Joe Norton Essay 2 draft

You have now closely viewed and analyzed two Spanish portrait paintings: Jose Casado de Alisal’s Portrait of the Duchess of Medinaceli, and one other.

Go back to the Portrait of Duchess Medinaceli (in person) with your second painting in mind. Observe and take notes on it.

In an essay of 1,000 – 1,200 words (about 4 double-spaced pages), make an argument about how viewing the second painting changed your understanding of the first one.

To make your case, you’ll need to think beyond “these are the same, yet different” as your thesis. How did viewing the second painting change what you see as important or puzzling in The Duchess of Medinaceli? What formal features (line, space, color, texture, posture, etc.) seem more important, or less important, or more puzzling, as a result of your comparison? What specific detail(s) do you now notice or now seem more important, after viewing the second painting?

Make use of your first paper on The Duchess of Medinaceli! You might consider quoting or paraphrasing a claim from your first paper to evaluate how your thinking has changed. In any case, you will probably need to reshape what you said before to fit this new assignment, but there’s no need to start everything from scratch.

Be sure to engage closely with both paintings. “Engage closely” means you’re digging into the details of the paintings in order to make a bigger point. You’re making claims about the paintings’ meaning for your argument and supporting those claims with well-chosen details as your evidence. You’re drawing connections between ideas and issues and explaining those connections. And, importantly, your making a case for how your view of the first painting has changed.

Imagine that your audience consists of fellow students who have not looked closely at these paintings.

Your essay should:

• exhibit good standards of sentence and paragraph structure, relying on the character-action model, avoiding nominalization and passive voice where possible, putting old information before new, beginning paragraphs with a clear topic sentence, and ending sentences and paragraphs with important concepts.
• exhibit good standards of critical thinking and analysis.
• have a point! Remember, you’re making an argument. All your analysis of the paintings should help you convince your imagined reader that your thesis is true. Your analysis and presentation of evidence will be decisive.

Give other writers credit where it is due! Use MLA citation style when citing sources. (But dont get too hung up on getting the format exactly right; well talk more about citation later in the course.) SMUs honor code, including the policy on academic integrity, begins on p. 28 of the You may not use generative AI for this assignment. And honestly, it would be more trouble than it’s worth, anyway.

Youll write a draft to discuss with me in an in-person conference Feb. 19-20. The draft will count as a homework assignment. To get credit, you also need to come to the conference. We will not have a regular class meeting Feb. 19.

Your draft must be at least 800 words. Turn in the draft via Canvas the night before your scheduled conference meeting. Conferences will last 15 minutes. Revise in light of what we talk about.

Use the grading rubric in the course syllabus to guide your writing of the essay.

Include a cover sheet on your paper that includes the following (not included in word count):

• The essays title.
• One thing you think you did especially well on this essay.
• One aspect of the essay you are less confident about (I can use this info to help you improve).