The Academic Encounters series uses a sustained content approach to teach skills necessary for taking academic courses in English. There are two books for each content area. Academic Encounters: American Studies engages students with academic readings, photos, graphs, and charts on stimulating topics from the field of American Studies, which deal with important events and ideas in American history and culture that are relevant to life today. Topics include government, race relations, immigration, jazz and blues, movies, hip-hop, and the interplay of American culture with cultures from around the world. Students develop important skills such as reading for detail, skimming, reading critically, note taking, and test preparation. Each chapter ends with a guided academic writing assignment. Vocabulary and academic writing tasks occur throughout the book. Topics correspond with those in Academic Listening Encounters: American Studies, and these books can be used together as a four-skills course; however, they function equally well as stand-alone texts.