Week 10

 

Read-aloud-athon

Final Draft due to instructor and GP adviser

June 12: Final Graduate Project Artist Statement (approved by GP adviser) with bibliography and exhibition documentation images due to Art Office, 5pm

MFA Documentation Google Folder

…. Celebrate!!!

Week 8

Present alternate introductions (at least 2)

Discussion: How does each get the reader’s interest? What makes one want to read on? What role does each play in signaling the direction the paper will take?

LIGHTENING REVERSE ROUND!

We skipped this last week. In 15 minute scan your latest draft and write one word or phrase that summarizes the content and purpose of each paragraph of your draft for a final check on sequencing and overall content.

• Were you able to summarize each paragraph in one phrase? Do any paragraphs have too much diverse information?
• Do the ideas flow logically from one to the next?
• Does anything seem to be in the wrong place?
• Are there gaps? If so, what’s missing
• Is there anything that could/should be eliminated (unnecessary or repetitive)?
• Does this outline clearly convey what you want your paper to accomplish?

What’s the final prescription for the draft due 5/27 Saturday by noon? State your focus for this next-to-last draft.

Week 9 Individual Meetings (rearrange as necessary)

3:00 Melanie, 3:20 Kayley; 3:40 Sam; 4:00 break; 4:10 Carlin; 4:30 Megan; 4:50-5:10 Jordan

Week 7

Transition and Flow (Known/New)

• Briefly walk us through the sequence of ideas in your latest draft.
• Assess transitions and flow: how do you move from one topic to another?
  • Common writing wisdom is to use “known>new” — begin paragraphs with something known and develop a logical segue to something new. Of course, variety and attention to rhythm of the work overall is more important than following any prescription.
• Read two or three transitions including some that you think are working well and ones that need improvement. Discuss.

LIGHTENING REVERSE ROUND!

In 15 minute scan your latest draft and write one phrase that summarizes the content and purpose of each paragraph of your draft for a final-ish check on sequencing and overall content.

• Were you able to summarize each paragraph in a sentence or do some paragraphs still have too much diverse information?
• Are there gaps? What’s missing?
• Do the ideas flow logically from one to the next?
• Does anything seem to be in the wrong place?
• is there anything that should be eliminated (unnecessary or repetitive)?
• Does this outline, in itself, clearly convey what you want your paper to convey?

Assignment for Week 8:

Alternate introductions: write two options. How will you get your reader’s interest? What makes them want to read on?

Keep refining your draft.

Week 9: Individual Meetings

Week 10:  Read-aloud-athon (with treats)

Week 6: Responses

Reviewers:

• What is the overall shape of the draft you reviewed?
• Are there obvious holes to be filled?
• What strengths and weaknesses did you identify? What suggestions do you have for improvement?
• Read aloud a passage that illustrates any of the above.

Writers:

• What are the most useful comments you received from  your editors? How will you address them?
• What are the next steps you will take to develop your draft? 
• If your draft does not yet include direct references to your work, how do you plan to incorporate them? What is your plan for writing about work that is currently in development?
• Read aloud a (different) passage that addresses any of the comments of your editors and/or identifies a specific area for improvement

Assignment for 5/25:

• Address editing comments and continue to refine your writing to produce a new draft.
• Identify sequence of ideas and assess transitions and flow. How do you move from one topic to another? Be ready to read and discuss transitions you feel are working well and ones that need improvement. 
• Complete a new draft and bring 2 hard copies to class.

Week 5: Individual Meetings

May 4 Individual Meeting Schedule: 3:00 Melanie, 3:20 Kayley; 3:40 Sam; 4:00 break; 4:10 Carlin; 4:30 Megan; 4:50-5:10 Jordan. 

• No group class meeting on 5/4; students meet individually for feedback with me in AB 110.
• Students exchange drafts with two classmates for global editing (mark-up hard copy and meet to discuss). You each will be doing two edits of your classmates drafts and receiving two feedback summaries of your own draft.
• For 5/11 class, each student presents 1) an editing evaluation summary of one partner’s draft including brief examples of strengths and weaknesses to read aloud and 2) fashions one or two questions geared to useful suggestionsfor group discussion.

Questions for global editing:

• What is the central idea that motivates your writing?

• Where and how does this appear? (Mark every reference.) If it is not included in the draft, where is/are good place(s) to add it?

• Do you have an interesting title that grabs the reader’s attention and hints at the main idea? It might be the exhibition title or something else.

• Do you have an introduction that sets up context or background? If not, how and where do you provide this? Are there better options?

• Do you use description to help the reader visualize your ideas? Do you adequately describe specific works and tie them to main ideas?

