Writing & Citing - Art - Research Guide - LSC-CyFair Library Guides at Lone Star College-Cyfair

Writing & Citation Guides

Pre-writing: Observations and Note-Taking

To assist you in the writing process for your Art or Art History assignments, use the chart below to categorize and take notes on some of the most common formal elements of art compositions. Use the questions to jumpstart your writing.

Composition

How are all the different components of the object or image arranged?
What do you notice first, and why?
How does the work lead you through the composition?
Is the composition symmetrical or asymmetrical? If asymmetrical, is the composition balanced in some way?
Do forms overlap, or do they seem to stack on top of each other?

Technique

Was the object or image built up by adding material, or was it created by carving away material?
What kind of paint or finish was added to the material?
Does the technique seem methodical or spontaneous? How so?

Color

What colors are present? How are the colors arranged?
Do the colors appear saturated or muted?
Are the colors warm or cool?
Do the colors complement one another or does one clash with the others?

Texture

Does the material have a physical texture? How would you describe it? What creates the texture?
Does the material simulate or imply texture in some way, even if on a flat surface? How so?

Line

Are contour lines present?
How would you describe the quality and direction of the lines (for example, heavy or thin, rough or smooth, short or long, horizontal, vertical, or diagonal)?
How do lines create movement or a sense of direction?
Are there any implied lines?
What are any figures depicted looking at or gesturing towards?

Scale

How large is the object overall? Is the size typical for this kind of object or for this kind of subject?
Are some components of the object larger than others?
For two-dimensional materials, how does scale affect the relationship between the objects represented? Are some objects smaller or larger than you might expect?
For two-dimensional materials, how is space suggested?

Material

What materials is the object or image made of?
How are those materials distributed (if there’s more than one)?
What effects do the juxtaposition of materials create?

Shape

Are the figures naturalistic or abstract?
Are the forms geometric or organic?
How do shapes repeat throughout the composition?
For figures, are the proportions distorted, elongated, or idealized?
What kinds of shapes are formed from the negative space?

Write & Cite

If you are unsure of which citation style to use for your assignment, review your syllabus, assignment guidelines, or ask your instructor.

CHICAGO Style- ONLINE Quick Guides

Purdue Owl Chicago NB Guide
Use this online quick guide to help with Notes and Bibliography style.
Chicago Documentation Quick Guide
Use this quick guide for citing/documenting in notes and bibliography style.
CMOS Libguide: Write & Cite Guide
Use this Library CMOS guide for formatting your paper and writing and citing in NB style.

MLA Style- ONLINE Quick Guides

Excelsior Owl MLA Guide
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MLA writing and citation guide from Excelsior Owl. This online guide is user-friendly and does not contain ads like Purdue Owl. Step-by-step paper formatting and citation guidelines are provided.
MLA Documentation Quick Guide
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MLA Documentation Guide is a downloadable handout from The Writing Center at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, provides examples of citations and bibliographies in MLA style.
MLA Website: Write & Cite Guide
This FAQ page from the Modern Language Association (MLA) links to citation and formatting questions and examples.

Writing Aids & Publication Manuals

MLA, Chicago, and APA manuals can be checked out for in-library use at the Library Reference Desk in the Learning Commons building. Some of the manuals are also available as Ebooks.

MLA Publication Manual & Style Guide

MLA Handbook by The Modern Language Association of America Relied on by generations of writers, the MLA Handbook is published by the Modern Language Association and is the only official, authorized book on MLA style. The new, ninth edition builds on the MLA's unique approach to documenting sources using a template of core elements?facts, common to most sources, like author, title, and publication date?that allows writers to cite any type of work, from books, e-books, and journal articles in databases to song lyrics, online images, social media posts, dissertations, and more. With this focus on source evaluation as the cornerstone of citation, MLA style promotes the skills of information and digital literacy so crucial today. The many new and updated chapters make this edition the comprehensive, go-to resource for writers of research papers, and anyone citing sources, from business writers, technical writers, and freelance writers and editors to student writers and the teachers and librarians working with them. Intended for a variety of classroom contexts?middle school, high school, and college courses in composition, communication, literature, language arts, film, media studies, digital humanities, and related fields?the ninth edition of the MLA Handbook offers ?New chapters on grammar, punctuation, capitalization, spelling, numbers, italics, abbreviations, and principles of inclusive language ?Guidelines on setting up research papers in MLA format with updated advice on headings, lists, and title pages for group project ?Revised, comprehensive, step-by-step instructions for creating a list of works cited in MLA format that are easier to learn and use than ever before ?A new appendix with hundreds of example works-cited-list entries by publication format, including websites, YouTube videos, interviews, and more ?Detailed examples of how to find publication information for a variety of sources ?Newly revised explanations of in-text citations, including comprehensive advice on how to cite multiple authors of a single work ?Detailed guidance on footnotes and endnotes ?Instructions on quoting, paraphrasing, summarizing, and avoiding plagiarism ?A sample essay in MLA format ?Annotated bibliography examples ?Numbered sections throughout for quick navigation ?Advanced tips for professional writers and scholars
ISBN: 9781603293518
Publication Date: 2021-04-22
The Elements of Style by William Strunk; E. White; William Strunk
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ISBN: 9780205309023
Publication Date: 1999-07-23
You know the authors' names. You recognize the title. You've probably used this book yourself. This is The Elements of Style, the classic style manual, now in a fourth edition. A new Foreword by Roger Angell reminds readers that the advice of Strunk & White is as valuable today as when it was first offered.This book's unique tone, wit and charm have conveyed the principles of English style to millions of readers. Use the fourth edition of "the little book" to make a big impact with writing.

Chicago Publication Manual & Guides

The Chicago Manual of Style, 17th Edition by The University The University of Chicago Press Editorial Staff Technologies may change, but the need for clear and accurate communication never goes out of style. That is why for more than one hundred years The Chicago Manual of Style has remained the definitive guide for anyone who works with words. In the seven years since the previous edition debuted, we have seen an extraordinary evolution in the way we create and share knowledge. This seventeenth edition of The Chicago Manual of Style has been prepared with an eye toward how we find, create, and cite information that readers are as likely to access from their pockets as from a bookshelf. It offers updated guidelines on electronic workflows and publication formats, tools for PDF annotation and citation management, web accessibility standards, and effective use of metadata, abstracts, and keywords. It recognizes the needs of those who are self-publishing or following open access or Creative Commons publishing models. The citation chapters reflect the ever-expanding universe of electronic sources--including social media posts and comments, private messages, and app content--and also offer updated guidelines on such issues as DOIs, time stamps, and e-book locators. Other improvements are independent of technological change. The chapter on grammar and usage includes an expanded glossary of problematic words and phrases and a new section on syntax as well as updated guidance on gender-neutral pronouns and bias-free language. Key sections on punctuation and basic citation style have been reorganized and clarified. To facilitate navigation, headings and paragraph titles have been revised and clarified throughout. And the bibliography has been updated and expanded to include the latest and best resources available. This edition continues to reflect expert insights gathered from Chicago's own staff and from an advisory board of publishing experts from across the profession. It also includes suggestions inspired by emails, calls, and even tweets from readers. No matter how much the means of communication change, The Chicago Manual of Style remains the ultimate resource for those who care about getting the details right.
ISBN: 9780226287058
Publication Date: 2017-09-05
A Manual for Writers of Research Papers, Theses, and Dissertations, Ninth Edition by Gregory G. Colomb (Revised by); Joseph M. Williams (Revised by); Joseph Bizup (Revised by); William T. FitzGerald (Revised by); The University The University of Chicago Press Editorial Staff (Revised by); Kate L. Turabian; Wayne C. Booth (Revised by) When Kate L. Turabian first put her famous guidelines to paper, she could hardly have imagined the world in which today's students would be conducting research. Yet while the ways in which we research and compose papers may have changed, the fundamentals remain the same: writers need to have a strong research question, construct an evidence-based argument, cite their sources, and structure their work in a logical way. A Manual for Writers of Research Papers, Theses, and Dissertations--also known as "Turabian"--remains one of the most popular books for writers because of its timeless focus on achieving these goals. This new edition filters decades of expertise into modern standards. While previous editions incorporated digital forms of research and writing, this edition goes even further to build information literacy, recognizing that most students will be doing their work largely or entirely online and on screens. Chapters include updated advice on finding, evaluating, and citing a wide range of digital sources and also recognize the evolving use of software for citation management, graphics, and paper format and submission. The ninth edition is fully aligned with the recently released Chicago Manual of Style, 17th edition, as well as with the latest edition of The Craft of Research. Teachers and users of the previous editions will recognize the familiar three-part structure. Part 1 covers every step of the research and writing process, including drafting and revising. Part 2 offers a comprehensive guide to Chicago's two methods of source citation: notes-bibliography and author-date. Part 3 gets into matters of editorial style and the correct way to present quotations and visual material.  A Manual for Writers also covers an issue familiar to writers of all levels: how to conquer the fear of tackling a major writing project. Through eight decades and millions of copies, A Manual for Writers has helped generations shape their ideas into compelling research papers. This new edition will continue to be the gold standard for college and graduate students in virtually all academic disciplines. Bestselling, trusted, and time-tested advice for writing research papers The best interpretation of Chicago style for higher education students and researchers Definitive, clear, and easy to read, with plenty of examples Shows how to compose a strong research question, construct an evidence-based argument, cite sources, and structure work in a logical way Essential for anyone interested in learning about research Everything any student or teacher needs to know concerning paper writing
ISBN: 9780226494425
Publication Date: 2018-04-16

