Rise B. Axelrod is McSweeney Professor of Rhetoric and Teaching Excellence, Emeritus, at the University of California, Riverside, where she was also director of English Composition. She has previously been professor of English at California State University, San Bernardino; director of the College Expository Program at the University of Colorado, Boulder; and assistant director of the Third College (now Thurgood Marshall College) Composition Program at the University of California, San Diego. She is the co-author, with Charles R. Cooper, of the best-selling textbook The St. Martin's Guide to Writing as well as The Concise Guide to Writing and Reading Critically, Writing Well.

Charles R. Cooper is an emeritus professor at the University of California, San Diego. He served as coordinator of the Third College (now Thurgood Marshall College) Composition Program at the University of California, San Diego, and co-director of the San Diego Writing Project, one of the National Writing Project Centers. He advised the National Assessment of Educational Progress—Writing (1973-1981) and coordinated the development of California's first statewide writing assessment (1986-1991). He taught at the University of California, Riverside; the State University of New York at Buffalo; and the University of California, San Diego. He is co-editor, with Lee Odell, of Evaluating Writing and Research on Composing: Points of Departure, and he is co-author, with Rise Axelrod, of the best-selling textbook The St. Martin's Guide to Writing as well as The Concise Guide to Writing and Reading Critically, Writing Well.