Research Paper Prompt: 7-8 page paper

You will select one American artwork located at the Montgomery Museum of Fine Arts. You should choose a different artwork than that examined in your formal analysis paper. You will conduct formal analysis by visually analyzing the artwork and discussing the formal characteristics of the image. You will then research the artist and history of the painting in order to identify a thesis statement specific to that work of art. You will be expected to deploy technical and art historical vocabulary, and convey a thoughtful and convincing argument based in their research and analysis. Research papers will be assigned a letter grade. 

You will construct a thesis statement on one aspect of the topic based upon academic research. While some may choose a biographical approach to their topic, others may want to emphasize the historical, cultural, or technical aspects of the artwork. The final paper should not be a biography or book review, but instead must convey an original, persuasive argument.

Citations:

Plagiarism is a serious academic offence. Citations to all materials that you consult, quote, or reference should be provided in Chicago Style. See the quick guide for more information:

http://www.chicagomanualofstyle.org/tools_citationguide.html. 

You must also include a properly formatted bibliography at the end of your paper with at least six sources. Your sources should be an even mix of books, journal articles, and websites. 

Formatting:

Your paper should be in Times New Roman, 12-point type, and 6-8 double-spaced pages. Be

sure to include a title for your paper, your name, and page numbers. Finally, you must include

any images that you discuss on separate pages at the end of the paper.

Your images should be captioned as follows:

Figure number. Artist, Title, date. Medium, dimensions, institution of ownership. When you

reference your images in the text you should do so with parentheticals, e.g. (fig. 1).

Image pages and your bibliography do not count towards the paper’s total page length.