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Starting a new research project can often feel like the daunting task of climbing a mountain. From picking a topic to finding resources, organizing your information to crafting the final paper, preparation and planning are the key to a successful venture.
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Before any writing or research takes place, on must first choose which mountain he or she will climb by deciding on an appropriate topic.
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Start with the directions for the assignment to determine parameters. o Do the directions specify a topic area (time period, musical style, composer, etc.)? o Is there a particular length that must be achieved? o Use these parameters to limit the vast number of possibilities.
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Use your personal interests to help determine your area of study. o Start with topics that are of particular interest for you. o Do you have questions about the subject matter you would like to answer? o Is there anything from your current readings or course material that you would like to challenge?
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Based on timeframe and topic, make sure the choice creates an appropriate challenge for you as a writer. o Avoid picking topics that are far too broad (i.e. impossible to thoroughly cover in your allotted space) or too narrow (i.e. not enough to fill out your document). o First and foremost, know your limits —pick a topic with a reasonable scope and the potential for a cohesive thesis statement.
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Resources can be easily broken down into three categories: o Physical Resources —Look at what you own vs. what the library owns. o Electronic Resources —What is freely accessible (Google Scholar, etc.) and what subscription services can you access (Library-owned databases)? o Human Resources
—Who do you know with a specialty in this area?
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Using all of these categories is important to completing the most comprehensive research.
Warren D. Allen Music Library 2014
Created by: Patrick Fulton & Sara Nodine
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 Included in the “Start the Journey” section is a basic proposed outline for working through the research and paper writing process.
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This outline, as proposed in the presentation (Initial Climb, Base Camp 1, First Aid, Base
Camp 2, U-Turn, Base Camp 3), is merely a suggestion and can be altered in any way to fit the needs of the user.
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It is important to budget enough time in the process for the inevitable changes and issues that will arise naturally in the course of the research process.
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Where do people actually start their research process?
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Start with the electronic sources with which you are already most familiar: o Wikipedia: A great place to start for the most general knowledge. DO NOT cite the article, but DO use the sources cited in the article. o Google: Great for harvesting general internet resources, however, sometimes hard to clear throu gh the virtual “clutter”.
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The library catalog is a great option to find physical materials that are immediately available to you at no cost.
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These initial resources should help you form a list of key terms to better inform your search, leading to more specific resources and detailed information.
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After gathering your basic information, move on to more advanced/specific resources to meet your information needs.
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Online databases such as Oxford Music Online or the Oxford Bibliographies offer a lot of authoritative, vetted information, as well as lists of other sources from which they drew their information.
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Often the library will have specific resources as well, such as the Garland Encyclopedia of World Music , which will cover topics of specific interest.
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Physical and electronic bibliographies will be invaluable at this point for finding the most important resources on any topic.
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At this point in the process, it is natural to be feeling a little information overload with all of the available resources now at your disposal.
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It is important to take a few proactive steps to ensure the ongoing success of your research (and preservation of your sanity): o Filter - Decide which resources are actually going to be valuable to your research and which are now too generic for your purposes. o Organize Keywords - Using the keywords you developed while searching for resources, organize categories of information to move forward. o Reconsider Scope - Does your scope still work at this point? Consider broadening or narrowing now that your information has been gathered.
Warren D. Allen Music Library 2014
Created by: Patrick Fulton & Sara Nodine
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o Evaluate Thesis - Have you formed a thesis yet? Either create or evaluate your thesis to help frame an argument as you move forward to make sense of your information. o Categorize Resources - Sort your materials according to their topic or subtopic within your research. o Step Away and… o Breathe - These last two go hand-in-hand —take a few moments away from the paper. This can be very helpful for simply letting the ideas come together on their own naturally.
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After the initial survey of materials is done and you have come up with your collection of keywords for searching, it is time to look for even more in-depth music-specific resources. o RILM - This database searches an index of scholarly texts on music related topics. While RILM does not always provide full text, each entry does include an abstract of the material to help inform you of its relevance. o ProQuest - Similar to RILM, ProQuest searches an index of scholarly texts. The focus is not strictly on music here, but can often help tap into outside information sources. These entries, again, do not necessarily include full text, but will have abstracts. o JSTOR - Provides a retrospective of both musical and non-musical periodicals.
