Music 710

Graduate Studies in Music

Fall 2014

Thursdays,5:00 p.m. – 7:40 p.m.

Location: Golda Meir Library Room E281

Prerequisites: Graduate status

Taught by:Judith Kuhn

Office: Room 109, Music Building

Cell Phone: 414-335-6722 (for urgent questions; please use with discretion)

E-mail (more efficient, normally):

Office hours: 1:30 – 4:00 on Thursdays, and (frequently) by appointment

This course will improve your critical thinking, research and writing about music. When you have completed the course successfully, you will be able to:

  • Write clearly and logically, with correct grammar and usage;
  • Formulate and structure a persuasive and convincing argument;
  • Do systematic research, using standard bibliographic resources on musical topics;
  • Critically read, evaluate and question discussions on any topic, and especially on academic scholarship about music;
  • Write persuasive critical analyses of academic writing;
  • Refer correctly to sources in your text, footnotes and bibliographyaccording to conventions for citation used in the Chicago Manual of Style Online (available through the Library’s “Resources A-Z” link) and the Chicago Manual of Style Quick Guide (
  • Plan, research, write, edit and present a graduate-level research paper of about 2500 words on a musicological question, demonstrating research, writing, citation, and critical thinking skills.

Weekly assignments

Although the course is advertised in the syllabus as a “lecture” course, you really will learn more from doingand discussing the work and responding to feedback than from lectures. I have organized the course around a series of reading, writing and discussion assignments, which will give you a chance to use and explore music research tools, learn to think critically, evaluate musicological sources and polish your writing.

Please submit all assignments in Word (.doc or .docx) format to the appropriate D2L drop box or (occasionally) discussionforum on or before 11:59 p.m. on the days they are due. Most assignments are due on Fridays, a bit more than a week after they are assigned; this extra day gives us a chance to discuss the assignment in a Thursday class before you have to turn it in. No hard copy is required. I will grade and edit your paper and return it to your drop box with comments and corrections. Make use of this feedback; it’s the basic teaching mechanism for the course!

Late policy

Late papers will be penalized one percentage point for each 24 hours of lateness; no more than one late submission may be outstanding at any one time. The class is organized around a tight schedule of increasingly difficult assignments, and many of these involve interchange with your classmates, which they will rely on. It simply won’t work if you aren’t punctual with assignments. Also, there is also just too much work for you to handle if you get behind.

Three (maybe four!) critical reading papers

Over the first nine weeks of the course, we will discuss and critique four examples of writing about music. In each case, I will give you a worksheet to structure your thinking about these works, and we will discuss the writings in class. You will then write a critical analysis of the reading. These worksheets and discussions should give you practice in critical thinking and analysis that will help you evaluate your own research and – we hope – many other arguments and discussions you encounter throughout your life.

Resource worksheets and Peer Feedback

On weeks when you have no paper due, I may assign a worksheet that will help you to evaluate bibliographic sources useful for research in music. You should use these intermediate assignments to do research on your own paper and learn about the most common bibliographic sources used in musical research. Before submitting some assignments on your final paper, you will have an opportunity to exchange drafts of these assignments with your classmates, solicit their feedback and give feedback to them on their work.

Final project

Your final project will be a ten-page (approximately 2500 words, including footnotes) paper that investigates a musicological question critically and thoroughly,surveying the academic work that has already been done on the topic. Over the first few weeks of the class, you will select a general area of research and gradually focus your research on a specific question within that general area. I have designed many of the class assignments as steps toward completion of your final project, so you will have an opportunity to spend much of the semester working on your final project and to examine it in depth.

Plan ahead for these important deadlines for your final project:

  • Term paper topic proposal dueSeptember 12!!
  • List of Sources (bibliography) due October 17
  • Rough draft of final paper due November 8
  • Final paper due on December 13

In your papers, you must show the source for every fact or idea that is not common knowledge, using footnotes that follow the conventions of the “humanities” style of citation (using footnotes and a bibliography) from the Chicago Manual of Style Online (available through the Library’s “Resources A-Z” link). For most common citation questions, check the Chicago Manual’s “Quick Guide” online at: (or search online for “Chicago Manual of Style”) and click on the “notes and bibliography” tab above the sample citations.

