The Peabody Institute of the Johns Hopkins University

Final Project

   

 

Your final research project is divided into four parts.  Each part is on the same subject.  To begin, you should choose a musical work on which you want to do research (not an analysis).  This may or may not be the same work you chose for writing program notes.  After choosing your work and having it approved, you should start reading about the work and becoming familiar with the sources on this work.  The final project is the development of a research paper.  You will not at this time write the final paper, but will develop your bibliography, thesis, and research strategy.   The four parts of your final project are:

 

 

1.  Your thesis statement with a brief discussion of how you developed this statement.  Include your initial question and how you arrived at the viewpoint of your final thesis statement.

 

 

2.  Your research strategy for the paper. Include in chronological order the research steps you would take to complete this research project.  This should be detailed enough that a reader could follow exactly how you plan to do your research.  For example, if you are researching a contemporary work and plan to interview the composer, you should include a list of proposed questions.  If you are going to do a survey as part of your research, you should include a draft of the survey. 

 

 

3.  An annotated bibliography on the topic you have chosen.  You should include at least ten items that would be necessary in the completion of your project.  The types of items to use include books, articles, and scores.  Sound recordings may be included if they are truly relevant to your research, for example you are discussing performance aspects or styles. Annotations should be evaluative.  In cases where you have not seen the book or article, the annotation should explain why you feel this source would be important.

 

 

4.  A proposed outline of the final paper.    This is a proposed outline of the entire completed paper.  This outline should be a sentence-based outline as discussed in Wingell and in class.  The proposed outline should be for a paper no longer that 20 pages.