Unlike many research writing texts on the commercial market, this text has the following key features:

• Treats research writing as a rhetorical process
  
• Teaches use of research in different genres (not just the generic research paper). This approach allows the text to be used in a variety of writing and rhetoric classes.
  
• Discusses the use of various kinds of research sources (academic ones and others)
• Contains links to resources and multimedia which help students to understand and practice key concepts
• Presents students and instructors with a "menu" of approaches and tasks suitable for different audiences and courses.