W.R.I.T.E.

I. CHOOSE YOUR TOPIC

A. THE TOPIC SHOULD BE ONE YOU ARE INTERESTED IN AND ONE ON WHICH YOU HAVE SOME OPINIONS YOURSELF.

• 1. Research is an important part of your preparation in terms of acquainting you with the ideas of historians, critics, and artists, but the paper should not be a mere resume of others' ideas.
• 2. The paper should present your own views and their bases.

B. CHOOSE YOUR TOPIC CAREFULLY: SOME SUBJECTS ARE DEAD ENDS.
• 1. Avoid subjects for which little or no literature exists.
• 2. Avoid subjects for which all problems have already been settled.
• 3. Subjects about which there is a great deal of disagreement will usually allow you to come up with your own arguments and will give you the opportunity to try to prove or disprove the points of others.

C. CONFER WITH YOUR INSTRUCTOR.

• 1. Your instructor will be able to advise you of the profitability of a topic.
• 2. He or she may know if a number of others are already researching a specific topic and thus help you avoid a rush on material in the library.
• 3. He or she will be able to direct you to a few resources to begin developing an adequate bibliography.

II. RESEARCH

A. EXPLORING LIBRARIES

• 1. The UF Libraries' catalog will help you find books and other resources found in any of the nine libraries spread across campus.
• 2. The UF Libraries' catalog can be used to conduct searches for TITLE, AUTHOR, or SUBJECT. These must be entered correctly, or the system will not recognize your entry.
  • a. Author searches: If you are unsuccessful in an Author search, there may be alternate spellings of the name. Try another variation.
  • b. Title searches: On Title searches, leave off the articles "the," "an," and "a."
  • c. Subject searches: Subject searches can be confusing. You cannot assume that the subject that seems logical to you is the one used by the online catalog. First of all, consult the Library of Congress Subject Headings for possible headings. Then be creative. Find a source you are sure is about your topic and which you know is in the library. Look it up on in the UF Libraries' catalog. See what subject headings are listed under it. Then call up those headings to see if you find other sources. Likewise, look at the subject headings for those sources. In other words, this is a detective game. One thing leads to another.
• 3. You can also get into the holdings of other SUS libraries as well. Simply click on one of the other university's catalogs or use the Union Index at the bottom of the page. This can be helpful if you don't have time to get something on Interlibrary Loan and you might be going out of town near one of the other universities that owns something you need.
• 4. Don't limit yourself to just one topic heading--be exploratory. Look under various sub-headings. For example, the headings Monet, French Painting, Nineteenth Century Painting, Impressionism, Color Theory, etc. will all lead to material about artist Claude Monet.
• 5. Always feel free to ask or email a reference librarian for help.
• 6. Use specialized online databases such as Art Full Text and Bibliography of the History of Art (BHA) by accessing the Architecture and Fine Arts Library home page and use the drop-down menu for Databases. These are key resources for finding citations to journals and articles. If you are using any of the specialized databases from off-campus, you may need to set up your computer for remote access.
• 7. Again, be inventive when looking up headings; don't limit yourself to one or two.
• 8. Don't limit yourself to just the Architecture and Fine Arts Library.
• 9. Libraries East and West and Marston Science Library contain other reference works and sources that will be useful since many topics range beyond the limits of "art" and "architecture." For example, aspects of ancient art are often discussed under the headings of Archaeology, History, and Religion, and Pre-Columbian, African or Oceanic art may be discussed in anthropological sources.

B.FINDING INFORMATION FOR YOUR TOPIC
(or, one source leads to another . . .)

• 1. To get started on your research, check bibliographies in your texts for books and articles with titles that seem to be related to your topic. Then check these sources for their bibliographies, again looking for titles that may be related to your topic. Even if a source is not directly relevant to your topic it may still contain useful references.
• 2. Pay attention to footnotes with references. As you read through books and articles on your topic or related topics, pay attention to the author's footnotes, especially in those sections of his/her writing which relate to your own topic. Footnotes could contain valuable leads to other sources.
• 3. Interviews (phone, letter, or personal). You can sometimes approach the artist you are writing on or knowledgeable experts on your topic who may prove useful. If your request is broached politely and intelligently, there is a good chance that they will agree to answer questions that have been thought out and prepared in advance. The more that you indicate that you have carefully researched and thought about your subject, the more responsive and helpful you may find such sources: "To those who have shall be given."
• 4. Online web sites, except scholarly ones such as BHA, usually give only general information that should be checked against other scholarly sources.
  

