Wendy M. K. Shaw is Professor of the Art History of Islamic cultures at the Free University Berlin. Her work focuses on postcolonial art historiography and decolonial art history of the Islamic world and the modern Middle East. She is author of Possessors and Possessed: Museums, Archaeology, and the Visualization of History in the Late Ottoman Empire, Ottoman Painting: Reflections of Western Art from the Ottoman Empire to the Turkish Republic, and What Is "Islamic" Art?: Between Religion and Perception, which has received Honorable Mention for the 2020 Albert Hourani Book Prize of the Middle East Studies Association and the 2021 World Book Award of the Islamic Republic of Iran.

Introduction: Philosophizing the Craft of Writing I. Who Writes 1. Writing Is a River: Reasoning and Methods in the Craft of Writing 2. Writing and Democratic Expression: Rhetoric, Authority, Authorization II. How We Write 3. Where Are You Coming from and Where Are You Going? Structuring Arguments 4. Passion and Experiment: From Everyday Experience to Critical Expression 5. The Pharmacy: Developing a Critical Writing Practice III. What We Write 6. Inventing the River: Prewriting, Research, and Organization 7. Writing the River: Structuring the Essay 8. Between the Riverbanks: Quantitative and Qualitative Evidence 9. Rivers Flow in Many Forms: Multi-Media Qualitative Evidence IV. Where We Write 10. Writing on the Embankment: Practical Tips for Common Formats 11. Writing on the Untamed Shores: Factual Invention 12. Against the Current: The Dangers of Writing...Are Also Its Promises