NPD 1000 – Prof. VanderBrug
For this assignment you will write an analytical essay that examines some basic aspects of human experience and culture by breaking it apart into its component pieces, and then showing how these pieces relate. You will use examples as evidence for your conclusions, but the structure of the essays is neither summary, nor narrative, but thoughtful analysis.
Assignment: You are to write a 900-1200 word essay that answers the question, “What are the particular values in the form and subject of this particular artwork or poem?” By “form” we mean the material and visual and/or musical qualities of the poem or artwork and by “subject” we mean the stuff pictured or described in the poem or artwork. Your essay should defend a particular THESIS with regard to this question. The necessary components of the essay are as follows:
1) Pick a particular example that you will analyze. This example should be promising for linking human experience and creativity. The example may be either an example from class or from your library bibliography project.
2) The first step in this writing is to describe the example for what it is. This section should be brief
(one full paragraph), and will be evaluated according to how it uses concise and descriptive prose to paint a picture of the example.
3) The next step is to use the attached steps to analyze the multiple parts of your artwork or
poem and show how they relate to and support your thesis.
4) Your last step in the essay is to build upon the values that you say are at the heart of the artwork/poem. Give your own analysis. You are not to provide another example of your own but to continue and enrich the analysis. This section is guided by the question: What do you see more clearly, or differently, than the artwork/poem? This part of the essay will be evaluated with regard to how you help the reader better understand the example, and how your analysis leads the reader to accept your central thesis.
5) The paper should have an identifiable introduction and conclusion.
In this assignment, we hope to accomplish the following goals:
• Build upon your ability to describe a work of art (image or text) experience concisely and richly.
• Analyze a work/experience to reveal its structure and coherence or lack-of-coherence
• Build upon your ability to integrate the ideas of other makers with your own.
• Build upon your ability to craft a debatable thesis which is defend through an organized argument
In writing your paper be sure to:
• Find an interesting and workable topic for a 4 to 5-page paper that aligns with the assignment; it should be narrow enough to probe it in some depth
• Construct unified and coherent paragraphs of reasonable length for academic papers (i.e., usually between 5-10 sentences)
• Make good use of topic sentences, both to announce a paragraph’s subject and to usher an argument along in a meaningful sequence.
• Work on presenting your ideas in a natural-sounding voice.
In preparing to write your paper be sure to:

 Read through the handout on analyzing attached and follow the steps

Take notes on the viewing/reading experience to help you pay attention to what you are noticing
Dates:
Oct. 21: Solid draft and additional copy due IN CLASS, one copy for WA with filled out yellow sheet attached.
Oct. 23-31: Writing Conferences, revision work
Nov. 1: Revised, last draft due at the beginning of class. Turn in both the final revision and the copy you worked on in your WA conference (with all the markings).
Format: 900-1200 words, printed double-spaced, with reasonable margins (1-11/4 in.), no additional spacing between paragraphs.
Late Papers: The final grade of this paper will be reduced if any of the drafts are turned in late.