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Guidance on First- and Second-Year Papers

All graduate students in Archaeology are expected to write a paper at the end of their first and their second years. The purpose of the paper is to:

There is no formal checklist of what should or should not be in the end of year paper; what follows are some informal guidelines.

First-year paper

The first-year paper should focus on research that helps you move your PhD forward. It should show evidence of wide reading. It should engage in detail with archaeological material, and contain substantive discussion of that material within an anthropological intellectual frame. The first year paper can be based upon library, field, or laboratory research, however, original insights from fieldwork/lab analysis are not required at this stage.

Second-year paper

The second-year paper should contain material of publishable quality, and should be prepared in a format and language suitable for publication in a peer-reviewed journal. It should engage in detail with archaeological material and include original insights into that material. It should show deep familiarity with relevant arguments from the theoretical and anthropological literature and an ability to apply these in a systematic and sustained fashion to your chosen PhD topic. The second year paper is based upon original field or laboratory archaeological research.

Format

Both first and second year papers should be complete, clearly written, properly formatted and referenced. Paper should contain roughly 25 pages of text (double spaced, 12 point font). It should be accompanied by an abstract.  Illustrations should be included as relevant, and properly cross-referenced into the text.

Timeline

Your committee

You should take great care in choosing the members of your Committee. Make sure that you ask them well in advance of any deadline.

After you have submitted your first draft in the end of winter quarter/ beginning of spring quarter, the members of your Committee will read it and get comments back to you. This phase will focus on the broader issues and your Committee will provide you with feedback on the research you need to do in spring quarter to complete your paper. After the submission of the second draft, you will get feedback on remaining issues that are often smaller in scope and significance. Your Committee expects a complete draft, properly formatted, referenced, and proofread, for the second draft.

It is reasonable to expect members of your Committee to:

It is not reasonable to expect members of your Committee to: