Develop your discussion progressively and coherently. Ensure that sentences and paragraphs follow logically from one another.

In anthropology you are expected to read widely and critically. Much of anthropology consists of argument about how social facts are to be interpreted, and our understanding often advances through a variety of contrary viewpoints and emphases. As in related disciplines such as sociology, political science and philosophy, there is an internal tension generated by the opposition of arguments that gives anthropology much of its vitality and interest. Anthropology is not so much a unified body of knowledge as it is a dialectical, on-going production. Few issues in anthropology have been resolved. You won’t find many generally accepted ‘answers’, and there are no single authorities who can tell you all you need to know. This means that we expect your essays to demonstrate not just factual knowledge but also some ability to present and assess arguments and counter- arguments about particular problems. The criteria by which we assess are: 1. Relevance: The content of your essay should be relevant to the question or problem you’ve selected. Don’t include material not directly related to it. 2. Well-informed:

Your essay should be well-informed. Read as widely as possible. As a rule of thumb, an essay should cite at least five or six items. 3. Your own thinking and your own words: Familiarity with the literature is essential but not sufficient. Your essay must be based on your own thinking. Only a minor part should be direct quotations or material that is merely a modified or condensed version of another author’s work. Extensive quotation or paraphrase isn’t acceptable, as it doesn’t evidence your thinking about your reading. 4. We don’t expect you to come up with original insights at this stage of your studies. But we do expect a serious effort to evaluate how the readings bear on the problem. One way to proceed is by comparing and contrasting the work of different writers. Consider the implications of the arguments and data used by one author for other works you are also referring to in your essay. Think for yourself and say what you think. By this we don’t mean to encourage rash, unconsidered statements. Rather, we hope you will be stimulated by your reading and that you will make the effort to think through the issues raised. 5. Organisation: Your essay should be constructed in a way that shows the logical steps in your argument, with data from various sources being brought in as appropriate. Remember that paragraphs are the organisational ‘building blocks’ of an essay and that each paragraph should have a main idea or theme. Good organisation can only be achieved by careful planning and frequent re-reading and revision of your writing as you proceed. Authors who haven’t taken the trouble to review and revise their essays before submitting seldom succeed.