One of the most important and difficult skills for philosophy
students to develop is writing clear, cogent and interesting
philosophy papers. Indeed, mastering the philosophical essay may
be the single most important skill after mastering philosophical
texts. I submit this article as an aid towards that mastery.
Ever since I started graduate school I have been on a quest for
the perfect method and/or system for writing philosophical
essays. I have collected a veritable heap of articles and books
that suggest tools and techniques for developing clear, cogent
and interesting philosophical essays, but none have been as
simple, clear and useful as this book: The Office of Assertion:
An Art of Rhetoric for the Academic Essay. In my view, this is
the clearest guide on the market for writing the academic essay.
In this book Dr. Scott F. Crider (University of Dallas)
supplants the tired model of the Five Paragraph Essay by
returning to the art of rhetoric (which he defines as “the
intellectual power to discover, even