Welcome to the Introduction to Academic Writing course! By the end of this course, you will gain an in-depth understanding of reading and writing as essential skills to conduct robust and critical research. This course introduces you to critical reading and writing skills within the conventions of academic writing. In this course, you will learn to effectively communicate your research questions and findings to an interested audience using reading and writing skills. With writing being an important method of thinking, you will learn how the practice of writing allows you to arrive at complex insights about your research area and develop your arguments systematically. This course focuses on the process of developing an argument through the examination of claims and evidence. It also familiarizes you with the structure of academic writing, which will help you better grasp the process of reading academic articles and writing your research. Through a mix of presentations and practice questions, this course provides you with a solid foundation for approaching the process of critical reading and writing in your respective disciplines. It will also cover other writing genres that are relevant to you, including writing for popular media and policy briefs, allowing you to explain how the writing process differs in these areas.