Research Paper on "Guns Germs and Steel"

Quoted Instructions for "Guns Germs and Steel" Assignment:

Below you will find the complete instructions concerning this paper. The movie being referred to is on YouTube. It is the first 6 parts of Guns, Germs and Steel. Please note that the style required is the AAA (Anthropological) style. The web site for this style is included below. Please use the book *****"Guns, Germs and Steel*****" as one reference.

I tried to copy and paste the YouTube clips but was unable to.

SPRING 2010

ANTH 102 *****WRITING ASSIGNMENT

Due on: Due on: Monday, May 3rd at 6:00 pm.

Topic:Guns, Germs and Steel

The book has sold millions of copies because it grabs people; it addresses the biggest question of history; why history unfolded differently on the different continents over the last 13 thousand years. Jared Diamond found is that the answer doesn*****'t have anything to do with people and it has everything to do with people*****'s environments, especially in the first place because of the differences in the availability of wild plants and animals suitable for domestication, lots of them in a few areas like the fertile crescent in China and virtually none of them in other areas like the western United States or sub equatorial Africa. Another difference had to do with the shapes and orientations of the continents ***** those are perhaps the two biggest factors contributing to the explanation.

STEP 1: Please watch the movie Guns, Germs and Steel, (Part 1 through 6) about this book and complete the following task

Write a research paper stating: why do you think social inequality exists and what does this say about our modern world? Jared Diamond*****s theory about inequality should be the argument in your thesis statement. You should either be agreeing or disagreeing with his theory and mention this in the first paragraph of your paper (i.e., I agree with the Jared Diamond*****s theory about social inequality or I do not agree with the Jared Diamond*****s theory about social inequality.) And use evidence from the movie to support your argument about whether you agree or disagree. (Do not summarize the movie!)

Please research and find out at least two different cultures (societies) ***** other than mention in the movie ***** and investigate the social inequality in these cultures and support your thesis with evidence.

The great argument against Guns, Germs and Steel is that it*****s purely deterministic; it says exactly what*****'s going to happen to every country in the world.

What do you think about this? State whether you agree or disagree with this statement and explain your answer.

STEP 2:

Thesis Statement:

As many of you may have noticed from lecture, anthropology is an argumentative kind of field. Therefore, the key aspect of your term paper will be that it argues a position.

The most important part of your paper is the thesis statement, placed at the end of the first, or introductory, paragraph. It states your argument or position. You will spend the rest of your paper arguing this thesis and supporting it with evidence and research. The most common mistakes with a thesis statement are:

1) To make it too broad, so that it requires a book (or several books) to argue correctly.

2) To write a thesis statement that is not an argument, but a statement of fact. *****The Egyptians built the largest known pyramids in history***** is not a thesis statement.

3) To ignore the thesis statement in the rest of the paper and not argue your point at all.

4) To choose a thesis statement that cannot be supported, due to either the fact that your statement is wrong, or a lack of accessible sources.

The thesis statement is best written, in fact, after you have done most of your research, because then you will have a good idea whether your thesis is true, supportable, and relevant.

The Body of the Paper:

The rest of the paper, once you have introduced the topic and made your thesis statement, is concerned with supporting this statement in such a way that I*****m convinced you*****re right. In order to convince me (or any other reader) you need to give a synopsis of what is generally accepted in the field, the beliefs of people who disagree with you, and any evidence supporting and not supporting your point of view. Any evidence that does not support you should be explained. If, in the course of your essay, you ignore a crucial piece of evidence that does not support you, I will be unconvinced by your thesis and will probably believe that your research was insufficient. If, however, you mention the opposing evidence and say why you don*****t think it is crucial, I may not be convinced by your argument, but will definitely know that your research was adequate.

Conclusion:

Your concluding paragraph or section should reprise your thesis and the primary evidence supporting it. You should also say briefly why this topic or thesis is important to anthropology.

Sources:

You need at least four or more sources of which at least half (2) should be paper sources, that is to say from a paper journal or book. (Text books can not be used as a book source). A paper source is defined by where it was originally published*****something published in a peer-reviewed journal and then reprinted online or indexed in an online database such as JSTOR still counts as a paper source. Internet sources or web pages are acceptable, as long as they are cited so that I can check them. Keep in mind that many web pages are unreliable (badly written, years out of date, or just plain wrong). As a rule of thumb, web pages supported by universities, professional anthropologists, and anthropological foundations are reliable, and those done by private people or groups with an axe to grind are not. Yes, some private people do put up a really good anthropological web page, but this is just a rule of thumb. Wikipedia can provide good background, but is not always reliable, and never counts as a source at all, as everything in it is by definition common knowledge. With any general source, if you find an interesting fact attributed to another source, you should chase the source until you find the earliest version possible.

Citations and References: (VERY IMPORTANT!!!!) (*****Research papers that do not have citing and references will not be accepted****)

All citations should be done in the following format which adapted from the American Anthropological Association. This is a brief guide to citing commonly used sources in anthropology papers:

(http://www.aaanet.org/publications/style_guide.pdf)

Let me clarify a couple of things here:

What a *****citation***** is and what *****references***** mean. I provided a website above; in case some students didn*****t know the differences between them.

Citation (In text): Whenever you quote, paraphrase, summarize, or otherwise refer to the work of another, you are required to cite its source. Loosely, a citation is a reference to a published source. A prime purpose of a citation is intellectual honesty; to attribute to other authors the ideas they have previously expressed, rather than give the appearance to the work*****'s readers that the work*****'s authors are the original wellsprings of those ideas.

For example: In his book *****Guns, Germs and Steel*****, Jared Diamond determines that the success or failure of a society had less to do with the people themselves rather the seminal factor being the geographic location of the society*****s habitation (Diamond, J.1997).

References (at the end of your paper):

On the other hand in academic literature, a reference is a previously published written work within academic publishing that has been used as a source for theory or claims referred to that are used in the text. References contain complete bibliographic information so the interested reader can find them in a library.

For example: Diamond, Jared. 1999. Guns, Germs, and Steel

W.W Norton& Company Inc. New York

Writing Style:

This is a professional paper, and as such you want to sound professional. Third person is preferable. You need to limit your quotations and quotations are mostly inappropriate for these papers. Instead, use your own words. In order to increase the length of paper by adding random useless facts like long quotations will just get you graded off. )

Although you will be using your own words, you will still need to cite your sources because using your own words does not mean that you thought about the concept(s). If you didn*****t think it up on your own, it should be cited! If in doubt, cite your source, with a page number if possible.

Length:

This paper should be 5-6 text pages in length. Title pages and references also do not count to total length. Also, text should be double-spaced, font should be standard 12 point and margins should be 1 inch in all directions. In general, if your paper is running too short or too long, it is often due to problems in picking a thesis*****if it is running long, you need a narrower thesis. If it*****s running short, you need a broader one. Adding random useless facts like long quotations to add to the length will just get you graded off for not sticking to your thesis and using poor style.

*********************Research papers that do not meet format requirements will not be accepted*****************************************

*********************Research papers that do not have citing and references will not be accepted*****************************************

************** Wikipedia is not accepted as a source, if you use Wikipedia as a source, I will disregard the whole information**********************

*****¢ There is a zero tolerance policy towards plagiarism in this course. To be on the safe side, make sure you ALWAYS quote original material from another source. You ALWAYS cite your site (by letting me know where you found the material), even if you re-word the material, you will still need to cite the source. You should always be properly cited within the body of your text and with appropriate references at the end.