ABSTRACT
Success in scientific, engineering, or technical writing depends on both fitting in the expected format and standing out for excellence. Learning the specific expectations of a subfield rather than a prescriptive general format will enable students to write more effectively. This chapter justifies why we will begin by studying research articles, the basic genre of academic writing. Learning their structure will allow students to read more efficiently to get information for their own writing. Furthermore, articles are readily available examples of complete arguments and set the standard for other writing in that discipline. The chapter also gives hints on how to choose good exemplars as models. A summary of the book concludes the chapter, using the metaphor of learning to paint. After studying the basic principles, students copy the style of a successful artist while portraying their own content. They learn how to sketch out the overall structure, then fill in the main themes with broad strokes, and finally add the details, rather than starting at one edge of the canvas and working steadfastly toward the other to create their own masterpiece.
