Last modified on August 4, 2023
Your final project is an analysis of piece of your choosing. The purpose of the project is for you to apply the skills you’ve learned in class, to a piece that you enjoy and want to share with the rest of the class.
Due dates are as follows (end of day):
- Wednesday, Apr 21: Project worksheet
- Tuesday, Apr 27: Video
- Friday, Apr 30: Peer feedback
- May 3–7: Essay
Table of Contents
Sample paper
To help you get a sense of what I’m looking for, I’ve created a paper that more or less ticks all the boxes for your final project, and annotated it with meta-level comments of what I’m trying to do with the writing (so focus on that, rather than the analysis itself!). Download the annotated sample paper here.
Recommended reading
If you want more explicit help and guidance on writing an analytical paper, read Chapter 7 of . This is available for you in the Readings folder. This chapter will teach you how to make sure your paper is unified and has a coherent argument.
Video
Make a video (max 10 minutes), you will apply knowledge you gained in our seminar to a piece of your choosing. It is worth 15% of your final grade.
Additionally, and more practically, the video will be like a first draft of your final paper. This will be an opportunity for you to get feedback from me and your peers.
Presenting and submitting
- You should make a powerpoint or similar visuals that goes along with your analysis. Use the powerpoint to present any visuals that will help in understanding your point, such as annotated score excerpts.
- Submit your video on Blackboard by adding it to our Media Gallery using Kaltura. The link to the Media Gallery can be found in the sidebar on Blackboard. GMU IT has a simple guide that is easy to follow, and can help you more if you need it. After you’ve uploaded, you’ll see that your video needs to be “approved”—I’ll approve all videos the following day.
Content
- Use the worksheet you submitted and my feedback as a guide for your content. However, your video should go deeper than your worksheet. You should have specific analysis by this point.
- Analysis must engage with one or more methodologies discussed in class. This is where the majority of the points are—failure to do this will certainly result in a poor grade.
- You should have a clear thesis statement in your video, and all your analysis should tie into the thesis statement.
- Your video should be, at most, 10 minutes long. This correlates to about five double-spaced pages of writing. It’s really not much so make sure you’re tightly organized.
- This video is too short to include historical context—get straight to your analysis! Historical context will not help your grade and will only give you less space to present your points.
Style
- Your voice explaining everything must be included in the video.
- You may do either a picture-in-picture layout, where one picture is yourself talking to the camera and the other is your powerpoint, or you may do a disembodied voice layout with only your powerpoint on screen.
- Videos must be professional, rehearsed, well-organized, and polished, in order to maximize the effectiveness of your limited time.
- Videos should be edited to remove any awkward pauses and unnecessary content.
Presentation grading rubric
| proficient | basic | poor | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Analysis (60 points total) | Thesis statement (10) | Clearly presented, well-formed, interesting. (10) | Clearly presented, well-formed, but not interesting. (7) | Unclear thesis statement or poor thesis statement. (5) |
| Examples (10) | 3 or more specific examples, analyzed in detail. (10) | 3 specific examples, but sometimes superficial analysis. (7) | Less than 3 specific examples. Not detailed enough. (5) | |
| Methodology (30) | Analysis relies on and deeply engages with a methodology learned in the course. (30) | Methodology is clearly referenced but is not executed properly, or could use a more in-depth treatment. (20) | Methodology is mentioned but not really used. (10) | |
| Support (10) | Analysis supports thesis statement. (10) | Relationship between analysis and thesis statement is implied but not made clear enough. (7) | Relationship btw. analysis and thesis statement is often unclear. (3) | |
| Style (40 points total) | Visuals (15) | Visuals are professional, well organized, useful, and easy to follow. (15) | Visuals are somewhat helpful but need more clarity or more polishing. (12) | Visuals are difficult to follow and unpolished. (7) |
| Speaking (10) | Presentation is rehearsed, voice is clear. No long pauses (>4 sec.). Unneccessary or unneeded parts of the video have been edited/removed. (10) | Could use more rehearsal, as evident from stumbling over words or long pauses, but overall the point is communicated. (7) | Seems unprepared or improvised, language and points are unclear. The video has long pauses and unnecessary content. (3) | |
| Organization (15) | Clear flow to the video. Easy for the audience to remember your main points. Time used efficiently. (15) | Flow and main points can be discerned but the audience must work to find them. Time used efficiently. (12) | Video is poorly sequenced and main points are lost. Video is too short or too long. (7) |
Helpful tips
Peer review
The peer review process is intended to mimic the process of reviewing an article for a journal. In addition to this practical experience, the review process should help you learn to pinpoint similar issues in your own work, and will allow you to get feedback from multiple perspectives (not just mine).
Peer review assignments have been pinned in the #general channel on Slack and posted on Blackboard (sorry that it’s not linked here—this is for privacy reasons). When you view the spreadsheet, find your name in the left column. The two people that you are reviewing are the people whose names are in the same row as you. So, for example, Daniela will be reviewing Annemarie and Hannah.
To view others’ videos: on Blackboard, go to the Media Gallery, and find the people you are supposed to review.
