Step 2:

Restatement of the above construction with some contextual information added.

Despite her earlier popular image as a mere sex-symbol, Madonna is in fact a traditional artist because she has a clearly formed artistic purpose to her songs, she writes songs in the tradition of self-portrait, and she consciously refers to the styles of other artists in her songs—all traditional artistic qualities.

As conveyed by the closing phrase, this thesis entails the premise (cf. my notes on logic) that artistic purpose, self-portrait, and artistic reference are characteristic and sufficient qualities to define an artist.

This structure comes from Carol’s Masters Project.