2. Understanding the assignment
Read your assignment guidelines carefully to determine which kind of analysis is expected in your assignment. Art analysis may involve one or more of the following:
1) Formal analysis: This involves explaining how the
artist arranges and uses design elements, such as composition, color,
texture, and others, to create the piece of art. You should look carefully
at the art and its design elements, with the aim to describe, explain and
interpret the artist’s decisions when creating the art. Formal analysis is
often combined with other kinds of analysis – stylistic, historical and/or
critical.
2) Stylistic analysis: This kind of assignment asks you to
discuss how an object fits, or does not fit, into a particular style of
art. Or, you may be asked to compare two works which are different styles.
3) Historical analysis: This type of assignment involves
examining an element of a piece of art, such as a particular object or
pose. Then, you explain how it compares with the same element in other
pieces of art through history, or how that element of art can inform us
about history.
4) Critical analysis: This assignment asks you to discuss
the art in relation to relevant theories, historical facts, or social
contexts of the art, artist, or time-period. This typically means
discussing ideas from class lectures and additional research. These ideas
can relate to culture, politics, gender and other issues.
About this website
EWRite is an open access online literacy platform for PolyU community that has two major objectives:
- to support PolyU students’ literacy development within and across the disciplines
- to support subject and language teachers to implement system-level measures for integrating literacy-sensitive pedagogies across the university
This platform provides access to generic genre guides representing typical university assignments as well as links to subjects offered by faculties with specific disciplinary genres and relevant support materials.
The materials can be retrieved by students by choosing the genres that interest them on the landing page. Each set of materials includes a genre guide, genre video, and a genre checklist. The genre guide and video are to summarize the genres in two different ways (i.e. textual and dynamic) to fit different learning styles. The genre checklist is for students to self-regulate their writing process. The genre guide and checklist include links to various ELC resources that can provide further explanation to language items (e.g. hedging and academic vocabulary).
The platform also acts as a one-stop-shop for writing resources for students, language teachers and subject leaders. Information about the English Writing Requirement policy can also be found on this platform. There are training materials for new colleagues joining the EWR Liaison Team.