Content and submission
You will complete an evaluation using a Google Form linked above. The form asks you to answer the following questions:
- In your own words, and without re-watching the video, do your best to summarize the main points of the video. This will do two things: 1) help the author identify any discrepancies between what they thought they were saying, and what they seem like they are actually saying, and 2) help the author understand where you are coming from with your following comments.
- What was the most effective part of this video’s analysis? In other words, where did the analysis make you hear something differently, understand the piece better, or convince you of the argument?
- Everything in your video and in your final project should relate clearly back to the thesis statement. Was there any point at which you weren’t sure why the information was being presented?
- The final paper is longer than the script for these videos will be. In light of that, name one or two areas where you think the author can slow down, explain more, or go more in depth, to make the paper longer and more effective.
- Pose one analytical question to the author, and explain how you would suggest answering that question. The author may think this is a good idea/question, and end up answering it when expanding their analysis for the final paper!
Please don’t hesitate to provide honest feedback. Your feedback will not impact the scores that I give to the video.
Grading
Your feedback will be graded on completion and counted as a homework grade.
Essay
The analytical essay is the capstone project of the course, and is worth 35% of your final grade. The purpose is to demonstrate what you learned in our seminar by performing your own creative analysis of piece of your choosing. The paper will be an expanded (at least twice as long) and refined version of your presentation.
Submission
- You may submit your paper anytime between May 3 and May 7.
- Submit by May 3 to receive detailed feedback on your paper.
- Papers submitted after May 3 will receive feedback on the rubric alone.
- The paper will be submitted to me on Blackboard.
- You must submit your paper as a .pdf file.
- If your essay references a score, please include a copy of the score.
Content
This is a music analysis paper. Some additional requirements and guidelines:
- Your music analysis must rely on and deeply engage with the analytical approaches we learned in class. This is the most important aspect of this paper, and therefore worth the most points in the rubric.
- Your paper should be bound together with a thesis statement of some kind, i.e., some kind of central feature that you discovered while analyzing the piece.
- The vast majority of your paper should be music analysis. If historical context directly enhances your central music-analytical thesis, then you may include it. Otherwise, restrict your biographical information to one paragraph. Including extra information beyond this does not help your grade in any way—it’s just extra.
- You should have chosen at least three aspects of the piece to focus on as examples which prove your thesis statement.
- Avoid qualitative language and irrelevant personal experience. The purpose of this paper is to show your understanding of the piece and the analytical techniques used, not to convince someone else to like the piece.
- Your tone and focus should be extremely similar to the readings we did throughout class. You might like to view my sample paper as a guide.
Length
- To thoroughly complete the objectives of the paper, I estimate it will take you at least 8 pages. Please do not write more than 13 pages. If you are under 8 pages or over 13 pages, please send me a draft and I’ll suggest places where you need to expand/condense.
- Page counts include musical examples (within reason).
Style
- 1” margins; professional 12 point font, such as Times; double-spaced
- Add a header with your name, the class, and the date you submitted it.
- Add page numbers.
- You must properly cite all authors whose techniques you use.
- This is not a research paper, so you should really only be citing people we discussed in class.
- You should have a bibliography at the end, even if it includes only one source.
- Use Chicago or MLA format for your citations, whichever you are more familiar with.
- Proofread carefully.
Essay grading rubric
| proficient | basic | poor | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Analysis (60 points total) | Thesis statement (10) | Clearly presented, well-formed, interesting. (10) | Clearly presented, well-formed, but not interesting. (7) | Unclear thesis statement or poor thesis statement. (5) |
| Examples (10) | 3 or more specific examples, analyzed in detail. (10) | 3 specific examples, but sometimes superficial analysis. (7) | Less than 3 specific examples. Not detailed enough. (5) | |
| Methodology (30) | Analysis relies on and deeply engages with a methodology learned in the course. (30) | Methodology is clearly referenced but is not executed properly, or could use a more in-depth treatment. (20) | Methodology is mentioned but not really used. (10) | |
| Support (10) | Analysis supports thesis statement. (10) | Relationship between analysis and thesis statement is implied but not made clear enough. (7) | Relationship between analysis and thesis statement is often unclear. (3) | |
| Citation (10 points total) | In-text citations (5) | All sources are properly cited in the essay. (5) | Sources are cited in the essay, but with improper formatting. (3) | No citations in the essay. (0) |
| Bibliography (5) | A complete bibliography of sources is provided. (5) | A complete bibliography of sources is provided, but with improper formatting. (3) | Missing many citations in the essay. (0) | |
| Style (30 points total) | Spelling and grammar (15) | Overall good English grammar and spelling. Written in an academic tone. (15) | Occasional grammar or spelling errors or instances of overly casual tone. (12) | Many grammar/spelling errors and/or inappropriate tone. (7) |
| Organization (15) | Argument is easy to follow and the main points are easy to remember. Writing is clear and efficient. (15) | Flow and main points can be discerned but the reader must work to find them. (12) | The argument is hard to discern. Paper is too short or too long. (7) |
Helpful tips
Bibliography
Bibliography
If articles are not available online, you should be able to find them in the Readings folder on Teams.