Different disciplines use different formats and stylistic conventions for the presentation of their works, and learning the system prevalent in each discipline is part of the process of professionalization. The following guidelines reflect standard practice within social and cultural anthropology. A paper should consist of the following three elements:
The title page should contain the TITLE at the top-centre, set in uppercase letters, along with the author’s name and name of the course. The lower part of the title page should contain a brief (75-100 word) ABSTRACT of the paper, single-spaced.
Titles should be informative rather than fanciful and composed such that they contain the relevant KEYWORDS, which, if searched in an electronic database, would enable a reader to locate your paper. Keywords should relate to the topic and/or ethnographic data. Following are some examples of titles, with the keywords capitalized:
- The STATUS OF WOMEN in three villages in TUNISIA: a comparison of ethnographic sources
- The CONCEPTION OF GOD in YORUBA TRADITIONAL RELIGION: indigeneous concept or CHRISTIAN INFLUENCE?
- The ritual status of DIVINE KINGS in AFRICA: a comparison of the DOGON and BANYANKOLE
Abstracts are succinct statements of the main argument of the paper, i.e. state what the paper seeks to accomplish or demonstrate and the methods used. Abstracts tend to follow a standard form that is best learned by the expedient studying of a number of them. Examples of abstracts can be found at the beginning of papers published in major professional journals such as Culture, the American Ethnologist, and L’Homme.
It is often helpful to compose your abstract BEFORE writing the paper rather than afterward. If you have trouble putting your central argument into a short statement, it may be that you do not HAVE a clear argument, and, if this is the case, it is better to discover this before you have spent a lot of time writing your paper.
The main body of the text should be double-spaced to leave room for comments and notes. The pages should be numbered, beginning with the first page of the text. DO NOT USE FOOTNOTES OR ENDNOTES for subsidiary
information. If the information is important enough to be called to the attention of the reader, include it in the text; otherwise leave it out.
Likewise, do not use footnotes for references to previously published works. See below for the reference system used in social and cultural anthropology.
Words foreign to English, and in particular, indigeneous concepts, should be set in italics (or underlined if you are using a typewriter). Similarly, scientific names of natural species should be italicized or underlined, the genus name capitalized and the species name uncapitalized, even if it derives from a personal noun (Coleus dazo; Dioscorea williamsii).
References within the body of the text should be cited using the system standard within anthropology and sociology, citing the author’s last name, the year of the publication, and the relevant page(s), all set within parentheses. Each reference used in the text should refer unambiguously to a specific page or pages in one of the works cited in
the bibliography (Jones 1997: 62-3), unless a reference to the work as a whole is intended, in which case include only the author’s name and year in parentheses (Jones 1997)
The syntax for a reference in text is as follows. indicate obligatory elements in all references. [Square brackets] indicate additional information that may not be included in all references, but which should be included to clarify ambiguities:
[INITIALS OF AUTHOR, IF MORE THAN ONE AUTHOR WITH THAT LAST NAME IS LISTED] [ADD a, b, c, etc. IF MORE THAN ONE PUBLICATION IN THAT YEAR]
If the author’s name has been cited in the immediately preceeding text, the parentheses need only contain the year and page numbers.
Following is a sample paragraph showing proper use of references to the sample bibliography below:
Furthermore, it has been conclusively shown (Adams 1998:34; Wesley et al 1996:260) that the a strong current of bilaterality underlies Irewa descent reckoning and that oratorical powers are believed to result from hearing great poets declaiming while still in one’s mother’s womb (Smith, A.S. 1981b:120). Both of these things are incompatible with the assumptions that Du Puy (1999) makes and are additional reasons for discounting her model.
The bibliography, which doubles as a list of references cited, comes at the end of the text. It should consist of an alphabetical list of sources cited in the text. Use the sample bibliography below as a model. Note the order and arrangement of items. Note how journal articles (Adams 1989), articles in edited volumes (Adams 1992), and monographs (Adams 1998) are cited. Note how several items published in the same year are differentiated (Smith A.S. 1981a and 1981b), how different authors with the same surname are differentiated by the addition of initials (A.S. Smith and S.W. Smith), how serial publications from corporate sources are listed (Du Puy 1999), and how multiple authors are listed (Wesley et al.).
In those instances where there is no date of publication listed, cite it as n.d. (no date) and if no place of publication is listed, cite it as n.p. (no place). In the case of two authors (e.g. Smith and Jones 1992), cite all authors in the text reference. Where the authors number three or more, cite only the first author (with et al.) in the text (e.g. Wesley et al. 1996)
Do not use italics or underlining in a bibliography except to indicate foreign words. All the bibliographic information is communicated by the ORDER OF ITEMS within the citation and by the PUNCTUATION. Note how separate items (paper title, journal title, title and authors of collected volumes) are separated by periods and note the use of colons.
Note that, except for proper nouns, nouns and adjectives in titles of journal articles and book titles are not capitalized (thus: The mismeasure of man; Writing culture; Structure and function in primitive society; Argonauts of the western Pacific) whereas in the titles of journals, they are (thus: Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion; British Journal of Sociology).
Adams, R. W.
1989. Compurgation of the feud among the Irewa of Shoa Province, Ethiopia. Erythrean Studies. 6: 221-245.
1992. Curses as means of social control among the Shoan Irewa. In: M. S. Treadwell (ed.), Curses and blessings: performative utterances in practice. Regina: University of Regina Press, pp. 115-35.
1998. Feud, faction and fatherhood: the Irewa of Ethiopia. Oxford: Clarendon Press.
Du Puy, E.
1999. Curses, blessings and magical words in Africa. Lagon: University of Ghana. Institute of African Studies. Working Papers. No. 21.
Smith, A.S.
1981a. The yabunga or ritual rainmaker among the Lang-bon and Irewa of Shoa. Ethnographica Danica. 12: 65-71.
1981b. Lineage endogamy among the Irewa and other Galliña-speakers of Shoa Provice. Erythrean Studies. 3: 119-145.
Smith, S.W.
1997. The Irewan yabunga: rainmaker or clown? In: L. F. Posnanski (ed.), The preindustrial clown: bridge to the sacred in tribal and peasant societies. Pocatello: Idaho State University Press, pp. 234-268.
Smith, S.W., and H. Jones
1992. The healing power of words in Irewa traditional medicine. American Anthropologist. 96: 1254-1268.
Wesley, J., G.P. Tudball, and M. Treadwell
1996. Towards a cross-cultural definition of curses, oaths and epithets. International Journal of Applied Socio-linguistics. 16: 256-267.
There are a number of excellent writing manuals available. Students are strongly advised to purchase a manual of style, which will undoubtedly prove to be an invaluable guide to writing and editing research papers. Some suggestions:
The Chicago Manual of Style. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Strunk, W., and E.B. White. 1959. The Elements of Style. New York: Macmillan.
There are a number of excellent writing manuals available. Students are strongly advised to purchase a manual of style, which will undoubtedly prove to be an invaluable guide to writing and editing research papers. Some suggestions:
The Chicago Manual of Style. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Strunk, W., and E.B. White. 1959. The Elements of Style. New York: Macmillan.