OBJECTIVE: The purpose of this project is to demonstrate your ability to summarize the "current state of research" on some topic in music. Note especially that this paper is not a piece of “original” research; rather, you are to demonstrate that you have organized, evaluated and understand the materials that you collected for your Annotated Bibliography.

General Considerations

• Because this is not a true research paper, i.e.,, something devoted to finding new information or offering a new interpretation of a topic, you are not expected to read every page (or word) of every item that you found for your bibliography. In fact, it is not even necesasry for you to have seen an item for it to be included in the discussion (and bibliography).
• Nevertheless, you are expected to know (a) who the major scholars and other experts are for your topic, (b) the primary issues, questions, and discoveries or advances made to date in that field, (c) any "landmark" articles, books, writings, or other objects that advanced knowledge in your field, and (d) a general chronology of those important figures, topics, and published materials.
• Your paper should not simply be a list of names and writings; rather, you should organize your paper in some logical way. A "chronological tour" of the topic, beginning with the earliest scholars and their writings and leading up to the present, may be the most obvious, but other orderings may be equally useful, depending upon the topic. You need not (and should not) mention every last name that you encountered in your research; rather, you should organize your paper around major figures, significant writings, and important breakthroughs.
• As a practical matter for subjects that do not lend themselves easily to chronological organization, you may consider a topical organization of your materials. Again, within those sub-headings, you should attempt to maintain a chronological order that highlights the most important items over lesser ones.
• In short, your paper should serve as (a) an introduction to your topic for someone who does not know it as well as you do, (b) a demonstration of your mastery and understanding of these materials, and (c) as a possible introduction to a larger project, e.g., a master's thesis, graduate recital, or similar project.

Format of the Final Document

• In general, your paper should make effective use of your word-processor's capabilities to ensure that all items of a type, e.g., paragraphs, line-spacing, fonts, footnotes, etc., are treated consistently. You will be down-graded if your paper is not well-formatted, or if it relies too heavily on hand-formatting, rather than using the program's features, to solve formatting problems.
• Your paper should be formatted as if it were on 8-1/2" x 11" paper, with a consistent 1" margin on all four edges of the text block, with the exception of the first page, which should begin with a 2" top margin.
• The body of the text should be double-spaced throughout, with the exception of block quotations. All paragraphs should begin with a first-line indentation and run as a single block of text, i.e., do not use "hard returns" at the end of each line (allow the word-processor to format the paragraph). You may format brief lists with "bullets," use tables, or otherwise modify the formatting to present materials in the most effective ways, but do remember to revert to the original double-spacing, etc., following such lists.
• The majority of the text in the body of the paper should be in a single, consistent 12-point font (Times New Roman is among the best). Use Italics for titles only (avoid underlining and/ boldface except to add emphasis to your own writing). Beware that if you copy text across platforms (from another program, a web browser, etc.) the imported font may not display properly. In such cases, you may need to adjust the font manually.
• Because you will be referencing many outside sources, you must provide footnotes or endnotes for those items. Do not use inline citations. Those notes must be complete bibliographic citations in "Chicago" style. You must provide a full author name, complete title, and all publication data for each item (at the bottom of the page with the reference or on a final page at the end of the paper). In-line citations will not be accepted. You should use a "short form" of the citation for second and subsequent references, but every first note to a source must be complete. Because your annotated bibliography will list all of your sources, there will be no need for a separate bibliography with this paper.
• Footnotes (or endnotes) should be formatted in a 10-point font. Each note should have a first-line indentation, be single-spaced within the note, and be followed by a blank line (12-points).
• The paper should be writen in a "formal" (but not artificial) tone, without slang, jargon, or contractions. Titles of books and similar larger objects should be in Italics, while titles for articles and smaller consituent parts should be inside "double quotation marks." Use block quotations for citations of at least three lines or more. Numbers under 100 should be written in prose ("three", not "3"). When in doubt of how to do something, consult a style manual, and above all be CONSISTENT in your treatment of similar objects.
• Before submitting your paper, use the spelling and grammar checkers in the word-processor, but also proofread with your own eye or have a friend or colleague read the paper. Be alert to such easily missed problems as homonyms (sound-alike words with different spellings), subject-verb agreement, correct use of pronouns, run-on sentences, comma splices, and other improper uses of punctuation that word-processors often do not see.

Presentation and Grading of the Final Document

• Create a title page of your own design for the paper and include it at the beginning of the same file as the body of the paper. Do not waste bandwidth with large unnecessary imported illustrations.
• Save your paper as a WORD file or something compatible with WORD XP. RTF (and similar) files are acceptable, provided the formatting of your paper remains visible. Avoid any program that saves files in a compressed format. PDF documents are not acceptable.
• Submit your paper to me as an electronic attachment to an email.
• The acceptable minimum length of this paper is 1500 words, not including footnotes.
• Grading will be split between formatting and the physical presentation of the paper, i.e., the formatting within the WORD file (20%), basic writing, i.e., grammar, spelling, etc. (30%), and the content of your paper (50%). The overall grade for this paper counts for 20% our your course grade.
• The paper is due to me by 5:00 pm on Monday, 5 December 2011, at the same time as your Annotated Bibliography.