To further hone your close-reading and descriptive capabilities.
To reflect on all the writing skills we have learned in this class, and the extent to which they are transferable.
To learn how to adapt your writing to a different genre.
Step 1: Familiarizing Yourself with Your New Genre
Before you begin, you must familiarize yourself with the new genre you will be writing: the non-fiction art review. Print out the art review attached to this assignment.
Read through the article very slowly, jotting down ideas about its main ideas and approach as you go. (30 minutes)
Read the article one more time, this time making the following annotations: (45 minutes)
Next to each paragraph, write the main point of that paragraph.
Underline sentences that give level-1 unmediated evidence, either describing the artwork without any interpretation, or describing how it was made.
Example: “He shot the first [photograph] with a handheld 35-millimetre camera, sometimes using flash.”
Squiggly underline sentences that give level-2 interpretive description, mediating the evidence with some kind of interpretation.
Example: “A shot of a graceless, weirdly arresting intersection in downtown El Paso, from 1975, feels less to have been discovered by Shore than to have happened to him.”
Bracket sentences that give the most sweeping interpretations of the work as a whole
Example: “His road pictures illustrate a truth of experience: you can be new to something, and something can be new to you, only once.”
Step 2: Genre Write-Up
Then, write up a paragraph addressing each of the following issues. Be sure to give specific, textual citation from the article. (100 minutes, ~20 minutes per paragraph)
Paragraph 1: Introduction
How does this article begin? How is the opening different from the introduction of the kind of college-level argumentative essay we have been writing?
Paragraph 2: Use of Evidence
How does this article use evidence? What kinds of analysis does it draw out of its evidence? How is its use of evidence similar to our use of evidence in a college-level argumentative essay? How is it different?
Paragraph 3: Narrative Structure
Describe the argument of this essay. Does it have an argument? How is this argument similar to/different from the kind of arguments we’ve been writing?
Describe the movement of this essay. What is its narrative structure? How does the essay develop? How does it transition?
Paragraph 4: Conclusion
How does this article end? How is its conclusion different from/similar to the kinds of conclusions we’ve been writing? What does this suggest to you about the overall objective of this kind of article vs. the overall objective of the kinds of essay we’ve been writing?
Paragraph 5: Prose Style
Describe the prose style of this article. How is it different from the kinds of papers we’ve been writing, or the style of academic articles that we’ve read over the course of the class?
Step 3: Data Collection (150 minutes; 2.5 hours) Spend at least 150 minutes (or 2.5 hours) writing your observations about the exhibit. You can stretch this out over as many days as you like (5 days for 30 minutes a day was my original idea for this assignment), but you must come on at least three different days. This is because it will be very hard to exert this kind of focus for more than an hour at a time. Here are your instructions and questions to consider:
At the top of each entry, write the date and time.
For at least three pieces, you must spend at least twenty minutes sitting in front of and looking only at that piece. Think of that very first reading from T.J. Clark as your model: try to push yourself to notice everything that you possible can. Push yourself to return to the piece, and think of it in a new way.
The goal of an art review is not necessarily to make an argument, but to describe the artwork and the experience of the exhibit as fully as possible. Do not just list what the image portrays, but, as when close-reading, notice the detail of how it portrays it (perspective, quality of the lines, etc.).
Note how particular works and the exhibit as a whole affects you as a viewer. What does it make you feel? What is it about the piece that makes you feel that way? Why?
What do particular works make you think of? What questions do they invite to you?
What stands out to you in the exhibit? Can you group works together? Does any work seem like an outlier?
What are some of the main thematic continuities in the exhibit as a whole? What does the exhibit suggest about these themes?
On your final day, take several pictures of the exhibit and the pieces in it so that you can reference them if you need to engage in further observation.
Step 4: Crafting Your Narrative (3-5 hours? Up to you!)
Craft your narrative! The only requirements are the following:
You must attempt to emulate the style of a non-fiction art review, drawing on all your reflections from Step 2 about how this kind of work is different from/similar to a college-level argumentative essay.
You must give specific and nuanced descriptions of your artwork.
You must create a narrative, with a clear flow/transition to it (i.e. it should read fluidly, not make illogical jumps in the writing).
It must be at least 1,200 words.
Step 6: Final Steps (20 minutes)
Spend at least 20 minutes proofreading your final version of the narrative. Upload your journal entries and narrative (as a word doc) to bcourses (can take pictures of the journal entries if they are handwritten, but they must be legible).
Step 7: Final Reflection (30-45 minutes) With this assignment, you are required to submit a final 500-word reflection on our class’s assessment system. Feel free to write on anything you’d like, but here are some suggestions to get your mind going:
What did you like about this assessment method? Was there anything you disliked? Please be specific. Why?
Was it useful to refer to your homework, projects, and time as labor? Why? What have you learned from thinking in these terms all semester?
Were you motivated to improve your work over the course of the semester, even though there weren’t any grades assigned? What was motivating you?
Has studying under this particular assessment method changed any of your perceptions about yourself as a student, your education as labor, or your relationship to grades, time management, and the classroom environment, etc.? If not, that’s OK! Don’t need to make things up. :-)
Were you skeptical at the beginning of the semester with respect to this system? What were you skeptical about? How have your worries changed or remained the same?
Anything you’d like me to know for the future with respect to this system? Should I do something differently? Check-in on the logs more often, less often? Any final thoughts?
In order to be considered complete, you must turn in the following to me by the required due dates:
Step 1’s annotated article (DUE BY FRIDAY, APRIL 27)
Step 2’s genre write-up (DUE BY FRIDAY, APRIL 27)
Step 3’s data collection journal entries (DUE BY FRIDAY, MAY 11)
Step 4’s narrative (at least 1,200 words) (DUE BY FRIDAY, MAY 11)
Step 7's 500-word reflection (DUE BY FRIDAY, MAY 11)