C. ALWAYS TAKE DOWN COMPLETE CITATIONS OF REFERENCES WHEN COLLECTING BIBLIOGRAPHY OR TAKING NOTES.

• There is no excuse for incomplete bibliographical data because you could not relocate a source.
  

D. FINDING INFORMATION IN YOUR SOURCES
(now that you have found them, how to get the most from them...)

• 1. Source documents such as letters, contemporary exhibition catalogues, or contemporary critical reviews of an artist's work should be read completely to assure your understanding of the various points or conflicting theses made by the authors.
• 2. Articles of less than 20 pages should be read completely. Articles longer than 20 pages may be skimmed through to find information relevant to your topic.
• 3. Books: It's a bit difficult to locate relevant information within a book since most of the monographs you will encounter will not be written specifically about your topic. There are things you can do to extract information about your topic from a book short of reading the entire book (NOT ALWAYS REALISTIC!)
  • a. You can look through those parts whose illustrations look as if they pertain to your topic.
  • b. You can read the table of contents for appropriate chapters.
  • c. Or, best of all, you can go through its index in much the same way you would use the Library of Congress subject headings, using various headings to locate the relevant section of the book.
• 4. Online web sites usually contain only general information and should be checked against other scholarly sources.
  

E. ASSESSING YOUR SOURCES FOR RELIABILITY
(not all books are of equal value...)

• 1. Look at the date of publication. Older sources could contain material that is outdated or incomplete in light of more recent research.
• Check them against more recent sources to see how reliable the information is.
• 2. Check the author's credentials. Is he/she a specialist on the subject? What else has he/she written? What is his/her profession?
• 3. Look at the author's bibliography and footnotes. Is the source well-researched and documented? Did the author use current research?
• 4. Check book reviews in scholarly periodicals. Since they are sometimes written by rivals or friends, they may be biased, but they often point out areas of controversy and different ways to assess the work.
• 5. Evaluate the evidence the author uses to support his assertions.
• 6. Use your own judgement. Is the source clearly written? Are the author's arguments and presentations logical and clear? Remember, sources that are generally sound can contain faulty reasoning and errors (even Panofsky is not perfect) and, conversely, even a flawed study may contain insights or data of value. The more you read on your topic, the more able you will be to assess your sources.
• 7. Remember, online web sites, except art historical databases such as BHA, are usually not scholarly sources and should be used with caution.
• 8. When in doubt, ask your professor, although sometimes he or she may also be in doubt.

III. CONTENT AND ORGANIZATION

A. ALWAYS FOLLOW YOUR TEACHER'S INSTRUCTIONS AND DIRECTIONS CAREFULLY AND COMPLETELY.


B.ORGANIZE THE PAPER AROUND THE MAIN IDEA OR THESIS THAT YOU WANT TO PRESENT (See I., A., 2.)

• 1. The main idea should be reflected in the title.
• 2. The main idea should be clearly set forth in the introductory paragraphs.
• 3. The main idea should be developed in a systematic manner in the body of the paper by presenting and interpreting evidence that supports and clarifies it. Don't lose track of the argument and clutter up the paper with irrelevant facts and unnecessary background information.
• Conversely, don't make a host of claims and generalizations for which you have no evidence.
• 4. Background information should be used only to make specific points. Interesting or controversial information not directly bearing on the main idea can be included in footnotes.
• 5. Familiarize yourself with all of the evidence and arguments that do not seem to support your conclusions and explain why they can be discounted (see if your friends can find any loopholes in your reasoning).
• 6. You must use pictures, diagrams, maps, etc., to support your argument or to illustrate your points. Discuss them in your own words and, when possible, make your own comparisons between pictures. Learn to trust your eyes--but watch out for the unreliability of reproductions and find out what alterations works of art may have undergone since they were made. Use good quality photocopies or take your own photographs. Two large-format, flat-bed scanners are available at the AFA Library to make high-quality scans. A networked color printer (1 page = $1.00) is also available for printing images off of the web or the scanner workstations.

C. STYLE

• 1. Write as clearly, forcefully, and precisely as you can. Be sure you mean exactly what you say. Don't shy away from being blunt if you can prove your claims, but don't claim more than you can prove. If you are unsure of what a word means, look it up; e.g., don't use media for medium, effect for affect, unique for unusual, infer for imply, it's for its, "in the picture plane" for "in the picture," etc. Do not use the non-word "alot."
• 2. Proper use of commas: Except for their use between a series of two or more adjectives (the quick, red fox) or nouns (gods, men, and pharaohs), commas may, for the most part, be understood by following one basic principle: they work as informal parentheses that set off sub-sections of a sentence from the main part or independent parts from each other. Therefore, except when the phrase to be set off by commas comes at the beginning or the end of a sentence, commas always work in pairs.
• 3. Avoid sentence fragments. Such as this one, for example.
• 4. The Elements of Style by William Strunk, Jr. and E.B. White, 3rd ed., New York, 1979, is a very useful little handbook available as an inexpensive paperback. A Manual for Writers by Kate L. Turabian, 4th ed., Chicago, 1973, is another excellent source that will tell you everything you ever wanted to know about term papers. A Short Guide to Writing about Art by Sylvan Barnet, 2nd ed., Boston, 1985, is an excellent reference not only for style but for ideas on writing about art as well.
  

D. USE OF SUMMARY AND QUOTATION
(or "How I Can Avoid Student Honors Court by Not Plagiarizing")

• 1. Any summary or quotation of another writer's words must be clearly attributed and footnoted and must not be used as a substitute for your own words and thoughts. Basically, a summary or quotation should present a viewpoint or insight you want to discuss, use as evidence, or note with approval (or disapproval). Quotations should be used sparingly.
• 2. You must make clear exactly where any summarizing of ideas and information begins and ends.
• 3. The following example shows how the writer uses sources without confusing his viewpoint with theirs.

  Thomas Gray's remark that "not a precipice, not a torrent, not a cliff, but is pregnant with religion and poetry"¹ confirms that such melancholy scenery could affect a poetic sensibility. But, as Samuel Monk has pointed out, Gray's appreciation was prescient and remained unexpressed in poetry until Wordsworth's work later in the century.²

  
  Notice how the quotation and the summary are introduced with the author's name and their purpose in the article is indicated. Those portions that are directly quoted are set off by quotation marks. (See IV, B.)

• 4. As Barnet points out (A Short Guide, p. 107):

  You must acknowledge your indebtedness for material when (1) you quote directly from a work; (2) you paraphrase or summarize someone's words (the words of your paraphrase or summary are your own, but the points are not); or (3) you appropriate an idea that is not common knowledge.

E. FOOTNOTES

• 1. Credit (footnote) other scholars' words when you quote five or more words in succession directly from a source. However, direct quotes should only be used sparingly. It is better to paraphrase the author's ideas in your own words.
• 2. Credit (footnote) others' ideas that you use even when not directly quoted.
• 3. Footnote factual information when it is not common knowledge or might be questioned by your reader. It is better to have too many than too few footnotes.
• 4. Use footnotes to elaborate on those ideas that are interesting but not directly related to the theme of your paper or on reasoning and evidence that would interrupt the flow of your paper if it were included in the text. (See how authors in The Art Bulletin use footnotes.)
• 5. If all your footnotes come from one or two sources, it indicates insufficient research.
• 6. Make clear, either in the text or in the footnote, the purpose of each footnote (if the reference is to the source of a fact, concept, insight, or passage that has been summarized, indicate somehow what has been used).
  

F. BIBLIOGRAPHY

• 1. The bibliography should indicate that you have consulted the best available literature on the subject.
• 2. It should not include general encyclopedias, books on art appreciation, introductory art history books, etc., unless they present original viewpoints.
• 3. Again, online web sites, except from art historical databases such as BHA, are usually not considered scholarly sources and should be used with caution.
• 4. Since the most important and recent research appears most frequently in scholarly periodicals, their absence from your bibliography is usually an indication of superficial research.

IV. FORM

A. ORDER

• 1. Title Page
• 2. Text
• 3. Footnotes (if not at bottom of pages)
• 4. Illustrations
• 5. Bibliography
  

B.UNDERLINING AND ITALICIZING

• Titles of works of art, titles of books, poems, and periodical publications, and technical terms or phrases in a foreign language should be underlined or italicized. This does not include direct quotations in a foreign language, foreign titles preceding proper names, names of buildings, or words anglicized by usage (e.g., ibid.).
  

