Artwork
Essay Guidelines for Humanities classes
All of your essays should follow these specific guidelines before you submit them:
1) Type and Double space your essay, so I can give you comments on improvement. If the assignment is not double spaced (either on paper or online), then -10% on the essay.
2) Make sure to proofread your essay and spell things correctly. Sometimes “Spell check” does not pick up certain words, so read your essay carefully before even submitting it. Likewise, you should proofread your essay carefully so that you have complete sentences, the proper subject / verb agreement, and also that you do not have any really confusing statements. Sometimes when people write essays, it sounds good and clear to whoever is writing it, but it may not be clear for someone else who is reading it. If there are many of these errors, then one could lose up to 15% on the assignment.
3) You may use the singular first person (basically: “I”) to describe your opinion, but not second person ( you, etc.), or the plural first person (we, our, or us) in your essays. (-1% for every “you,” “we,” “our,” or “us” not in a quoted statement from a source)
4) Develop a topic to discuss in your essay. ( If you want to call it a thesis statement, ok ). This means organize your thoughts well in a logical order while always staying on the topic. Basically, you want to state exactly what you are going to write in this essay, especially for the Long essay. (No thesis: -15%; a non-specific thesis: -10; and an almost specific thesis: between 3% and 5% off).
5) If you do any research, then you must cite from where you received your information. Use a “Works Cited” page to list your sources, or any citing technique you feel is relevant. If there is no Works Cited page, no grade will be assigned to the assignment until one is submitted.
6) For any of the topics for these two essays there are specific instructions to follow. You want to show that you are following the assignment listed. If you do not follow the assignment listed, there will be penalties according to the severity of missing the mark. These are listed as follows:
a) If there is only a minor discrepancy between what the essay says and the
assignment, one could lose up to 5% on the assignment.
b) If there are some (1-2) major differences between the assignment and the essay,
one could lose between 10-15% on the assignment.
c) If the essay has only a small amount of similarity to the assignment, then one could
lose between 20-30% on that assignment.
d) If you use an essay from another class (like a Composition class, etc.), the grade
will be a zero.
7) Plagiarism is not acceptable, and will result in a zero on any assignment. If you paraphrase, or just change words around, from the source and try to pass it off as your own words, then one will lose 50% off the grade. See “Tips for Essay Writing” for further details.
8) Use of Long Quotes: YOU MAY NOT USE MORE THAN 3 DIRECT QUOTES IN THE LONG ESSAY. If there are more than 3 long quotes, then 7% will be deducted for every quote over 3. See “Tips for Essay Writing” for further details.
9) Separate your ideas into paragraphs. If you only have one paragraph in your essay, 15% of the grade will be deducted off the top.
10) You need to have proof of attendance in order to receive a grade for this assignment. Please get a physical receipt and staple it to your essay, or if you submit your essay online, staple your receipt to a piece of paper with your name on it. A grade will not be assigned to the essay until the receipt/ticket is submitted.
In these essays, I do not want a list of facts with no personal attitude. I want to be able to hear your voice in this essay. For the essay, do not just copy and reword what someone else has already written. Read all the material you find, let it all set in to your head, then start writing your own words.
Submitting Essays: Essays and Outlines can be submitted electronically on Angel or on hard copy paper in class. ASSIGNMENTS ARE DUE AT THE BEGINNING OF CLASS TIME ON THE DAY THEY ARE LISTED DUE ON THE WEEKLY SCHEDULE. No late assignments will be accepted. If you bring in your essay to class, it needs to be submitted at the beginning of class. If you submit your essay on MyCourses, there will be a Drop-Box open under the Essay Guidelines. Once class begins on the day it is due, the Drop Box will close and you will not be able to submit your essay. DO NOT EMAIL YOUR ESSAYS, THEY WILL ONLY BE ACCEPTED IN THE DROP BOX.
If you send in your essay online, make sure that you send the correct one. If you send in your rough draft, the temporary file, or wrong essay, whichever essay is submitted that will be the one graded.
