Comrades: This is a whimsical intro I use at the beginnings of courses to give students a sense of what academic writing is about. You may wish to emphasize different aspects of writing, elevate things from "path" to "truth" and vice versa, or simply use this as a prompt to devise something altogether different. I’ve found this to be a useful reference point throughout the semester: even though it creates as much confusion as clarity at the beginning, the dogmas do start to sink in through repetition. So I guess my catechism classes were good for something…