The European Avant-Garde Before World War I

Select an image you find particularly compelling from this week’s lectures. Write about it using the related reading assignments. 

(write Marcel Duchamp’ Bicycle Wheel 1913)

Use the resources I gave only!!!!!!!!!!!! 

Please choose an artwork by Umberto Boccioni, Giacomo Balli, Carlo Carrá, or Marcel Duchamp.

Your analysis should use vocabulary and concepts from the lecture and reading correctly, demonstrate a grasp of the key critical ideas, and be original. Your essay must reference the assigned readings, and ideally, make meaningful use of the readings to support your analysis. Rather than quoting the authors, try to find a way to synthesize their ideas in your own analysis. Please use proper Chicago style citation (Links to an external site.). Please ensure that you clearly indicate the title of the artwork that you are discussing.

Formatting

Papers must be

• 250-500 words
• double-spaced
• Times New Roman, 12 point font 
• one-inch margins
• saved as a PDF
• use proper Chicago style citation (Links to an external site.). Your footnotes should look like this: 1. First name Last name, Title of Book (Place of publication: Publisher, Year of publication), page number.

Papers not meeting these guidelines will be returned for revisions and marked as late.

Grading rubric

Critical Thought & Originality

• An exemplary paper must demonstrate a depth of analysis that synthesizes ideas from lectures and readings with your own thought and ideas.

Development

• An exemplary paper develops logically with high quality and quantity support by meaningfullyintegrating concepts from assigned readings in support of argument.

Visual Analysis

• An exemplary paper not only uses detailed visual description, but uses visual evidence to lead the reader to the conclusion and stir thought regarding the topic. (See Purdue Owl resource on formal analysis.) (Links to an external site.)

Organization & Style

• An exemplary paper is logically organized and transitions smoothly between points, while also adopting tone and language appropriate to college-level art historical discourse. (See Purdue Owl resources on essay structure (Links to an external site.), appropriate language (Links to an external site.), sentence variety (Links to an external site.), paragraphing (Links to an external site.).)

Grammar & Mechanics

• An exemplary paper  is free of distracting spelling, punctuation, and grammatical errors; absent of fragments, comma splices, and run-on sentences.

Formatting

• An exemplary paper follows all formatting instructions (above), including properly formatted footnotes. Papers missing footnotes will lose 3 points for formatting. 

Writing tips 

(Adapted from Purdue Owl)

Prepare by watching the lectures and reading all the assigned texts thoroughly. Thinking about some of the different issues raised in the reading. Do what’s called a “critical read” of the material, where you don’t
just accept the information, but you also question it.

Then, select one of the artworks, which has lingered in your mind because you are uncomfortable with it, or because you are excited about it and believe it needs much more thought. Narrow down your ideas into a question about this artwork that you might want to investigate in your paper. Ask yourself what your feelings are about this artwork, what issues it raises, and what reasons you might use to support your feelings and ideas. As you ask yourself these questions, have a document open and jot down anything that comes to your mind. These initial thoughts will not appear in your final essay, but instead are the process of generating ideas for the essay. If you like what you have come up with, then you are ready to form a preliminary thesis. If you do not like it then go back and consider another artwork.

Write down a preliminary thesis statement that specifies your topic, states your ideas about this topic, and suggests the arrangement of your paper’s argument. Make sure you refer back to the readings and choose
details that support your argument. If you use quotations or refer to the text, it should only be to support your own ideas.

Then try writing a first draft and leaving it for a day. Then go back, reread and revise as necessary.