Introduce the topic of your paper by establishing a context that describes for the reader the contribution you hope to make. The Anthropology Department at Harvard University calls this "entering the conversation," cautioning that the introduction should be more than a simple statement of your research topic. For example, an anthropological study of a city's punk rock scene should describe the characteristics that separate punk from other musical subcultures, drawing from the work of other studies, if possible.
Use the work of other scholars and researchers to further illuminate your own work. Harvard's guide notes that anthropologists often adapt terms from other disciplines and frameworks, a practice it calls "borrowing and extending." To use the punk rock example described in Step 1, you can offer a brief explanation of a previous researcher's approach, then describe how you will apply it to your paper.
Establish yourself as a credible authority on your topic by describing your own observations, drawn from field research. Most anthropological work involves ethnography, in which researchers become a part of the culture or subjects they study, observing them in their natural setting and even participating in their daily lives and rituals. Describe patterns in the actions, behaviors and lives of your subjects. Harvard's Anthropology Department advises even describing your own preconceived notions about your subject and how your field research affected them.
Enhance your reader's understanding of a topic by discussing previous understandings and pointing out any weaknesses in them. This means not only offering a written critique of previous studies but also challenging commonly held assumptions, according to Harvard.
Complete your paper with a concluding section that summarizes the work and establishes its significance. Substantiate your conclusions with facts, quotes and other evidence from your field research. Harvard also advises qualifying your paper by acknowledging the limits of your claims. The university cautions that qualifications are not "copouts" but efforts that define the scope of the paper and guard against misinterpretations.