Music midterm paper

Word-count: 1000 words - this is a minumum and a maximum - try to be as close to 1000 as you can, and do not exceed 1050 words. Part of this assignment is learning how to write concisely and effectively!

Component parts: 

1. An interview (of a friend or family member, you don’t need to put yourself in a stressful social situation)

1. Prepare! Before you conduct the interview, think of a number of questions that you want to ask your interviewee (when did you start listening to this music? What are your earliest memories of this music? Has anyone ever criticized you for liking this music? Why? How did that make you feel? etc. , the possibilities are endless!)

2. Be flexible! Don’t feel like you need to stick to your script and ask all the questions you came up with. They are just there to help you give direction and energy to the interview as needed, but if the interviewee wants to talk about some other aspect of the music that you hadn’t thought of, this might actually be very helpful and illuminating.

3. Ask your interviewee if you can record the interview! This will help you to review what they said and incorporate their perspective in your paper

4. Take notes! Write down important statements and connections that take place during the interview.

2. Academic sources

1. You can sign in to the UCSB library through “off-campus login” on the library homepage. Through the library’s hompage you will have access to online journal databases and many digital archives.

2. Note: an academic source is an article or a book from a peer-reviewed publication. This means a university press (like UC Press or Duke University Press, not Penguin or Lighthouse) or an academic journal (like Environmental Ethics or Race, Poverty, and Environment, not the New Yorker or the SF Chronicle or some online blog)

3. Find 2 academic sources. You are welcome to use academic sources from the course readings if these are relevant to your topic.

Paper Structure:

i. Introduction:

Your paper should begin with an introduction to the music genre (what music are you writing about), the interviewee as a person (who are they? What relationship do they have to the music? Do they play it or just listen?) and a thesis statement (what is your interpretation of the significance of this music based on the data you have gathered through interview and written sources?)

ii. Body paragraphs:

Pick some of the most salient aspects of your interview data that support your thesis statement. Pair this interview data with written research that relates to both the interview quotes and your interpretations.

Note: you do not need to include long transcriptions of your interview, just the most relevant quotes, and insert these interview quotes into your body paragraphs to back up your thesis statement.

iii. Conclusion:

Revisit your thesis statement. How has the data that you presented helped you to demonstrate the validity of your thesis? How effective has your interpretation of the interview data and the written sources been? Reiterate your statement of how this music is significant in the context of your specific case study (your specific interviewee’s life and experience) NOTE: this is not a place to make expansive generalizations or universal statements. You don’t need to conclude with grand statements - rather consider this an opportunity to really hone in on your thesis statement as something that relates specifically to this individual’s life experience.

Writing Style:

This is a short formal essay - aim for an academic register (make in-text citations and include a bibliography at the end, I am happy to answer questions about how to do this if you are unsure). In this discipline, it is expected that you will use the first person (I) in your writing. It is your own interpretation of the data that you are trying to communicate, and using “I” is a necessary step in locating yourself in the interpretive process and the interpretive product. This doesn’t mean your writing is informal or journalistic, it just means that it is personal.

Grading:

You will be graded primarily on structural components: 

-Did you interview someone? Did you include quotes from the interview in your paper? 

-Did you gather 2 academic sources? Did you cite these sources effectively? Did you include the page numbers in your in-text citations? for example: (Tsing 2015: 22-23)

-Did you give a clear thesis statement? Does your thesis statement have analytical value or does it only have factual value? (you want to move beyond statement of fact into a valuable statement of analysis/interpretation)

-Do you include a bibliography at the end of your paper?

You will also be graded on writing quality:

Is your paper edited for spelling, grammar, and word choice?

How well do your ideas flow together from one paragraph to the next?

How well are your paragraphs organized? Is the structure of your analysis clearly represented in the structure of your paper?