Full-text versions of articles are available for over 94 journals (dates of coverage vary depending on the publication —often there is a moving wall of availability regarding the latest issues). o IPA Source - An excellent tool regarding vocal music of every type. The site allows for flexible searching by composer, lyricist, or language and includes downloadable files with IPA translations of many vocal works. o Streaming Music Resources (Naxos Video Library Pictured) - Streaming resources such as Naxos Video not only provide options for listening/watching performances, but also often include scholarly liner notes that may aid in your research. The same rules apply for the physical recordings that the library has.
These may provide focused insight on a particular work of music.
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More in-depth research may require you leave the realm of music-specific sources, particularly if your topic is multi-disciplinary. Music Education and Therapy, for instance, often will end up using the following sources as primary searches: o PSYCHInfo - This database (hosted by ProQuest) searches scholarly resources dealing with psychology on a variety of topics. o Google Scholar - This version of Google filters out many of the more popular sources that would be returned in a regular Google search and focuses on periodicals, scholarly publications, citations, etc. o PubMed - This resource looks at medical-specific resources, but acts as an excellent tool for multi-disciplinary searches as well.
Warren D. Allen Music Library 2014
Created by: Patrick Fulton & Sara Nodine
3

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Now that you are well on the way to crafting your paper, understand that it may not be a necessarily smooth and easy process —we all inevitably face some kind of challenge.
Here are some ways to help deal with those issues. o Talk it out: Your friends and colleagues can be excellent help in solving difficulties in logic and scope simply by bouncing ideas off of them. The act of speaking your way through your argument may help untangle the situation you find yourself in. o Map it out: Outlining can be a very effective tool before and during a paper to help keep things on track and moving forward. If you find yourself stuck, list out the major points you are hoping to make to fortify your argument and then create sub-topics within those categories. Before you know it, you have mapped out the entire paper. o Embrace Change: Things change once you are actually in the process of creating the document. Understand that your argument or thesis may be proven to be in correct the more you research the topic, or even that your initial scope is suddenly too broad or too narrow to meet the document requirements. Plan ahead to build in time for these changes to take place. Be flexible and roll with the punches! o More Research? If you’ve worked through your paper and still have wound up short on facts or support, it may be time to research more. At this point, you’ll know where your gaps in information are and will be able to specifically target this searching.
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While research can be very enthralling, at some point you will need to start actually writing the document.
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In order to do this, here are a few tips for the actual writing process: o Let your ideas percolate - It is often important just to be able to think through your paper in a calm way. Let this process become a part of your day to day activities.
Sometimes the biggest breakthroughs come when you’re not actually working on your paper. o Consider writing out of sequence - If you have structured your argument with an outline, try writing sections out of order. Write whichever section you feel most comfortable with and deal with connective elements later. Introductions and conclusions can be difficult —save them until the end if necessary. o Dedicate time every day – Do not put off writing until the very last day. Build in a segment of time every day dedicated just to writing the paper. “Working well under pressure” can sometimes prove fatal when everything is reserved for the last minute. o If you get stuck, use your resources - There are people here to help you! Ask your librarians, your professors, and your colleagues if you truly get stuck.
Warren D. Allen Music Library 2014
Created by: Patrick Fulton & Sara Nodine
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o Writer’s Block - There are ways to deal with this issue. Change your environment, perhaps there are distractions stopping you from concentrating.
Consider stepping away momentarily as well (just not too long!).
 You have written the paper! But before you can say you are truly finished, have you… o Edited the document? o Checked your formatting (citations included)? o Reread all of the paper (including out loud)? o Edited again (had someone else reviewed)?
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Finally, you will need to submit the document. As always, follow the submission guidelines set forth by your professor including any formatting requirements.
Ask your audience to select a topic for research. Follow the stages of research proposed in the presentation to arrive at a collection of sources utilizing the online databases. Live searching can be very effective as a teaching tool. For a shortened version of this activity, try searching only in a handful of sources or looking for one particular type of resource
(e.g. sound recordings).
Have your audience offer their own research topics or areas where they would like help searching for information.
Warren D. Allen Music Library 2014
Created by: Patrick Fulton & Sara Nodine
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