Edie Brickell and the New Bohemians once sang that "philosophy is a walk on slippery rocks." Although philosophy can be a tricky subject to grasp, full of seemingly unanswered questions and paradoxes, writing in philosophy is much the same as any other academic writing done in college. Philosophy papers always revolve around a thesis, always rely on evidence and logic to prove their theses, and are always written to show students' understandings or to gain new understandings, just like any other academic article. The biggest difference between a philosophy paper and any other kind of academic writing is the subject matter. While a typical academic article may be constructed around taking and explaining a position on a given topic, "philosophy will require [one] to clarify and defend beliefs that [one] considered as indisputable” (Garrison, Graybosch and Scott 22). Every animal on the planet is capable of communicating, whether verbally, physically or possibly by some still-discovered means. On the other hand, writing is a form of communication exclusive to human beings (and perhaps the occasional ape). Children learn to read and write almost as soon as they can speak. Writing becomes a part of daily life and, as a result, it is easy to forget that writing “is a means of communication [that one must] learn consciously” (Heffernan and Lincoln 3). For this reason, writing in college can be a challenge. Even for the most proficient writers, while the basics of academic writing may seem like common knowledge, knowing and understanding them can be very different. In the writing center, our job is to help writers use what they know about writing. and start to understand it. Understanding is the basis of...... middle of article...... ed.New York, NY: Pearson Education, Inc.. 2004. Griffith, Kelly Writing Essays about Literature: A Guide and a style sheet. 4th ed. New York, NY: Harcourt Brace & Company 1994. Heffernan, James AW, and John E. Lincoln Writing: 4th ed. New York, NY: WW Norton & Company. 1994. Hjortshoj, Keith. The Transition to Academic Writing Boston, MA: Bedford/St. Martin's 2001. Kemper, Dave, Verne Meyer, and Patrick Sebranek. Writers Inc: A Student Handbook for Writing and Learning. Lexington, MA: DC Heath & Company. 1996. Research, Zachary. Writing philosophy articles. 3rd ed. Boston, MA: Wadsworth/ThomsonLearning. 2000. Wilson, Gordon. Personal interview. October 24, 2007. Wilson, Gordon. Personal interview. November 13, 2007. Wilson, Gordon. “Medieval philosophy: writing research articles in philosophy. » mimeographed.