How to write an academic essay

This is something for all you undergrads out there. Writing an essay at University level is completely different from the essays you created at school, there are very strict rules that must be followed. This document gives you a detailed overview of what is required. Warning!!! You need to check with your own academic staff on the preferred system for referencing material. Hope this helps

A guide to writing academic essays

Notes for guidance:  

It is essential to read this guide carefully before you select an essay topic or begin your research. Most students find it difficult to write essays and this guide is designed to help plan your research and structure your essay. Even if you are experienced in writing essays, this guide is still indispensable, since it outlines the formal requirements for art theory essays. Different University subjects, courses or disciplines do not necessarily follow the same bibliographic format or requirements for citation of sources.

If you did well with your school essay writing do not assume that you will automatically succeed with tertiary writing. Some students find that the gap between school essays and academic essays is more like a chasm: since the emphasis in tertiary writing shifts substantially from the simple presentation of facts to interpretation and critical analysis. Also, it is not uncommon to read student essays from secondary school level in which material is taken unacknowledged, directly from text books-the Internet or teacher notes. Such practice is unacceptable in tertiary writing and is regarded as plagiarism which is a serious transgression in academic writing. There will be more on plagiarism later in this guide.

An essay is a written exposition or elaboration of your view on a particular topic, subject or issue. Within a stipulated length, usually 1200 to 3500 words, your essay will consist of a clear statement of what you think about a particular issue or topic followed by a logical argument supported by strong, well documented evidence. The essay is also an important learning process and assessment instrument, since when you begin your research on a selected topic you often have no idea of what your view or argument will be. The process of research, planning and writing of your essay helps you shape, clarify and finally expound your thinking or analysis. Many notes and several drafts of your essay might have to be written before your argument or perspective on a particular topic falls into place. This is why it is imperative to allocate enough time in your study programme for writing preliminary drafts.

Students often lament that they discovered what they really wanted to say at the end of a hastily written essay, when they had no time for a rewrite (in my experience about 70% of level one students experience this problem).

The information and evidence used in formulating an argument, in essay form, will come from texts (mostly books and journals), electronic sources and actual works of art. When writing about art the most important focus of your analysis should be original art objects or exhibits; but any judgements you make about works of art should be informed by what has been written about them, and your interpretation should be measured against the existing research in your field of interest. Therefore wide reading is essential in any art theory essay. However, choose your source material intelligently, many “coffee-table” style art books contain misleading generalisations and factual information that is dated or incorrect. Also, ‘A’ Level textbooks are poor source material for most tertiary writing.  Encyclopaedia articles (in particular that student’s favourite ‘Wikepedia’ may be useful in initially surveying a topic but you will need to consult more specific secondary (and better informed) sources.

Most of the information you access on the Internet using generic search engines and sites such as Google will fall into the encyclopaedic category. Only very refined searching of specialist databases will allow you to access high quality and primary material. There will be more later on how to access this material via the Internet

The diagram and description below should help explain the difference between primary, secondary and tertiary sources of information.

 Most Internet sources
Encyclopaedia entries
Art survey books

Art Objects
Catalogues
Letters
Documents

Monographs on artists
Stylistic Analysis
Journal article 

If for instance, you are researching an essay on Rembrandt, one of the most up to date forums would be ‘The Rembrandt Research Project’, this would be an example of primary research. The information contained in this inner circle is constantly changing and expanding with continuing research, while the outer circle (secondary research)  changes more slowly. This is exemplified in the results of the Rembrandt Research Project.

Select a topic most relevant to your studio interests. Usually topics or questions are of equal difficulty, however sometimes lecturers set one or two more demanding or challenging questions to extend experienced students. Check with your lecturer if you have any doubts about the compatibility of your selection to your educational background and interests.

Stages in essay writing

Step 1

Compile a working bibliography of books, articles, catalogues, videos, films and any other sources you think will be relevant to your chosen topic. To do this, use the subject index catalogue in the library and consult the Art Index, and other periodical indices, that are also held in the Library. If you are reading this on a computer connected to the University of Derby intranet network, you may be able to go directly to the library index for books, catalogues videos and films. The Bibliographie de l’Histoire d’Art,established in 1991, is the international scholarly reference database in art history that incorporates the older indexes, the RAA (Repertoire d’Art et d’Archeologie) from 1973 to 1989 and the once primary index the RILA (International Repertory of the Literature of Art) from 1975 to 1989. The focus is European and American art with abstracts in both French and English.

