In 2003–2004 I served as the assistant editor of PoliticalTheory. During my term I reviewed hundreds ofmanuscripts, read scores of outside reviews, and communicatedregularly with Stephen White (the editor) about the criteria of asuccessful manuscript and the direction of the discipline. To aidgraduate students looking to publish, as well as others, I offerseveral principles to facilitate writing and submitting a politicaltheory essay.Nicholas Tampio defendedhis dissertation on The Kantian Problematic inContemporary Political Theory at Johns HopkinsUniversity in September 2004.For comments on earlier drafts, I thank James Morone, PatriciaNordeen, Jesse Tampio, and Stephen White.