In 2017, Anderson and colleagues from McMaster created Essentials of Linguistics, a free online e-textbook designed to introduce students to the scientific study of language. Developed with support from McMaster and eCampus Ontario, Essentials of Linguistics was largely a response to the high prices charged by commercial textbook companies, and was intended to make high-quality information accessible to anyone who wanted it. “I had initially put it together for my students in five months,” explains Anderson, a teaching professor who has taught the introductory linguistics course at McMaster for more than a decade. “It was one of the first really comprehensive open-access introductory linguistics textbooks available, which started to attract attention from outside of McMaster as well.” Downloads for the first edition of Essentials of Linguistics were recorded from 149 countries.
