Explanations and guidelines for your paper: Anth2600B
(I will assume that everybody reads this. Consequently, failing to follow the guidelines
regarding concrete aspects of the paper, such as the very last items in this text, will
automatically lead to a loss of marks.)
This course, being a second year course, aims at developing/improving your writing and
research ability in social scientific discourse.

I hope that you will feel free to choose a topic which interests you.

You will be able to establish the framework yourself and experience what it entails
to be interested in a topic, find out more about it and narrow down the scope. As an
extension of this, it is important that you are able to integrate my suggestions or
comments about your topic or sources in your library assignment if you are writing
on the same subject.

And, finally, you will read and digest the relevant materials in order to make a
structured presentation of a topic. This means that you can elaborate on the
current debates, present various theoretical discussions of the particular topic and
compare and contrast the various points of view. This is mainly a
reading,
comprehension and discussion paper, but you can take a position while presenting
the arguments. In this respect, it is a research paper which allows you to position
yourself.
Having learned about the basic theoretical frameworks for gender in anthropology, I
expect you to be able to approach a topic with the insights which you gained during this
course. This means, for example, that if you would like to write on "beauty ideals" you
should be able to treat "beauty" in its social and cultural context; you should be able to
show awareness of the historical specificity of these issues as well as the historical
specificity of the studies which concentrate on them. In the same vein, the number of
social scientific studies which were published on "anorexia" prior to the 70s may tell us
that recognition of this condition as an illness and research on this subject mutually
impacted one another etc. This should lead you to search for books and articles which
look at beauty in its social and cultural context.
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Make sure that you use my suggestions on your library assignment. Please, do not repeat
the same mistakes. If your references have little anthropological and/or social scientific
relevance and if you have not looked at Expanded Academic Data Base yet please do so.
I could see from your library assignments that some of you tired to look under
anthropology indexes and got frustrated. The titles and abstracts of the articles should give
you hints as to whether a particular article could be used for your anthropology paper.
Avoid articles which uses statistics and sample data etc. (e.g. works based on certain type
of psychological research). Look for those which explore a subject in its socio-cultural and
historical context.
It is expected that you find out about the main areas and direction of research on that
particular topic. For example, if you are looking at female circumcision you should be able
to find out about the split between anthropologists on this topic as well as the complexity of
the issue. You may give some background information about such operations but you are
not writing an informative paper about circumcision, you have to approach it as a social
and cultural issue. Furthermore, It is not only a matter of "it is their culture, this is what
they do" – who defines the cultural rules, who imposes these cultural practices, who
accepts infliction of such a procedure on their body and for which reasons are all very
relevant questions that one can ask; what is more, there is considerable controversy
surrounding these matters. Most of the topics concerning gender have political
implications. We may be inclined to support one or the other point of view. However, this
does not prevent us from putting systematic effort into understanding why and how social
and cultural phenomena occur: you may personally be against breast implants, but you
should be able to make sense of the cultural processes which make such practices
desirable for some people and you should be able to address a reader who would like to
know more about the way in which such a topic is treated in anthropology or in the social
sciences in general. For example, do many authors look at breast implants as the new
tools of female exploitation? What kind of social, cultural and economic mechanisms are
used to explain the widespread use of such operations? Do the capitalist market and the
commodification of various parts of human practice (including our bodies) in our era have
anything to do with such practices? Are breast implants – or any plastic surgery for that
matter – seen as a sign of external control of the body, or of increasing individual control
over one's own body by the authors who write on these issues? You can be daring and
evaluate the way in which a topic is treated by various authors.
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Writing:
First of all, I suggest you make a backup copy of your paper on diskette while you are
working on it. Ask your computer to save automatically every five minutes or so. It is no
fun to lose hours or even days of work; although this may sound rather obvious, many
people do lose work this way, and it is a real pity to drop marks because of such bad luck.
I am NOT going to accept electronic versions of your papers. Each paper has to be
submitted as a printed copy. If you are unable to come to the class contact me in advance.
Content:
Make sure that you have a clear beginning – an introduction – where you explain what
your paper is about and what your aims are, etc. Try to explain and justify your choices
concerning your focus. Then proceed to the discussion; at the end, in your conclusion,
summarize briefly what your main points were.
Make sections to help the reader see where you are going.
Try to create concise paragraphs. Ask yourself what each paragraph is about.
Try to use one paragraph for one idea or issue. Do not squeeze many issues into one
paragraph.
Define problems, even though you do not have to answer all of them.
Introduce the reader to various sides of your topic by showing your awareness of them;
you can then indicate which aspects you have chosen to concentrate on. You cannot
cover everything. Make connections and follow up on some of them systematically.
Define the areas which needs elaboration and problematization.
If you are using concepts explain what you mean by them, but make sure that you do not
destroy the flow of the writing by giving a mechanical description of a concept in the
middle of a discussion; the text should glide while showing your understanding. This is an
important indication of knowledge, yet it is a delicate balance to strike. It is not usually
necessary to explain what you mean by unambiguous concepts such as "ethnocentrism",
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but if you use concepts such as "power", "gender", "sexuality", "resistance" etc. you should
explain whose definition you are following or what you mean by them – given that there is
no general consensus about the definition of these concepts. For example, in the Thaiss
article it would be improper for Thaiss not to indicate what he meant by "rhetoric", for
