Instructions for the preparation of written work

The following notes have been prepared to assist you in the preparation of your written work for this subject. They are based on the work of Dr. Lenore Manderson, formerly of the anthropology group here at UNSW. For best results in your work, you should adhere the instructions below.

There are a few general points to keep in mind.

• Read the requirements for the assignment carefully so that you understand what you are required to do. For example, a question on Gregory Bateson calls for you to discuss his work, as well as the comments by various other theorists.

• Order your thoughts before you begin to write: an outline of major points is something that many people find useful. You should be clear about how much you intend to cover and that all of your points bear directly upon the work required.

• Ensure that your work has a clear introduction, setting out what you intend to discuss in your work, its aims and focus. You will find it best to write this part last, as most people do!

• Use short, clear sentences as they are far preferable to long rambling ones in which the point is lost. Watch your grammar and spelling.

• End your assignment with a clear conclusion, in which you describe what you have done and its significance. Conclusions should occupy a substantial part of your essay and not simply be a few sentences.

• The final essay should have the following components:

A. Title page with the name of the assignment & the title of the subject, followed by your name, tutor and tutorial day and time. These are at the end of this handout.

B. Synopsis of around 100 words, covering the main arguments

C. Text (Introduction, main body and conclusions)

D. Bibliography in proper style (See below)

Referencing and Footnote style One of the greatest difficulties into which a hapless student can fall is to be mistakenly accused of plagiarism. Correct and clear footnoting and referencing of all your sources is the best protection against such a danger.

Citations should include the proper attribution of general statements which you have developed from other people’s works, as well as direct quotations.

There are two alternative styles which you can use to acknowledge your sources: one uses footnotes and the other is called the "Harvard" system of "in-text" citations. Either is clear and correct, but be consistent within the one assignment.

The footnote style is as follows:

Angel and Weismann argue that the ritual of Christmas provides for the focus of religious belief, at the same time allowing expression of solidarity amongst members of the Christian community.1 In contrast, Claus maintains that Christmas celebrations in contemporary industrialised societies cannot be analysed except in the context of late monopoly capitalism: "Capital has created the forms in which Christmas is celebrated, and has elaborated this ritual according to market demands."2 In summary, Angel and Weismann and others3 analyse Christmas in functional terms; whilst Claus has interpreted the ritual following a Marxist inspired theory.

Claus is not a determinist, however, and cites as his motto Marx's famous phrase, "Men make history, but not in circumstances of their own choosing."4

 Observe that the footnote numbers, which should run sequentially throughout the essay, follow the sentence, author or quote rather than precede it; and that the number is placed above and not below the line. Some people circle their footnote numbers, and they always are smaller than the main text. When you first refer to a work, you should give the full bibliographic citation in the footnote, which should be placed at the bottom of the appropriate page. Alternatively, you may list all your footnotes on pages after the main body of the text, but before the bibliography. Note, in particular, Footnote 4, where the citation is to Claus and not to Marx, since your source is the latter and not the former.

The footnotes to the above passage would read as follows:

1. Angel, A.N. and T.H.E. Weismann, Silent Night, Holy Night: Christmas Ritual in a Contemporary Australian Community. Limbo: Heaven and Earth Publishing Company, 1985, pp. 33-49. [This refers to a general statement]

2. Claus, S. "The political economy of Christmas", North Pole Journal of Radical Anthropology 6 (2): 59. 1988. [This refers to a specific quotation on a specific page]

3. See, for example, Gabriel, A. "Group solidarity and religious rites", in S.T. Peter (ed), Christianity: Anthropological Perspectives, Bethleham, Mass.: Bethleham University Press, 1966; and Herod, K. Infant Mortality Rates and Sex Differentiated Life Expectancy Variables in Judaea, 33 BC. Unpublished Ph.D. diss., University of Samaria, Caesaria, 1981. For a totally different perspective, see Magdalene, M. "Santa Claus and the politics of paedophilia". Unpublished paper, Centre for Women’s Studies, University of Capernaum, Capernaum, 1987. [This refers to a number of different works on a theme, including one counter argument]

