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For Students

Resources for students...

Welcome! Below you will find a selection of handouts and resources I have put together to help with completing written assignments, and getting started as a political theorist. Note that while most of the writing and research advice I provide here is applicable across academic disciplines, these resources have been created with writing for political theory courses in mind. If you are looking for a general guide to get you through the basics of college writing, I highly recommend Michael Harvey’s The Nuts and Bolts of College Writing (Cambridge: Hackett Publishing, 2003); for a definitive style guide that will get you through college and into the great beyond, try William Strunk, Jr. and E. B. White, The Elements of Style (Longman Publishing, 1999). Unless otherwise noted, I am the author of any handouts. 

 

Writing Handouts:

On Style

Avoiding Academic Bull [Crap]

Critical Essay Revision Guide (With Megan Gallagher)

On Paper Structure: Beyond the Five Paragraph Classic

Working the Quote Sandwich

A Quick Guide to MLA Citations

Making an Argument in the Context of Scholarly Debate

Common Essay Problems

 

Political Theory Handouts:

Ancient Philosophy: A Quick Introduction

Getting Started: How to Read Political Theory Texts


Online Resources:

The Chicago Manual of Style: http://www.chicagomanualofstyle.org/tools_citationguide.html

MLA Citation Style (via Chicago University): http://www.library.cornell.edu/resrch/citmanage/mla

 Strunk & White online (full html text): http://www.bartleby.com/141/

UCLA Writing Center: http://www.wp.ucla.edu/index.php/home

Jack Lynch, “Guide to Grammar and Style,” http://andromeda.rutgers.edu/~jlynch/Writing/index.html

Susan Snively, Amherst College, “Writing Better:” https://www.amherst.edu/academiclife/support/writingcenter/advice/writingbetter

Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy: http://plato.stanford.edu