Analysis + research paper.

Your second paper for this course will be based on your analysis of and research on a single work of art from any period of Asian history and in any medium. I recommend finding works of Asian art online at one of the following websites:

• “Search the Collection | Filter by Geographic Location | Asia,” Metropolitan Museum of Art, https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search?showOnly=highlights%7CwithImage&pageSize=0&sortBy=Relevance&sortOrder=asc&searchField=All&geolocation=Asia
• “Collections Areas,” National Museum of Asian Art, https://asia.si.edu/explore-art-culture/collections/collections-areas/ (make sure to click on the links for Arts of the Islamic World, Chinese Art, Japanese Art, Korean Art, South Asian & Himalayan Art, or Southeast Asian Art)
• “Art of Asia,” Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, https://www.mfa.org/collections/asia (make sure to click on the links at the bottom of the page for Japanese Collection Highlights, Japanese Prints, Chinese Collection Highlights, Wan-go H. C. Weng Collection, Korean Collection Highlights, Islamic Collection Highlights, or South and Southeast Asian Collection Highlights)

(You can of course choose a work of Asian art from a different museum, but please discuss your choice with me in that case.)

This paper combines formal analysis and research, which is a common combination in art historical papers. The finished paper should be about 900–1500 words long (roughly 3–5 pages), but it is due in four parts, two of which are drafts that you will need to meet with Writing Colleague Ingrid Miller about before submitting the final paper.

Paper proposal (due Thursday, Mar. 28): Choose one work of art to focus on. You should be able to provide the following pieces of information about it: the artist and/or site that it is from, title or function, culture and/or country of origin, and date. If you do not have information on at least three of these identifying characteristics, you should choose a different work of art.

Your proposal should be no longer than one paragraph. It must indicate which work of art you intend to research; it would also be helpful to know what aspect(s) of it you plan to research, but that is optional. I encourage you to discuss possible topics with me.

As soon as your topic is approved, I recommend starting work on your analysis (which is necessary for the first draft) and your research (which is necessary for the second draft).

First draft, due Thursday, Apr. 4 to Ingrid Miller via e-mail: Write a thorough description and analysis of the work of art. Don’t forget to record any information provided at the website where you found the image, and make sure to cite it using Chicago-style citation. Then, write up your findings, making sure to identify the work of art with artist or site, title, culture, date, and its current (museum) location at the beginning of the paper. This draft should be about 600–900 words (roughly 2–3 pages). Please also turn in a picture of the work of art you have chosen with all drafts of your paper. If you cannot download the picture(s) you were working from, take a screenshot and paste it into your document! Otherwise, you can insert digital images into a Microsoft Word document using the Insert | Pictures function.

Wherever possible, you should use the vocabulary for formal characteristics of art in this part of the paper. You should write about any of the following elements that you see as important to the work of art you have chosen:

• media or materials;
• composition or form;
• proportion and/or scale;
• quality of color and/or line, or surface treatment;
• space/mass/volume, or the representation of it; and
• the perspective or vantage point of the viewer.

Second draft, due Thursday, Apr. 18 to Ingrid Miller via e-mail: Take the analysis you wrote for the first draft and start to revise it in order to include your research on the object. Make sure that you cite your sources both in the body of the paper and at the end of the paper, not only for direct quotations but also for information that you rewrite in your own words. Your research will likely provide you with insight into aspects of the work of art that you wouldn’t know simply by looking at it, or it will confirm the ideas you came up with in your analysis. Here are some elements that you may want to research:

• the form, subject matter, and/or function of a work of art;
• the identity, status, and circumstances of the artist and/or patron;
• the site where your work of art was found;
• how and why the work of art was created;
• what the work of art is made of (its medium);
• what other objects of the same time and place have in common with the one you are focusing on.

For information on how to do research, please consult Selected library resources. 

How this could work (some sample scenarios):

1. Perhaps you chose to focus on a portrait and you have an idea about what the artist wants to convey about that person; you could do research on the sitter and artist to see if your intuitions are correct and to fill in some background information about the portrait.
2. Perhaps you chose a religious object and you want to know how it was used; you could do research into that type of object and try to find out more about its function.
3. Perhaps you are particularly interested in the artistic practice represented by the work of art you have chosen; you could do research on the artist or the group of artists that the artist belongs to, and you could do research into similar types of objects to see how yours might fit in or stand out.
4. Perhaps you are curious about the subject matter of your work of art; you could do research on the subject matter and use it to explain what it reveals about the culture or what it might mean.
5. Perhaps what you are most interested in is the medium of your work of art; you could do research into that medium to find out more about it (where it is from, how it was used, who would typically use it) and use that information to explain more about your object.
6. Perhaps you are most interested in the site that your object is from; you could do research into the site and try to reconstruct where your object would have been found.