We have also provided a booklet, Guidelines for Writing Papers in Music History and Literature classes, which provides many other tips on academic writing, and a very handy and clear guide to citing Grove Music sources. A copy is on the class website under “Help for Writing your Papers.”

Plagiarism alert! Failure to give credit for someone else’s research or thinking is plagiarism. When in doubt, footnote! University policy defines plagiarism to include:

  • Directly quoting the words of others without using quotation marks or indented format to identify them as quotations; or
  • Using sources of information (published or unpublished) without identifying them; or,
  • Paraphrasing the materials or ideas of others without identifying their sources.

Plagiarism is academic misconduct, will result in an automatic F on your paper, and may result in further action against you that could affect your professional career in the long run. No paper at all is better than a plagiarized paper.

More information and examples of academic misconduct is available at

and

Attach a list of sources (bibliography) to your paper, using proper bibliographic conventions as outlined in the Guidelines and “Quick Guide.”

HELP is at hand!

You are responsible for correct grammar and usage in your submissions for this class. If you are at all unsure of your writing, make use of UWM’s Writing Center ), a terrific, free and friendly resource that will help you build confidence in your writing at any level. The Writing Center opens on September 15. Take advantage of the many writing assignments in this class to improve your writing – it is a life skill that will serve you well, whatever career path you take – I have been told by many students that it is the most useful skill they learned at UWM.Write a rough draft of one of your weekly papers early in the semester, and make an appointment online to meet with one of the Center’s staff members. If you wait until later in the term, you’ll have more difficulty seeing someone, as the Center is very busy during the last few weeks of the term.

You will find it helpful to read (if you haven’t done so recently) William Strunk and E.B. White, Elements of Style, 4th edition, a pithy little book that has become the classic text on grammar and style. Chapter II (“Elementary Principles of Composition”) outlines the style I ask you to use in this class, and will help you to anticipate many common problems typically encountered by Music 710 students. For example, one very handy section (“Omit needless words”) includes a list of wordy phrases that should be edited out of every good essay. Please pay special attention to this chapter, which is included on the class website.

Please feel free to chat with me at any time if you would like help on your term paper (or anything else with the class!). This is a challenging class, and I am determined to challenge you, but I also want to provide all the help I can, so please feel free to come and talk to me.

Attendance and participation

There is not usually a problem with attendance for this class, but attendance in Music History and Literature courses is mandatory. Absences are excused by the instructor on an individual basis. I expect to see you at every class unless I excuse you; unexcused absences will affect your grade.

Absences for performances, concerts or requirements for other courses: You should not generally be required by other teachers to miss class in Music 710; it puts you in a difficult spot (between two instructors) and disrupts our class. We have a specific faculty procedure when other instructors want you to miss class (to attend recitals, perform in concerts, etc.). It isdesigned to prevent this put-the-student-in-the-middle problem:

Any time a faculty member, ensemble or program wishes to request consideration for a student excuse to attend or participate in an event that potentially interferes with scheduled course attendance, that request must be submitted to the Chair (preferably electronically) at least one (1) month before the event request. The request must be completed with the day(s), time(s) and event(s) information, along with a complete list of student names associated with the request. This request will then be circulated to the entire faculty body for notice. Requests of less than a month will be subject to denial without submission of extenuating circumstances.

Let me know of any possible conflicting demands, and I will work it out with the other instructor. It should not be your problem.

This is an interactive class, and I will grade your class participation. This class is intense and you will learn to rely on the ideas of your colleagues – please contribute!