C. QUOTATIONS

• 1. Quotations must always be footnoted.
• 2. Quotations of three lines or less are placed within the text of your paper and identified by quotation marks.
  Example to illustrate rules 1 and 2:

  Condemning the artistic license of the younger generation, Ingres railed, "Today many artists cry out against compositions, no longer wishing a picture to be arranged, . . . . Accidental nature with nothing added, and on it, colours daubed in lumps, these are their principles."⁵

• 3. An extensive quotation (of more than 3 lines) should be separated from the rest of the text in a single-spaced block, which is indented four spaces from each margin. Quotation marks are eliminated.

  Example:
  Frederick Lamp presents the view that the Nowo mask is conceptually related to the idea of metamorphosis:

  That the spirit of Nowo crystallizes the concept of closure in the female realm is signified by her name. The term nowo (a-nowo, with its noun prefix) in Temne means "The Lepidoptera (moth/butterfly) chrysalis." Many informants agreed that the zoological form was identified with the mask, but they could not tell whether the mask was named for the chrysalis or vice versa.⁵

• 4. Words which are omitted are indicated by an ellipsis (a series of three dots, each separated by a space.) If the words omitted are preceded or followed by a period, colon, or semicolon, this punctuation mark should remain in the same location relative to the three ellipsis points. Ellipsis points are not necessary at the beginning or end of a quotation.
• 5. Occasionally, a quotation, excerpted from a fuller discussion, will require qualification within the quotation marks. To distinguish your words from those of the author, they should be placed in brackets.

  Example 1:
  As Northcote remarked, "They {Neo-Classicists} know as little of nature as a hackney-coach horse does of a pasture."⁶

  Example 2:
  "Rendered with sharp, crisp lines, the abstracted motifs {of Late Nazca Ceramics} crackle with energy, like a 'Fourth of July' firecracker."⁷

• 6. When quotation marks appear in a passage you intend to quote, single marks replace the original double notation. (See Example 2 above.)

D. FOOTNOTES

• 1. All references should be verified before the paper is submitted.
• 2. Footnote references to the text should be clearly designated by a numeral placed after the punctuation and raised one half line above the text. If you are using a word-processing system that will not allow for the raising of the number in printing, be sure that your number is set off by parentheses.
• 3. Footnotes should be numbered consecutively. They should be typed at the bottom of the page below a line of about ten spaces which extends from the left-hand margin, or they can be typed on separate pages, placed at the end of the text.
• 4. Footnotes are indented on the first line only.
• 5. For a book. The first, full reference to a book includes:
  Name of author(s) or editor(s);
  Title of book (underlined);
  Number or name of edition, if other than the first;
  City of publication;
  Name of publishing agency (not printer);
  Date of publication;
  Volume number, if any;
  Page number(s) of the specific citation.

  Example:
  24. Douglas Fraser, Primitive Art (Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday and Company, 1962), p. 31.

• 6. For an article in a periodical or a chapter by a different author in an edited book. The first, full reference includes:
  Name(s) of authors;
  Title of article;
  Name of periodical or book (include editor for book);
  Volume number, if any;
  Date of volume or issue;
  Page number(s).

  Example 1:
  15. James M. Vreeland, "Ancient Andean Textiles: Clothes for the Dead," Archaeology 30 (May 1966): 168.

  Example 2:
  16. Elizabeth P. Benson, "Death-Associated Figures on Mochica Pottery," in Death and the Afterlife in Pre-Columbian America, E.P. Benson, editor, (Washington: Dumbarton Oaks, 1975), p. 128.

• 7. Indicating volume and number for periodicals varies from case to case.
  • a. Use Arabic numbers for the volume.
  • b. There is no comma between the month and the year.
  • c. If a journal numbers its pages sequentially from one issue within a volume to the next, it is unnecessary to note the number of the issue.
  • d. If the periodical is numbered only by issue within the volume, then the issue number must be given in parentheses.
    Example:
    1. Conrad Lawrence, "The Problem with Forgeries is only Beginning," Arts and Issues, 3(2): 45.

  • e. If the periodical is numbered only by the issue and there are no volumes, then the reference should be as follows:
    Example:
    2. Ayodele Ogundipe, "Yoruba Folklore to Interpret Yoruba Iconography," Odu, no. 22 (Lagos, 1956): 45.

• 8. When a periodical is uncommon, or a foreign publication, the city of publication is inserted within the parentheses before the data, as in the example above.

