PAPER GUIDELINES

Prof. Cynthia Atherton

• All papers should be typed, double spaced, stapled, 1” margins all around, font size no larger than 12. Papers should have a typed title page with your name and section time (if applicable). Make sure you have printed page numbers., and include footnotes or endnotes and full citations. Where relevant, include neatly xeroxed copies of artworks you are discussing. If necessary and important to your argument, color xeroxes are a nice (but not necessary) addition.

• Assume your reader has not taken this class. Provide a proper introduction, a clear statement of purpose, and a clear idea of your thesis at the beginning of the paper.

• Be sure you have the historical context clear. Watch for specific dates, times, and places for your artwork(s).

• Be sure that you have the artistic and stylistic context clear. Where does your artwork fall in the history of art? Do not talk about your topic as if it is in a vacuum; be aware of where it fits in to the broader context of the history of art.

• Try to be analytical, and not just descriptive. Support your assertions by pointing to evidence in the work(s). Walk your reader through the material; make him/her clearly see and understand your points.

• You may always submit a draft prior to the deadline for feedback. Please come to office hours or contact me about a time to meet. You must give me plenty of lead time, preferably a week to 10 days. I will not read a draft two days before the paper is due.

GRADING GUIDE

Prof. Cynthia Atherton

I grade in the following way:

A = superb writing, organization, original analysis, and evidence of creative research (going beyond the obvious expected for the assignment). Paper must detail most of this in your own words. Must be a relevant thesis which you clearly argue for. Thesis should be a clear statement which provides the main focus of your paper, and it must be supported by your evidence and followed through in your conclusion. Thorough and proper use of sources, proper citations. Neatly and correctly presented paper, no typographical errors.

A- = superior writing, organization, evidence of analysis and research above and beyond obvious expected for assignment. Same requirements regarding your own words and the thesis. Proper use of sources, proper citations. Neatly and correctly presented paper, no typographical errors.

B+ = thorough job with assignment, excellent writing, good organization, good coverage of basics. Same requirements regarding your own words and the thesis. Neatly and correctly presented paper. Good use of sources, proper citations, few typographical errors.

B = good writing, good organization, basic fulfillment of assignment in your own words. Same requirements regarding the thesis. Same requirements regarding your own words and the thesis. Basic use of sources, basic citations. Adequately presented paper, some typographical errors.

B- and below = problems with writing, organization, inadequate level of research. Poorly defined thesis, overuse of quotations and paraphrases. Poorly utilized sources, improper use of citations, inadequately presented paper.

THINGS TO DO AND NOT TO DO ON YOUR PAPERS

Prof. Cynthia Atherton

1. Underline, boldface or italicize (preferred) titles of books and works of art. Do not put the titles in quotation marks. Italicize foreign terminology.

2. Avoid using contractions in a formal paper. It lends a conversational note that is inappropriate.

3. Avoid the use of the personal pronoun as much as possible in a formal paper. “I” and “my” can be used, but sparingly, for emphasis (as in “as my analysis will demonstrate, the date of this work is too early”).

4. PROOFREAD your papers to avoid careless spelling mistakes. Always, always use a spell-checker. But don’t let it substitute for a careful rereading before submission.

5. Use “ marks for quotations. A single mark, ', is used for a quotation within a quotation.

6. A dash is marked by an elongated (–) or a double (--) hyphen, not by a hyphen (-).

7. “It's” is a contraction for “it is.” “Its” is the possessive. If you graduate from College still making this mistake, your parents have wasted their money.

8. Avoid colloquial phrases such as “jumped out,” “blatantly,” “awesome.” Similarly, be careful about the proper uses of “simple” and “simplistic.”

9. Do not refer to works of art as “pieces of art.”

10. Challenge yourself! Expand your working vocabulary with frequent reference to such manuals as Roget’s international Thesaurus and Sisson’s Synonyms.

