Guidelines for Authors

Some guidelines for contributors to this blog (that is, members of ANT 340 in Spring 2014):  You should post at least six times over the course of the semester.  You should post when you are so moved BUT here are some deadlines to help keep you on track.   By the dates below, you should have posted at LEAST the given number of times:

February 7:    1
February 21:  2
March 7:  3
March 28:  4
April 18: 5
May 5:  6

Two of these posts should be critiques of our readings (original pieces, not the textbook).  Two of them should mobilize theory in the process of social-cultural critique.  And two of them should be responses to posts by other students.  Your goal is to be creative, thoughtful, insightful, perhaps funny, often serious, and always extremely careful in terms of your attention to the nuance of theory, the topics to which you apply it, and other students' work.

Suggestions regarding critiques of readings:  Give us the author's argument and the evidence offered in support of it.  Contextualize the author and work for us--e.g. which other thinkers have clearly influenced this work, what movement is  it a part of, how does it compare with preceding and contemporary works, etc.  What are the strengths of this work?  What are its limitations?  What can we learn from it and how can we apply it today?  Critiques of readings should be a minimum of 400 words.

Suggestions regarding social-cultural critiques:  Pick a topic or event of interest to you for which one or more theoretical approaches offer a useful framework for understanding.  Discuss the topic or event through this perspective (or these perspectives), making it clear to the reader what new insights are gained via this mobilization of theory.   Social-cultural critiques should be a minimum of 600 words.

Suggestions regarding responses to posts by other students:  Always be respectful and thoughtful. Good examples of when to offer your responses:

• the other student's post has genuinely made you think about something in a new way;
• you have a substantive disagreement with the post that you want to express;

• you want to build on the argument begun in the student's post.

Responses to posts should be a minimum of 250 words.

You will receive two grades on your blogging, one at mid-term and one at the end of the semester.  In general, posts receiving a grade of B will:

• Be clear

• Be well-written
• Reflect careful and thorough reading
• Follow the guidelines and suggestions given here.

An A post will be even more thoughtful and original than a B post, and it will present a cogent and well-supported argument.  C and D posts fall short of the criteria listed above; students who do not post at least four times in the semester will receive an automatic  F.

There are many anthropology blogs out there for you to check out, though not all are particularly oriented toward theory.  For some examples, see:

http://nodivide.wordpress.com/

http://anthropologyreport.com/anthropology-blogs-2013-list/ (lists many of the blogs out there)

http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/anthropology-in-practice/

http://ethnographymatters.net/ (currently features a very graphic and upsetting but apparently faked photo on the home page)

http://backupminds.wordpress.com/about/

Also see last semester's Wake Forest Theory Blog at theoryinyourface.blogspot.com.