Skill One: Learning about academic writing.

We will wager that heretofore in most of your classes, you have used academic writing (academic books, chapters in collections, and journal articles) primarily as sources of information. In order to write a thesis, you have to learn to do academic writing. One of the first steps in learning this skill is to read academic articles for more than just information--to read them in order to understand what the authors are trying to say to whom and why, how they do it, and where they succeed and fail. Consequently, your first few exercises will consist of very close readings and critiques of a few academic articles, taken from diverse areas of anthropology. Practice for this skill includes two parts: reading academic articles for format and reading academic prose for content.

Schedule for this Skill

W March 31: Harrell will lead you through the various exercises dealing with format and content that you will be required to perform yourselves for the articles due on April 4, 6, and 11, and the senior thesis due on April 13. Harrell will analyze the articles "The Story Catches You and You Fall Down" by Janelle Taylor and "Sexual role and HIV-1 transmission among men who have sex with men in Peru," by Steven M. Goodreau, L. Pedro Goicochea, and Jorge Sanchez. You should, of couse, read these articles before you come to class for the analysis.

M April 5: Read the article, "The Cultural Ecology of India's Sacred Cattle," by Marvin Harris, and answer, in writing, the format questionnaire and the eight questions on content. We will go through your answers in class.

W April 7: Read the article, "Deep Play: Notes on the Balinese Cockfight," by Clifford Geertz, and answer, in writing, the format questionnaire and the eight questions on content. We will go through your answers in class.

M April 12: Read the senior honors theses, Still to be selected, will be posted by Friday, April 2 " You do not need to turn in written evaluations of these theses, but you are expected to be able to evaluate them in the same terms you have used for the published articles. We will discuss the differences, if any, between the academic writing you find in these theses and the writing you found in the published articles.

Class schedule
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