As a graduate student, you can expect to spend about 3 hours of study and work time outside of class for each credit hour. Your actual time will depend on how much preparation you’ve had for the class, but do plan on at least 9-12 hours per week in outside work for the class.

Grading

Weekly assignments, includingCritical reading papers (3 or 4),

Worksheets (2), closure questions (2)40%

Class participation10% Final written project 50%, including:

  • proposed topic 5%
  • list of sources(biblio) 10%
  • rough draft 10%
  • final presentation 10%
  • final draft 65%

Final examination: There will be no final examination for this class.

University policies and accommodation

If you need accommodation to complete the requirements of this course, please see me as soon as possible. For more information on university policies and procedures on academic misconduct, grades, discrimination, incompletes, and accommodation because of disability, military service, religious preference, or other reasons, see Links to University Policies:

D2L Website

The online course management system used at UW-Milwaukee is Desire to Learn, usually called D2L,available at d2l.uwm.eduor from the “D2L” link on the UWM home page. The syllabus, all assignments and “handouts,”and all grades and feedback are posted on the course’s D2L website, and it represents my best efforts to give you the tools you need to succeed. There are lots of helpful resources on this page! We’ll take a look at it on the first day of class, and I hope you’ll make good use of it.

Need Help? Any technical problems with access to D2L (or other tech problems), please contact the UWM technology help desk, GetTechHelp.uwm.edu or call (414) 229-4040. The Help Desk can help you with your technical issues with the class. For a handout on using D2L, check the content section of the class website under “Basic course documents”.

Class schedule

Week 1 (September 4):
  • Discussion: Administrative matters, syllabus, introduction to critical thinking and academic writing, rubric for critical writing papers, introduction to UWM’s new search engine and musical databases, cultural assumptions.
  • Assignments (see Weeks 1- 2 assignment sheet for more detail)
  • Familiarize yourself with:
  • the Chicago Manual of Style “Quick Guide” at , and
  • The music history area’s Guidelines,
  • The Power Point lecture on databases and citation formats on the D2L website, and
  • The Chicago Manual of Style Online, chapter 14 (available through the library’s “Resources A-Z” link.
  • Submit a term paper topic proposal (with one source each from: a musical encyclopedia, an academic music periodical, and a scholarly book on music, all correctly cited) to the appropriate dropbox by Friday of next week (September 12).
  • Prepare for class discussion next week on Critical Reading Assignment No. 1
  • Read and mark up “Did Jazz Put the Sin in Syncopation?” on the D2L content page.
  • Answer questions on the critical reading worksheet attached to the assignment sheet.
  • Bring marked-up article and worksheet notes to class for discussion

Week 2 (September 11):
  • Term paper proposal due in drop box September 12
  • Discussion: first critical reading assignment, telling facts from opinions and using each appropriately, objective descriptions, paper topics, citation information for closure questions
  • Assignment: Write up critical reading paper 1 (due in dropbox September 19)

Week 3 (September 18):
  • First critical reading paper due in drop box September 19
  • Papers returned: Paper topics
  • Discussion: Paper topics reports, citations, intro to dictionaries and encyclopedias assignment, questions and wrap up of first critical reading paper, intro to second critical reading paper (“Shostakovich: Manual for Beginners”)
  • Guest lecturer: Rebecca Littman, music librarian
  • Assignments:
  • Prepare for next week’s Critical Reading 2 discussion (“The Shostakovich Debate:A Manual for Beginners”): outline article and work through critical reading checklist; bring a copy of the article and your notes to class next week and be prepared to discuss them.
  • Prepare dictionaries and encyclopedias worksheet and submit to drop box by September 26
  • Continue work on defining your paper topic and compiling your list of sources

Week 4 (September 25):
  • Written assignment due on September 26: Dictionaries and encyclopedias worksheet
  • Papers returned: First critical reading paper
  • Discussion: Feedback and how to use it; wrap up on critical reading 1, discussion on worksheet and critical reading paper 2 (Shostakovich), reports on topics and lists of sources, common problems with citations, topics and source lists.
  • Assignments:
  • Write up second critical reading paper on Shostakovich manual and submit to dropbox by October 3.
  • Continue assembling your bibliography and narrowing your topic-question.

