Avoiding Mistakes when Writing an Art History Essay
Your art history essay is your way of showing your teacher that you are capable of making concise arguments, can express clear thoughts, have learned the material that has been taught and that you are able to come up with original thoughts. Take this opportunity to show your teacher that you are a top student and to grab high grades in your class.
Make concise arguments.
Make sure that you arguments is expressed in a clear and concise way. Students often make 1 of 2 of these mistakes: they try to use an argument that has too much information or they try to make an argument that is too specific and committed. Make sure that your argument is talking about the topic at hand in a manner that says something specific about it. If you make an argument that is too broad you will have difficulty bringing up points that will support it sufficiently. Also, do not make an argument that is too specific as this will leave you with a small number of points to make in support of it.
Make sure that your arguments are directly related to your thesis statement. If your thesis statement and your evidence are not related your arguments will not be properly supported and it will weaken your entire essay. You do not want to cut your own legs out from under yourself so make sure that you have clear and strong connections between your thesis and your evidence.
Show that you learned something.
Use the materials that you get from your teacher to help you write your essay. Start from there and add evidence from other sources as you go along. Use the information from class to build your brainstorming bubbles and the first draft of your outline. Your teacher will be happy to see that you were actually listening in class and that you were able to make connections between what he or she said and the arguments in your essay.
Honestly, one of the biggest mistakes you could make is to hire an essay writing company in Toronto or wherever you happen to live. There are many essay writing companies out there and while many of their writers are skilled (or claim to be) if you are proved to have plagiarized your essay then you will get kicked out of university for academic dishonesty. Many universities like the University of Toronto, Harvard, MIT, Oxford, McGill and many others have an active practice of kicking out students at the first sign of academic dishonesty.
Try to say something original.
As I said previously, use the information you get from class as the starting point for your essay, but make sure that you can say something new to your arguments. Don't just regurgitate what you heard before put a new spin on your art history essay by making a new observation or finding some new supporting evidence (if this is something that your teacher has never seen before you will be sure to impress). An important thing to remember is to make sure that what you are saying is original and that this original thoughts source is properly cited. No matter if you read it online, in a book or on social media it must be cited and properly so (find out what style your teacher wants and stick to it as deviation will lead to a lower grade). If you bring new information into your art history essay and you do not reference the source you got it from you may end up with a 0 for a grade which I am sure you do not want.
Make your essay better by avoiding the simple mistakes listed above. Be clear, concise and cite both information you have learn in class and information that you get from an outside source and you will be sure to get the best grade possible.
