Apply cultural relativism in order to examine misconceptions about culture that may occur due to ethnocentrism.

Final Research Paper

[WLO: 3] [CLOs: 1, 3, 4, 5]

Prior to beginning work on this assignment, please review your feedback from the Week 3 Assignment: Summarize Your Sources for the Final Research Paper. Make sure that your instructor approved of the sources you chose for the final paper and your working thesis statement. Make any changes that your instructor requested prior to beginning work on the final paper.

For help in completing this assignment, see the Tutorial for the Week Five Final Paper,  (Links to an external site.)which will walk you through how to successfully complete the Final Research Paper.

• See this sample paper for an overview of what should be covered in each part of the paper.
• See the ANT101 Final Paper Checklist for a list of requirements for each part of the paper.

If you’d like to see a bigger version of this tutorial, please click here (Links to an external site.).

In the Final Research Paper, you will

• Describe an aspect of your own culture from an etic (outsider’s) perspective in Part I of the paper.
• Describe an aspect of another culture from an emic (insider’s) perspective in Part II of the paper.
• Apply cultural relativism in order to examine misconceptions about culture that may occur due to ethnocentrism.
  • Keep the distinction between cultural relativism and moral relativism in mind as you write your final paper.
  • Even if you do not personally agree with a cultural practice, explain how the practice makes sense in its cultural context.
  • Avoid opinionated or judgmental language in your paper.
• Analyze your chosen aspect in terms of how it developed as part of a social system within both your culture and another culture.
• Analyze your chosen aspect in terms of its purpose as part of a social system both within your own culture and another culture.

The Final Research Paper

• Must be five to six double-spaced pages in length (excluding title page and references page, meaning it will be seven to eight pages total), and formatted according to APA style as outlined in the Ashford Writing Center’s APA Style (Links to an external site.).
• Must include a separate title page with the following:
  • Title of paper
  • Student’s name
  • Course name and number
  • Instructor’s name
  • Date submitted
    • For further assistance with the formatting and the title page, refer to APA Formatting for Word 2013 (Links to an external site.).
• Must utilize academic voice. See the Academic Voice (Links to an external site.) resource for additional guidance.
• Must include an introduction and conclusion paragraph. Your introduction paragraph needs to end with a clear thesis statement that indicates the purpose of your paper.
  • For assistance on writing Introductions & Conclusions (Links to an external site.) as well as Writing a Thesis Statement (Links to an external site.), refer to the Ashford Writing Center resources.
• Must include at least one full-text scholarly resource ideally from the Ashford University Library in addition to the textbook, the Miner article, and the article chosen from the List of Topics (Links to an external site.) in Part II of the Week 3 assignment.
  • The Scholarly, Peer Reviewed, and Other Credible Sources (Links to an external site.) table offers additional guidance on appropriate source types. If you have questions about whether a specific source is appropriate for this assignment, please contact your instructor. Your instructor has the final say about the appropriateness of a specific source for a particular assignment.
• Must document any information used from sources in APA style as outlined in the Ashford Writing Center’s Citing Within Your Paper (Links to an external site.)
• Must include a separate references page that is formatted according to APA style as outlined in the Ashford Writing Center. See the Formatting Your References List (Links to an external site.) resource in the Ashford Writing Center for specifications.

Helpful Tips:

• Submit your paper to Grammarly (Links to an external site.) to check for spelling and grammatical errors.
• To avoid potential errors in acknowledging your sources, run your paper through Turnitin (review Using (Links to an external site.) Turnitin Through Waypoint (Links to an external site.)) to check for any problems.
  • Review how to interpret a Turnitin report starting on page nine of Turnitin: For Students: A Guide for (Links to an external site.) Using & Understanding This Resource. (Links to an external site.)
  • To correct any mistakes, review the Ashford Writing Center’s guide to quoting, paraphrasing, and summarizing (Links to an external site.).

In this class, you have three tutoring services available: Paper Review, Live Chat, and Tutor E-mail. Click on the Ashford Writing Center (AWC) tab in the left-navigation menu to learn more about these tutoring options and how to get help with your writing.