ART111: Research, Critical Thinking and Writing Tips

I. Basic Writing Skills

Good writing demonstrates structure, coherence, and clarity. The basic formal elements you will need to master in your writing include: Grammar Syntax Usage Sentence and Paragraph Structure Concise and Logical Arguments

For more information see: CCCOnline Writing Guide: [Link] h_Writing The OWL Writing Lab at Purdue University [Link]

II. What is an Essay?

An essay is a common form of writing that is often used in college settings to help students develop their ideas on a particular subject. This class uses the Expository Essay format, which requires the student to investigate an idea, evaluate evidence, expound on the idea, and set forth an argument concerning that idea in a clear and concise manner. (Source: [Link]

III. How to Write an Expository Essay

Review Possible Topics o Review possible topics and select the top three that interest you o Do a quick brainstorm to think of the creative ways in which you might examine these topics Define Your Approach o Write notes about your general ideas for a thesis o Conduct research to solidify your approach Organize Your Ideas o Create an outline of how you plan to write the essay Write Your Thesis Statement o Thesis statements should reflect your original insights on the topic o Thesis statements should be thought-provoking and also based on factual evidence Write the Body o Write the main points and elaborate o The general rule is one discrete point per paragraph Write the Introduction and Conclusion o Review what you have written in the body of your essay and craft a compelling introduction and a concise summary for the conclusion

o For shorter essays, these may be only one to two sentences each. Create a citation page o Remember to site your work in the correct style. Your instructor will indicate what style you should use. Check your writing- Proofreading o Did you run Spell Check and Grammar Check? o Does the paper make logical sense? o Do the sentences flow smoothly from one another?

For ART111, you will be writing short essay answers to questions posed in the Discussion Forums and the Artist Perception writing assignments. And, while your answers are, typically limited to 150-400 words, you will still use the above method for essay writing. Your short essay answers will contain a thesis statement in the introduction paragraph, one-two paragraphs for the body of your work, and a short conclusion paragraph with two-three sentences. For more information see: UMUC Online Writing Guide [Link] CSU Writing Guides: [Link]

IV. What is Critical Thinking?

Critical thinking means that you are moving beyond the basic level of knowledge in a subject matter. In Art History, for example, basic level knowledge would be the ability to remember and identify specific art works, dates, time periods, artists or techniques. While this is important, and you do need to know these descriptive details, in this course, we will also be developing and using a higher level of thinking, referred to as critical thinking. Critical thinking is the result of considering a subject within a variety of contexts, including the social and economic climate, the personal life or psychology of the artist or designer, the formal artist approach and the meaning of the subject to you on an emotional level. (Section
provided by art history faculty, Deborah Kelly.)

Critical thinking requires you to go beyond: copying large blocks of text from your textbook or other sources repeating what your textbook author said on a subject without adding any of your own insights providing only basic descriptive information without providing any of the social or cultural context for an artwork providing short correct answers that read like a dictionary definition with no additional dimension

How can we begin to add dimension to our writing? (Section provided by art history faculty,
Deborah Kelley.)

There are several areas of emphasis you may choose to research when you are beginning to form your ideas. A great response will include correct, descriptive information, but it should

also present your subject as a response to a variety of other social forces. Generally, the social climates that exert influence on any given work of art include: culture, politics, economics, spiritual beliefs, scientific systems, material innovations, psychology, race and gender. You may think of more, but choosing one or more of these aspects to research will allow you to think about your topic in a multi-dimensional context. Lets look at an example Maya Lin is the designer of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial. When you use critical thinking, you are able to see her and her work as a multi-dimensional subject that was influenced by a variety of societal or personal pressures and inspirations. After using your critical thinking skills, you will discover a context within which this artist created and designed her art. Questions you might consider as you think about your approach: What was the Vietnam War all about? What was the climate in the US at that time the artist designed this work? What cultural influences might have led her to choose the design that she submitted? What was the significance of the material the artist used for this work? How did people respond intellectually and emotionally to her design? Was this design embraced and appreciated by the Vietnam veterans themselves? What are some of the roles that memorials play in a culture? How does Public Art function in relation to art in museums or galleries? What did you interpret the message of this work? Maya Lin is a female. How might the fact that she is female have influenced her perspective on the Vietnam War or the memorial that was to be produced?

As you use your critical thinking skills, you will begin to uncover how your subject was influenced by a number of dynamic forces; social, cultural and personal. Tell us about what youve discovered. Tell us something we dont already know.

