Analysis of ‘Tree’

Analysis of ‘Tree’

Discipline:
English

Type of service:
Essay

Spacing:
Double spacing

Paper format:
MLA

Number of pages:
4 pages

Number of sources:
0 source

Paper details:

For this assignment, select a piece of visual art for your subject from one of the museum collections linked on the course site. Then, write a well-developed, interesting, and original essay (1000 words minimum) that analyzes the content and design of it (a painting, photograph, or other visual piece). Submit your visual with the paper. Library research is not required, but may be used; any use of sources (words or ideas) must be properly documented with MLA style in-text citations and a works cited. Due by midnight on the due date.

Using the tools laid out in Writing Analytically (Notice and Focus, 10 on 1, and The Method), analyze the image thoroughly. Make interpretive leaps from your observations by asking and answering “So what?” about them. Organize your essay around specific claims that analyze patterns and contradictions (repetitions, strands, binaries, anomalies), then tell the reader why these observations and interpretations are important, interesting, or unusual. Your thesis should reveal some [arguable] understanding about the piece, which the rest of your essay will support.

In analyzing the visual, consider the its ‘rhetoric’:

• What do you notice? (observations of patterns and contradictions: repetitions, strands, binaries, anomalies)

• What are the elements ‘saying’? (argument/message/points)

• Who is the visual ‘saying’ it to? (specific audience/consumer group)

• Why is the visual ‘saying’ it that way? (interpretive leaps)

• Ask, ‘so what?’

In your essay, place the visual argument in a context for your readers. What was its intended purpose? Why was it created, or do you know? From analyzing patterns and contradictions, explain why the appeals in the visual are or are not persuasive, and comment on any cultural values its argument addresses, criticizes, or advocates. Your aim is to convince your readers to take seriously your analysis of the visual argument and offer fresh insights into understanding the possible visual arguments.

First, choose a visual. Browse the visual collections at the links I’ve provided. Choose a piece that both interests you, piques your curiosity, and that’s meaning is not obvious. [This could fall into the ‘seems to be about x but is really about y’ category–see pgs 129-30 in Writing Analytically.] Your visual should have enough detail to analyze for three pages without stretching/repeating yourself.

Next, begin to analyze your visual, using the Method, Notice & Focus, ‘So what?’ and other tools listed on the assignment sheet (see that and lecture 1). Observe it closely, drawing out details (using the analytical tools). Begin to make sense of/draw meaning from your visual, working toward a trial interpretation/working thesis about your visual. Note that titles of visual works are italicized.

For example, what is Kiefer’s Book With Wings (used in lecture 1) saying about knowledge? Does the heaviness of the sculpture suggest that it [knowledge] weighs one down–or keeps one grounded (could be good or bad, depending on how the word is used), or do the wings suggest that it’s liberating? I could use those questions as a starting point to interpret the work.

Use your list/s of observations and questions about your visual to begin organizing your ideas, moving from these lists (or freewrite paragraphs) toward a structure for the essay, focused on supporting the interpretation/working thesis. Your thesis statement must be analytical and arguable. Pick one of the approaches from your list or freewrite paragraph and set out to make a convincing argument in your essay for that interpretation. From this beginning (a thesis and topic sentences/supporting reasons), you’ll begin drafting the essay. My sample thesis for our example: Anselm Kiefer’s sculpture Book With Wings suggests that knowledge can be both liberating and grounding, but also warns that that grounding can be positive or negative, depending on how one employs this knowledge.

As the book details, your goal is not to identify the ‘one right interpretation’ of your subject, but rather to give your own valid, reasoned interpretation, supported by your analysis. This does not mean that all interpretations are valid, though. I couldn’t reasonably claim that Kiefer’s Book With Wings was about aliens coming to earth and bringing their knowledge because, well, there’s no evidence to support that. It’s all ‘leap,’ no interpretation (because there’s nothing factual in the work to root that leap in). Make sense? See chapter 5 on interpretation in the textbook for a thorough discussion of this.

Before drafting your paper, make sure that you’ve gone through the steps above and completed the readings in the text book (and these lectures) so that you know you’re headed in the right direction. I’d encourage you to use the structure (thesis and 2-4 topic sentences/supporting reasons, likely) to help you write the paper.

You know how much time you have until it’s due; break up the drafting by these sections, taking the part that’s easiest (the intro? the second topic sentence? the third one?) first. Set aside 30-45 minutes or an hour to work on this section, or maybe two sections at once. Scheduling the drafting in chunks (an hour here, 45 minutes there, maybe looking back over what I’ve written at lunch or over coffee later in the afternoon) helps me to make progress on a writing project without feeling overwhelmed, as I do if I put it off or try to do it all at once (or, worse, do it all at once the night before it’s due, which rarely yields good results).

As you draft, try to switch off your internal editor and focus on getting your ideas and words down on the page/up on the screen. Go back later and do the editing necessary to fix it (this is a must–papers riddled with errors are unacceptable at this level and will result in a correspondingly poor grade). But worry about that in the next step–not as you draft.

In the middle section of your essay–the body paragraphs–you’ll look back to your topic sentences/supporting reasons for your thesis, and build a paragraph around each one. A fully developed paragraph is 5-8 sentences (fully developed sentences–not ‘See Spot run.’ sentences). A paragraph shouldn’t generally be shorter than this, and it should never run over a typed page in length. Use the material you uncovered in your analysis to support the thesis/point you’re making/interpretation you’re advocating. Don’t just describe the subject (here, the visual); analyze/make meaning of/interpret it.

My visual analysis will be over ‘Tree’ by Ai Weiwei. Here is the website:
https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/ai-tree-t14630

THE THESIS STATEMENT IS URGENT AND I WILL NEED IT WITHIN 12 HOURS. IT IS DUE TONIGHT. Thank you for your help! The rest of the essay is due at later date.