Three tips for writing an anthropology essay

There are many ways to approach writing an anthropology essay. The best way of course is the one which gets you, the student, the highest possible mark. Well so much for the theoretical approach to this topic, let’s now move to some practical and down-to-earth tips.

Read other successful essays

This is not an encouragement to plagiarize or to copy in any way the work of another student. But learning from others and particularly from those who are successful is a good habit to get into. It is said that some of the great composers would study in detail the work of their contemporaries or great musicians who went before them. It was not to copy their work but rather to see how they achieved their success. Before you write your anthropology essay, read and dissect other anthropology essays and particularly those which have received a very high mark. Copying style and methods of approach is legal and even a very good idea.

Get a handle on your timelines

In recent centuries anthropologists have made a number of discoveries. It is important that you have a simple timeline, perhaps on a single sheet of paper, which briefly details what was discovered at what time. If you are dealing with a relatively short period of time such as a century, then you would divide that century into decades. Otherwise you would be looking at a number of centuries. It is easy to draw a timeline. This could be a line across the middle of a piece of paper in a landscape format where vertical lines are drawn from the center line above and below the line. The calendar date is placed at the beginning of the line and the particular discovery listed at the other end. At a glance you can see the history of anthropology in recent times.

Practice practice practice

The old joke about how to get to Carnegie Hall with the answer of practice, practice, practice, applies equally to anthropology students. Get your hands on recent exam papers which require anthropology students to write particular essays. It is unlikely if not most unlikely that you will have the same question on your next paper, but to give yourself some practice, have a go at answering the anthropology questions in these older exam papers. Follow the normal rules of having an introduction, main body and conclusion. See how well you go in preparing for your next essay.