Research paper.

Paper proposal: 1% of overall grade for course, due Friday, Oct. 2.

Your paper for this course will be based on your analysis of a single Chinese painting from the period 618–1368. I encourage you to come talk to me about possible paper topics. Your proposal should indicate which painting you intend to research.

Research worksheets and annotated bibliography: 4% of overall grade for course, due Friday, Oct. 23.

As soon as your paper topic is approved, you should start working on your research. In addition to looking for written discussions of the exact painting you have chosen, you may wish to do some reading about similar paintings, about the period and region, and about related materials (literature, philosophical texts, religious texts, etc.) to help with your analysis. I suggest that you consult WorldCat, JSTOR, the Bibliography of Asian Studies, and the Art Index (all online databases on the Library’s web page, http://library.hws.edu, under “Find a Database”). Note: for these online resources, you must be connected to the HWS campus network. For images, you should explore ARTstor (http://www.artstor.org/index.shtml) and some of the links available online (in Canvas, see the page titled Links and the module titled Asian Art Online).

Here are some elements that you may want to research (remembering that the absence of certain characteristics is sometimes important too):

• the formal elements, subject matter, and/or function of a painting;
• the identity, status, and circumstances of the artist and/or patron;
• where and when the painting was created;
• what the painting is made of (its medium);
• whether the painting is inscribed, and, if so, what the inscription says;
• what other paintings of the same time and place have in common with the one you are focusing on.

Keep track of your research using research worksheets, available on Canvas; please fill one out for each library database you consult for this paper, indicating your search terms and your results. You will need to turn in these worksheets.

Once you have completed your preliminary research, consider which sources you intend to use in your paper, and use them to create an annotated bibliography. For the annotated bibliography, you will need to give citation information for each source in the bibliographic format of the Chicago Manual of Style (see this page: http://www.chicagomanualofstyle.org/tools_citationguide.html), followed by a sentence or two explaining why the source is useful in understanding your topic. (Of course, it is fine to continue to look for sources after the annotated bibliography is due.)

As you decide which sources to include in your bibliography, it is important to consider their quality. Although looking for information on the internet is very convenient, personal or institutional web pages are not always subject to peer review in the same way as books and journal articles. Therefore, I expect the majority of your bibliography to consist of peer-reviewed books and journal articles (which can sometimes be found in online databases such as JSTOR). You should have five (5) art historical sources at a minimum (beyond the readings assigned for this class), but ideally, you would have more than five, and you would supplement these with appropriate readings on religion, philosophy, history, literature, anthropology, etc. (depending on what your topic is). Certainly, the more sources you have and the more academic they are the better: part of the point of doing a research paper is to demonstrate the amount and quality of research you did, and this is done through your research worksheets and bibliography.

Paper draft: 5% of overall grade for course, due Friday, Nov. 13.

As you read your sources, take notes, and start incorporating what you are learning into a draft of the research paper. The draft will be submitted for a grade, and you will receive comments from me that should help you to improve your final paper. I cannot guarantee that I will have time to give feedback on any drafts submitted after the deadline above. As you work on your draft, keep in mind that the final version of the paper should be about 1500–2100 words (roughly five to seven pages of text, not including images or bibliography).

If you have learned how to do formal analysis in a 100–level art history class, it would be appropriate to observe and discuss formal characteristics of the painting (e.g., its form or composition; qualities of line or color; texture; representation of space, mass or volume; the viewer’s vantage point; qualities of proportion or scale) as a way of explaining the artistic choices of the maker, the status of the owner, or the possible reactions of viewers. In addition, your research might suggest the following questions, some or all of which you should attempt to answer in your paper:

• how does the painting fit in its historical context?
• what is the intended function of the painting?
• does an inscription reveal anything about the circumstances of the painting’s creation, or the attitudes of the maker or viewers?

Develop a thesis and argument around which to organize your writing. You should explain your thesis in your introductory paragraph; present evidence that supports your thesis (such as your own observations or information that you find in your research) in the body paragraphs, with each paragraph focusing on one idea; and reiterate your argument briefly in a concluding paragraph.

Research paper: 20% of overall grade for course, due Wednesday, Dec. 2.

For the final version of the paper, I expect you to revise the draft as appropriate, incorporating any comments that I made on it.

If you need more information about how to write an art history research paper, or how to do formal analysis of art or architecture, I recommend looking at Sylvan Barnet’s A Short Guide to Writing about Art, a recommended book for this course. (The 2008 edition is also available in the reference section of the Library.) Be sure, in addition to including a bibliography at the end of your paper, to also cite your sources throughout your paper using either footnotes (preferred in humanities courses) or parenthetical references, according to the Chicago Manual of Style. Remember that bibliographic and note forms are different. If you have further questions about writing research papers, you might visit the HWS Writes website (http://www.hws.edu/academics/ctl/hws_writes.aspx).

Please consult the syllabus for instructions on formatting your work, avoiding plagiarism, submitting papers online, and grading.