• Do you use evidence (personal observations, experience, information from outside sources, etc.) to back up your ideas?

• Do you transition smoothly between paragraphs?

• Have you discovered anything new in the writing? Have you shown your reader something new?

• Do you have a conclusion that relates back to the the central motivation?

 

Week 4 Going Global

Adrian Piper

Debrief First Round of Grad Talks

Personal Glossaries

Global Editing

Generally in expository writing, the first task is to identify a central thesis. Often this is expressed as a question and the job of the subsequent writing is to answer or resolve that question. Though we are writing to discover or illuminate thought as it relates to your work rather than prove an argument, writing with a sense that you are answering a question or exploring and resolving a tension or instability will add clarity. Your writing may not seem to have an identifiable thesis, however, there should be some sense of moving along a path to a conclusion with a deliberate method of construction that draws the reader forward. Global editing will help you organize the structure of your writing. It’s looking at the big picture. Read for content, context, structure and logical (even if it’s a poetic logic) sequence. Ferret out repetition. Look for opportunities to condense (or if necessary, expand). Don’t worry too much about fine tuning grammar or making each sentence clear and lovely (though progressively working on that is not bad). We are working on the overall shape, the progression from beginning to end, and major points of content.

Here are some questions that generally are used in global editing. Work with your editing partners to tailor them to your individual purpose.

• What is the central idea that motivates your writing?

• Where and how does this appear? (Mark every reference.) If it is not included in the draft, where is/are good place(s) to add it?

• Do you have an interesting title that grabs the reader’s attention and hints at the main idea? It might be the exhibition title or something else.

• Do you have an introduction that sets up context or background? If not, how and where do you provide this? Are there better options?

• Do you use description to help the reader visualize your ideas? Do you adequately describe specific works and tie them to main ideas?

• Do you use evidence (personal observations, experience, information from outside sources, etc.) to back up your ideas?

• Do you transition smoothly between paragraphs?

• Have you discovered anything new in the writing? Have you shown your reader something new?

• Do you have a conclusion that relates back to the the central motivation?

Individual Meetings May 4

• No group class meeting on 5/4; students meet individually for feedback with me in AB 110 (schedule below)
• Students exchange drafts with two classmates for global editing (mark-up and meet to discuss). You each will be doing two edits and receiving two summaries.
• In class on 5/11, each student presents a summary of the global editing evaluation of a partner’s draft. Select illustrative portions to read aloud and ask questions for group discussion geared to improving the selected section.

Week 3: “Clarity is the Remedy”

George Orwell

Check out George Orwell’s 1946 essay, “Politics and the English Language”.

Orwell’s six rules:

Never use a metaphor, simile, or other figure of speech which you are used to seeing in print.

Never use a long word where a short one will do.

If it is possible to cut a word out, always cut it out.

Never use the passive where you can use the active.

Never use a foreign phrase, a scientific word, or a jargon word if you can think of an everyday English equivalent.

Break any of these rules sooner than say anything outright barbarous.

 

Recap reverse outline workshop:

• Were you able to summarize each paragraph in a sentence or do some paragraphs require several? Do any have too much diverse information?
• Is everything that you intend included? Are there gaps? Missing parts?
• Do the ideas flow in some kind of logical sequence from one to the next?
• Does anything seem to be in the wrong place?
• is there anything that should be eliminated (unnecessary or repetitive)?
• Does this outline, in itself, clearly convey what you want your paper to convey?

Draft 2 (the “Architectonic Stage”): Scaffolding, Scope, Sequence

In class: Working from your reverse outline and the improvements of your 2nd draft, construct a global outline of major themes, issues. Identify a thesis statement and, through the outline, show us the overall shape you intend.

For your third draft, do obvious reordering and fill in holes but resist getting caught up in fine tuning.

• Draft necessary areas that have not yet been dropped in.
• Write out more fully those sections that are most easily done.
• Did you include examples, descriptions of sample works?
• Do you have info/examples to back up your claims?

Due 4/27: Draft 3 (everything that is going to be there is there, though not as pretty as it will be later). Bring 2 hard copies to class.

Week 2

Fiona Banner, Gallery guide stack, 2016, 9,500 pages of gallery notes, glue, installation view, Buoys Boys, De La Warr Pavilion, Bexhill-on-sea, 2016

In expository writing, the first task is to identify a central thesis. Often this is expressed as a question or a tension and the job of the subsequent writing is to answer or resolve. Keeping in mind that we are writing to discover or illuminate thought as it relates to your work rather than prove an argument, writing out of a sense that you are answering a question or exploring and resolving a tension or instability nonetheless is a good way to build a coherent text.

“Work on good prose has three steps: a musical stage when it is composed, an architectonic one when it is built, and a textile one when it is woven.” — Walter Benjamin, One Way Street

Activities:

• Reading discussion: Isabelle Graw, “Talk Til You Drop: The Art Conversation and the Communication Imperative” (Mousse 56, pdf)
• 5 True Things
• Workshop: Reverse Outline:

Exchange drafts with a partner. Read through and write one sentence that summarizes the content and purpose of each paragraph. This will produce a reverse outline which will make the skeleton of your thought more apparent.

Discuss each other’s draft with your partner and be prepared to answer the following in a group discussion:

• Were you able to summarize each paragraph in a sentence or do some paragraphs require several? Do any have too much diverse information?
• Are there gaps? Missing parts?
• Do the ideas flow in some kind of logical sequence from one to the next?
• Does anything seem to be in the wrong place?
• is there anything that should be eliminated (unnecessary or repetitive)?
• Does this outline, in itself, clearly convey what you want your paper to convey?

Assignment for 4/20:

Draft 2

(Jordan and Kayley drafts due to committee April 19)

Bibliography draft (rough is fine, just get your sources down.)

• Library Guide for Art + Design
• Library Guide for Citing Sources
• Chicago Manual of Style: Notes and Bibliography

“It’s Not Personal, It’s Business”

What, if any, personal history or experience is relevant to the discussion of your work? Does this function as an essential entry point or is it an unnecessary distraction?

Personal Glossary

What are key words or phrases that come up repeatedly in your haikus, your interview, your drafts? Are there buzz words you use when describing your work? Note them (we may point some out) and define what they mean for you. This could give you useful alternatives. No hiding behind your own personal jargon! Target: 3-5 words or phrases + definitions.

 

Welcome to 582 for real

 

Overview of course and resources. 

Discussion: Expectations (yours & the program’s) for GPS

• What kind of approach and format?
• What writing have you already done?
• What resources have you gathered?

Reading discussion: Isabelle Graw, Talk ‘Til You Drop: The Art Conversation and the Communication Imperative (Mousse 56, pdf)

Haikus; Artist, Writer, Mentor; Winter Interviews

5 True Things

Due 4/13: Global Draft 1 (the “Musical Stage”) (bring 2 hard copies to class); Read Williams, Section 2

Getting a jump on 2017

There’s all this good time that you could be wasting in many different ways, but I know you won’t.

So let’s get organized.

Over the winter break and into January:

Reading assignments*:

• Barthes, “From Work to Text”
• Williams, How to Write About Contemporary Art (the whole thing, really, if you haven’t already)

Look through Frieze.com’s Writing Surveys: ‘What writing has most influenced the way you think about art?’ Writers, artists and curators reveal the often surprising literary influences – from Theodor W. Adorno to Lester Bangs, Gertrude Stein and P.G. Wodehouse – that have shaped their thinking.’

*begin to draft your AS bibliography

Written Assignments: 

1. 20 Haikus about your work 

Haikus, as you know, are short meditative poems of a specified structure that often express an image, sense or feeling:

    5 syllables for the first line

    7 syllables for the second line

    5 syllables for the third line

Japanese haikus are more complicated than English. For our purpose, keep it simple. Use the restrictive quality to quickly set down some things you think and feel about your work. Keep it focused on your work but don’t overthink. Let the haikus write themselves. If nothing that you like comes out, do more until you have 20 you feel ok about.

2. Artist-writer Mentors

Find 2 examples of artist’s writing you admire (upload pdfs to this the GP Writing site) and DECONSTRUCT one. Mark up a hard copy of that text (use colored highlighters or any other method) to identify the central point and method of organization.

• What is the central question or focus?
• What is the relationship between content and tone?
• What kinds of transitions are used to move from one idea to the next?
• What kind of material is used to support assertions or arguments (backup)? How is this done in the text?
• What is the manner of conclusion?
• What do you know of the artists’ visual work and how does this piece reinforce or change what you think?
• What is it that attracts you? What, if any, elements would you like to bring into your own writing?

3. Interviews

Find a partner and interview each other (or round robin).

• Prepare 10 good questions aimed at the heart of what you think your partner’s work is about.
• Prepare 10 good questions aimed at the heart of what you think your own work is about.
• Prepare 10 good questions aimed at the heart of what you think your partner’s work is about.
• Discuss the two combined sets and agree on the 10  most piercing questions for each of you.
• Answer your own interview questions fully. You may do this in writing or in conversation with each other and transcribe.
• Exchange and edit until you both have a well-written, articulate document.

see Bomb Artists-in Conversation http://bombmagazine.org/; The Brooklyn Rail “In Conversation” http://www.brooklynrail.org/