The following are the most useful. Expanded ASAP Int’l Ed. which has over three million articles (from 1980 – 2003) and includes journals such as Art News, Art in America, Art forum, the Art Bulletin. Unfortunately, the original illustrations or images are often omitted or degraded in the Expanded Academic online versions, although more recently this seems to be improving. This is not the case with the Project Muse (John Hopkins Press) database which includes good quality black and white images and also contains several electronic journals which are exclusively published on the Web.

Another source is  Britannica Online- which is of course the definitive encyclopaedic source for general information. It is also worth checking if the Library subscribes to The  Oxford Reference Online. This not only includes the Oxford Dictionary but most importantly gives access to Oxford Dictionary of Art, Concise Oxford Dictionary of Art and Artists, Concise Oxford Dictionary of Art Terms as well as A Dictionary of Twentieth-Century Art. A word or phrase query will automatically search across all these and many other Oxford reference works. What is more, a full-citation is shown below each entry ready to be clipped and pasted into your notes.

You may find links to the above and many more databases on the Library Journal and Reference Database site. Your lecturer will generally direct you to others, if they are relevant to your topic.

For general Internet searches take care using generic search sites such as Google, Yahoo, etc. Instead, first go to the Art Theory Resources site and use the links that are included there, as these have been checked for quality. (The exception to this is the case where you may be searching for a reproduction of a particular painting or print. The search engine Google now has an image search feature which is very powerful or comprehensive and certainly the quickest way to find a reproduction.)

Particularly useful under the Art Theory Resources listings are links to electronic journals and home sites for print journals – which often have the contents of the latest edition.
When you access Internet sites take great care to carefully document the address and full particulars for correct citation of any information you collect. Always record the date of any connection you make as this must be included in your citation. The Internet is now a major resource but still a supplement to print sources and the most up-to-date relevant art information is still to be found in text based journals or periodicals. For this reason, it would be expected to find at least four or five references to art magazine or journal articles, as well as references to books and other sources, in a successful first-year essay. At this stage, when you have completed your working bibliography, ask your lecturer if he or she will check if you have missed any major source on your topic.

STEP 2

Read/view the sources you have chosen and make notes to use in the formulation of your essay. When making notes, or photocopies of information you might use in your assignment, always add the bibliographical details of the source, including page numbers. You will need this if you decide to quote the information in your essay. When taking notes from books and articles be sure to distinguish between your own musings/words and material you transcribe as this will avoid any possible problems with inadvertent plagiarism when you come to write the essay. When reading articles online or material from Web sites be sure to record all the relevant source information you will later need for citation, including the date of access. While searching for information, avoid clipping blocks of text from screen and pasting it into your word-processor unless you add all details of the source including the URL. Otherwise, this material will be useless when it comes to writing your essay. It is always safest to save the entire file you are reading in a directory on your computer for later access when formulating your argument. Also note, that if a site has no designated author, be it institution, corporation, individual or magazine title, do not use the material.

It is usual to spend about 60% of your allocated time on Steps 1 and 2. 

STEP 3

When you are familiar with all the major facts and issues that are pertinent to your topic, decide what argument you will adopt in your essay. Next draft a plan of your essay by writing short notes on the content and order of each paragraph. Usually this is followed by the writing of a full first draft.

Your first paragraph will state your main argument regarding the topic. The body of the essay will expand and defend the argument stated in the opening paragraph. Information you have collected will be used to support your arguments and your final paragraph will round off your discussion with a suitable conclusion.

STEP 4

Write your final draft, add your bibliography, check all footnotes and re-read. Most important of all, carefully proofread before submission. Be sure your presentation follows the stipulated format. Make and retain a copy of your essay. A clean copy may be needed later for reassessment by another marker in cases of appeal or disputed results.

Plagiarism is the unacknowledged copying of the ideas or words of other writers or authors. Plagiarism in essays will make them unacceptable for assessment. This refers to both direct transcription and paraphrasing other material (putting it into your own words).

Most students understand that to copy another student’s assignment and present it as your own work is fraudulent behaviour and such practice is the most obvious and serious breach of academic integrity. When this form of plagiarism is detected it results in automatic failure of the subject for the student involved and possible disciplinary action by the Faculty or University.

You may be aware that there are now many so called “Cheat” sites on the Internet offering (usually at a price) completed essays on countless topics. It is unlikely you will find an example that precisely answers a given question, but if you find a similar topic and access to read it is free, by all means do so. You may pick up some tips on structure or useful pointers to sources. However, never clip any of the information to paste into your essay. Not only is this plagiarism but it is relatively easy to detect through a Web search using your text as a search string.

