anthropology essay format

Dr. Bindon    Anthropology    Arts & Sciences    University of Alabama ANT 475    ANT 476    ANT 570   Paper Topics     Bibliographic Resources     Formatting rules     Rules for Writing      Citations     Suggested Outline Paper topics: The most important thing in choosing a paper topic is to make sure that your interest is sufficiently engaged so that you can sustain the effort necessary to produce a work that is satisfying both to you and to your instructor. See some of the papers that have been submitted in the past for an idea of a tiny fraction of possible topics (ANT 475 click here;  ANT 570 click here).  Be sure to do some library work the first or second week of class and then come in to see me to discuss your choice of topic. Only one person per specific topic will be allowed, so choose early. Bibliographic Resources:  In choosing a paper topic, it is important to do the preliminary bibliographic research to make sure that you will have enough material to write the paper you wish.  For human biology, there are several important online databases that need to be consulted to find recent, appropriate journal references for your paper.  You should make an exhaustive search of four of these in particular.  These are available through the UA Library web site at: For an excellent introduction to doing bibliographic research at UA, see Dr. Murphy's Bibliographic Search Strategy. A Warning About Sources: A research paper requires information from sources that are as reliable as possible. In science and the social sciences, this reliability is established by the peer-review process. Academic journals subject articles to the peer-review process so that other professionals have examined and vetted the information before it is published. A research paper should rely only on peer-reviewed information. For that reason sources.
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This brief guide offers you a few ways to improve your academic writing skills, especially if this is the first time writing an anthropology paper. Some ideas in this guide were adapted from a useful book you may wish to consult: Lee Cuba, A Short Guide to Writing About Social Science (1993, 2nd edition, Harper Collins College Publishers, N.Y.). You may also wish to consult with Skidmore's Writing Center's or The Skidmore All-College Writing Board's websites. Read through the entire assignment before writing. If you do not understand the assignment, ask your instructor for clarification. Pay attention to each part of the assignment to know how many issues you need to address to receive full credit. Read each assignment carefully, and make sure you understand the key words in the assignment. If the assignment asks you to analyze, comment, reflect, identify, describe,  etc., you need to provide a clear and specific analysis, commentary, reflection, description, etc. Identify and underline the major subjects of the assignment. Prepare a brief outline of each part of the assignment before writing your essay. Follow directions about the format of the essay. You must provide a bibliography for all the sources that you used to prepare the essay. You must also cite each source that you used in the text of the essay. Failure to cite or adequately quote a sources is considered plagiarism and may result in zero credit for the essay. Check out How to cite sources in anthropology. Many students think quotes are useful, and they can be. Be cautious, however, when you use quotes. Instructors are more interested in how you write an essay in your own words, not in how you collect quotes. They want to know what you think. It is often possible to write a good essay with minimal quotes from the readings or other sources. If you use a quotation, make sure you use it to make a point and.
What this handout is about This handout briefly situates anthropology as a discipline of study within the social sciences. It provides an introduction to the kinds of writing that you might encounter in your anthropology courses, describes some of the expectations that your instructors may have, and suggests some ways to approach your assignments. It also includes links to information on citation practices in anthropology and resources for writing anthropological research papers. What is anthropology, and what do anthropologists study? Anthropology is the study of human groups and cultures, both past and present. Anthropology shares this focus on the study of human groups with other social science disciplines like political science, sociology, and economics. What makes anthropology unique is its commitment to examining claims about human ‘nature’ using a four-field approach. The four major subfields within anthropology are linguistic anthropology, socio-cultural anthropology (sometimes called ethnology), archaeology, and physical anthropology. Each of these subfields takes a different approach to the study of humans; together, they provide a holistic view. So, for example, physical anthropologists are interested in humans as an evolving biological species. Linguistic anthropologists are concerned with the physical and historical development of human language, as well as contemporary issues related to culture and language. Archaeologists examine human cultures of the past through systematic examinations of artifactual evidence. And cultural anthropologists study contemporary human groups or cultures. What kinds of writing assignments might I encounter in my anthropology courses? The types of writing that you do in your anthropology course will depend on your instructor’s learning and writing goals for the class, as well as which subfield of anthropology you are.
Imagine that it is now six weeks into the semester. You are taking a heavy course load: genetics, organic chemistry, math, and this anthropology class for which you are supposed to write a fifteen page term paper. You have not even started the paper -- somehow you have not managed to find the time for it. Other things always seemed more important or more fun. But you can't put it off any longer. You have to start right now. You have to get it done as quickly and efficiently as possible -- and obviously you don't want to suffer any more than is necessary. Also, you don't want to take any chances with your GPA, so you want to write a good paper. But the whole project seems confusing, dreary, and a little overwhelming. It doesn't have to be that bad. That is what this Guide is all about -- making the writing of anthropology term papers easier. There are ways to save time and effort. There are procedures and strategies that enable you to negotiate the necessary -but often tedious- process of finding the material you need in the library quickly and effectively. After finding the material you need, it is important to know the best way of organizing it in your paper. Learning these techniques and skills frees you to concentrate on the quality of the paper--or maybe on the beach. This Guide is no substitute for your own effort and commitment. (Obviously we are not about to recommend that you wait six weeks to begin your paper.) Certainly there is no way to guarantee success or scholarly ecstasy; writing a term paper may never be as much fun as mountain climbing, or reading Russian novels, or whatever your idea of fun is. And there is no final or definitive answer to the question of what a professor wants in a paper. But this Guide will inform you of some of the basic features of an anthropology paper which you can be sure your professor will want you to know. And it shows.