With 33 chapters, a preface and appendix, this book presents a thorough, step-by-step model that can be used to teach both undergraduate and graduate students the fundamentals of academic writing. The author calls on his background in newspaper journalism, formal linguistics and the teaching of college-level composition to discuss the relation between research-oriented term papers and the international quest for new ideas. He specifies fundamental changes he sees as radical but essential in the teaching of second languages to students who have to compete with native-speakers in the challenging arena of the college classroom.