Editing Otherwise: Fresh Approaches to Stories and Settings

Anthropologists use vignettes to tell stories about other people, but they aren't usually trained in the mechanics of how a first-person point of view works. This blog post explains the basics, so anthropologists can make informed decisions about which kind of first-person point of view is the best fit for a given project. What is POV? Point of view (POV) is the mode in which a story is told. The basic choice is between a first-person point of view (an "I" perspective) and a

I used to work as a cultural anthropologist, first in the UK, and then in Serbia, Croatia, and Germany in that order. Before I became a...

When writing in English, you have two main tenses you can use: present tense and past tense. The present tense in academic writing Some scholars have argued against the use of the present tense when citing other scholars, suggesting it implies all the different voices could have a conversation outside of time, when in fact all their observations and opinions should be placed in a relevant historical and social context. So instead of: "Judith Butler claims ..." They would argu

This post discusses: certain common situations when italics are used the debate over when to use italics for non-English words in fiction common reasons why cultural anthropologists italicise non-English words Editing and language change One of the most exciting things about working as an editor is observing language change firsthand. Language and society are closely linked. And many of the changes that have taken place in recent years (including new style guide recommendatio