ART 118 WGS 118 - History of Women In Visual Arts: Your Assignment

Understanding Your Assignment

Before you begin looking for information you should make sure you understand your assignment. Some good questions are:

• How many pages?
• How many sources?
• What kinds of sources?
  
  • Books
  • Articles
  • Websites
    
• What format?

Your professor is your best resource to answer these questions.

Types of Visual Art 

For copyright purposes, the visual arts comprise original pictorial, graphic, and sculptural works, including two-dimensional and three-dimensional works of fine, graphic, and applied art. There are many visual arts:

• Advertisements, commercial prints, labels
• Artificial flowers and plants
• Artwork applied to clothing or to other useful articles
• Bumper stickers, decals, stickers
• Cartographic works, such as maps, globes, relief models
• Cartoons, comic strips
• Collages
• Dolls, toys
• Drawings, paintings, murals
• Enamel works
• Fabric, floor, and wallcovering designs
• Games, puzzles
• Greeting cards, postcards, stationery
• Holograms, computer and laser artwork
• Jewelry designs
• Models
• Mosaics
• Needlework and craft kits
• Original prints, such as engravings, etchings, serigraphs, silk screen prints, woodblock prints
• Patterns for sewing, knitting, crochet, needlework
• Photographs, photomontages
• Posters
• Record jacket artwork or photography
• Relief and intaglio prints
• Reproductions, such as lithographs, collotypes
• Sculpture, such as carvings, ceramics, figurines, maquettes, molds, relief sculptures
• Stained glass designs
• Stencils, cut-outs
• Technical drawings, architectural drawings or plans, blueprints, diagrams, mechanical drawings
• Weaving designs, lace designs, tapestries

Breaking Down The Research Process  

The following outline gives a simple and effective strategy for finding information for a research paper and documenting the sources you find. Depending on your topic and your familiarity with the library, you may need to rearrange or recycle these steps. Adapt this outline to your needs. We are ready to help you at every step in your research.

1. Choose a topic - or have one assigned
2. Understand your topic
   • Background reading
     
   • Consider a main focus
   • Refine your topic
   • Make a list of your keywords and concepts
     
3. Search Sources
   • Find Books
   • Find Articles
   • Find Websites
4. Write your paper - Informative, Analytical, Argumentative, Critical
5. Cite your sources

Need Help 

The Cerritos College Librarians can help you with your research in a variety of ways:

• In person
• By email
• By phone
• Chat

Librarians are available during library hours to answer your questions by phone or chat.
(562) 860-2451 x2425