This text shows that research is important beyond the classroom and is a necessary component in any career. Beginning with coverage of skills and techniques, this comprehensive text then moves into specific kinds of academic research tasks, showing the generic features and constraints of academic writing. The main issues necessary for understanding how to read and construct research projects are discussed, including plagiarism, copyright and patents, conventions used by different discourse communities, and how writers use sources in different ways. The result is that readers are drawn into the thinking process involved in research.