Writing for the Humanities and Fine Arts

Some subject areas that fall under the category of humanities would be literature, languages, philosophy, history, and theology.  Other humanities-related fields are sometimes classified as fine arts: drama, music, or painting, for instance.  These loose categories are not meant to be exhaustive of the humanities subject areas, but rather to give you a general idea of what type of writing you might be doing in these classes.

Key points to remember when writing for the humanities:

• Emphasis is placed on content and ideas.
• Emphasis is placed on how you express those ideas.  For example, organization, unity, and clarity of your ideas are essential elements to a well written paper.
• Taking a rhetorical stance is often part of a paper assignment.  Papers may focus on developing an argument, expressing multiple viewpoints, informing readers of new information in the field, defining a problem, comparing and contrasting two works, analyzing and evaluating someone else's ideas, or exploring the causes and effects of a controversy.  Practically every paper you write has some inherent rhetorical angle; most of the time, your professor will alert you as to which rhetorical strategy you should employ in your writing assignments.  
• Reading and writing go hand in hand.   Reading other works and articles helps to develop your own thoughts on an issue.  Many times you will be writing in direct response to works you've read, or you will research and read a variety of material before you begin writing on your topic.

Note: MLA (Modern Language Association) documentation is commonly used as a style for citing sources in humanities-related essays.