David Skwire, with degrees from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and Cornell University, taught composition, creative writing, and American literature at Cuyahoga Community College for twenty-five years. He also served on the faculties of Tufts University and Temple University. He acknowledges, however, that his job of most interest to students was a two-year stint as a writer of humorous greeting cards. In addition to his coauthorship of Student's Book of College English, he is author of the successful Writing with a Thesis. Now retired, Skwire lives near Cleveland.

Harvey S. Wiener taught for many years as professor of English at LaGuardia Community College. He has served in a variety of administrative positions, most recently as Vice President at Marymount Manhattan College. Dr. Wiener has directed the basic writing program at Pennsylvania State University and has taught at Teachers College, Columbia University, Brooklyn College, Queensborough Community College, and the State University of New York at Stony Brook. A Phi Beta Kappa graduate of Brooklyn College, Wiener holds a Ph.D. in Renaissance literature from Fordham University. He was founding president of the Council of Writing Program Administrators and was chair of the Teaching of Writing Division of the Modern Language Association. Wiener is the author of many books on reading and writing for college students and their teachers, including The Writing Room. His book for parents, Any Child Can Write, was a Book-of-the-Month Club alternate. His most challenging writing assignment was a test to quality as Chief Writer for a network soap opera by developing the content for six weeks of episodes. He does not regret having lost the job to someone else.