Phonetics belongs to the Oxford series entitled Introduction to language studies edited by H. G. Widdowson. Widdowson states in the preface that the purpose of this series is “not to supplant but to support the more academically oriented introductions to linguistics: to prepare the conceptual background” by providing “a general context in reference to which detail makes sense” (p. vii). The book is divided into four sections: a survey, which is written to be readable and informative; a collection of readings extracted from the specialist literature, which extends the concepts presented in the survey; a list of references; and a glossary, which is cross-referenced to the survey.