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.
