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Assignment | Art Mini-Research Sequence (Armstrong): Getting Started

Spring 2020 | Art History & Art Appreciation | Prof. J. Armstrong

Assignments

Compare a scholarly article to a popular source on the same topic (i.e. an artist of your choosing). How in depth is the information? What tone do they use? What sources are provided?

  • ARTS 1301: may choose anyone before 1970
  • ARTS 1303, 1304: remember to choose within the time period your class covers!

You will need to write an MLA-style works cited for your articles.

Skills to Flex:

  • Know the distinction between popular and scholarly sources of information
  • Locate one of each discussing the same topic
  • Create an MLA citation for each
  • Compare and contrast how your two articles handle the topic of your artist

Example Pair of Articles:

Example Pair of Non-Art-Related Articles:

You'll be assembling a list of resources to help out other people trying to research your artist, using a mix of scholarly and popular sources. Each one should be cited and include an explanation of how that source will be helpful.

Your Goals:

  • short, introductory paragraph about your artist
  • annotated citations for 8 total sources:
    • 3 books (perhaps a scholarly book?)
    • 2 articles from the library databases (perhaps a scholarly article?)
    • 3 Internet sources (remember your evaluation criteria from your comparison assignment!)
      • Hint: you're not going to find scholarly websites. You might find a scholarly article on a website freely available, but websites themselves are not.
  • MLA format for the page and the citations

For this final, end-of-semester project, you'll be creating a brochure, a little in the style of an exhibition catalog, for your artist, focusing on a specific work of art.

Inspiration: