Component One: The essay
As part of component one, it is a requirement that you complete a 1000-3000 word essay alongside your personal investigation. The purpose of this essay is a commentary on your project, to support the moderator in understanding the way it developed and your ideas along the way. It should be written formally, and presented professionally.
Use the below as a guide to the structure of your essay. Make sure you use key photography terms and advanced language. Spelling, grammar and punctuation are essential to get right as these will impact on your grade. You may wish to use subheadings to help structure your essay and you must use appropriate paragraphs. Avoid repeating yourself or babbling! The word count is important and must be within the restrictions, however as this is your first essay, it is fine to be at the lower end of the word count. Be really clear about what you are saying. It needs to demonstrate to the examiner that your ideas have flowed effectively and that thorough reflections and analysis of your experiments and artist research they have led from one to another smoothly.
Write your essay on word, you will copy and paste over to your website when complete.
Use the below as a guide to the structure of your essay. Make sure you use key photography terms and advanced language. Spelling, grammar and punctuation are essential to get right as these will impact on your grade. You may wish to use subheadings to help structure your essay and you must use appropriate paragraphs. Avoid repeating yourself or babbling! The word count is important and must be within the restrictions, however as this is your first essay, it is fine to be at the lower end of the word count. Be really clear about what you are saying. It needs to demonstrate to the examiner that your ideas have flowed effectively and that thorough reflections and analysis of your experiments and artist research they have led from one to another smoothly.
Write your essay on word, you will copy and paste over to your website when complete.
Essay Guide
use this to help structure your essay...
Introduction
Approx. 150-200 words
Introduce your chosen concept.
- What is your theme and why did you choose it?
- What have you learnt about it from your research? Why did this interest you?
- What was it that interested you about your concept and why?
- What were your early ideas, initial thoughts, ideas for exploration etc?
Approx. 150-200 words
Introduce your chosen concept.
- What is your theme and why did you choose it?
- What have you learnt about it from your research? Why did this interest you?
- What was it that interested you about your concept and why?
- What were your early ideas, initial thoughts, ideas for exploration etc?
Artist research and experiments for your final concept
Approx. 600-700 words
Include images of the photographers work you studied next to where you talk about each artist
Include screen shots of primary research
Include images of your experiments for reference.
ARTISTS
- Which artists did you take inspiration from? What was it that interested you about their work? Include some analysis of each artist at this point. Look back at your original research!
- How did artist research inspire your ideas for your chosen concept? Link back to your concept research where relevant.
- How did you work in the style of each artist? What was successful and why? make sure you talk about:
Photoshoots and the techniques you used - directing models, lighting, choosing locations, camera techniques etc.
Editing techniques - use correct terminology
- How did you combine elements of multiple artists and why did you choose to experiment in these ways??
PRIMARY RESEARCH
What primary research did you do to inform your project? Eg. questionnaires, feedback. How did you conduct this and how did you use it to inform your ideas? Give specific examples.
EXPERIMENTS
- How did your ideas develop through your experiments?
- How did you review your work periodically in order to move forwards?
- Did you change direction at any point or narrow your work down? If so, explain this in full. Explain how you analysed things that didn’t work in order to move forward.
Where you produced mini outcomes, include photos of these at the appropriate point of your project, and discuss how they 'realise your intentions' by bringing together your ideas at this point of the project. This is important to support AO4.
Approx. 600-700 words
Include images of the photographers work you studied next to where you talk about each artist
Include screen shots of primary research
Include images of your experiments for reference.
ARTISTS
- Which artists did you take inspiration from? What was it that interested you about their work? Include some analysis of each artist at this point. Look back at your original research!
- How did artist research inspire your ideas for your chosen concept? Link back to your concept research where relevant.
- How did you work in the style of each artist? What was successful and why? make sure you talk about:
Photoshoots and the techniques you used - directing models, lighting, choosing locations, camera techniques etc.
Editing techniques - use correct terminology
- How did you combine elements of multiple artists and why did you choose to experiment in these ways??
PRIMARY RESEARCH
What primary research did you do to inform your project? Eg. questionnaires, feedback. How did you conduct this and how did you use it to inform your ideas? Give specific examples.
EXPERIMENTS
- How did your ideas develop through your experiments?
- How did you review your work periodically in order to move forwards?
