1. Use clear, direct terms in your writing. Employ technical terms where necessary, making certain their meaning has been communicated. Avoid unnecessary use of jargon or long, complicated language merely to sound impressive. A useful strategy is to imagine a person to "speak to" as you write. This should be an intelligent person (friend, teacher, relative) who does not know much about anthropology.
2. State your ideas clearly. Do not assume that "after all, the instructor knows what I mean". The instructor cannot assume to know what you know, nor can you assume that she knows. Take little for granted.
3. Where possible, avoid judgmental terms. For example, describing the beliefs of a culture as "superstitions" or a people as "primitive" not only constitutes a possibly unwarranted value-judgment, but indicates that you do not understand the basic perspective of anthropology.
4. Avoid sweeping generalizations. Support your judgments with evidence from your readings and lectures from this and other courses, as well as additional sources. An example of what you mean is far more persuasive as evidence than an unsupported opinion or inference.
5. There is a place for your judgments and opinions. Findings or facts should be stated first, devoid of judgments. Your analysis and opinions should be presented only after you have given the matter fair and accurate presentation.
6. Your paper should utilize some of the concepts and substantive knowledge of the course. Ignoring such ideas and data, especially when they directly pertain to the subject you are writing about, will detract from the quality of your paper.
7. Side issues related to the main themes of the assigned readings can be integrated into your papers if they are of sufficient interest or importance, but should not be given the major emphasis.
8. For maximum results: Write your paper, leave it alone for a day or two, then edit it with fresh eyes. It’s a good idea to have a friend edit it also, or better yet, trade papers with someone else in the class and edit each other’s.
1. The paper should have a title page separate from the first page of text, i.e., no title should appear on the pages of your essay. USE YOUR SOCIAL SECURITY NUMBER in place of your name on the title page. The number should be followed by a "U" for undergraduates, or a "G" for grad students.
2. Use standard size white bond paper.
3. Paper length can deviate a half page from the required length in either direction, if necessary. Papers shorter or longer than this will be penalized.
4. All assignments must be typed and double-spaced on 8˝ x 11 paper.
5. Pages should be numbered consecutively starting on page two.
6. Margins should be at least 1 inch on all sides with a font size of 12.
7. Do not place your paper in a folder, cover, or binder.
8. Proof read and correct your paper carefully before submitting it. Errors of spelling, grammar, typing, etc. can lead to errors of interpretation on the part of the instructor. Typos and other errors are unpleasant to read and convey the impression of sloppy work and careless thinking.
9. Make a copy of the paper before you turn it in. This is for your own security in the unlikely event that the instructor loses the paper.
10. Your paper will receive comments liberally regarding style, logic, organization, sentence structure, grammar, syntax, spelling, neatness, and other matters.
11. References to supplemental sources of literature should be included within the text of your paper. (Assigned materials should not be cited, except for the page numbers of direct quotes.) This is done by typing the author's name, date of publication, and, if needed, page number. Do not use the full title of the book or article you are citing. For example:
The issue of change in traditional societies has long occupied
cultural anthropologists (Foster
1972:52).
References cited in the body of the paper should be listed at the end using the following format:
Foster, George M.
1972 Traditional Societies and Technological Change, 2nd Ed. New York:
Harper and Row.
Foster, George M.
1972 The anatomy of envy: A study of symbolic behavior. Current
Anthropology 13:165-186.
Foster, George M.
1955 Relationships between theoretical and applied anthropology: A public
health program analysis, In Health, Culture and Community: Case Studies
of Public Reactions to Health Projects. Paul, Benjamin (ed.), New York:
Russell Sage Foundation.
2. The student should strive to say what he/she has to say in his/her own words, and should carefully avoid repeating words and phrases taken from books and articles written by other people. The writer may summarize or paraphrase what someone else has written. But the student must put the summary or paraphrase in his/her own words. The student should not only put in smooth language what someone else has written but must also give full credit to the writer whose ideas he/she is summarizing. Phrases like "according to John Smith," and "Jane Smith says," should always accompany a summary or paraphrase from another writer's material. And the exact source must be given in the text.
In general, footnotes are unnecessary in papers dealing with a single work and not deriving from a variety of sources, for example, in a book analysis. Nor is it necessary to document specific facts which are common knowledge. But facts and opinions which are discoveries by the student's sources or debatable matters for which the student's is taking responsibility must always be documented.
3. Keep quotes to a bare minimum, if used at all. On rare occasion the student will find it helpful to use direct quotations. It is important to observe the following rules in quoting the words of others: The words quoted must be exactly as they appear in the original source. The reader must be informed, either in brackets or in a footnote, of even the slightest change made in a passage. The omission of words from a quoted passage must be indicated by three dots (...); but any punctuation contained in the original must be given in addition to the three dots (,...). Any words inserted by the student into a quoted passage by way of commentary, to correct misspelling or inaccuracy, or to supply omitted information, must be included in square brackets. The use of italics to emphasize words and phrases not italicized in the original quotation must also be indicated with square brackets: "[italics mine]". When a student is quoting from a source which is in turn quoting from another source, the student must make this fact clear to the reader. Basically the principle which governs the handling of quotations is that which governs documentation in general: the reader should know what material belongs to the author of the paper and what material belongs to his sources.
4. One source of confusion is the degree to which a student may be responsible for
acknowledging those ideas which have developed through conversation or class discussions. Here good sense and honesty are the criteria. A student in doubt about the independence of what he/she is writing would be wise to indicate that the ideas are not his/her own. Phrases like "one of my classmates suggests," or "the conclusion reached in class was," are usually adequate for this purpose. The student may employ a typist to prepare a final copy of the paper, but the typist must do nothing whatever to materially change the paper as written by the student. Such papers deserve careful proof-reading—the same as if the student typed it him/herself— to insure that the paper represents the student's independent work and that the copy is free from mechanical errors.
5. The student must decide the frequency and extent of documentation. He/she has, therefore, a great responsibility. He/she should document when in doubt and make unequivocally clear the distinction between what belongs to himself/herself and what belongs to others. Plagiarism can take many forms: presenting passages from the works of others as work of one's own; the unacknowledged paraphrasing of ideas developed by another author; the creation of a patchwork of phrases and ideas, often from several sources; and the uncredited use of a term resulting from another's ingenuity. All of these are dishonest.
6. Another kind of plagiarism, or cheating, is copying material from the work of another student, or having your material written for you by another student, friend, spouse, parent, sibling -- or anyone other than the student himself/herself.
7. Plagiarism, or cheating in any form, is a serious offense and will result in an automatic grade of "F" for the paper itself, a possible "F" for the course, and a consideration of a recommendation of expulsion from the University.
Adapted with permission from:
Guidelines and Standards for Book Analyses and Term Papers, 1986
By David Landy
Professor Emeritus
Department of Anthropology
University of Massachusetts-Boston