• 9. For online sources. The first full citation must include:
  Author(s);
  Title;
  Date of publication;
  Web site address;
  And the date of access.

  Example:

• 1. Isamu Noguchi, "On Gardens as Sculpture," A Sculptor's World, 1969 (18 Mar. 1998).

• 10. For email communication. The first full citation must include:
  Author(s) email address;
  Subject line from posting;
  Date of publication;
  Type of communication;
  And the date of access.

  Example:
  Jackson Flash "On jumping," 16 Feb. 1998, personal communication (20 Mar. 1998).

• 11. The initial reference to a source (book, article or online web site) should follow the correct unabridged form. Subsequent references to the same source should use the briefest intelligible notation of author and title.

  Example 1:
  16. Panofsky, Early Netherlandish Painting, p. 30.

  Example 2:
  23. Lawrence, "Problem with Forgeries," p. 45.

• 12. It is permissible to use the abbreviation, ibid., (meaning, "in the same place") when a footnote refers to the same source as the footnote directly preceding it.

  Example:
  24. Douglas Fraser, Primitive Art, (Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday & Company, Inc., 1962), p. 31.
  25. Ibid., pp. 37, 42.

  (NOTE: The page number is eliminated after ibid. if it is the same as the preceding footnote.)

• 13. The use of "op. cit." and "loc. cit." is no longer standard.
  

E. ILLUSTRATIONS

• 1. Illustrations are to placed together at the end of the paper, after the footnotes and before the bibliography.
• 2. Illustrations should be assigned consecutive numbers in the order that they appear in the text.
• 3. In the text, reference to an illustration should appear in parentheses before the punctuation.

  Example:
  The elongated nude in Ingres' Odalisque (Fig. 4) is reminiscent of similar figures in the Mannerist paintings of the sixteenth century (Fig. 5).

• 4. Identify your illustrations.
  • a. A caption must be typed below each illustration and should contain figure number, artist, title, date, medium, present location (when possible), and a shortened bibliographical reference. (This source must also be present in your bibliography.).

    Example:
    Figure 4. Ingres, La Grande Odalisque, 1814, oil on canvas, Louvre, Paris (Friedlaender, David to Delacroix, pl. 47.)

  • b. If this information does not fit well on the illustration, a shortened entry may be used, including figure number, artist and title. Further information must then be included in a list of illustrations (for all illustrations) which will precede the plates.
    

F. BIBLIOGRAPHY

• 1. A bibliography which includes all the sources you have used should appear at the end of the paper.
• 2. The references are listed alphabetically; therefore, the author's last name appears first.
• 3. The entry form should follow that of the footnotes with four exceptions:
  • a. Bibliographical entries begin at the left margin and are indented on the second and successive lines.
  • b. Book entries do not include page numbers.
  • c. Articles from books, periodicals or online sources must indicate inclusive page numbers (e.g. 175-209.).
  • d. Punctuation changes as indicated in the examples following 4 and 5.
• 4. Single space within entries; double space between entries.

  Example:
  Vreeland, James M., "Ancient Andean Textiles: Clothes for the Dead," Archaeology 30 (May 1966):166-190.

• 5. When two or more works by the same author are cited, the first entry follows the standard form. In the subsequent entries, the author's name is replaced by a line about 6-8 spaces long, followed by a period. (Use the "underline" key on your typewriter.)

  Example:
  Panofsky, Erwin. Early Netherlandish Painting: Its Origins and Character, 2 vols. London: Harper & Row, 1971.

  _____. Renaissance and Renascences in Western Art. New York: Harper & Row, 1969; reprint ed., Icon Editions paperback, 1972.

  (NOTE: The entry above indicates a paperback reprint.)

G. GENERAL

• 1. All manuscripts must be typewritten on 8 1/2 x 11 white paper. Never submit corrasable (erasable) bond; it smudges.
• 2. The text should be double-spaced and maintain consistent margins.
• 3. All pages should be numbered consecutively.
• 4. While it is prudent to xerox your paper, always give your professor the original copy.
  

H. PROOFREADING

• Be sure to proofread your paper. Neat, handwritten corrections are acceptable.

V. CRITERIA FOR EVALUATION
• A. accuracy of information;
• B.thoroughness of research;
• C. coherence of organization (see III, B);
• D. originality and shrewdness of insights;
• E. effectiveness of writing style (see III, C).