Basic Do’s
(Adopted from Columbia University Art History Department)
1. Build your argument around visual analysis and make the close reading of artworks a centerpiece of your paper. Articulate how techniques, materials, form, subject, etc., function in a given artwork, and explain how these factors contribute to the work’s production of meaning.
2. Contextualize the artworks you are discussing. As you all know, the conditions in which works of art are seen, made, commissioned, and used are as diverse and fluid as how they are made or what they look like – and these two aspects are almost always closely related. You must situate the artworks you discuss within a specific context of use, belief, or exchange, relating them to contemporaneous texts, events or ideas whenever possible.
3. Think critically. Don’t simply regurgitate what you’ve read or heard, and don’t be too timid to venture you opinions or the offer insights that you have not encountered in the literature. This does not mean that you can offer random or unsubstantiated arguments, or that it is sufficient to say “this is my opinion” – you must always substantiate your argument with visual, historical, and textual evidence. But it does mean that you should look at, think and write about artworks creatively. Remember, critical thinking is one of the things that separates a merely satisfactory paper from an outstanding one.
These "Writing Do's and Dont's" guidelines are borrowed from the freshman art history survey course at Columbia University/Barnard.
Some Basic Dont's
1. Don’t allow silly mistakes to affect your grade – you can be sure that errors in spelling, grammar and syntax will result in a lower mark. This is especially true of basic things like the spelling of artist’s names.
2. Don’t turn in your first draft. Re-read your paper before turning it in, preferably out loud, to ensure that your argument is clear, concise, and effective. If something sounds ambiguous, confusing, or unconvincing as you re-read, take the time to revise or re-word it. If you are not convinced, how can your reader be?
3. Don’t quote, re-phrase, or recycle information or ideas from another text without citing your source. Neglecting to do so is plagiarism, a serious academic infraction. Additionally, whether you cite a text in a footnote or list of sources, you need to provide the following information: the author’s name, the title of the text, the date and place of publication, the publisher and page number(s) from which information was drawn. This also includes information found on the internet – and should include the exact place on the site that the information was found.
More Don’ts
1. Don’t simply describe works of art instead of making an argument about them. If you’re not sure what the distinction between description and analysis is, here’s a hint. Anything that is simply listed or pointed out – say, particular colors or details of dress – without an explanation of its relevance to your argument, interest or significance is description. Providing your reader with a neutral inventory of the contents of an artwork (especially of things that she can see for herself) is pointless, dull, and wastes valuable space. Always ask yourself: is this information essential to an important point or to my larger argument?
2. Don’t use broad historical or stylistic terms as an interpretive short-hand or as substitutes for carefully articulating the specific qualities, messages, techniques, or ideologies of works of art. For example, don’t simply denominate a work as “modernist” Rather, indicate what you mean by such a term and what it is about a work of art that makes you describe it so.
3. Don’t use empty or relative terms like “beautiful,” “masterpiece,” etc. These terms are not universal: their meanings are determined by the contexts in which they are used, and by the people who use them. Thus, on an obvious level, you and I might have very different ideas about what is beautiful or what constitutes a masterpiece. Even more importantly, words like this (and their cousins, words like “realistic,” “natural,” “perfect,” etc.) don’t really say anything in and of themselves. You should either avoid them or use them only if you substantiate them as your own (or others) well founded opinions.
4. Don’t recycle broad (and ultimately meaningless) generalizations about the significance of certain colors, symbols, or figures. If you think that white is universally a symbol of purity and goodness, you’re wrong. If you want to propose that white has this meaning in a particular painting given its relationship to a text, historical context, or other elements of the work, good; but remember that such assertions about isolated fragments of a painting’s iconography or symbolism only scratch the surface of a work’s ability to signify as a whole.