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The best-selling guide to writing about art
Sylvan Barnet’s A Short Guide to Writing About Art guides students through every aspect of writing about art. 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. Coverage of essential writing assignments includes formal analysis, comparison, research paper, review of an exhibition, and essay examination. New to the 11th edition is a chapter on “Virtual Exhibitions: Writing Text Panels and Other Materials.”
In this Section:
1) Brief Table of Contents
2) Full Table of Contents
BRIEF TABLE OF CONTENTS:
Chapter 1: Writing About Art
Chapter 2: Writing About Art: The Big Picture
Chapter 3: Formal Analysis and Style
Chapter 4:Analytical Thinking
Chapter 5: Writing A Comparison
Chapter 6: Writing an Entry in an Exhibition Catalog
Chapter 7: Writing a Review of an Exhibition
Chapter 8: Virtual Exhibitions: Writing Text Panels and Other Materials
Chapter 9: How to Write an Effective Essay
Chapter 10: Style in Writing
Chapter 11: Art Historical Research
Chapter 12: Some Critical Approaches
Chapter 13: Writing a Research Paper
Chapter 14: Manuscript Form
Chapter 15: Writing Essay Examinations
FULL TABLE OF CONTENTS:
Chapter 1: Writing About Art
What Is Art?
Why Write about Art?
The Imagined Reader as the Writer's Collaborator
The Functions of Critical Writing
Some Words about Critical Thinking
A Sample Critical Essay
What Is an Interpretation--and Are All interpretations Equally Valid?
Expressing Opinions: The Writer's "I"
Chapter 2: Writing About Art: The Big Picture
Standing Back: Kinds of Writing (Informing and Persuading)
Close-Up: Drafting the Essay
Checklist of Basic Matters
Chapter 3: Formal Analysis and Style
What Formal Analysis Is
Formal Analysis Versus Description
Sample Essay: A Formal Analysis
Postscript: Thoughts about the Words “Realistic” and “Idealized”
Cautionary Words about Slides and Reproductions in Books and on the World Wide Web
Chapter 4: Analytical Thinking
Subject Matter and Content
Form and Content
Getting ideas for Essays: Asking Questions to Get Answers
Another Look at the Questions
Chapter 5: Writing A Comparison
Comparing as a Way of Discovering
Two ways of Organizing a Comparison
Sample Essay: A Student’s Comparison
Rebecca Bedell: “John Singleson Copley’s Early Development: From Mrs. Joseph Mann to Mrs. Ezekial Goldthwait”
Checklist for Writing a Comparison
Chapter 6: Writing an Entry in an Exhibition Catalog
Keeping the Reader in Mind
A Sample Entry
Checklist for Writing a Catalog Entry
Chapter 7: Writing a Review of an Exhibition
What a Review Is
Three Sample Reviews
Chapter 8: Virtual Exhibitions: Writing Text Panels and Other Materials
Kinds of Exhibitions
Kinds of Writing Assignments
Chapter 9: How to Write an Effective Essay
The Basic Strategy
Looking Closely: Approaching a First Draft
Revising: Achieving a Readable Draft
Peer Review
Preparing the Final Version
Chapter 10: Style in Writing
Principles of Style
Get the Right Word
Writing Effective Sentences
Write Unified and Coherent Paragraphs
A Note on Tenses
Chapter 11: Art Historical Research
Accounting for Taste
Historical Scholarship and Values
Chapter 12: Some Critical Approaches
Social History: The New Art History and Marxism
Gender Studies: Feminist Criticism and Gay and Lesbian Studies
Biographical Studies
Psychoanalytic Studies
Iconography and Iconology
Chapter 13: Writing a Research Paper
Primary and Secondary Materials
From Subject to Thesis
Finding the Material
Art Research and the World Wide Web
Keeping a Sense of Proportion
Reading and Taking Notes
Checklist for Note-Taking
Incorporating Your Reading into Your Thinking: The Art of Synthesis and Drafting and Revising the Paper
Checklist for Reviewing a Revised Draft of a Research Paper
Chapter 14: Manuscript Form
Basic Manuscript Form
Some Conventions of Language Usage
Quotations and Quotation Marks
Acknowledging Sources
Documentation
Footnotes and Endnotes: Chicago Manual Style
Chicago Manual of Style
Chapter 15: Writing Essay Examinations
What Examinations Are
Writing Essay Answers
Last Words
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