Choose a work(s) that interests you.
	Look at the work(s) carefully. Keep looking at the art you are writing about, jotting down notes of all relevant matters. Ask yourself questions about the works. Reflect on your observations and write them down.

It is usually best to identify your art work(s) at the beginning of the paper. Then go on to an objective discussion of how the object is structured artistically. Finally give a more general interpretation and evaluation. Organize the material from the simple to the complex. If you are discussing the composition of a painting, it probably will be best to begin with the most obvious points. Then turn to the subtler but perhaps equally important ones. If you are comparing two (2) pieces, it may be best to move from the most obvious contrasts to the least obvious.

Get it down on paper. It may be helpful to jot down an outline, indicating the main idea of each paragraph. If you are not the outline type, try writing freely and allowing your ideas about the work and what it means to you as well as what you see begin to take visible form. Either way you will likely need to arrange and rearrange your thoughts and to polish your ideas, perhaps even deleting some of them.

With your outline or draft in front of you, write a more clear and precise version. If things no longer seem relevant, eliminate them. Just make sure that your ideas flow from one to another.

After a suitable interval, preferably a few days, read this draft with a view toward  revising it. A revision is a A re-vision - a second view. As you read, correct things that disturb you, add supporting detail where your thoughts seem underdeveloped, and delete irrelevancies. Make sure that the opening and concluding paragraphs are effective and that the material between them flows. The details should be relevant, the organization reasonable, the argument clear. If you include any quotations, check them for accuracy.

Make the revisions on your computer and print a final draft following the principles concerning margins, footnotes, pagination, etc. If you have borrowed any ideas, be sure to give credit to your sources. Proofread before handing your paper in to the instructor. BACK                                                                                     BACK