Also, if you submit your assignment on MyCourses, please save your essay with your last name, a dash, and the label of the assignment. For example, my submission would be saved as:
Moutsatsos-LongEssay.rtf
You should save your essay as a Rich Text Format document, that way there will be no problem in opening your essay. If you are using Open Office, you can still save as a Rich Text file. (.odt) files do not always open, so make sure you get the right formatting. Thank you for your cooperation on this, and you want to make sure all your hard work is counted.
Tips in Writing Essays with penalties: What is not considered proper essay writing
Here I will list out some examples of what I consider poor essay writing techniques. If you decide to utilize any of these poor techniques, your grade will suffer greatly.
For example, a popular misconception in essay writing is that a person can just reword what a source says and try to pass it off as his/her own words or ideas. If you were to have a source that read “..da Vinci’s “Last Supper”, while being an archetype of Idealism, still maintains an air of mysticism which is still debated over by scholars today,” and you wrote “While Leonardo da Vinci’s “Last Supper” is an excellent example of Idealism, it still has a mystical feeling that scholars still debate over,” then you are not really writing your own words. This technique is sometimes taught by instructors in middle school and even high school to help students to paraphrase other people’s ideas. This is not the goal of essay writing in this class . If you decide to do this throughout your essay with little or no attempt of writing your own words, the most credit you will receive for this essay is 50 % and further deductions will be taken from there, depending on the severity of this abuse. This kind of writing is still technically plagiarism.
You want to write your own words with virtually no resemblance to the source. Now, of course students will argue that it is difficult to write an essay on a subject once reading about it because the author of the source is such a good writer that there is almost no other way of wording it. I fully understand this, and likewise I am not expecting everyone to write an eloquent dissertation (beautiful essay), but I want you to write to your ability. You may quote the source directly, in quotation marks, and cited, because sometimes the author of the source says it perfectly, and only in that instance you may directly quote that author. YOU MAY NOT USE MORE THAN 3 DIRECT QUOTES IN THE LONG ESSAY (if there are more than 3 long quotes, then 7% will be deducted for every quote over 3). A long quote is any quote over one line long. You should not have to quote anyone in the Museum at all, but if you are going to, come and discuss it first. I want to see you all become better writers that can convey their own opinions, not just reword other people’s ideas.
Furthermore, if you plagiarize, or take something from a source directly and try to pass it off as your own thoughts, then you will receive a ZERO on the assignment.
Another concept that escapes most students in essay writing is the development of a focus, or thesis, statement(s) for the essay. You want to provide the reader with a statement somewhere in your introduction that tells the reader exactly what you will discuss in this essay, how you will discuss it, and why you are discussing it. If you give this statement and then follow it throughout the essay, then it will be organized and seem like a complete expression of your ideas. For example, this is a sample Focus/thesis: “In the following essay, I will show how the artist Raphael is the most talented painter of the Renaissance by first discussing his mastery of Renaissance techniques in the work ‘The School of Athens,’ and then by comparing this work to Leonardo da Vinci’s ‘Last Supper’ I will show Raphael’s superiority as an artist.” If a reader were to look at this statement, they would know exactly what I was going to attempt. As long as I stick to what I said in that Focus/thesis statement, then my essay will naturally be organized. Be clear in what you are trying to say as well. With this Focus stated, a person could disagree with what I am trying to accomplish in this essay, but they cannot argue that I was not organized. If you do not include a stated focus/thesis in this essay you will lose 15% of that grade immediately on the assignment. If your Focus is not that specific, but very general, you may lose up to 10 % of that grade, depending how general it is.
Other quick tips that will help you not lose points on the assignments:
1- Separate your ideas into paragraphs;
2- Be clear, not fancy. Do not try to out-talk yourself with too many fancy words that do not match the rest of your essay. Example: if you say something is bravura instead of magnificent. If the general vocabulary of your essay shows that you probably don’t know what the word “bravura” means, then you should not use it.