- Did you change direction at any point or narrow your work down? If so, explain this in full. Explain how you analysed things that didn’t work in order to move forward.
Where you produced mini outcomes, include photos of these at the appropriate point of your project, and discuss how they 'realise your intentions' by bringing together your ideas at this point of the project. This is important to support AO4.
Final experiments
Approx 150-250 words
Include photos of your development pieces.
Explain the idea behind your final experiments/mini outcomes. What were you hoping to achieve by the end of the project? What did you want to figure out with these experiments?
What do you want the viewer to think about when they look at your work? How do you know if this came across as you wanted? Link back to your concept.
What experiments did you do to refine your techniques to get the best possible photographs?
Link back to your artists and how you have used them, and why.
Final piece evaluation and project reflection
Approx 200-300 words
Final photographs presented as they would be in a gallery space. Eg. 3 photos in a row evenly or 4 photos 2x2.
Finally, evaluate your final series of photographs. What works well visually and conceptually? How clear is the idea? Perhaps you could get some feedback from peers and include quotes about how they see the work… is there anything you could do differently? How would you develop the project further from here? Be reflective.
Did you meet your intentions? This is one of the criteria in AO4 - did you achieve what you set out to at the start of the project? Did your project flow from one thing to the next etc. Refer back to your statement of intent and make sure you have achieved what you intended to!
Approx 200-300 words
Final photographs presented as they would be in a gallery space. Eg. 3 photos in a row evenly or 4 photos 2x2.
Finally, evaluate your final series of photographs. What works well visually and conceptually? How clear is the idea? Perhaps you could get some feedback from peers and include quotes about how they see the work… is there anything you could do differently? How would you develop the project further from here? Be reflective.
Did you meet your intentions? This is one of the criteria in AO4 - did you achieve what you set out to at the start of the project? Did your project flow from one thing to the next etc. Refer back to your statement of intent and make sure you have achieved what you intended to!
Bibliography on a separate page
Title – bibliography, have a line space between each reference
Harvard style referencing
Include a list of the websites you used when researching artists and ideas. Organise them in alphabetical order of the author’s surname.
Write them exactly like below (this is good practice as at uni you get marked down for bad referencing!)
AUTHOR IN CAPITALS (date published) title in italics. [Online] Available from www.websitehere.co.uk [accessed: the date you looked at it]
EXAMPLE:
BBC NEWS (2008) Damien Hirst. [Online] Available from: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/7681569.stm [Accessed: 21 October 2008]
Title – bibliography, have a line space between each reference
Harvard style referencing
Include a list of the websites you used when researching artists and ideas. Organise them in alphabetical order of the author’s surname.
Write them exactly like below (this is good practice as at uni you get marked down for bad referencing!)
AUTHOR IN CAPITALS (date published) title in italics. [Online] Available from www.websitehere.co.uk [accessed: the date you looked at it]
EXAMPLE:
BBC NEWS (2008) Damien Hirst. [Online] Available from: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/7681569.stm [Accessed: 21 October 2008]
Checklist
When finished, please check the following:
- You have a minimum of 1000 words, maximum of 3000.
- Font size is 12-14
- Your name is in the headers
- Page numbers are added
- You have a title 'Component One Reflection'
- You have used sub headings (optional but a clear way to lay out your essay)
- You have photographs by yourself and your artists, and they are in relevant positions – embedded next to where you are discussing them.
- You have set 1.5 line spacing (go to paragraphs)
- Page borders (optional)
- Bibliography page is at the back – referenced Harvard style. All websites and books need to be included. Go back and find them if you can’t remember! The bibliography is a formal requirement from the exam board and is therefore essential.
- You have a minimum of 1000 words, maximum of 3000.
- Font size is 12-14
- Your name is in the headers
- Page numbers are added
- You have a title 'Component One Reflection'
- You have used sub headings (optional but a clear way to lay out your essay)
- You have photographs by yourself and your artists, and they are in relevant positions – embedded next to where you are discussing them.
- You have set 1.5 line spacing (go to paragraphs)
- Page borders (optional)
- Bibliography page is at the back – referenced Harvard style. All websites and books need to be included. Go back and find them if you can’t remember! The bibliography is a formal requirement from the exam board and is therefore essential.
Further guidance
For further guidance, this is a pretty good website! https://www.studentartguide.com/articles/writing-the-a2-art-personal-study