Critical Analysis Essay for Greek and Roman Humanities

Assignment Objectives
Define humanism and select a specific culture discussed during this course where humanism is present. Select one specific example of visual art from your chosen culture to illustrate your conclusions; this could, for example, be a painting, sculpture, piece of architecture, or a piece of performance art. Finally, describe and discuss the impact of humanism upon the development of your selected visual arts. Your paper must be between 750-1250 original words in length and in MLA format.

Assignment Support
Your critical analysis should not be confused with a report. In a report you present material and discuss it briefly. In a critical essay you must analyze material, reach conclusions, and support your conclusions with evidence. Therefore, research is a component of a critical analysis.

Internet research is unacceptable unless it specifically deals with reputable and academic outlets. These include, but are not limited to, such sites as the BBC, New York Times, on-line scholarly articles from databases such as JSTOR, and publicly released documents such as those found at official government sites. Please feel free to use any of the assigned readings for support in your critical summary, but do not feel limited if you would like to use sources from outside the class readings (although you are not required to).

There is no correct answer, you can criticize or praise, but don’t simply present the contents and arguments. Remember that the primary aim of scholarship is to understand, not simply to show indignation and engage in moral condemnation. Whatever you do, avoid being simplistic. Be profound, show off your intellectual prowess, creativity, and your grasp of the topic.

Do not summarize. I have, most likely, read/seen the pieces you will be discussing so you need only give precisely what is needed for your essay to be understood, and nothing more.

Assignment Tasks
Complete your Analysis
This must be between 750-1250 original words in length
This must be in MLA format (all requirements for this are found below under General Guidelines)
Engage your work with various ideas, thoughts, and concepts from throughout the semester
Address each of the following in your analysis
define humanism
select a specific culture discussed during this course where humanism is present
select one specific example of visual art from your chosen culture to illustrate your conclusion
describe and discuss the impact of humanism upon the development of your selected visual arts.
Submit your assignment to Canvas. For help submitting an assignment see: How do I upload a file as an assignment submission in Canvas
If you have any questions about this assignment, please feel free to ask!!!

General Guidelines

Assignments must be submitted on Canvas the due date.
Assignments not submitted by the beginning the due date will be counted as late.
Late assignments receive a 25% deduction for each day they are late if assignments are not submitted according to the assignment instructions.
Make sure that you submit the document you want graded. If an incomplete assignment or an incorrect draft is submitted, there will NOT be an opportunity to resubmit this assignment at a later date and a grade of zero will be applied to all incomplete sections/portions.
This paper must be between 750-1250 original words in length. Do not submit an essay shorter than 750 words and if you write more than 1250 words, edit it with care until you meet the maximum stated length. The Title Page and Work Cited page do not count toward your word count.
Your assignment must be submitted to Canvas as a Microsoft Word document.
You must use the MLA style.
Include a Title Page which contains the title of your assignment, your name, course name and section, professor’s name, and due date.
You must use one inch page margins. Do not use larger margins. Exaggerated margins give papers an awkward appearance. More importantly they do not compensate for brief or incomplete ideas.
Your paper should use one of the following fonts only: Times New Roman or Arial
The font size should be 12 pt. If you are unable to meet the minimum length do not resort to using size 14, 16 or larger fonts. Large fonts give papers an unprofessional appearance.
You must double-space your paper. Single and 1.5 spacing give a crowded appearance. Do not hit enter at the end of each row, instead format your document (instructions for this can be found here: Double-space the lines in a document (Links to an external site.).
Proofread your work with care. Spelling errors will weaken your grade. Do not rely on spell checkers, they are of limited value. Spell checkers cannot distinguish between homonyms like “here” and “hear.”
Do not use the first person in academic writing.
Do not use contractions. Instead of writing “don’t” and “won’t” write out the words so that they read “do not” and “will not.”
You are responsible for grammatical errors. Poor grammar weakens your message.
Avoid slang, clichés and profanity in your papers unless you are using a direct quote from a film or research source.
Quotes of four lines or more do not count toward your word count for any assignments as they do not represent your work. If you use a long quote, remember to format these according to MLA.
Any and all portions of any assignment that are plagiarized will earn a zero for that portion of the assignment (this includes essays, short essays, PowerPoint notes, and short answers). For a fuller description of Plagiarism refer to your syllabus.
Academic Dishonesty is not acceptable. Please see the statement on academic dishonesty in your syllabus.
Your paper must have a Works Cited page (even if you do no outside research you will still be discussing something and will need to cite it). This does not count toward your word count. It should contain all sources that you have cited including the text/film/artist you are working with. While you may not use your textbook as your primary text, please feel free to use it as a source.