Week 5(October 2):
  • Criticalreading paper no. 2 on Shostakovich manual due in drop box October 3
  • Papers returned: Dictionaries and encyclopedias worksheet
  • Discussion:update on topics; wrap-up Shostakovich manual assignment;schedule presentations and tutorials; presentationrubrics
  • Assignment:
  • Complete databases worksheet and submit to drop box on October 10.
  • Bring a draft of your bibliography to class next week for exchange with other students and comment.
  • Continue to work on closure questions: make sure you’ve filled in information from the Databases and Dictionaries-and-Encyclopedias worksheets. Bring your closure-questions-in-progress to class next week.

Week 6 (October 9)
  • Written assignment duein drop box October 10: Databases worksheet
  • Papers returned: Second critical reading paper on Shostakovich manual
  • Discussion: Progress reports on source lists and topics; group discussions on student drafts of source lists; wrap up second critical reading paper, common problems with citations, topics and source lists
  • Assignment:
  • Submit list of sourcesand refined paper topic to drop box by October 17
  • Prepare for week 1 of discussion on Taruskin, Oxford History of Western Music; bring list of rules for scholars

Week 7: (October 16)
  • Written assignments due in drop box October 17: List of sources with refined paper topic
  • Papers returned: Databases worksheet
  • Discussion: Closure questions, Taruskin I discussion, intro to periodicals and peer review, dissertations and theses
  • Assignments:
  • Taruskin, Oxford History II, prepare for discussion.
  • Prepare closure questions draft for class discussion and submission by October 24
  • Continue reading for final paper, sketch out findings, questions and further research, and bring to class for exchange and report

Week 8: ( October 23)
  • Submit closure questions draft to drop box by Friday, October 24.
  • Papers returned: List of sources
  • Discussion:
  • Taruskin II
  • Closure questions
  • Research findings report
  • Assignment:
  • Write up Taruskin paper (maybe) for submission on October 31 (maybe! )
  • Prepare outline and at least 1000 words of your rough draft for exchange and review in class next week

Week 9: (October 30)
  • Due in drop box October 31: Taruskin paper
  • Discussion: rough draft report and exchange
  • Assignments:
Prepare rough draft to submit by November 7
Week 10 (November 6)
  • Written assignment duein drop box November 7:rough draft
  • Papers returned: Taruskin
  • Final presentations (depending on class size)
  • Discussions: rough drafts, intro to critical reading paper 3
  • Assignment (cont.):
Prepare for discussion of critical reading paper 3 (revising) in two weeks
Review Strunk & White chapter 2 on class website and make notes for class discussion November 20
Week 11 (November 13): No class (tutorials on rough draft)
  • Assignment due in drop box this week: none!
  • Papers returned: rough drafts
  • Assignment: see last week

Week 12 (November 20):
  • Assignment due in drop box: None
  • Discussion: Third critical reading paper, Strunk & White, final presentations
  • Assignment:
  • Prepare critical reading 3 (revisions) for submission to dropbox TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 25
  • Prepare closure questions final (if required) for submission to dropbox December 5
  • Prepare outline and 1000 pages of final draft for exchange and comment in class after Thanksgiving

Week 13 (November 27): No class: Thanksgiving break
  • Due in drop box Tuesday, November 25: Critical reading 3 (revisions)

Week 14 (December 4):
  • Assignment due in drop box December 5: Final closure questions
  • Discussion: Final draft exchange, closure questions, wrap-up, final presentations
  • Assignment: Final paper due in drop box December 13
.
Week 15: December 12
  • Assignment due in drop box December 13: Final paper
  • Discussion: Final papers wrap-up, final presentations
  • THERE IS NO FINAL EXAM IN THIS CLASS.

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