4. Claus, op.cit., p. 51. This quotation, to be found in the introductory paragraphs of Karl Marx's, "The Eighteenth Brumaire of Louis Bonaparte" served as the basis for structuration theory. Giddens, A. The Constitution of Society. Outline of the Theory of Structuration. Cambridge, Polity Press, 1984, p. xxi). [This refers to a specific quotation on a specific page, from a work already fully cited. It includes commentary, and a further reference]

 The full citation includes the place of publication (the city, not the country) and the publisher. When you next refer to the work, you should use the appropriate Latin terminology in the footnotes. Thus: The symbolism of Christmas celebrations helps to further our understanding of Australian Christmas culture. The persistent use of snow (white) in shop windows, notwithstanding the climatic inconsistency, is symbolic of purity and reflects the importance of chastity in Christian ideology.5 The red holly berries represent life (blood).6 The green leaves, however, are problematic, since typically the third symbolic colour is black, symbolizing death. Here perhaps green, like red, is also symbolic of life, but of the male gender,7 red being associated with the female.8 The footnotes for this paragraph would be: 5. Angel and Weismann, op.cit., p. 63.

6. ibid., p. 64.

7. Gabriel, op.cit., p. 121.

8. Magdalene, op.cit., p. 16.

 Op.cit. refers to a work cited in full earlier in the work; ibid refers to the work cited immediately above. You may use also loc.cit. for "in the passage quoted earlier", but this is usually unnecessary and confusing.

At the end of the assignment, you then list only those references cited in your essay in alphabetical order, providing full bibliographic details as in your first footnote. Do not list works you have not cited. You do not provide pages for books, etc., but full pagination should be provided for articles in journals or edited volumes, thus:

Angel, A.N. and T.H.E. Weismann, Silent Night, Holy Night: Christmas Ritual in a Contemporary Australian Community. Limbo: Heaven and Earth Publishing Company, 1985. [This is the reference for a book with joint authorship]

Claus, S. "The political economy of Christmas", North Pole Journal of Radical Anthropology 6 (2): 58-73, 1988. [This is the reference for an article in a journal]

Gabriel, A. "Group solidarity and religious rites", in S.T. Peter (ed), Christianity: Anthropological Perspectives, Bethleham, Mass.: Bethleham University Press, pp. 14-42, 1966. [This is the reference for an article in an edited volume, a book]

Giddens, A. The Constitution of Society. Outline of the Theory of Structuration. Cambridge, Polity Press, 1984. [This is the reference for a book with a single author]

Herod, K. Infant Mortality Rates and Sex Differentiated Life Expectancy Variables in Judaea, 33 BC. Unpublished Ph.D. diss., University of Samaria, Caesaria, 1981. [This is the reference for an unpublished thesis or book length manuscript]

Magdalene, M. "Santa Claus and the politics of paedophilia". Unpublished paper, Centre for Women's Studies, University of Capernaum, Capernaum, 1987. [This is the reference for an unpublished article or short manuscript]

 The Harvard system or "in-text" system, of referencing includes the references within the text and footnotes are used only for elaboration. The "Harvard System" is the one used for the references in this handout. Ibid. can be used if you wish to acknowledge an author previously cited by op.cit. is not employed. Following the Harvard system, the first paragraph would read as follows: Angel and Weismann (1985: 33-49) argue that the ritual of Christmas provides for the focus of religious belief, at the same time allowing expression of solidarity amongst members of the Christian community. In contrast, Claus maintains that Christmas celebrations in contemporary industrialised societies cannot be analysed except in the context of late monopoly capitalism: "Capital has created the forms in which Christmas is celebrated, and has elaborated this ritual according to market demands"(1988: 59). In summary, Angel and Weismann and others (Gabriel, 1966; Herod 1981; cf. Magdalene 1987) analyse Christmas in functional terms; whilst Claus has interpreted the ritual following a Marxist inspired theory.

