Research Project - Overview

25 September 2008

The research project allows you to explore a particular musician or application of music to a social justice context. The final, written submission of the project report will be about 10 pages long. However, we will work together through the term to help everyone develop the skills of research, analysis and communication that are necessary to be successful in this undertaking – which, of course, is very common throughout your college career.

Purposes:

Substantive: To learn more about a particular musician, musical style, or setting for protest music.

Process and skills:

ü      To develop skills for shaping a research project, including identifying a topic and shaping a focusing question;

ü      finding, evaluating and integrating information about your topic and question;

ü      organizing the time and the process to complete the project;

ü      writing an essay of fairly substantial length that is well organized and communicates your learning to your readers.

This project will help you develop and demonstrate the skills that are related to achievement of the College’s foundational learning outcome in writing. It will help determine what composition courses, if any, you take after CC110.

Part I: Identifying a topic and shaping a question

Remember, the overall theme of our course – and therefore of your project – is the music of social protest and social change. Otherwise, you are basically free to explore. So think of a topic (a broad idea) that you like already – like a contemporary artist that you like, who also has some social messages; or music from a particular country; or from a social movement that is important to you.

 From your broad idea we will – together – shape a question that your project can try to answer. Questions are really really important for a big writing project like this. Your questions tell you what kind of information you want to look for. Questions also give you a target – you know you are done when you can give some answer (or answers) to your question. Finally, questions give you an organizational structure for your final report – your answer(s) are the theme and thesis of your paper.

WHEN? By the second week in October.

Part II: Finding information and evaluating sources

We will spend one class meeting together in the library with Sarah Woolf, the reference librarian, once we all have topics and preliminary questions. She will introduce you to the library resources for finding the information you need.

She will also give you some basic tips on evaluating sources of information. What makes one web site, for example, “better” than another? What is the difference between an academic article that you find online in our library databases and something you find on the web?

WHEN? We will schedule this for about 14 or 16 October, depending on the Library availability.

Part III: Coming to some conclusions

So eventually you will have to reach some conclusions. To get to that point you will need to read the resources you have found, identify the information that is relevant to your topic and question, and keep track of it all. You will also have to listen to the music that your project is about – but with some new “ears”.

There is no substitute for keeping at this process and keeping organized. My personal strategy for research and writing is to have a notebook devoted only to the project. I use it to make notes to myself – such as ideas that I have at the beginning, or that come to me in the middle of the night (these are pretty annoying but sometimes fruitful). I also use it to record the bibliographic information for every source I read or consult. And I make notes to myself about what I learn as I read things. As I go along I usually try out writing some drafts of what I am working on – because writing about my research helps me understand what I know – and what I don’t know.

 WHEN?  We will have a first draft due before Thanksgiving.

Part IV: Putting is all together

In the end, you will submit a completed research project report. We will have gone through it in steps and in a few drafts. Putting it together is not simply cut and paste of what you have written, because you want it all to be “fresh” – but it is simplified by the previous work. When you are nearing the completion you can go back and re-read – and maybe revise – what you have written. You want to check to make sure you have all the bits and pieces in place – like your list of sources! And you want to make sure it is good, not just done.

WHEN?  The end of the term – but not the very last day, so you have the time and chance for revision.

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FYS 101: First Year Seminar.  Fall 2008.  http://community.pmc.edu/vogelewi/fys101