(image sourced from MyLO)

The purpose of an academic text book

• is to provide information about a specific subject area.
• they tend to be a result of cumulative in-depth research that makes an original contribution over time to the knowledge in that field.

Introductory texts 

• usually introduce key ideas, key issues, and key authors. For example: 

• Introductory texts can also provide a broad overview of a subject area. For example: 

• Visually, the broad overview of a subject provided by an introductory text could be described as the top bar of a capital letter T.