3- Be consistent. Like the last part about being clear, also keep the same tense throughout the essay. You will learn to write fancy in Comp class, I want you to learn how to organize and explain clearly.
There are many intricate details in essay writing, and it really is an art form. I also understand that not all students will become professional writers, but if you follow these tips, then you should see an improvement in your writing. Think of it as a job. If you follow directions, then you get paid. Try to pass off other people’s work as your own at a job, you get fired.
Museum Essay – During this semester, go to the Leepa Rattner Museum (or an approved museum), and then write a minimum1200-word essay about the Museum as it pertains to the prompt listed below. Online museum tours are not permitted, and if you try to pass an online experience off as the topic for this essay, the grade will be a zero. In composing your essay, the best results will come from strictly following the assignment:
1) Go to the Leepa Rattner Museum, or approved museum, and walk around looking at just the art works (Not the titles.)
a) First, select between 1 or 2 works of art to look at, follow the process (b-f) for each example fully. You will write on only one of these works for the final essay, but it is a good idea to prepare for 2 works because you may not have time to go back to the museum. In writing the essay, please focus on the process of this assignment fully and in order.
b) Next, do not look at the cards, titles, or explanations of the art and observe the artwork. Take notes on what you see. Look at all the details of the painting and record as much detail as you feel is necessary for the assignment. The more detail you provide, the easier this assignment will be. In writing the essay, please describe in an organized manner (at least 2 paragraphs) the details of the artwork. In doing this, please focus on the Elements of Formal Art Analysis, and any other concepts, we discussed in class in the Visual Arts unit.
c) Remember still to not look at the card and then ask yourself these questions while there in front of the artwork, “What is the art work showing, or is about?” and “What is the artist trying to accomplish by creating this artwork?” Since you have been asked for your opinion, there really is no wrong answer to these questions, so get in there and give your opinion about these works. In writing the essay, give two different explanations of what you think are the answers to these questions in detail. If you feel like you do not know the answers to these questions, still attempt to provide answers, because this is the point of this assignment. Respond with what makes logical sense to you in regards to these explanations. After discussing each explanation, s elect one of the two explanations in your essay as the best and most logical explanation.
d) Now look at the card of explanation next to the work and examine what is provided as an explanation. You may do some research in order to expand your understanding of the art work. In writing the essay, you should give a paragraph or two about this explanation, but don’t go overboard. Remember, you are not writing a report about these works of art, but rather you should be showing that you are focusing on this assignment. Also, just copying down what is on the card, or from a source, for a response is not permitted, make sure to write in your own words to avoid any plagiarism.
e) With the information on the card/research, analyze your explanation versus the researched information. Does this change what you think about the work? Does this new information weaken what you logically came up with? Also, there may not be an explanation, in which case the research you do will be crucial in helping to answer these questions. In writing your essay, give a paragraph that answers these questions and give an explanation to the piece that combines what you logically developed and what is in the card/research.
f) Finally ask yourself this question, “In my opinion, is the artist successful in what I found they tried to accomplish in this artwork?” This last point is not to make you feel like you are wrong, nor should you deny your opinions of what you’ve observed and discussed. Have faith in your opinion and feel free to think, and write, that you thought the artist was unsuccessful, if that is the case. In writing the essay, give a full paragraph for the response to this last question. Please do not just sum up with one line like this, “Yes, I think the artist was successful.” Give the support of how you arrived at your conclusion. Discuss your analysis, because that is the real point of this assignment.
***Understandably we are not all art scholars, however these are the same kinds of questions art scholars ask themselves in looking at artworks, especially those with no real explanation for it. You find this happening more with Modern art, which is what you find at the Leepa-Rattner Museum of Art. Basically, this is an exercise allowing you to interact with art, and you may surprise yourself with what you find. So have fun with this, and be as creative with your opinions as you like.***