V. How to Write about Art

There are many ways to write about art, including formal analysis, Iconographic analysis, stylistic analysis, sociological analysis, or biographical analysis of the artist, among others. In this class, you will be using several of the above methods when you write your essays: Formal analysis a discussion of the physical characteristics of an art work; including the materials, shape, form, color, texture, line, etc. Iconographic analysis- a study of the symbolic meaning Sociological/Contextual analysis an examination of art within a historical context of social, economic, political and religious influences Biographical analysis- a look at the artists life; including the emotional and psychological significance of the art work as part of the artists self-expression and lived experience.

To help you translate the different forms of analysis, use the DICP acronym: (Section
provided by art history faculty, Deborah Kelley.)

(1) Describe: Learning to appreciate works of art by writing about their exquisite material and elegant visual form. This is the physical description of the work. (2) Iconography: Researching the symbolism of works of art to better understand their cultural context. Iconographical symbols have specific meanings in different contexts and can signal another layer of narrative to the informed viewer. (3) Context: Learning the history of the culture helps you better understand the art. It is important to consider works of art within their proper historical context or cultural framework. This is where you consider the social, economic, political and religious influences on a work of art. (4) Personal: Taking into account that you, as viewer and researcher, project your own ideas into the work of art. You play a role in the writing of Art History, by asking, "What does this work mean to me, and what personal joy or curiosity does this work evoke?" You will also think about the personal aspects of the artists life. What was it like to live and make art during the artists time frame? There are two resources that are particularly helpful in writing about art. Many art history students refer to these books to hone their writing skills: Taylor, Joshua. Learning to Look: A Handbook for the Visual Arts. Chicago: U of Chicago, 1981. Barnet, Sylvan. A Short Guide to Writing about Art. New York: Harper Collins College, 1993.

Referring back to the structure of an essay, you will need to develop a concise thesis to frame your writing. Your thesis should state an original insight you have about a work of art, an artist, a culture or time period. It should invite the reader to discover a new way of understanding the topic in question. The thesis statement should be supported by research and factual evidence, presented in the body of your essay. Remember to put the artist's name/artists' names, the title(s) of the work(s) and the date (s) in the first paragraph. You can refer to the title(s) alone thereafter. If possible, try to include images of the work in question for reference. Be sure to properly cite your sources with a Works Cited page. (See more information below.) Use correct terminology; refer to the Glossary of Terms in the course e-Text for a comprehensive dictionary of art language.

For more information see: [Link] [Link]

VI. Research Tips The weekly writing assignments in ART111, (the Discussions and the Artist Perception essays) will require you to conduct research. The purpose of research is to expand your understanding of a subject and to provide evidence in support of your written arguments. One critical task in research is to assess the reliability of your sources. The internet can be a valuable source and it can also be overflowing with misleading information. For the purposes of this course, the online sources you may use with confidence are: EBSCOhost/Academic Search Premier Database via the CCCOnline Library- you will need to log in with your SID number Google Scholar- [Link] And the websites provided in the Instructor Notes pages in each Unit.

Note: For each Artist Perception assignment, you are required to use and correctly, cite, at least, three sources from the above list. For more information see: How to Conduct Research [Link] [Link] CCCOnline Research Toolkit [Link] h_Research

VII. Citations and Plagiarism

Plagiarism is the act of presenting someone elses work as your own. This is considered an act of academic dishonesty and is to be avoided at all costs. The simple way to avoid plagiarism is to be sure to share the origin of your information. This is known as citing the sources of your research. This course uses the MLA Style for writing and formatting research papers. The Purdue OWL writing center has detailed information and examples of how to use the MLA Style: MLA Style Overview: [Link] MLA Formatting Guidelines: [Link] MLA Works Cited: [Link] Your writing will be graded on the correct usage of MLA style, proper citations and an anti-plagiarism score. For more information see the Grading and Activities page in your D2L course.

VIII. Additional Tools

Dictionary ([Link])- to help with spelling and word usage Thesaurus ([Link])- to help you use an expanded vocabulary in your writing Microsoft Word- Use the Spell Check function to help you proofread your work before it is submitted. Use the Word Count tool to check the length of your work. Google Docs and Zoho Writer- free, open source word processing software to help you create your documents. Assessment Rubrics- you may find it helpful to review the grading rubrics for the Discussions and Artist Perception assignments located on the Grading and Activities page in your D2L course. Document Format- always save your files as either .pdf or .rtf files. These are universal file formats that can be read by most computer systems and devices.