9780130406033

This guidebook provides practical and specific assistance to undergraduate students about writing research papers and other types of projects in the field of music. It also offers practical help in writing effective prose on any topic and ways to improve one's writing style. The Third Edition has been extensively revised and rewritten. The organization of the material has been changed in order to present issues in a more logical order. There are expanded sections on new approaches to musicological research, electronic resources for research, and how to use word processing programs to draft and edit a paper. The section on format issues has been revised and expanded to make the detailed information it offers clearer and more useful. Finally, a new sample student paper has been included in the Appendix, along with discussion questions designed to help students analyze the paper, read more critically, and understand better the process of researching a topic, designing a paper, and arguing a thesis persuasively.

Preface

xi

Writing about Music

1

(8)

Why We Write about Music

1

(1)

The Special Challenges of Writing about Music

2

(1)

Inappropriate Ways to Write about Music

3

(4)

Musicological Research and Writing

7

(2)

Analysis and Research

9

(12)

Analysis

9

(1)

Questions to Consider

10

(3)

Examples of Works and Research Directions

13

(8)

Gesualdo: ``Moro, lasso,''

13

(1)

Opening Chorus of Cantata No. 80, Ein' feste Burg ist unser Gott

14

(2)

J. S. Bach

Concerto for Piano and Orchestra in C Minor, K. 491, First Movement

16

(1)

Mozart

Otello, Act, I, Scene 3

17

(1)

Verdi

A Faust Symphony, First Movement

18

(1)

Liszt

The Rite of Spring, Opening Sections

19

(2)

Stravinsky

Getting Started: Research

21

(19)

Choosing a Topic

21

(2)

Kinds of Topics

23

(1)

What Research Means

24

(1)

Gathering Materials

25

(1)

Places to Start: Print Resources

26

(7)

Library Catalogs

26

(1)

Dictionaries and Encyclopedias

26

(2)

Histories of Music

28

(2)

Biographies

30

(1)

Thematic Catalogs

30

(1)

Articles

31

(1)

Dissertations

31

(1)

Scores and Recordings

32

(1)

Places to Start: Electronic Resources

33

(4)

On-line Library Catalogs

33

(1)

Databases on CD-ROM

34

(1)

The Internet

35

(2)

Evaluating Resources

37

(1)

Foreign-Language Resources

38

(1)

When to Stop: How Much Research Is Enough?

38

(2)

Writing a Research Paper

40

(19)

The Outline

40

(3)

Topic and Thesis

40

(1)

Introduction

41

(1)

Body

42

(1)

Conclusion

42

(1)

Revising the Outline

42

(1)

Writing the Draft

43

(7)

Musical Examples

44

(1)

Diagrams, Graphics, and Tables

45

(1)

Footnotes

46

(2)

Bibliography

48

(2)

Revising and Editing the Draft

50

(4)

Computers and Editing

50

(1)

Checking Spelling and Grammar

51

(1)

The Editing Process

52

(2)

Printing

54

(1)

Proofreading

54

(1)

Keep Your File

55

(1)

Plagiarism

55

(2)

Conclusion

57

(2)

Questions of Format

59

(24)

Format for College Papers

59

(3)

Paper

60

(1)

Page Format

60

(1)

Fonts

61

(1)

Spacing

61

(1)

Justification

61

(1)

Page Numbers

62

(1)

Format for Quotations

62

(3)

Short Quotations

63

(1)

Block Quotations

63

(1)

Ellipsis and Editorial Additions

64

(1)

Bibliography and Footnote Form

65

(13)

Books

66

(4)

Dissertations

70

(1)

Articles in Dictionaries and Encyclopedias

70

(2)

Articles in Periodicals

72

(1)

Articles in Collections of Essays

73

(1)

Scores

73

(1)

Sound Recordings

74

(1)

Citing Interviews, Correspondence, and E-Mail

75

(1)

Citing Electronic Resources

75

(3)

Format Issues Related to Writing about Music

78

(4)

Stylistic Periods

78

(1)

Referring to Musical Works

78

(2)

Naming Notes and Keys

80

(1)

Foreign Terms

81

(1)

Musical Examples

82

(1)

Conclusion

82

(1)

Other Kinds of Writing Projects

83

(19)

The Seminar Presentation

83

(5)

Research

84

(1)

Organizing the Presentation

84

(4)

Tone and Approach

88

(1)

Concert Reports

88

(3)

Purpose

89

(1)

Research

89

(1)

Writing the Report

90

(1)

Program Notes

91

(6)

Purpose

91

(1)

Who is the Audience?

