Study Tools

Reading

Anthropology asks you to read a lot. Here are some tips that might help you:

1. Know the basics and classics. You really need to have a basic understanding of fundamental concepts (e.g., ‘culture’, ‘power’, ‘biopolitics’) and important authors (e.g., Levi-Strauss, Malinowski, Geertz, Foucault) in order to be able to digest other readings. You can find classics, handbooks, and encyclopedias here.
   • Sapiens (anthropology magazine) has a teaching section on their website that covers keywords in sociocultural anthropology, (power, gender, religion, etc.). Each unit features articles, academic articles, discussion questions, and additional resources (e.g. public lectures). All teaching units and special courses(including linguistic anthropology or general anthropology), can be found here: https://www.sapiens.org/teaching/
   • On this collection, you can also find resources like the Open Encyclopedia of Anthropology that covers pretty much any concept and keyword you can think of.

-> If you do not understand a certain term or concept, just google it. Use a dictionary, ask a peer — or post your question on the forum!

2. Anthropological articles often do not have the structure that a lot of other scientific articles follow (e.g. with a methodology and discussion section), but rather alternate between theory & concepts and ethnographic narrative (e.g. vignettes, stories, dialogues, observations). You can only get acquainted with that through, well, reading.
3. Here are some further guidelines to (anthropological) reading:
   • Tips on Reading Anthropology Articles (by MIT OpenCourseWare)
   • Tips on Reading and Taking Notes (by McGill University)
   • A Students’ Guide to Reading and Writing in Social Anthropology (by Harvard University)
   • Reading and note-taking (by LSE Anthropology)
   • Reading a Text (by Anthro Writes)

Writing

Some resources for writing your anthropology assignments:

1. AnthroWrites has different sections dedicated to giving you tips on writing, from tips specified to different types of writing assignments (essays, papers, etc.) or choosing a topic, to building your argument.
2. Writing Resources (by LSE Anthropology)
3. Writing Tips (by Students of Cultural Anthropology Journal)
4. Guide for Writing in Anthropology (by Southwestern University)
5. In terms of grammar and style, Academic Writing Assistant (by Leuven Language Institute): you can copy-paste your written text into this tool, which then checks for example language issues such as spelling & grammar, but also style and coherence, readability, etc.
6. Take a look at the papers or colloquium page, where you will find examples of previous student assignments!
7. -> In order to write well, you need to read, and read like a writer: how is the author analysing data, how are they structuring their story, what techniques do they employ in their storytelling, how do they connect case studies with theory, etcetera.

Referencing

Anthropology in general uses Chicago (Author-Date) style to refer to sources in-text and in a bibliography. Some resources that can help you in referencing:

1. The Chicago Manual of Style: if you’re managing your own references, use this list of sample citations for Author-Date referencing style to guide you.
2. Scribbr: you can find a guide to Chicago style referencing on this website as well, plus a Chicago Citation generator that can help you manage your references.
3. If you wish to make managing your references easier, you can use tools like Zotero, Mendeley, or EndNote to organize your research.
   • ZoteroBib also has a fast and free bibliography generator: ZBib