story. A special feature of the text is tasks that are not merely supportive of but intrinsic to the stories.
Having successfully closed the cases in these stories, students can go on to read any other appropriately leveled readers on their own.
About offering this eBook version through Creative Commons:
This eBook version of Fiction in Action: Whodunit is licensed through a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works license.http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/
You are free to copy, distribute and transmit the work but must attribute the work, may not alter or build upon the work, and may not use the work for commercial purposes.
Users of this PDF may choose to pay but this is voluntary. There are no strings attached: if you like the book, simply pay an amount that you think is fair. As the authors put is, "How much do you or your students usually pay for a complete reading coursebook? Is ours better or worse? Will you use the whole thing or only half? Do the math. We trust you."
"Of course, we do appreciate the risks," they add. "If no one pays, we will have worked thousands of hours for free, and the publisher will lose a sizable investment. In that case, everybody loses, since other authors and publishers will be unwilling to try something like this again." On the other hand, if teachers choose to experiment, they would be helping to keep such materials available for free or at a fair price for teachers and students in developing countries, who might otherwise not be able to afford them. They would also be teaching the importance of being responsible and sustainable consumers in the digital age.
Update: We have just learned that Fiction in Action: Whodunit is a Joint Winner of HRH The Duke of Edinburgh ESU English Language Book Award for 2010!