However, most breaches of plagiarism occur because: firstly, students have not developed the writing skills to sufficiently wean themselves from the phrases, style and words used in the sources found in their Library research and, secondly, they present the ideas and information taken from Library sources without acknowledging the original author.

There are art historical facts, which are generally known and agreed upon. That the Museum of Modern Art in New York was founded by Alfred Barr in 1929, is an example and would not need acknowledgement in an essay. However, it should be obvious that you would not write in an essay that Monet earned 24,800 francs in 1873  from the sale of his paintings without telling the reader how you came by such precise and little known information. We might assume you had access to Monet’s account books and that you spent considerable time tabulating this figure. Equally so, if you claim that Monet earned ten times the average annual income for Paris in 1873, you would need to show the origin of this calculation.

When you present any precise or contentious evidence in your essay you must add a full reference or citation that will accurately take the reader to your source so that they can check the veracity of your information or judge the quality of your source. Both Monet examples above are taken from the same source (Paul Tucker Monet at Argenteuil, New Haven, 1982, n33, pp. 194/5) and by citing this book in your footnotes and adding it to your bibliography you also acknowledge that your work is dependent on the intellectual effort of others. In this case, Paul Tucker. ( I in turn used and referenced the information on Monet for an academic essay in 1999).

Presumably, if you used the factual evidence or data on Monet’s income in an essay it would be to draw some conclusion about his attitude to selling his art or his relationship to dealers and buyers; or, to put Monet’s work in the context of the developing economic and social forces associated with modernity. This is where problems can occur with plagiarism since Tucker has explored these issues in his book. Any direct quotes or phrases taken from Tucker would naturally be referenced. In addition, if your conclusions are in any way dependent on, or, in any way parallel, the views or ideas of Tucker you must acknowledge this in footnotes. To give a specific example, here is a direct quote from Tucker’s book:

  ‘Monet was no economist, but the subjects he painted were drawn from the progressive world. And the people we know who bought his paintings, like the opera singer Faure, the banker Hecht, or the department store owner Hoschede, were immersed in it. Monet was able to profit from many people’s patronage, for he made a considerable amount of money during these years, far more than earlier historians ever imagined. He was doing so well that two years after he left Paris for Argenteuil – a flight to the suburbs that was typical of his time – he was able to move to a bigger, more expensive house’. 

After reading your notes you might write a sentence in your essay such as:

 ” Monet was part of the modern world in the sense that he was not the mythological artist starving in a garret but very much a comfortable member of the middle-class, living in the suburbs.”

Clearly, this is dependent on the above quotation and the source would need to be acknowledged. You would do this by adding a number at the end of the sentence which would refer to a footnote which might look like this:

This has been demonstrated by Paul Tucker, in Monet at Argenteuil, New Haven, 1982 

Alternatively, you may remodel the sentence to read:

 “As Tucker has shown, Monet was part of the modern world in the sense that he was not the mythological artist starving in a garret but very much a comfortable member of the middle-class, living in the suburbs.” In which case, the footnote would take this format: Paul Tucker, Monet at Argenteuil, New Haven, 1982,

It is a relatively easy process to learn and follow the formats for citation of references, which are listed later in this guide, although it takes some experience to understand the degree of referencing or acknowledgement necessary in academic writing. To help you understand the requirements, the first essay you write in first-year Art Theory is treated, in part, as a diagnostic test of your understanding of the rigorous requirements of academic writing and research. Your lecturer will carefully highlight any unacceptable examples of plagiarism in your semester one first-year essay and detail remedial strategies. Put bluntly, this means that this is the only essay you submit in which breaches of minor plagiarism will not make the essay inadmissible for a passing grade. Second-year and third-year essays which contain any form of plagiarism will be unacceptable for assessment. This will be regardless of whether you completed first-year studies in this University or not. Lecturers are very familiar with the primary and secondary sources that relate to their specialist  subject and can generally detect plagiarised passages quite easily. However, sometimes dramatic variation in style, vocabulary or expression might suggest plagiarism, even though the source may not be precisely locatable. In detecting plagiarism, a lecturer may use their professional judgement to question the construction of a particular essay so all students are advised to retain their working notes and drafts for every essay they write. These offer some evidential proof that your essay is of your own making and should only be discarded after the marked essay has been returned.

 1.  It is in order to use short, relevant, direct quotations from other authors to expand or support points you make. However these should be used sparingly, and of course must be acknowledged. Remember your essay or argument should present a clear structure not a compilation of quotations you have collected. Generally, no more than two or three brief quotations would be used in an essay of average length (2000 words). 

2.  Direct quotations are indented or enclosed in quotation marks [" "] and the footnote added at the end of the quote. If a direct quotation is longer than three sentences it must be indented. When a quotation is indented, the quotation marks are not necessary and should not be used and the citation note number is added at the end. Do not bracket the source or page numbers of the quote, simply add the footnote number. To acknowledge the source of a phrase, add the footnote at the end of the sentence in which it occurs. If you paraphrase a passage of material, again just add a footnote at the end of the last sentence. It may sometimes be necessary to make it clear as to the extent of your borrowing. For example, your footnote might begin with: “Much of the content of this paragraph is taken from….” or “This phrase is used by….” or “These few sentences summarise the view put forward by…” or “I have developed this idea from…”. As a general rule there is no need for such additions; just cite the source.

3.  Do not use note form. An essay should be a coherent, logical piece of analytical prose.

4.  Avoid the use of personal pronouns such as “I feel…..” or, “in my opinion”. They are not necessary, since it is understood that the essay is an expression of your views.

5.  Do not use vague or ill-informed generalisations such as “all art is about beauty”. Take care with the use of art historical terms such as Impressionism, Realism or Postmodernism. When such terms are capitalised this generally signifies a reference to their art historical meaning. For example, an Impressionist painting would refer to a work by Monet or one of his contemporaries, whereas an impressionistic painting might refer to any painting in the Impressionist manner or style. It is safest to always define what the terms mean in the context of your essay.

6.  Generally colloquialisms have no place in formal writing. Words and expressions such as dodgy, daggy, nerd, nerdy, do-gooder, ratbag or con-artist would not normally be used, except for dramatic effect.

7.  Your essay must be written as near as possible to the stipulated length. Plus or minus divergence of over 200 words may be penalised.

8.  Footnotes or endnotes are not added to the word count in the length of your essay. [note: some word-processing programs, such as WordPerfect, include footnotes and endnotes when listing word count, others, such as Word, do not.]

9.  In formal essay writing, the convention is to refer to artists by their surname; although use the full name when you first mention an artist in your essay. It is also usual to add birth/death dates in brackets after the first full name reference. However do this only for artists not generally known or those who may be confused with another, with a similar name. If you are uncertain, add the dates.

10. Use italics or bold for the titles of paintings and other   

works of art you mention in your essay (alternatively, you may underline for titles, but be consistent). Also take particular care to give enough information to identify the particular work by adding location or collection and date. Adding the date is the minimum requirement. Check with your lecturer if additional information is required as for some studies, such as Museology, you may be required to add all details on medium and dimensions. Titles of works of art are also given maximal capitalisation, e.g.: The Endless Enigma.

11. Discussion between students working on the same topic is useful but do not exchange notes or bibliography with another student. Such collaboration will make both essays unacceptable for assessment, as an essay must be the expression of your own ideas and effort.12.Non-sexist or gender-inclusive language should be used in all your writing and while still accepted, the generic “he” should be avoided. Sexist language is language that discriminates against women, usually by exclusion. All writers should avoid sexist language since many readers find it offensive if not insidiously disempowering.

 

Sexism in published texts

When you need to quote from a published text, especially from another era, and you encounter sexist language there are a number of approaches you can take.
The words in question can be paraphrased, not quoted directly, thus avoiding the sexist expression.

The word sic, enclosed in square brackets, can be inserted immediately after the sexist expression. (sic meaning “thus used”)

In some cases where it is clear that the language is not the work of the author the expression can be left intact.

Avoid the use of man in the generic sense
The word man should be limited to reference to male human beings. When man is used in a generic sense to refer to male and female human beings it not only creates confusion but implies the absence or invisibility of women. In the interests of clarity and equality replace the generic man with one of the following:
humans, humanity, human beings, humankind, man and woman, women and men, people, individuals, human race

  

For compound words where man is used as a prefix or suffix here are alternative words and phrases:

mankind manhood (generic sense) spokesman chairman	humanity, humankind, people adulthood spokesperson, advocate, intermediary chair
draftsman (generic) craftsman	draftsperson craftsperson, artisan, craft worker, technician

Man as a verb

to man the desk

to staff the desk

In idioms and phrases

the man in the street one-man show

the average person, ordinary people solo exhibition, one-person show

  

This document is intended as a guide only, if you are unsure vis-à-vis the suitability of what you are writing you should raise your concerns during a group tutorial, you may well find that you are not the only person experiencing similar problems.

Laurie Haynes  September 2007