MUHL-3772 Writing assignment #1: Proposal Due at the beginning ...

MUHL-3772 Writing assignment #1: ProposalDue at the beginning of class on January 29, 2013 (i.e., not sent by email).For your first writing assignment, choose a topic that is relevant to seventeenth- and earlyeighteenth-century (roughly 1600-1750, but we can be flexible) music history. Your topic couldbe one of the following: composer, city, musical genre, patron, etc. or something else. Considerwhat interests you most about music! Some points to consider:• The final goal of this project is a short thesis-driven paper. If you pick a composer like J.S. Bach or G. F. Handel, it is important that you narrow down your topic. E.g., “J.S.Bach’s Brandenburg Concertos” or “G. F. Handel’s Italian Cantatas.” Paring down yourtopic will allow to limit the amount of necessary research and help you to create aninteresting thesis. Your final paper cannot be a simple biographical statement, such asone finds in an encyclopedia.• Many students will be interested in choosing their instrument as a topic. This does notalways work. E.g., there is almost no notated music for percussion, tuba, turntable, etc. inthe seventeenth and early eighteenth century. If you want to write about the violin, besure to narrow your topic by genre, place, or era: e.g., “violin sonatas in earlyseventeenth-century Venice” or “trumpet concertos in seventeenth-century Bologna”(that’s a really good topic). Generic “history of my instrument” papers tend to beproblematic (and rather boring), so please choose another avenue for your research.We will examine basic techniques for research in music history at the Maag library during theJanuary 24 th class session. It is expected that you will use the resources discussed in class to dosome preliminary study of the composer in which you are interested.Before you write your proposal, review the article on your topic in The New Grove Dictionary ofMusic and Musicians (available through Maag research databases). Print out the first page ofthe article and turn it in with your assignment.This assignment will not be graded, but I will offer comments and suggestions. All lateassignments will incur a full letter-grade penalty that will be assessed on your final paper.I realize there may be a great temptation to search for your topic on Google and copy whateveryou find on a web page (regardless of the quality). Most sites that will come up via a Googlesearch are useless for your project. Wikipedia does not have many good articles on music fromthis era, and web pages such as www.classical.com and www.classicalarchives.com areessentially useless. Because the purpose of this project is for you to learn how to do properresearch, do not use these sources!All documents should be typed, double-spaced in Times New Roman (size 12) and have 1”margins.The format of your assignment should follow what you see below:

Your name 1Research ProposalMUHL3772DateTitle of Document 2First paragraph of your proposal blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blahblah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blahblah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blahblah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blahblah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blahblah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blahblah blah blah blah.Second 3 paragraph of your proposal (if you have a second paragraph). blah blah blah blahblah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blahblah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blahblah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah.1 Use the typescript Times New Roman (size 12). It’s the standard for academic papers. MS word usually defaults toCalibri or Ariel – Those typescripts are great for posting on the web, but they do not look as good in print.2 The title should be centered, and set in a larger font. All written documents should have a title. They should becreative and engaging, but not too cute.3 Notice that there is no extra space between paragraphs. MS Word usually creates extra spaces between paragraphsbecause they assume that you are cool and are writing a blog post for the internet. Even if you are the epitome ofcool, your printed documents should look good. Use the “spacing” tool under the “paragraph” tab to remove extraspaces between paragraphs.