Guide to Writing Art History Papers
GUIDANCE ON WRITING PAPERS
Papers should be typed and double-spaced with a standard typeface, and a 12 point type size. Margins should be about one inch on all sides. Paragraphs should be indented at the beginning, except for the first sentence of the first paragraph, which should be flush with the left margin; do not place an extra blank line between paragraphs. The front page of your paper will be a title page with your name, the title of your paper, the course number and meeting time (day and hour), and my name. Pages should be numbered at upper right, beginning with “2” on the second page; the title page and the first page of the body of the paper should not be numbered. This is not a research paper. If you wish to refer to something in Stokstad, cite the source in parentheses in the main body of the text, e.g., “(Stokstad, p. 12).” If you cite another source, use Chicago style citation with end-notes and bibliography. Short quotations can be put in quotation marks; longer quotations (of more than three lines) should be offset with wider margins and single-spaced within the main body of your paper. Acquaint yourself with the university’s rules concerning plagiarism. Any interpretation, argument or line of reasoning that you derive from another source must be noted with the precise bibliographic reference. If you include any of the original wording of that source, you must also use quotation marks, indicating that you have not only derived content from that source, but the language in which it was expressed. An end-note in your text without quotation marks means that the content of that sentence is taken from the source, but the writing is completely your own. Any significant resemblance in phrasing in this with the source would constitute plagiarism; changing a few words here and there does not help. A few basic things for writing about art: use the past tense to describe actions that happened in the past. You would say: “Leonardo
Papers should be typed and double-spaced with a standard typeface, and a 12 point type size. Margins should be about one inch on all sides. Paragraphs should be indented at the beginning, except for the first sentence of the first paragraph, which should be flush with the left margin; do not place an extra blank line between paragraphs. The front page of your paper will be a title page with your name, the title of your paper, the course number and meeting time (day and hour), and my name. Pages should be numbered at upper right, beginning with “2” on the second page; the title page and the first page of the body of the paper should not be numbered. This is not a research paper. If you wish to refer to something in Stokstad, cite the source in parentheses in the main body of the text, e.g., “(Stokstad, p. 12).” If you cite another source, use Chicago style citation with end-notes and bibliography. Short quotations can be put in quotation marks; longer quotations (of more than three lines) should be offset with wider margins and single-spaced within the main body of your paper. Acquaint yourself with the university’s rules concerning plagiarism. Any interpretation, argument or line of reasoning that you derive from another source must be noted with the precise bibliographic reference. If you include any of the original wording of that source, you must also use quotation marks, indicating that you have not only derived content from that source, but the language in which it was expressed. An end-note in your text without quotation marks means that the content of that sentence is taken from the source, but the writing is completely your own. Any significant resemblance in phrasing in this with the source would constitute plagiarism; changing a few words here and there does not help. A few basic things for writing about art: use the past tense to describe actions that happened in the past. You would say: “Leonardo