Introduction

In this first formal assignment for the semester you’ll explore the ways research writing varies across genres, and also to practice looking at sources carefully and critically.

The Assignment:

Arts writing happens in numerous genres:

In this unit you will collect representational artifacts of at least 10 different items on the list to your left—that could mean taking a photograph of an art book, or posting a link to a news article or radio story, or grabbing a screen shot of a blog post, etc. For each of the ten representational artifacts, include a brief description that would allow your reader to understand the artifact. In other words, create some context.

Then, you will select four particular representations of the the items on the list to actually read, and on your Expressions website you will compose a post (250 words) for each item, using the following questions as a guide for your response:

How does the text invite a particular way of seeing, understanding, interacting with art? What kinds of affects is the text attempting to inspire?
What are the conventions of the genre? That is, what qualities or characteristics make it recognizable as a certain type of arts writing?
What types/s of research are on display in the text?
What knowledges are assumed and/or privileged in each genre?
For whom is the text written? What does a reader need to know in order to interact confidently and comfortably with the text?