In the course syllabus you will notice that you are responsible for two critical essays responding to two contemporary art events, an exhibit of visual art and a concert. These essays are not research papers like you are assigned in other classes. The goal of these essays is to deepen your understanding of visual art and music through consideration of artistic information and informed writing.  In order to write these essays, you must focus your attention on the exhibit or concert, write a careful and detailed description of the event, give thought to the structure of the work presented, and draw your own conclusions about the meaning and significance of the work.  Although this may seem difficult at first, most students find that by working in a step by step approach, they are able to write essays that help them understand what they have seen or heard. This handout is a guide to preparing those essays.

First, to reinforce what is in the syllabus, each essay should be about a contemporary event.  That means work that was originally produced (created or composed) since 1945.  If you are in doubt about whether an event is contemporary or not, talk to your discussion group leader.

Each  essay must be about an event attended this quarter, and cannot be about an event attended before you started this class.

Regarding your music essay - not all concert venues are suitable for this course. Here are some that are: Schottenstein Center, Ohio Theater, Palace Theater, Vets Memorial, Little Brothers, Bernies, Nationwide Arena, Mershon, and Weigel Auditorium. Not all events in these venues are relevant to 160. Be sure that the concert you write about is contemporary and that the event fits the context of the course (must be music). If you write about a concert in a venue other than these, or one that is in another city, it must be approved by your discussion group leader. In addition, select groups that do original material; in other words no cover bands, Elvis impersonators, etc.

Each essay must be four or five pages in length, not including a title page.  They must be typed and double spaced.  Sloppy papers  (poor grammar, punctuation, spelling and typing) often indicate sloppy content.  All forms of sloppiness should be avoided.

Deadlines are listed in the syllabus. Your discussion group leader may modify deadlines for the essays, so be sure to adhere to the deadlines set by your group leader. These are very important and it is your responsibility to see that your essays are turned in at the time and place specified by your discussion group leader.

In general, the following outline will give you the essay structure that we expect. One of the first things to think about with the essay is how much of the exhibit or concert you will write about. Let's say you have been to an exhibit with 100 works of art or a concert where 30 songs were played. Writing about all of that is well beyond the scope of a five page paper. We would like you to write some about the event in general, but to really concentrate on three works, and to write about them in depth. This may become more clear as you read below.

1. Introduction

This is your opportunity to introduce the facts about the exhibit or concert. When did it take place, where was it, who was involved in it?

2. Description

This is where you describe the event.  What did you see and what did it look like?  What did you hear and what did it sound like?  This should be done in detail and if done effectively, should be complete enough for a reader to imagine the event without actually attending  it.  Of course, if you have been to an exhibit with many works of art or a concert where a number of songs were played, it would take many more than five pages to describe all that.  We suggest that after a general description of the event, you focus on three works in the exhibit or concert and that you describe each of them in depth.

3. Interpretation

All works of art have meaning.  Interpretation is your attempt to decide what these works mean.  Interpretation is personal and all interpretations of an object or song will not be identical.  Likewise, there is no single correct interpretation for a work of art.  Interpretations, however, should be based on evidence - the evidence supplied to the reader with your description of the work.  Interpretations are often judged on how well they fit the evidence. Keep in mind that you are concentrating on the three works that you have already described.

4. Judgment

Now is the time to tell us what you thought about the three works that you are writing about from the exhibit or concert that you attended.  Did you think they were good or bad?  Why?  Again, like interpretations, judgments are based on evidence and are often judged on how well the judgment fits the evidence.

5. Conclusion

This is a separate section (not the judgment), where you summarize your paper and finish it with concluding remarks.

• Do your own work.
• Keep a copy of all essays that you have turned in.
• All papers must be to your Discussion Group leader on time.
• Your essays must be about contemporary events and they must have been attended this quarter.

 

If in doubt, ask your Discussion Group leader.