Author and audience
The professor as audience
The student as author
Three attitudes about philosophical method
Logic and argument for writing
What is a good argument?
Valid arguments
Cogent arguments
Consistency and contradition
Contraries and contradictories
The strength of a proposition
The structure of a philosophical essay
An outline of the structure of a philosophical essay
Anatomy of an essay
Another essay
Composing
How to select an essay topic
Techniques for composing
Outlining
Successive elaboration
Conceptual note taking
Research and composing
Polishing
Evolution of an essay
Tactics for analytic writing
Definitions
Distinctions
Analysis
Dilemmas
Scenarios
Counterexamples
Reductio ad absurdum
Dialectical reasoning
Some constraints on content
The pursuit of truth
The use of authority
The burden of proof
Some goals of form
Coherence
Clarity
Conciseness
Rigor
Problems with introductions
Slip sliding away
The tail wagging the dog
The running start.