Based on ten talks presented at North Dakota State University in June 1995. Tight closure is a method to study rings of equicharacteristic by using reduction to positive characteristic. The basic properties are reviewed, including: types of singularities, variations of the Briancon-Skoda theorem, homological conjectures, the the Hochster- Roberts/Boutet theorems, and the Cohen-Macauley algebras. Contains exercises with solutions. Lacks an index. Annotation copyright by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR