Illness Narrative

Blog Post #6: Final Illness Narrative paper is due (50 points)

This is a two-part submission: an excerpt of your main findings on the blog and the final paper attached through the assignments tab.

First, put an excerpt (not an attached document) of the main findings on the blog. The reader should know, in a couple of sentences, what your project was about, the most important thing that you learned, and your conclusion. Again, do not cut and paste your document into the blog or attach the full document. I will not review it.

Second, submit the final paper as a Word document through the Assignments tab. Not as a pdf, rtf, Google docs. Make sure to use the APA style guidelines. If you don’t know what this is, research it. Every source, image, map, picture has to be properly cited using APA guidelines.

Your paper should be no more than 10 pages. This paper will tell the story of the person you interviewed. Note that this is not a verbatim transcript of the interviews, nor should it include bulleted lists, or the questions that you asked and the answers that people gave (not a Q&A format). Instead, look to the materials that we read and discussed this semester for examples of how to present the information in a readable format. It is your job to weave what you heard during the interview(s) into an informative paper on the topic.

Your paper should include:

· A good title that corresponds to the finished project. The title informs the reader about what’s coming. People often like to come up with catchy titles but often they convey nothing about the topic of the paper. This is not a good title. Use a colon after the catchy part of the title to convey actual information.

· Introduction: What illness did you study? Who was your informant? Give the reader a sense of what’s coming and what you found (but you will discuss things in greater detail in the background section and your findings in greater detail in the analysis). Do not assume the reader knows anything from the previous blogs.

· Methodology section: This explains how the work was actually conducted. This may differ from the plan, which was a future-looking document. You may say, “Originally I had planned to interview so and so twice about XYZ activities but in the end we spoke four times about ABC” and discuss the divergence in plans (why, what happened?).

· Background section: Here is where you provide additional context about the person and the topic. Information about your person comes from the interviews and demographic information you asked about. The reader wants to know who is this person (to you, in their own social circle), age, sex/gender, work history, life history, family information, and other details as you and the informant deem important and/or suitable. From where is your key informant? You may want to include a map of the country of origin if relevant as well as any other relevant images, making sure to appropriately label and cite any images you include. You previously found at least 1 academic anthropological source, from JSTOR or a comparable academic research source, on the topic. This informs the background section

· Findings: This is where you’re going to share your data – your findings. Your goal is to critically, objectively, and ethically present the information you have gathered through the interview (s). Make sure to revise this section from the plan so that it includes information from the actual interview.

· Analysis: What do you make of all this? This is where you interpret your findings using your medical anthropology perspective. You are explaining it to the reader. You back your analysis with references to your research articles and materials. I am expecting to see in your analysis that you know the difference between illness and disease, that you know what an illness narrative is, and your paper exemplifies both the discipline of medical anthropology and the technique of illness narrative. Make relevant links to what we’ve learned in class or contemporary events.

· Conclusion: Recap in a sentence or two the main points from the project, provide an original insight or critique, reflect on what you learned from your informant.

· References: These should be in bibliographic form at the end of the document. Check the Style Guidelines under Course Information > Writing. This course uses APA style.