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Guide to Writing

We encourage you to take courses with as many different professors in our program as possible.  Like all the different people and organizations you will work with in the future, each of us have our individual preferences when it comes to style, language etc.  The recommendations we give here are supported by disciplinary traditions that you will see also in anthropological books and articles.  You should be prepared to follow the guidelines required of you in individual courses.  In those areas where alternative styles/formats are possible, we expect that you consistently implement the format you choose and that the format you choose helps readers to acquire and understand the knowledge and arguments you present.

To help the reader, you must give each of your writings a proper format.  They must have an appropriate logical structure, appropriate references and citations, and an appropriate format and presentation.  We will consider all of these issues, as well as the quality and quantity of the research presented, when we grade.

The type of assignment dictates differences in writing.  While a two-page comment or review needs a title, it hardly needs headlines (although each paragraph, of course, needs to discuss a particular issue). A fifteen-page research paper, however, frequently needs headlines. Thus, below are guidelines to be used and amended to the specific purpose of your particular assignment.  Some of the issues to consider when writing any paper are discussed in the following paragraphs.

Design of your research
Dishonesty
Paper format and style
Style, language, and grammar
Quotations
Notes
References
Drafts
Rewriting
Online Writing Aids


  Virginia Commonwealth University

  School of World Studies
  Date Last Modified: August 29, 2007
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