1- discussion should open with a description of your artworkand a thesis statement declaring your primary question and suggesting a hypothesis that can answer this question.

2- begin the body of your investigation, make a concise visual analysis of the artwork, focusing on aspects that allow you to define the substance of your primary question. Consider how the authors of your sources have written about this or similar images. In other people’s scholarship, you can often find useful approaches to writing about your artwork.

3- as you analyze your artwork, pull from your observations to help begin establishing the main point you made at the paper’s outset.

4- begin quoting from your sources either to have the authors you have read confirm your observations or disagree (should you be reaching a different conclusion). If possible, see if you can quote from primary sourcesas well, such as statements by the artist, by the person who is depicted in the picture, or by someone who talked about your image at the time it was made. In many cases, these primary sources are republished in secondary sources, that is: the scholarly and critical work that you are most likely to find in research.

5- As you write into the body of your paper, try to hammer away at the answer to your main question, making this answer seem logical and irrefutable, and fully based on the image itself (visual analysis) and the evidence you have found.

6- Provide a conclusion that recaps your thesis in light of the preceding discussion.

7- You must use at least 4 published resources for your paper. Again, these must be published articles in academic journals or art magazines (such as Artforum or Art in America), book, chapters, or books. Encyclopedia entries, newspaper articles from now or the recent past, webpages, blogs, etc., can be supplemental, but not one of your 4sources.Ideally you will want two sources from books and two from journals, and while the sources you find will be determined by your topic, try to look for a mix of journals and books. CHICAGO STYLE

-In the first paragraph, introduce your artwork. By using a quick visual analysis, allow the image to pose its own question. Make this the main question of your paper and suggest an answer, your hypothesis.

-In the second paragraph, introduce the background information, but only as much as the reader needs to understand the context in which your work and analysis fit. Too much background and context may not serve your analysis and may even distract from the answer to your main question. For example, only provide as much biography about your artistas is relevant to your question.

-With the third paragraph, you may want to spend more time taking apart your artworkvisually. Allow this to sharpen and direct the question for which you have now provided some context. Let the image guide your analysis.

-In the fourth paragraph, begin answering your question based on the problems you pulled out in the third paragraph.-As you work through your paper, be sure that you are working toward answering your primary question or confirming your main point? Does each part of the paper serve this function? If not, remove it.

-Are your published sources helping guide your argument or do they remain peripheral? Have you made it clear how your sources have helped you develop your argument?