HUMN 1101 Research Paper Assignment

HUMN 1101 Research Paper Assignment

How would you define “art”? What makes something a work of art? What are the characteristics of a work of art—according to you, not according to the textbook, a dictionary, or a website?

In this essay, discuss your own personal definition of the word “art” and the characteristics of what you consider to be great art. Be sure to include specific artists/artistic periods that you feel exemplify your definition, as well as specific examples of the artist’s work or work from that historical period. You may choose artists/artistic periods from the ones we’ve covered in class and ones from later in the textbook – Realism, Impressionism, Post-Impressionism, Modernism, Contemporary art, etc. You may even use current artists and musicians as examples as well.

You must also in some way incorporate information, ideas, opinions, examples, evidence, etc., from at least 2 outside sources. **Your outside sources MUST be correctly documented according to MLA guidelines—both WITHIN THE TEXT OF YOUR PAPER and IN A WORKS CITED PAGE. Failure to do so will lead to points being deducted and could lead to the paper being considered plagiarized, which would result in a zero.**

Note on internet sources: Articles from GALILEO have been approved by me; any other internet sources and/or sites must be approved by me before you turn in your research paper. Usually, sites associated with colleges and schools (ending in “.edu”) or with government organizations (ending in “.gov”) are reliable. You may use your textbook, but it does not count as one of your outside sources. Also, you CANNOT use Wikipedia as a source.

Make sure that your essay is double-spaced and formatted as a Microsoft Word (or compatible word processing program) document.

GALILEO password for this semester: overcast

You must proofread your paper. But do not strictly rely on your computer’s spell-checker and grammar-checker; failure to do so indicates a lack of effort on your part and you can expect your grade to suffer accordingly. Papers with numerous misspelled words and grammatical mistakes will be penalized. Read over your paper – in silence and then aloud – before handing it in and make corrections as necessary. Often it is advantageous to have a friend proofread your paper for obvious errors. Handwritten corrections are preferable to uncorrected mistakes.

Use a standard 10 to 12 point (10 to 12 characters per inch) typeface. Smaller or compressed type and papers with small margins or single-spacing are hard to read. It is better to let your essay run over the recommended number of pages than to try to compress it into fewer pages.

Likewise, large type, large margins, large indentations, triple-spacing, increased leading (space between lines), increased kerning (space between letters), and any other such attempts at “padding” to increase the length of a paper are unacceptable, wasteful of trees, and will not fool your professor.

The paper must be neatly formatted, double-spaced with a one-inch margin on the top, bottom, and sides of each page. When submitting hard copy, be sure to use white paper and print out using dark ink. If it is hard to read your essay, it will also be hard to follow your argument.