Write About Art- Ebooks

Critical Terms for Art History, Second Edition by Robert S. Nelson (Editor); Richard Shiff (Editor) "Art" has always been contested terrain, whether the object in question is a medieval tapestry or Duchamp's Fountain. But questions about the categories of "art" and "art history" acquired increased urgency during the 1970s, when new developments in critical theory and other intellectual projects dramatically transformed the discipline. The first edition of Critical Terms for Art History both mapped and contributed to those transformations, offering a spirited reassessment of the field's methods and terminology. Art history as a field has kept pace with debates over globalization and other social and political issues in recent years, making a second edition of this book not just timely, but crucial. Like its predecessor, this new edition consists of essays that cover a wide variety of "loaded" terms in the history of art, from sign to meaning, ritual to commodity. Each essay explains and comments on a single term, discussing the issues the term raises and putting the term into practice as an interpretive framework for a specific work of art. For example, Richard Shiff discusses "Originality" in Vija Celmins's To Fix the Image in Memory, a work made of eleven pairs of stones, each consisting of one "original" stone and one painted bronze replica. In addition to the twenty-two original essays, this edition includes nine new ones--performance, style, memory/monument, body, beauty, ugliness, identity, visual culture/visual studies, and social history of art--as well as new introductory material. All help expand the book's scope while retaining its central goal of stimulating discussion of theoretical issues in art history and making that discussion accessible to both beginning students and senior scholars. Contributors: Mark Antliff, Nina Athanassoglou-Kallmyer, Stephen Bann, Homi K. Bhabha, Suzanne Preston Blier, Michael Camille, David Carrier, Craig Clunas, Whitney Davis, Jas Elsner, Ivan Gaskell, Ann Gibson, Charles Harrison, James D. Herbert, Amelia Jones, Wolfgang Kemp, Joseph Leo Koerner, Patricia Leighten, Paul Mattick Jr., Richard Meyer, W. J. T. Mitchell, Robert S. Nelson, Margaret Olin, William Pietz, Alex Potts, Donald Preziosi, Lisbet Rausing, Richard Shiff, Terry Smith, Kristine Stiles, David Summers, Paul Wood, James E. Young
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ISBN: 0226571661
Publication Date: 2003-04-01
A Short Guide to Writing about Art by Sylvan Barnet This best-selling text has guided tens of thousands of art students through the writing process. Students are shown how to analyze pictures (drawings, paintings, photographs), sculptures and architecture, and are prepared with the tools they need to present their ideas through effective writing.
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ISBN: 0205708250
Publication Date: 2010-01-03
Art, Research, Philosophy by Clive Cazeaux Art, Research, Philosophy explores the emergent field of artistic research: art produced as a contribution to knowledge. As a new subject, it raises several questions: What is art-as-research? Don't the requirements of research amount to an imposition on the artistic process that dilutes the power of art? How can something subjective become objective? What is the relationship between art and writing? Doesn't description always miss the particularity of the artwork? This is the first book-length study to show how ideas in philosophy can be applied to artistic research to answer its questions and to make proposals for its future. Clive Cazeaux argues that artistic research is an exciting development in the historical debate between aesthetics and the theory of knowledge. The book draws upon Kant, phenomenology and critical theory to show how the immediacies of art and experience are enmeshed in the structures that create knowledge. The power of art to act on these structures is illustrated through a series of studies that look closely at a number of contemporary artworks. This book will be ideal for postgraduate students and scholars of the visual and creative arts, aesthetics and art theory.
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ISBN: 9781138789777
Publication Date: 2017-04-13
Writing about Art by Henry Sayre This straightforward guide prepares students to describe, interpret, and write about works of art in meaningful and lasting terms. Designed as a supplement to Art History survey and period texts, this efficient book features a step-by-step approach to writing-from choosing a work to write about, to essay organization, to research techniques, to footnote form, to preparing the final essay. For beginners as well as more advanced students.
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ISBN: 9780205645787
Publication Date: 2008-07-10