Ortner "nature" and "culture", for Rosaldo "domestic" and "public" etc. If such a concept is
not a key component of your writing and discussion, however, you can implicitly adopt a
mainstream definition.
Choose a style of writing which you think functions best for you, then try to scrutinize it.
AVOID using colloquial and oral expressions ("…they were bitchy", "it was a neat thing"
etc.). Avoid sentences such as "Rosaldo, she argued that..". Use a person's surname the
first time, then you can use a pronoun later. For example, "Rosaldo argued that…"
followed subsequently by the phrase "She supported the idea that …".
Remember that a "bibliography" includes all the materials you have read to be able to
write that paper, whereas "references" is the list of the works which you cited directly and
referred to in the article. I would prefer to see a bibliography in order to get a feeling of
how your paper has taken its final shape.
Make sure that you use recognized and consistent writing, spelling, citation and
bibliography styles. Use APA, Chicago or MLA manuals as a guideline and indicate
which style you follow at the end of your bibliography.
Check manuals for paraphrasing and citation styles etc. I would not oppose other
consistent styles, but for the sake of communication I prefer a style in which you give a
reference to the author, year and page number in the text (e.g. Ortner 1974: 24). The
easiest way to decide on a style if you do not want to spend lots of time on style manuals
is to choose one source (preferably a North American source in your case) and follow its
format. Yet there are always some details of a style which may not appear in that text you
are using as a guide. For example, normally you use (") for citing. What do you do if there
is a quotation inside a quotation? (e.g. I write: The idea of "personal is political" is difficult
to explain to the students. You write: HD claims that "the idea of 'personal is political' is
difficult to explain to the students"). So you should make sure that you know the proper
options.
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Make sure that you use quotation marks when you have direct citations from others
(indicating the page number); also, when you refer to somebody else's idea
(paraphrasing) and you know clearly from which source the idea or information comes,
you should similarly refer to the work with page numbers. On the other hand, if you are
referring to a work in very general terms it is sufficient to indicate the author/year "if we
follow the idea of women being seen as closer to nature (Ortner 1994)…". These are very
important aspects of academic production. By referring to someone you acknowledge their
contribution at the same time as you indicate the way in which you interpret their work.
Such a process then gives rise to new discussions and opportunities for others to
elaborate on the way in which we present certain topics. Other people who read your text
may find the work and the ideas of one author whom you cite interesting and relevant for
their own research, and so they would like to find the reference in your writing which will
direct them to the right sources. Think how frustrating it would be if I wrote "Pine argues
that there was a double bias in anthropology before the 70s" (Pine 1999); you are reading
my text and want to understand what Pine means by "double bias", yet because I did not
give any page number you have to go through the entire article to find about the "double
bias". A proper scholarly work does not show such signs of unprofessional attitude. The
expectation that everybody will follow these rules is so established that nobody will give
you credit for following them, but if you do not follow them you will be open to harsh
criticism.
The library has many manuals in the reference section, titles such as "manual for the
writers of papers" etc. If you are still unsure ask me. I much prefer that you ask me rather
than giving me an unprofessional-looking paper. This is a race against time but with a
much more generous margin. I will be very strict with the exposition of the papers
(spelling, clarity, page numbers, sections etc.). You will loose one mark for every mistake
(which I have asked you to be careful about here).
You can give a particular title to your paper as well as indicating what it is about. For
example: "War is menstruation envy: The female body and the politics of feminist graffiti".
Try to find an imaginative and relevant title for your paper, but if you cannot find one which
captures your topic you should simply formulate a phrase or sentence which explains what
it is about.
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Please make a cover page for your paper where you write the title of the paper, the date
as well as your details: first name, surname, student ID number, major and the year.
I am not encouraging you to make any fancy covers, but if you do please make sure
that whatever you use (cartoons etc.) has a direct relevance to the content. Do not put
anything which gives a personal message from you unless it is directly relevant to the
content.
Intellectual property rights are a big issue nowadays. It is important to be careful in these
things. In addition – I feel embarrassed to say such a negative thing and am in no way
implying that any of you may be tempted – I should point out that internet engines which
track paper copying from the web are very effective. I have colleagues who experienced
a couple of very unfortunate cases; I would like to think that I may do such checks only as
a routine security measure, and not because there is any reason to suspect anything.
Hardly anybody is incredibly original, we all are citing, interpreting and representing each
others' work. Yet we develop new ideas gradually by following such a route. Furthermore,
it is self-defeating and counterproductive for scholars to rely on others rather than on
themselves for the elaboration of issues.
Please use 1.5 or double spacing (if you write a single spaced paper you will loose one
mark) and approx. 2 cm. left and right margins. Please use a 12 point font (for the main
text) which is easy to read (Palatino, Times Roman, NewYork, Geneva etc. – not Gothic
unless you are writing about witches!!!). Remember to put page numbers. If you use
footnotes I DO NOT prefer endnotes. Use white paper. Please write down the word count
EXCLUDING the bibliography at the end of your paper.
Length: Minimum length is 2500 words (10 percent less, i.e. 2250, will still be accepted).
The maximum length is 4500 words.
Here is my evaluation chart:
Each grade category spans a range of minimum and maximum scores.
unaccept-
poor
satisfactory
good
excellent
6
able
1.Clear
and
well
organized
4.5-5
a
9 -10
introduction
2.Demonstration
of
clear
understanding of the topic
3.Initial definition of researchable
4.5 - 5
question
4.Identification of concepts and
4.5 - 5
categories
5.Ability to summarize, compare
13-15
and sythesize others' arguments.
6.Argumentation,
explanation,
13-15
justification, contextualization
7.Scholarly language
8.Demonstration
of
7-10
relevant
3-5
library research
9.Clarity, typological aspects of
paper
(style,
consistency
14 -15
of
citation etc.)
10.General integration/coherence
8-10
of the paper/ organization of
sections etc.
11. Originality
Total
4-5
49
50-54
55-69
70-84
85-100
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