Talk:Student's Guide to Michel Foucault

About the founding author:

My name is Kosta, and I'm interested in creating a collaborative Wikibook on the ideas of Michel Foucault. I was first introduced to Foucault in a first-year university English Lit class, and I've been reading and struggling with Foucault off and on ever since. By the time I got to grad school, I had established a better foundation in Foucault, although I avoided him and pursued other theorists (e.g., Bakhtin, Derrida) for my coursework. Still, I've continued to read Foucault--both in terms of his own writings and the secondary writings found in introductions, encyclopedia articles, etc.--and would like to help students who are currently struggling to get their heads around his thought.

How you can help:

Please feel free to collaborate with me on this project. Here are some basic recommendations in terms of style and content that will produce a winning guide that is both accessible and useful:

- Use clear, straightforward prose at all times. Write paragraphs that include topic sentences and transition words that guide the reader in a conversational (but not repetitive or belabouring) manner. Avoid both choppy sentences and overly verbose ones. Give definitions of technical terms used by Foucault or within the disciplines of philosophy/psychiatry/etc. in everyday English (hyperlinks to definition pages could help with this).

- Provide a point-by-point summary of main points raised in Foucault's works. Treat each main point in a paragraph, and expand it with any subordinate points and examples/illustrations/analogies from everyday life that will make each point clear for students.

New username
Alright! I've now got a username (KostaToronto) to go with this project.

KostaToronto 21:46, 6 December 2006 (UTC)

Feedback Welcome
I'd love to hear your feedback now that I'm about 25% done overall.

KostaToronto 14:08, 19 December 2006 (UTC)


 * The life section is well written, in a neutral-sympathetic tone. 86.150.128.67 00:15, 30 October 2007 (UTC)