A Short Guide to Writing About Art :: Education by Design Store

Customer Reviews

A must-have

2008-09-13
This is a must have for any art major that is currently or will be going into any college Art Program -- especially the analysis of Art via Art History classes. The directives are clear and easy to follow. Barnet breaks down all facets of writing -- from Reviews of exhibits to critical analysis of art work. This book can also be helpful in other classes as it guides the reader into writing more concisely and in a more direct manner. This is an excellent addition to any College Student and/or Faculty library.

informative

2008-08-01
this book was an excellent resource. as a college student, it made writing my papers so much easier!

Great reference guide

2007-11-16
I purchased this book at the beginning of the semester and have found it an invaluable resource. This is my first term as a graduate student, and I don't think I could have survived had it not been for this book. It gives useful commentary, helpful hints and a terrific reference section for footnotes and bibliographies. It addresses real problems that often occur in writing an art history paper and provides insightful solutions that encourage independent thinking. It also includes a section on essay exams which gets a quick read through when I take a test.
I had several "a ha!" moments when reading it for the first time, and now I keep it within arms reach whenever I write.
The price was a little steep, so I hesitated in buying, but when I finally made the purchase I was glad that I had.

art book

2007-10-23
The book came on time and as described. It has been helpful in learning to critique art.

Good reference

2007-01-26
This is a great book to refer to when writing an art history paper. I was an art history major in college, and this was the book that was recommended by the majority of my professors. I definitely recommend buying yourself a copy, because the copies at my art library were always checked out!

How to read a potato in a painting as a potato and not a solar symbol?

2006-09-05
Key Benefit: A Short Guide to Writing About Art, Eighth Edition, the best-selling book of its kind, equips students to analyze pictures (drawings, paintings, photographs), sculptures and architecture, and prepares them with the tools they need to present their ideas in effective writing. Key Topics:This concise yet thorough guide to “seeing and saying” addresses a wealth of fundamental matters, such as distinguishing between description and analysis, writing a comparison, using peer review, documenting sources, and editing the final essay. Market: This book is a perfect complement to any art course where writing is involved

Useful in some ways, not in others.

2003-07-05
I recently read the 6th edition of this book in hopes that it would help me to improve my ability to understand and write about art. I found that the book is a direct, well-written primer for someone finishing high school or beginning their undergraduate degree, but for someone with a bit more experience, it turns out to be a mixed bag.

I know next to nothing about visual art. I'm the quintessential "knows what I likes, and likes what I knows" type of guy. On the other hand, I'm a graduate student in English, so I'm well-practiced in writing essays and in applying various theoretical and critical methods. I read this book in the hopes that it would help me to better understand art. That is, I wanted to learn, as Sylvia Barnet puts it, "How does art mean?" The beginning of the text does introduce some basic questions and ways to think about different kinds of art, ranging from painting, to sculpture, to architecture, to photography, to video art, etc. However, this is not meant to be an instructional book to teach someone about art. It is more like an assistant text for a freshman-level art history course. A great deal of the book is spent discussing how to organize essays, sentence structure, revising, formatting, and some instruction on critical methods. But, again, this book is not a book on writing. It's not about art, it's not about writing, so what is it? Well, like it says, it's about writing about art. A good deal of this book was useless to me, but some of it was enlightening. If you've already got some experience studying the visual arts, or some experience writing, or you just want a really indepth study on either, pick out something else. If, however, you just want an easily understood, basic primer on writing and art, this isn't a bad choice at all.

points out the obvious 2001-11-22
A professor highly recommended this book to my art history class. I was disappointed in it. I had hoped it would offer some useful advice but instead it merely outlines the things anyone writing on a college level (and the book seems to be aimed at college students) should already know. Perhaps it would be better suited to high schoolers.

Handy reference work 2000-09-28
My Art History department adopted this book as its official style-manual a few years ago, and we assign it as a textbook for our writing and methodology class. To my great dismay, however, our bookstore has had some trouble ordering it this year, and so I have encouraged my students to "cut the Gordion knot" by ordering it from Amazon. The chapters on choosing a topic and organizing an argument are, I think, useful and well-written, but the greatest value of this book is Chapters 9 and 10, which provide clear instructions for writing footnotes and bibliography. This may be a mechanical task, but it is a frustrating one for many students, because there are so many possible formats to use (MLA, Turabian, etc.) Barnet's system has the virtue of being designed specifically for research papers about art and art history, and the format he recommends is clear and logical. The book also reprints the instructions for contributors from the Art Bulletin, the most prestigious art-historical journal in this country, and so will be of value for graduate students and recent PhD's preparing their first works for publication.

Helpful Guide for Art History Students 2000-06-12
Head of the Department of Fine Arts (art history) at the University of Hong Kong had all of us first-year students buy this book. It is permanently stocked by the campus bookstore.

It is a very good guide, with actual examples of short essays by students. In my opinion, one of the examples is a tad un-scholarly, using the first person and personal anecdotes in what is otherwise a formal essay. Some professors may not approve... mine did.

I read this short book and used it; I am sure it contributed to my high GPA.