● email it to your email
● use online document management/storage (i.e. UCSB U-Storage, Google Docs,
Dropbox and etc.)
● print it out (for a hard copy) to re-type it in case your computer crashes… Printing out
your paper is helpful for revising. Feel obligated to have your friends read your paper
before turn it in. Take advantage of Campus Leaning Assistance Service (CLAS:
805.893.3269) for revising and re-writing your paper (both content and grammar). Please
do NOT turn in your first draft as final draft!
Grades A+ (98-100), A (93-97), A- (90-92), B+ (87-89), A (83-86), B- (80-82), C+ (77-79), C
(73-76), C- (70-72), D+ (67-69), D (63-66), D- (60-62), F (59 and below)
Research Paper: Students self-select a topic in discussion with the professor that
engages/questions/furthers/enhances etc. a class topic AND develops their own practice as
an artist, historian, curator, writer or other cultural producer/critic etc.
The following assignments are meant to help you develop your final paper.
Working Thesis Statement and One-paragraph Description of your Paper Topic: 10 Points
DUE: 8/21
Annotated Bibliography: 20 Points DUE: 8/28
Follow Directions: How to Write an Annotated Bibliography
(This assignment is research for your final paper).
Annotated Bibliography
Sample Annotation
Lamott, Anne. Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life. Anchor Books, 1995.
Lamott’s book offers honest advice on the nature of a writing life, complete with its insecurities
and failures. Taking a humorous approach to the realities of being a writer, the chapters in
Lamott’s book are wry and anecdotal and offer advice on everything from plot development to
jealousy, from perfectionism to struggling with one’s own internal critic. In the process, Lamott
includes writing exercises designed to be both productive and fun.
Lamott offers sane advice for those struggling with the anxieties of writing, but her main project
seems to be offering the reader a reality check regarding writing, publishing, and struggling with
one’s own imperfect humanity in the process. Rather than a practical handbook to producing
and/or publishing, this text is indispensable because of its honest perspective, its down-to-earth
humor, and its encouraging approach.5
Chapters in this text could easily be included in the curriculum for a writing class. Several of the
chapters in Part 1 address the writing process and would serve to generate discussion on students’
own drafting and revising processes. Some of the writing exercises would also be appropriate for
generating classroom writing exercises. Students should find Lamott’s style both engaging and
enjoyable.
In the sample annotation above, the writer includes three paragraphs: a summary, an
evaluation of the text, and a reflection on its applicability to his/her own research,
respectively.
Critique Artworks: 20 Points DUE: 9/5
Follow Directions: How to Write a Visual Analysis
(This assignment is research for your final paper. Select a minimum of three artworks Think
about these works as examples to develop your argument).
How to Critique an Artwork:
Description
Describe the work without using value words such as “beautiful” or “ugly”:
• What is the written description on the label or in the program about the work?
• What is the title and who is (are) the artist(s)?
• When and where was the work created?
• Describe the elements of the work (i.e., line movement, light, space).
• Describe the technical qualities of the work (i.e., tools, materials, instruments).
• Describe the subject matter. What is it all about? Are there recognizable images?
Analysis
Describe how the work is organized as a complete composition:
• How is the work constructed or planned (i.e., acts, movements, lines)?
• Identify some of the similarities throughout the work (i.e., repetition of lines, two songs in each
act).
• Identify some of the points of emphasis in the work (i.e., specific scene, figure, movement).
• If the work has subjects or characters, what are the relationships between or among them?
Interpretation
Describe how the work makes you think or feel:
• Describe the expressive qualities you find in the work. What expressive language would you
use to describe the qualities (i.e., tragic, ugly, funny)?
• Does the work remind you of other things you have experienced (i.e., analogy or metaphor)?
• How does the work relate to other ideas or events in the world and/or in your other studies?
Judgment or Evaluation
Present your opinion of the work’s success or failure: