How to Write a Visual Analysis Paper

A visual analysis paper is composed for Art History, History or English Courses. The goal of the visual analysis essay is to present the image and to compose the most meaningful historical event.

The visual analysis is focused to explain the purpose of the artist, the audience, the way the image was presented and the historical context of the relevant events or a character.

In the modern era, a visual analysis essay should describe the following types of perception: visual, auditory and tactile.

Introduce a topic with the solid background data about the object, artist and propose a thesis statement. Observe the object of the writing task, formulate the main paragraph structure and list the most relevant resources.

The structure of a visual analysis paper

The introduction should be focused on the basic facts about the art itself.  The thesis should be focused on the description of the main essay purpose. The body paragraphs should support the main paper thesis, whilst the conclusion is to restate the main paper goals.

The elements of a design

The composition of a visual analysis paper explains how an image is structured and describes relationships to one another. The main figure or a character ought to be described thoroughly in a way to have the full reader's attention.

How to start a paper

The important aspects of the brainstorming are to set the claims and whether they are true, reliable and how they are expressed. The parts of the visual composition ought to describe a layout, balance, colour, key figures, symbols, stereotypes and exclusions.

Certain authors may start the initial draft of this kind of an essay with a single historical photograph. That is an excellent way to raise the awareness of an issue from the historical period. The following question that may arise is: Who is that artist?, When it was painted?, What was the reaction to this piece of art when it first appeared? etc.

A visual essay is equivalent to classic college essays. It requires a lot of research and proper organization of the most relevant information. Most commonly, the word limit is set to 1500 words with at least 10 photos or other media (graphs, charts or tables). Certain tools such as PowerPoint, Photoshop, Adobe Flash, Microsoft Word or Windows Movie may be of great contribution.

In the majority of cases, insert the image for the audience to have a better understanding of the paper. Thus, present the title of the image, artist’s name, date of the creation and where it was published etc.

The presentation of the images may be in sequences and their mutual relation. Such a presentation may be followed by a short analysis, quotes, keywords, questions and statements.

The most successful tips for a visual essay writing are to analyze aircraft's importance and to evaluate it from the reader's perspective.

Finally, make sure to produce a qualitative written paper with the logical and complete lexical and/or grammatical proofreading.