91

(1)

Research

92

(1)

Working within Limits

93

(1)

Special Problems

94

(2)

Texts and Translations

96

(1)

Conclusion

97

(1)

Essay Examinations

97

(4)

Purpose

97

(1)

Preparing for Essay Examinations

98

(1)

How to Proceed

98

(1)

Common Errors

99

(2)

Conclusion

101

(1)

Writing Style

102

(20)

Some Basic Ideas about Writing

102

(2)

Kinds of Prose

104

(1)

Tone

105

(1)

The Stance of the Writer

106

(1)

Referring to Yourself

107

(1)

Writing Effective Sentences

108

(10)

Word Choice

108

(3)

Word Combinations

111

(3)

Sentence Structure

114

(4)

Effective Paragraphs

118

(1)

The Effective Essay

119

(2)

Introduction

119

(1)

Translations

120

(1)

Conclusion

120

(1)

Summary

121

(1)

Common Writing Problems

122

(28)

Errors in Basic Grammar and Writing

122

(10)

Incomplete Sentences

122

(1)

Run-on Sentences

123

(1)

Agreement: Subject and Verb

123

(1)

Agreement: Pronoun and Antecedent

124

(2)

Proper Cases of Pronouns

126

(1)

Relative Pronouns

126

(2)

Misplaced Modifiers

128

(3)

The Split Infinitive

131

(1)

Mixed Metaphors

131

(1)

Spelling Issues

132

(4)

Using a Dictionary

132

(1)

Forming Possessives

133

(1)

Plurals of Borrowed Latin and Greek Words

134

(1)

Foreign Words

134

(1)

Medieval and Renaissance Names

135

(1)

Some Troublesome Word Pairs

136

(2)

Its and It's

136

(1)

Your and You're

136

(1)

Whose and Who's

137

(1)

Affect and Effect

137

(1)

Due to and Because of

137

(1)

Discreet and Discrete

137

(1)

Fewer and Less

138

(1)

Principal and Principle

138

(1)

Punctuation

138

(6)

The Period

139

(1)

The Comma

139

(2)

The Semicolon

141

(1)

The Colon

142

(1)

Quotation Marks

142

(1)

The Hyphen

143

(1)

The Dash

143

(1)

Parentheses

144

(1)

Special Problems Involved in Writing about Music

144

(5)

Technical Terms

144

(3)

Describing Musical Events

147

(2)

Summary

149

(1)

Conclusion

150

(2)

Appendix: Sample Paper

152

(15)

Index

167

What is included with this book?

The New copy of this book will include any supplemental materials advertised. Please check the title of the book to determine if it should include any access cards, study guides, lab manuals, CDs, etc.

The Used, Rental and eBook copies of this book are not guaranteed to include any supplemental materials. Typically, only the book itself is included. This is true even if the title states it includes any access cards, study guides, lab manuals, CDs, etc.

Since its publication in 1990, this writing guide for undergraduate music majors has proved useful in music departments and schools of music in the United States and Canada. It has been used in academic courses by both music majors and nonmajors. A second edition in 1997 attempted to improve on both the content and the tone of the first edition, and updated the listings of resources useful for research and writing. PURPOSE OF THE THIRD EDITION It is now time to publish a third edition of this guide. The information about resources in the second edition is out of date, particularly in view of the appearance of important new print resources, especially the second edition ofThe New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians,and the proliferation of Web sites useful for research. In recent years, musicological research has continued to flourish in such areas as cultural and gender studies, areas I deal with more thoroughly in the new section about research. In addition, I am a co-author, with Silvia Herzog, of a new text for beginning graduate students in music,Introduction to Research in Music,published by Prentice Hall in 2001. There is, of course, a certain amount of overlap in content between the two books, but also, working on the graduate-level text clarified my thinking on several issues connected with research and writing and led to clearer ways of presenting certain material. Once the necessary changes were made, these new ideas proved useful in this undergraduate guide as well. There is clearly a greater need than ever for a manual like this. Even though all students now use either their own computers or the sophisticated equipment colleges and universities provide for their use, many students still hand in papers that are actually preliminary drafts in desperate need of revision and proofreading. The irony is that today's word-processing equipment makes revising and editing so much easier than it was in the old days when we used typewriters. I have noticed another strange phenomenon since the advent of personal computers. In all my undergraduate classes in recent years, there have been one or two students with a flair for graphics who hand in papers with marvelous illustrations on the title page; unfortunately, that creativity and skill does not always extend to the papers inside. In fairness, I must point out that in every class there are also some students who have finely honed writing skills, who can argue complex ideas clearly and skillfully, and who produce prose that is a pleasure to read. The expansion in today's college population widens tremendously the gap between the best and the worst students in skills such as critical thinking and persuasive writing. Instructors constantly worry about the difficulty of organizing their courses so that they continue to challenge the best students while still making it possible for less-gifted students to succeed. My hope is that this manual will be of use to all undergraduate students. Students who are already skillful writers can use it as a review, and students who somehow entered college without basic writing skills can also learn some useful things from it. In addition, this guide may continue to be useful for new graduate students who have not had a decent writing course in their undergraduate years or for whom English is a second language. Another reason for producing a third edition is that the language is still under assault all around us. We are bombarded daily by imprecise and careless language. On television broadcasts of football games, coaches babble at half time about their hopes for a better second half--"We made too many mental errors in the first half. We're gonna have to suck it up, find some people who can step up and go out there and make something happen!" The words sound resolute, but what exactly do they mean? Newscasters talk about neighborhoods "decimated" by floods or fires, and observe, "Hopefully, t

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Writing About Music: An Introductory Guide

Writing About Music: An Introductory Guide

0130406031

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