The list above is not exhaustive, and any of the avenues of research mentioned above could also lead you in unexpected directions. Asian art history does present some difficulties in research, however, at least in English. You should not be discouraged if you can find no writing on the specific work of art you have chosen. Everyone will need to do research on things like the artist or site, subject matter, medium, format, historical period, cultural context, and so on; this is how art historians come up with something to say about a work of art that has never been written about previously.

Once you have come up with some ideas about what is going on in your work of art, you should present your evidence for those ideas. The evidence should come from both your formal analysis and your research. (It is possible that your research will make you rethink your analysis; that is normal.) Develop a culturally and historically specific thesis that explains your work of art and organize your paper around it: introduce the thesis in the first paragraph, make sure that all body paragraphs are presenting evidence for the thesis, and conclude your paper by restating your thesis in the final paragraph. Your draft at this point should have grown by another 300–600 words, making it roughly 900–1500 words or 3–5 pages altogether. It is not necessary or even desirable to keep the first and second drafts separate; ideally, the writing you do for the second draft should be integrated into your first draft.

Final draft, Thursday, May 2 via Canvas: Revise your second draft as necessary, incorporating any suggestions that other readers or I made on earlier drafts. (It is possible that your second draft will not need further revision and can be resubmitted as the final draft.) The final draft should include an introductory paragraph with a thesis that explains some aspect of the work of art, multiple body paragraphs (with clear topic sentences) that each focus on a single idea that supports your argument, and a concluding paragraph that reiterates your thesis and your findings. If there is evidence that directly contradicts your ideas, you will need to rethink your ideas and revise your paper accordingly. You should eliminate any writing that does not clearly relate to your argument from the final draft. If you have further questions about writing papers, you might visit the Center for Teaching and Learning.*

Format for written work:
Please follow these guidelines when you write your papers.

1. Type all work in a 12-point font.
2. Double-space.
3. Leave one-inch margins on all sides.
4. Number your pages.
5. Put your name and the date on the first page.
6. Check that your spelling, grammar and punctuation are correct—these are crucial to effective communication of your ideas. Your grade will drop if you have excessive errors. A Short Guide to Writing about Art has a helpful chapter titled “Manuscript Form.” Read it.
7. 7. If you cite another source, you must use a.) parenthetical references or footnotes, and b.) a list of works cited, as explained in The Chicago Manual of Style (https://www.chicagomanualofstyle.org/tools_citationguide.html), the citation style typically used by art historians. (See A note about cheating and plagiarism below.) This citation style is explained in A Short Guide to Writing about Art.
8. Include pictures with captions if appropriate.

You can submit written work via Canvas. Please upload a Microsoft Word document (.doc, .docx) or a PDF file (.pdf): these are the only formats that Canvas will accept. Alternatively, you can turn in a stapled hard copy during the class period. PLEASE NOTE:  I do not accept papers via e-mail.

A note about cheating and plagiarism:
I will not tolerate any form of academic dishonesty. It destroys the trust that I have in you to do your best, it is unfair to the other students, and obviously you will not learn anything if you resort to cheating. If I find that you have cheated or plagiarized on a test or on a written assignment, you will receive a zero for the assignment and I will contact the Deans and/or the Committee on Standards about your case. If a case goes to the Committee on Standards, I follow the Committee's recommendation; if it also finds evidence of cheating or plagiarism, the recommendation is usually failure of the course at a minimum.

In accordance with the Colleges’ Academic Policies (https://www.hws.edu/catalogue/academic-policies.aspx) and the Handbook of Community Standards (https://www.hws.edu/offices/campus-life/pdf/community_standards.pdf#search=community%20standards), pp. 9–10, 41–42, I define cheating as giving or receiving assistance on any assignment for this course, including all papers and tests, except as directly authorized by me. The Colleges define plagiarism as “the presentation or reproduction of ideas, words, or statements of another person as one’s own, without due acknowledgment.” In application, this means that in any written assignment, you need to cite your sources. When quoting directly from a text—say, five words or more in succession—you need to put those words in quotation marks and include a parenthetical reference or footnote citing the source. When rewriting a passage from a text in your own words, or including information from a text in your paper, you don’t need the quotation marks but you do still need the parenthetical reference or footnote. In addition, all sources that you cite need to be included in a list of works cited at the end of the assignment. If you don’t understand exactly what constitutes plagiarism, or how to use parenthetical references or footnotes, please ask me. I would prefer to explain what it is and how to avoid it before it happens rather than after.