AHIS10003 Chap.13 Arguing from Visual Analysis: The First Essay
Arguing from Visual Analysis: The First Essay
The first essay asks you to argue a case about what one artwork means, built from a visual analysis you conduct yourself and from critical engagement with published texts.
It is 1,000 words, worth 25%, and due on Friday 21 August 2026 at 23:59. You choose one work from a listed set in the National Gallery of Victoria permanent collection and you must go and see it; you may not choose any of the twenty works the subject teaches. Two published texts are required, at least one sourced through a library system, and the essay carries footnotes and a bibliography in Chicago A.
This chapter sets out the brief, the nine rubric criteria in the subject's own words, the structure that satisfies six of them, and the three shapes a single source takes in Chicago A.
What this chapter covers
- 01
The brief in full: length, value, due date and the gallery requirement
- 02
The rule that disqualifies an otherwise good essay: not one of the twenty works
- 03
The nine rubric criteria, in the subject's own wording
- 04
Grouping the criteria: structure, apparatus, expression, and the three that need thinking
- 05
A second rubric exists on Canvas, and it is not identical
- 06
Which part of the essay answers which criterion
- 07
Will argue that, not will explore or will examine
- 08
Depth and relevance as a conjoined requirement in the visual analysis criterion
- 09
Critical engagement: introducing a writer and taking a position
- 10
Chicago A in three forms: full note, short note, bibliography entry
- 11
The precise page a citation points to, which is what the referencing criterion turns on
- 12
The list of figures, its field order, and the subject's own model line
- 13
Two published word-count rules, and confirming which applies
Turning a topic into a thesis in one paragraph
- 1Reject the version that fails: an opening promising to explore colour and composition and to examine what critics have said states no argument.
- 1Introduce the focus artwork with something specific, such as medium and the scale at which the viewer meets it.
- 1Name the existing reading you are arguing against.
- 2State the argument outright, using the words will argue that.
- 1Signal both evidence types the brief requires: your own observation and the published account you engage with.
Key terms
- Chicago A
- A footnotes-and-bibliography referencing style, required for essays in this subject. Works with images also need a list of figures.
- Full note
- The first footnote for a source: author in natural order, article title in quotation marks, journal in italics, volume, issue, year in parentheses, exact page, DOI.
- Short note
- A subsequent footnote for the same source: surname, shortened title, page.
- Bibliography entry
- The end-of-essay form: author inverted, full stops rather than commas, and the full page range of the article rather than the page you used.
- List of figures
- A numbered list of illustrations with fields in a fixed order: artist's name, title in italics, year created, medium, measurements, collection whereabouts and collection name.
- Focus artwork
- The single work the first essay is about, which the rubric requires the introduction to introduce.
- Critical engagement
- Taking an independent stance towards a source by introducing the writer and saying why you agree or disagree, rather than inserting a quotation without comment.
Arguing from Visual Analysis: The First Essay FAQ
Can I write the first essay on one of the twenty works from the lectures?
No. The brief states plainly that you should not choose one of the twenty works that comprise the primary focus of the subject. You choose from a listed set at the National Gallery of Victoria and you must view the work. The lectures teach the method; the essay tests whether you can run it on something you were not taught.
Do I really have to see the work in person?
The brief is written around selecting and viewing a work from the gallery collection, and the practical reason is that colour, surface and scale are exactly the properties a photograph alters. Since those are three of the nine headings you are marked against, notes taken from a screen will be thin in the places the guide asks you to be most precise.
Which rubric am I actually marked against?
Check Canvas. The Subject Guide prints one First Essay rubric, and the subject's Canvas assignment carries another headed AHIS10003 first essay, 2026, whose criterion wording differs and whose lowest bands are merged into a single P to N. The criteria questions are stable across both; the band descriptors are not. Work to the rubric attached to the assignment.
Are footnotes included in the 1,000 words?
The subject publishes two different answers. The task brief says the word count excludes footnotes, bibliography and captions. The subject FAQ says quotations and footnotes count towards the limit along with the rest of the essay, and that only the bibliography sits outside it, with a penalty above 10% over. Both are statements about this offering, so confirm with your tutor before you trim.
What does the referencing criterion actually check?
Consistency and exactness. The rubric's referencing language turns on every footnote carrying the precise page a quotation or an idea came from, on quotes being delineated in quotation marks, and on other authors' ideas being paraphrased in words entirely different from the source.
Exam move
Plan backwards from the gallery visit rather than from the due date, because the visit gates everything: choose from the list early, go with the nine headings on paper, write your observations the same day, and only then find your two texts. Reading first produces an essay that argues someone else's case and uses the artwork as illustration, which the visual analysis criterion is built to detect.
Record each source's full reference and the exact page as you read, and keep dated drafts, which the subject recommends as a way of demonstrating your own authorship.
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