Janet Giltrow is a Professor in the English Department of the University of British Columbia, where she is also Associate Head and Graduate Chair. She is editor of Academic Reading and author of Academic Writing as well as numerous articles and book chapters on writing in the disciplines, literary and non-literary stylistics, ideologies of language, and rhetorical theories of genre. Before joining UBC, she was for several years director of Simon Fraser University’s Centre for Research in Academic Writing. Professor Giltrow is a 3M Teaching Fellow.

Academic Writing is a unique introduction to the subject. As the author puts it in her preface, "this book develops from a strong claim: namely, that style is meaningful." In developing that theme, the author draws meaningfully on theory, especially genre theory, while remaining grounded in the particular. Giltrow presents and discusses examples of actual academic writing of the sort that students must learn to deal with daily, and to write themselves. As newcomers to the scholarly community, students can find that community's ways of reading and writing mysterious, unpredictable and intimidating. Academic Writing demystifies the scholarly genres, shedding light on their discursive conventions and on academic readers' expectations and values. Throughout, Academic Writing respects the student writer; it engages the reader's interest without ever condescending, and it avoids the arbitrary and the dogmatic.