Professor’s Instructions: You may choose any topic you like, but you’ll need to
Professor’s Instructions:
You may choose any topic you like, but you’ll need to tell me what you’ve chosen before you begin your work on it because I reserve the right of veto power in this case. The rationale behind this assignment is to help you broaden your horizons by becoming better acquainted with the unfamiliar, and that is going to mean music that fits into the “World Music” category. If you’re unsure what that means, listen carefully to a few of my lectures and notice what I’m saying about it. You’ll need to choose a topic that has enough of a history built into it that you can address historical aspects of it. That means that a proposal to write about the music for a certain category of video games will not be approved, nor a paper about your favorite rocker or folk singer or rap artist. I’m not casting aspersions on any of that music, understand: it’s simply that I want you to write a paper that is in the spirit of this World Music course.
Your paper will need to include the usual components of a formal paper worth 25% of your grade in a 3-hour course: a thesis paragraph that lays out your intent in clear terms, ample documentation of your research using an accepted citation style of your choosing (Turabian, APA, etc.), a works cited list, and 7-8 pages of well-written prose in which the usual grammatical, syntactical and stylistic conventions that apply to serious writing are assiduously observed. I put that last part in bold font because I’m serious about it. Bad writing will hurt your grade, and hastily-assembled writing is almost always bad writing. Be forewarned.
You should count on consulting at least five scholarly sources (encyclopedia entries, journal articles, monographs, etc.) in the course of your research. If you plan to use online sources, make sure they are scholarly – Wikipedia does not count, nor do web pages constructed by travel agencies, etc. Do not choose a topic for which there is no literature to research.
