Paper Instructions

Anthropology of Food Paper Assignment Instructions

The Assignment:

Pick a food that is important to you and represents your culture. Think about it in terms of the articles we have read about food and describe the importance of it within your family or cultural history. You can interview family members for this paper if it will help you describe how it is relevant to your cultural life. 

Guidelines:

·         You must cite sources using Chicago style formatting. Your bibliography should include the author’s name, year of publication, and publisher. For example:

Benedict, Ruth. "The Individual and the Pattern of Culture." In Readings for a History of Anthropological Theory 2nd Edition, by Paul A. Erickson and Liam D. Murphy, 130-143. Ontario: Broadview Press, 2006.

Geertz, Clifford. “Thick Description,” in The Interpretation of Cultures. New York: Basic Books, 1973.

Stack, Carol. All Our Kin: Strategies for Survival in a Black Community. New York: Harper, 1975.

·         When you write about books, the book title should be italicized. Mention titles of articles in quotes. Use in-text citations with page numbers (Geertz 1973, 25).

·         Always put a page number in parentheses after a quote.

·         Use your spell check function on your computer and proofread carefully. 

·         Consult this funny comic for a list of commonly misspelled words: http://theoatmeal.com/comics/misspelling

·         Whenever you want to write about individuals or people in a general way, use the term “when an individual” or “when a person” never use, “when you.” Although we do this in spoken English, it is incorrect in a formal paper.

·         Do not use contractions.

·         Do not use colloquialisms. For example, “the people in Stack’s book were broke,” is incorrect. Instead, use “The individuals in Stack’s book live below the poverty line.”  

·         Whenever you write about literature, always use the present tense. Even if the book was written a hundred years ago, literature is a living entity so you should discuss it as though it were happening now.

·         Do not begin a paragraph with a quote. Quotes are great to use, but not in place of topic sentences.

·         Always use the active tense. Instead of saying, “the ball was hit by the bat,” you want to say, “the bat hit the ball.”