Claus is not a determinist, however, and cites (1988: 59) as his motto Marx's famous phrase, "Men make history, but not in circumstances of their own choosing."1

 "cf." in the above paragraph means "compare" and indicates that the citation following contrasts with the previous ones. The footnote for this paragraph in Harvard style would be: 1. This quotation, to be found in the introductory paragraphs of Karl Marx's, "The Eighteenth Brumaire of Louis Bonaparte", served as the basis for structuration theory (Giddens, 1984: xxi). Notice that the reference here is to Giddens, who cites the quotation, as he has given it, from a particular work of Karl Marx. You have read Giddens, not Marx, and so cite only the former. The next paragraph would run as follows using the "Harvard" system: The symbolism of Christmas celebrations helps to further our understanding of Australian Christmas culture. The persistent use of snow (white) in shop windows, notwithstanding the climatic inconsistency, is symbolic of purity and reflects the importance of chastity in Christian ideology (Angel and Weismann, 1985: 63). The red holly berries represent life (blood) (ibid: 64). The green leaves, however, are problematic, since typically the third symbolic colour is black, symbolizing death. Here perhaps green, like red, is also symbolic of life, but of the male gender (Gabriel, 1966: 121) red being female (Magdalene, 1987: 16). At the conclusion of the essay, provide full bibliographic details again, but place the date of publication immediately after the author's name. If the author has published more than one work in the same year, then call one (a) and the second (b) and cite them as such in the text. For example: Way, A. 1986. "Cribs and beds: Asexuality and sexual allusion in early Christian texts", Jericho Ethnologist 6 (2): 58-73, 1988. [This is the reference for an article in a journal]

1987a. In a Manger: The Ethnography of Birth in Old Judaea. Babel: Tongue and Sons, Inc. [This is the reference for a book]

1987b. "Virginity as symbol: Doctrine and dogma in early and contemporary Christianity" in V. Mary (ed), Jerusalem at the Census. Bethleham, Mass.: Bethleham University Press, pp. 62-97. [This is the reference for an article in an edited volume, a book]

 Always check your references before submitting your work to ensure that they are accurate.

Assignments may be typed (word processed!) or hand written clearly. Unless you have large hand writing, the essay should be double spaced to make it easier to read.

A note about electronic citations

This is a very new area of bibliographic style, so hard and fast rules are being developed still.

The an e–mail message that you cite, it is relatively easy: cite it as you would a pers com ("personal communication"), with the person’s surname, other names or organisation’s name, followed by the date and the heading on the message. Here are some examples:

McCall, Grant. 21.04.98. "Message to student". Personal communication (e–mail).

South Pacific Commission. 01.10.97. "Island populations". Personal communication (e–mail).

For something from a website, the situation is even more imperative that you cite the exact date you obtained the information. Websites can change at any time; they are not like fixed, print publications. You should have the name of the person (Last name, other names) or organisation, the exact date you obtained the information and the exact URL (Uniform Resource Locater") or :address" for that section of the page you accessed. So, if you copied information from the fisheries section of the South Pacific Commission, use the specific URL for that part. The easiest citation would be something like this:

Centre for South Pacific Studies. 28.10.97. General Site and Guest Information. http://www.arts.unsw.edu.au/Centres/Southpacific/Homepage.html

Centre for South Pacific Studies. 28.10.97. Links to other Pacific Island sites. http://www.arts.unsw.edu.au/Centres/Southpacific/Links.html

Tom’s Pacific Page. 28.10.97. Everything about islands in the Pacific Ocean and surrounding countries. http://www.uni-sb.de/z-einr/ub/tom/pacific.html

A very comprehensive discussion of referencing electronic sources may be found at:

Spennemann, Dirk H.R. (1995)

Guide to referencing on-line material. Johnstone Centre of Parks, Recreation

and Heritage, Charles Sturt University, Albury, NSW, Australia. Document

URL: http://life.csu.edu.au/~dspennem/Publications/WWW_Publishing/Referencing.html

Closely linked to Spennemann’s 1995 recommendations is the reference style of the following magazine, whose style section may be consulted:

Computer-Mediated Communications Magazine (1995)

Style Guidelines. Computer-Mediated Communications Magazine.

URL: http://www.december.com/cmc/mag/editorial/style.html

The (American) Modern Language Association (MLA) has long been a source of information on writing style for academic purposes. Their recommendations cover all forms of electronic communications (at 15 February 1997) and may be consulted at:

http://nagps.varesearch.com/NAGPS/academic/MLA_Inet_Citing.html

The MLA site commences with the following note:

"The basic component of the reference citation is simple:

Author's Last Name, First Name. "Title of Work." Title of Complete Work. [protocol and address] [path] (date of message or visit).

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