Book excerpt: The Philosophy Student Writer’s Manual and Reader’s Guide, Fourth Edition, is a set of instructions and exercises that sequentially develop citizenship, academic, and professional skills while providing students with knowledge about a wide range of philosophical concepts, phenomena, and information sources. Part 1 begins by teaching students to read newspapers and other media sources critically and analytically. It focuses on the crafts of writing and scholarship by providing the basics of grammar, style, formats, and source citation, and then introduces students to a variety of rich information resources. Part 2 provides advanced exercises in ethics, metaphysics, philosophy of the mind, philosophy of religion, and political philosophy.