FOOTNOTE AND BIBLIOGRAPHY CITATION GUIDE

Prof. Cynthia Atherton

When to use footnotes: Footnote citations should be used for direct quotations that are not your own, paraphrases (close rewordings) from other scholars, factual information that is not so well-known, hypotheses, and ideas that are not your own.

Footnotes, as seen below, can also be used to provide more information to your reader. For example, if there is information you would like to include that is tangential to your main topic, it should be placed in a footnote (preferably at the bottom of the page; at the end of the document is also acceptable). Additional supporting information for an argument that does not “fit” the main lines of your paper also belongs in a footnote. Controversies about your topic can also be placed in a footnote, and finally, a footnote can be used to advise your reader where to find more information about a given topic.

Footnote format varies from discipline to discipline, but the samples I include below are conventional for art history, and are what I use for my own papers. Alternatively, consult the latest edition of the Chicago Manual of Style. Above all, be consistent!

Sample footnotes. Note that, when a given work is cited for the first time, its author/editor and full title is included. Dates are included when relevant to the discussion. Page numbers and page ranges are also cited. Article titles are cited in quotation marks; books in italics. The citation is often shortened in future references if referred to frequently. However, if you start a new chapter, full citations must be repeated the first time you refer to a work.

1 While I am fully aware that the term “medieval” is controversial, it does suggest a recognizable time frame, which has been adopted here for reasons of convenience. Others are welcome to disagree with me. I think of “early medieval” as covering the seventh through ninth centuries. Meister has recently coined the phrase “period of early maturity” for the period spanning A.D. 700 to 900, but this is too unwieldy for regular usage. See M. W. Meister and M. A. Dhaky, eds. Encyclopaedia of Indian Temple Architecture, vol. 2, pt. 2, North India: Period of Early Maturity, c. A. D. 700–900 [hereafter cited as EITA, vol. 2, pt. 2]. V. Desai also addresses the issue of the inadequate nomenclature for this period in “Beyond the Temple Walls: The Scholarly Fate of North Indian Sculpture, A.D. 700–1200,” 19–31. D. Mason’s essay, “A Sense of Time and Place: Style and Architectural Disposition of Images on the North Indian Temple,” 117–37, is also pertinent.

2 V. Desai and D. Mason’s exhibition Gods, Guardians, and Lovers: Temple Sculptures from North India, A.D. 700–1200, and the accompanying catalog exemplify the most recent trends in scholarship. For other relatively new approaches to the study of Indian art, see J. G. Williams, ed., Kaladarsana: American Studies in the Art of India (1981). See also D. M. Stadtner, “New Approaches to South Asian Art” (1990). Much of the historiography relevant to the study of Indian temple architecture and sculpture has been outlined by P. Chandra in On the Study of Indian Art (1983), and in his introductory essay, “The Study of Indian Temple Architecture,” to Studies in Indian Temple Architecture (1975), 1–39.

Atherton: Footnote and bibliography citation guide/2

Sample bibliography. Note the differing conventions used for books, single articles, articles published in edited volumes, and multiple citations by the same author.

Agrawala, R. C. “Matrka Reliefs in Early Indian Art.” East and West (n.s.) 21 (1971):79–89.

——. “Pratihara Sculptures from Choti Khatu, Rajasthan.” Journal of the Oriental Institute of Baroda 23 (1973):72–74.

——. “Sculptures from Abaneri, Rajasthan.” Lalit Kala 1-2 (1955–56):130–35.

——. “Some Interesting Sculptures from Devangana, Rajasthan.” Lalit Kala 8 (1960):69–71.

——. “Some More Unpublished Sculptures from Rajasthan.” Lalit Kala 10 (1961):31–33.

——. “Some Unpublished Sculptures from Southwestern Rajasthan.” Lalit Kala 6 (1959):63–71.

——. “Unpublished Temples of Rajasthan.” Arts Asiatiques 11 (1965):53–72.

Asher, Frederick. The Art of Eastern India, 300–800. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1980.

——. “Pañcayatana Siva Lingas: Sources and Meaning.” In Kaladarsana: American Studies in the Art of India, edited by Joanna G. Williams, 1–16.