Research Paper (due Friday, Dec. 15, 7:00pm).

Your paper for this course will give you an opportunity to take some of the ideas that we will be talking about in class and explore them in greater depth. My only requirements are that you consider connections between landscape and art in Asia. You might choose to focus on a specific work of art, a specific genre of landscapes or gardens, or the similarities/differences of approaches to landscapes and gardens in China/Japan, Asia/Europe, etc. I encourage you to come talk to me about possible paper topics. (Note that you should turn in a proposal for your topic on Wednesday, Oct. 18, and that you should turn in an annotated bibliography of your sources on Monday, Nov. 6. These will not be graded per se, but I will look them over and give you my comments, and not turning them in means losing points on the final paper.)

For the research stage of the project, I suggest that you consult the Art Index, the Bibliography of Asian Studies Online, and JSTOR (online databases on the Library's web page, under "Find Articles"). Note: for all of these online resources, you must be connected to the HWS campus network. Don't overlook the books on reserve for our course at the Library (not only their contents but also their bibliographies).

The paper should be about 3000-4500 words (roughly 10-15 pages).

Develop a thesis or an argument around which to organize your writing. (Note: this should not be a vague, inflated claim such as "This painting exemplifies the beauty and grandeur of Chinese art.") Pay attention to your language: please avoid judgmental words like "good" or "bad," as well as overused adjectives like "nice" and "interesting." Please refer to the notes in your syllabus about appropriate formats for written work, grading, and plagiarism.

Pay attention to your sources. Although looking for information on the internet is very convenient, internet sources are not always subject to peer review in the same way as books and journal articles. For this reason, I expect the majority of your bibliography to consist of books and journal articles. Although I cannot stipulate how many sources I expect to see, certainly the more 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 bibliography. Be sure, in addition to including a bibliography, to also cite your sources throughout your paper using either footnotes (preferred in humanities courses) or parenthetical references: see A Pocket Style Manual for details on how to do this.

If you need more information about how to write an art history paper, I recommend looking at Sylvan Barnet's A Short Guide to Writing about Art. (The 1985 edition is in the reference section of the Library; the 2005 edition is available for sale in the College Store as a recommended text for this class.) If you have further questions about writing response papers, you might visit the HWS Writes website.