Escolar Documentos
Profissional Documentos
Cultura Documentos
You can either download a pdf copy from our website www.oca-uk.com or ring the
office on 0800 731 2116 for a paper copy.
Fill in your Student Profile. Use this to tell your tutor a little about any past
experience you have and how confident you feel about learning some of the skills.
This is your first link with your tutor and gives you the chance to introduce yourself.
Give your tutor as much information as you can
about your previous experience, your reasons
for exploring this subject and what you
expect to achieve from taking the
course. OCA tuition is on a one-to-
one basis and so it is possible for
our tutors to angle their advice to
meet individual needs; but only if
these are defined in the Student
Profile. When the tutor
receives your Student Profile,
they will write to you, and
suggest a date for the submission
of your first assignment in line with
your timetable. If you feel you can complete
the section earlier, then do. If you feel you need a little
longer, that’s fine too. If, however, there is going to be a big delay, contact the
tutor and give an anticipated new date for the submission of your assignment.
When you submit an assignment your tutor will comment and advise on your work
and answer any questions relating to the course.
Once you have looked through the course and sent off your
student profile, you can begin to start your first project.
Time management
Managing your time
You are responsible for managing your own study time.
In order for you to do this well:
• be aware of your own time management
• be aware of how much time each type of task takes you to complete
• allow time for unexpected events
• schedule an appropriate amount of time for things like library and museum
visits
• specify practical targets in your time-planning.
Taking notes
Notes are a useful record of important
points for future use and they can help
the flow of your writing, and help you get
organised in order to get started. Notes
can aid understanding and summing
things up briefly can help your long term
memory. Even if you are a regular
computer user it can still be helpful to
make notes on paper. However more and
more people are now just as happy
making notes on their computer, which
has the added benefit of making web
referencing easy. Make notes whichever
way suits you best.
Note taking checklist
• make notes as you find information, in chronological order
• think before you write and keep your notes brief – always use your own
words unless you are quoting directly
• if writing on paper leave space or a wide margin so that you can add notes
as you need to
• note down key words and main ideas but avoid writing whole sentences
• make use of any abbreviations and number different points – link these
points by using arrows, boxes or dotted lines
• make a note of the exact source of the information but write it in such a
way that it is useful to you
• don’t copy out whole chunks of
information or quotations and
avoid writing out more notes
than you can actually use
• never re-write notes to make
them clearer – this can be a real
time waster
• link different pieces of
information by colour coding
and draw rings around specific
information in order to make it
stand out on the page
• if you prefer to keep notes on
your computer save web links
to valuable references, making
brief notes to explain what
each web link refers to.
Using the internet
The internet has a huge range of information and allows you to browse across an
enormous range of sources. The internet should be your key research tool. If you
don’t have a computer with internet access at home, make sure you set up time to
use the internet at the library or at a friend’s house.
Be aware of:
• propaganda or biased information that doesn’t provide a balanced argument
• advertising and press releases
• personal opinion
• research that has been published by the researcher without peer review, or
by trade associations that have a vested interest (check whether the
information is balanced)
• news information (as you know, different parts of the press present the same
story in very different ways).
This isn’t to say that you shouldn’t use information from any of
these categories in your work. You need to use it carefully and
demonstrate that you understand the shortfall in the information
(such as the missing argument, or biased viewpoint).
Using booklists
Booklists can be daunting even if you recognise some of the titles on the list.
During the course you will be provided with various booklists and you will need to
assess the importance of some books over and above other books – you cannot
read everything! Your tutors (and in some cases the course material) will let you
know which books are ‘essential’ for you to read and which are of a more general
nature. All book publications are in print at the time of the course materials being
published but of course this can change from year to year – OCA will attempt to
republish booklists when possible.
Quoting others
In the body of your writing, whenever you refer
to someone else’s work, either directly or
indirectly, you must indicate whose work this is.
Include the surname of the author and the year
of publication, for example:
• as noted by R. Taylor (1999), who stated that…
Or • two art historians (Buck and Dodd, 1998), noted that....
Use quotation marks when quoting from someone verbatim and remember that
you may only quote up to 10% of an author’s work without breaching their
copyright.
Do not include any publications that you have not directly referred to in your
assignment, but do include television programmes, websites and videos used. Some
helpful phrases to introduce references are:
• as A points out, …
• according to B …
• as C …
• to quote from D, …
• in ‘Relative Values’, B and D wrote that …
• in an article entitled Textile Art Now, E wrote that …
• writing in 1999, F argued that …
• referring to G says that …
Bibliographies
A bibliography is a separate page to your writing and the reference will go at the
end of your report. It will include everything that you have read for your report
whether you referred to it in your writing or not. Always use the same style to the
one outlined in the above information about references, for example:
• Michael Freeman, Complete Guide to Photography, HarperCollins, UK, 1995
• Honour & Fleming, A World History of Art, Laurence King Publishing,
London, 2002
• S. Maitland and P. Matthews, Gardens of Illusion, Cassell & Co., London, 2000
Footnotes
Use these when you are quoting directly and give the precise details of the source,
whether a book, article or interview. If you are quoting from a printed source also
include the page number. If you are unsure about whether to use a direct quotation
or to paraphrase then always go for the first option. The following two systems are
both acceptable as long as you are consistent in your usage throughout.
Author-date system
This is where you give the name of the author, then the date and page number in
brackets after the quotation or reference in the main text. The full reference details
are then given in the bibliography.
Title system
This is where a number is given above the line and after the quotations, and the
reference is then given either at the bottom of the page or at the end of the critical
review. For example, 1. R. Taylor, Understanding and Investigating Art, 1999, p22.
Using illustrations
Always try to use illustrations where relevant. Remember that the purpose of an
illustration is to support your writing, so where possible try to have the image as
close to where it is being discussed as is possible – do not lump all of the
illustrations at the back of your written assignments or learning logs. You can also
include your own drawings and photographs where relevant – often
illustrations can be particularly effective if you are trying to convey
a great deal of visual information. You must always number your
illustrations and refer to them within the body of your
writing – do not make the mistake of expecting the
illustrations to ‘speak for themselves’. For example,
you would write ‘refer to figure 2’, or ‘see illustration
to figure 4’. Don’t forget to put a caption under the
illustration clearly stating what it is, including the date,
where it is from, and the name of the originator.
Plagiarism
Plagiarism is when a student uses the words of another writer but does not credit
that writer as a source. This can be done by mistake or on purpose but in either
case it is an offence and can result in failure of the course. If you are unsure
about what constitutes plagiarism speak to your tutor.
Writing assignments
• clarify the task
• collect and record information (research)
• organise and plan
• reflect and evaluate
• write an outline plan and first draft (if possible show this to your tutor)
• work on your first draft
• review it
• then build your final draft.
Introduction – this is where you say what you are going to do. You must show
your understanding of the assignment title and identify the issues that you are
going to explore. Give a brief outline of how you will deal with each issue, and in
which order.
Conclusion – summarise your argument and the main themes. State your general
conclusions and make it clear why those conclusions are important. This is usually
one tenth of the written assignment.
Bibliography – list all of the books and other sources that you have referred to.
Register on the website, upload a picture if you like, and get chatting to
other students via the forum.
enquiries@oca-uk.com
0800 731 2116
www.oca-uk.com