INSIDE DOUGLAS COLLEGE / MAY 14, 1991

World Fair; merchant class ...). If you don’t like
alphabetical arrangements, try color-coding your
notecards (blue for biography, yellow for major contri-
butions, green for bibliography, etc.); but you'll still
need some method of organizing material within each
category. Some categories will seem absurd and
irrelevant, and often they are. But mushrooms do not
grow in sterile soil.

Keep a separate section in your notecard collection
for “bibliography.” Use the American Anthropologist
format. On each card, put the call number of the book
or journal, or indicate that it is not in the library; if you
order it through inter-library loan, indicate on the card
that you have done so. Place a check mark in the upper
right-hand corner of the cards when you have trans-
ferred as little or as much of the reference as you want
or need onto other notecards.

You might also want to keep separate sections for:

° Ideas for opening statements

* Ideas for closing statements

*¢ Table of contents or index

* Doodle-cards for connecting ideas

Do not throw anything out. The thing you throw
out is the thing you will wish you had kept (Murphy’s
Law #499).

 

What doI do next?

The longer you continue to collect information, the
more you will start to think about your material. Leave
time for this to happen. Make time to think about what
you've collected. Sit down and just look through your
cards. Look at them in order; look at them at random.
Keep a doodle-card handy. Think about your final
paper as well as the first two that precede it. About a
week before the first paper is due, write out an outline
of the major events in the person’s life—they should be
right there on your cards. Think about his/her life and
try to sum it up in a powerful opening statement.

The Paper Sandwich

The opening paragraph is like the top slice of bread
in a sandwich; the ending paragraph is like the bottom
half. In between are the avocados, onion rings, and
sunflower seeds—the supporting material that makes a
complete meal.

Notable First Sentences:

“It was the best of times, it was the worst of
times. ...” (Charles Dickens, A Tale of Two Cities)

“Not in Asia and not in innocence was mankind
born.” (Robert Ardrey, Territorial Imperative—a theo-
retically problematic book, but a terrific opening
statement)

4

Develop an opening paragraph that captures the
reader's interest and summarizes the paper. Why is
this person important in anthropology? Who did he/
she influence? Capture the thrust and impact of his/
her life in a powerful summarizing and forward-
looking paragraph.

Develop an ending paragraph that summarizes and
concludes the paper. The issues raised in the first
paragraph should be summed up here; the questions
posed and the momentous hints should be resolved;
and the key contributions should be emphasized.
Writing the paper is like playing ball: the opening
paragraph throws the balls out; the ending paragraph
catches them.

CMM (Critical Mycelium Mass)

How does a paper get written? How does a mush-
room grow? Perhaps a mushroom emerges automati-
cally when a certain critical mass is reached. If you
sow the filaments and take time to wallow in the rich,
dark earth of mushroom country, writing a paper is
almost like going to sleep with a box full of notecards
tucked under your arm and waking up with a mush-
room growing out of your forehead.

Susan Parman, Instructor, Anthropology
For further information, contact the author at Califor-

nia State University, 800 N. State College Boulevard,
Fullerton, CA 92634.

 

Suanne D. Roueche, Editor

February 8, 1991, Vol. Xill, No. 4

©The University of Texas at Austin, 1991
Further duplication is permitted by MEMBER
institutions for their own personnel.

 

INNOVATION ABSTRACTS is a publication of the National Institute for Staff and Organizational Development (NISOD),
EDB 348, The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, Texas 78712, (512) 471-7545. Subscriptions are available to nonconsor-
tium members for $40 per year. Funding in part by the W. K. Kellogg Foundation and the Sid W. Richardson Foundation.
Issued weekly when classes are in session during fall and spring terms and once during the summer. ISSN 0199-106X.

2 pias

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