A Short Guide to Writing About Art, 11th edition

The best-selling guide to writing about art

Sylvan Barnet’s A Short Guide to Writing About Art guides students through every aspect of writing about art. Students are shown how to analyze pictures (drawings, paintings, photographs), sculptures and architecture, and are prepared with the tools they need to present their ideas through effective writing. Coverage of essential writing assignments includes formal analysis, comparison, research paper, review of an exhibition, and essay examination. New to the 11th edition is a chapter on “Virtual Exhibitions: Writing Text Panels and Other Materials.”

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• Presents Step-by-Step Writing Instructions - Clear step-by-step writing instructions guide students through the research and writing processes, showing students how to use the terminology of art history, how to cite sources, solve issues of style, and use proper manuscript form.
• Demonstrates Good and Poor Writing - Examples of good and weak prose are presented throughout the book. Examples range from students’ writing to works by published scholars such as Rudolf Arnheim, Leo Steinberg, Albert Elsen, Mary D. Garrard, and Anne Hollander. These sample essays, with analytic comments by the author, demonstrate the strengths of effective writing.
• Provides Helpful Tips - Boxed feature Rules for Writers help readers become stronger writers by encouraging them to think about what and how they are writing. Checklists appearing throughout the book guide students step-by-step through the writing process strengthening their skills. New checklists this edition include: Examinations, Revising a Review, and Thesis Statement.
• Stirs Students’ Thoughts - Early chapters provide questions students can ask themselves when they look at any work of art. These questions prompt students to respond, helping them to realize they do have opinions about the works they see.
• Discusses Importance of Writing - Later chapters discuss matters of writing showing readers how to properly form their writing in the most effective way. Topics include: the importance of getting the right word, shaping each sentence effectively, organizing each paragraph, and more.

Chapter 1

• Increased emphasis on the ways museums shape the experience of art

Chapter 4

• A new essay by a student on Michelangelo’s David has been added

Chapter 7

• Increased emphasis on non-Western Art
• Clearly defines the term “Western Art”
• Calls attention to the special difficulties of reviewing exhibitions of cultures unfamiliar to most viewers

Chapter 8

• “Virtual Exhibitions: Writing Text Panels and Other Materials” - an entirely new chapter on writing materials for virtual exhibition
• Increased emphasis on the ways museums shape the experience of art

Chapter 13

• Revisions by an art-research librarian include the latest electronic sources