Students want to learn to write well. They would like a painless path to becoming good writers, but that's impossible.

Every time you try to learn a new and different writing style, the pain begins anew. The NAU Anthropology faculty wants students to master clear, concise, social science writing. Social science writing differs from poetry, journalism, or writing for engineers. We know students have to suffer to become good social science writers. To help you along, we promise to give you many instruments of self-torture. Some of you have asked for writing samples we think fit our definition of "good."

Some examples of good student writing appear below.

• Candace Lewis, Ceramic Analysis and Typology

Watch this space for more examples, and for links to examples of good writing by professional archaeologists.

For now, we suggest you look up: Matthew Johnson, Archaeological Theory: An Introduction, anything by Kent Flannery, Watson Smith, Christopher Chippindale, and Warren DeBoer.

And try this: Dr. Stephanie Whittlesey's discussant comments on a recent Arizona Archaeological Council symposium on the so-called Hohokam Northern Periphery. This piece appears as submitted to me, the volume editor. I found Dr. Whittlesey's writing clear, concise, engaging, and to the point. She wastes no words, and communicates her meaning forcefully. Of about a dozen papers submitted to the volume, this one stood out to me as the best writing. Our technical editor had the fewest corrections for this one.