AAI 333 - Guidelines for term paper

As you consolidate your research findings to share your summary outline on your blog and to write-up your term paper, here are some guidelines to help you:

I. Summary outline on blog (by 31 Oct 08)
a. First take a step back to reflect on your research and analytical findings, what are the highlights or more significant findings/insights?
b. Think of a central thread or focus for your paper, then present your summary in point form, linking your points in a logical fashion to elaborate on your chosen focus/angle.

II. Term paper (due 11 Nov 08)
a. The logically-presented points in your summary above will serve as your topic sentences to organize your essay.
b. Exercise discretion when choosing your musical illustrations, avoid a blow-by-blow account of the music without any motivating narrative thread.
c. Craft your introduction and conclusion. A good introduction piques the reader’s interests whilst introducing the topic, a good conclusion offers additional insight(s) to go beyond mere recapitulating of the main points.

Finally, remember to include citations and references (including those in languages other than English). Plagiarism will be severely dealt with. You are encouraged to use citational styles appropriate for humanities subjects (e.g. MLA, Chicago), not APA which is more suited for the social sciences. Do include useful diagrammatic illustrations but do not spend an excessive amount of time on high-tech graphics, sometimes simple illustrations or even clear hand-written illustrations (scanned in) would do the job just as well.

Welcome to the new academic year 2008/2009

Welcome to our blog-community of music learners! For those who are new to this, you may sample the blog discussions by previous students using the link on the RH column. Here are some guidelines to get you started on this journey with us:

1. Creating your own blog: You may use Bloggers (http://www.blogger.com/start) or any other blog-hosting sites.
NB.
- Your blog should have a "Comment" function to facilitate our blog discussion.
- You may add a Tag board but this should not be used for blog discussion pertaining for our class assignments- Bear in mind that if you attached audio to your blog such that it automatically plays when viewed, the webpage may take longer to open.

2. Privacy: Remember that your blog is in the public domain. Please consider carefully whether you wish to divulge any personal information.

3. Copyright issue: please do not post extensive excerpts of copyrighted music scores and recordings. For YouTube materials, please check their copyright status as well. As an alternative, you may consider recording the music excerpt yourself if possible.

4. Netiquette: Please maintain an atmosphere of collegiality. This does not mean you cannot be critical in your comments, but there must always be a sense of mutual respect. A sense of humour is always good. Any form of cyber-bullying will be severely deal with.

5. Language policy: For blog discourses, you may be more informal in tone but basic grammar and spelling must be observed.

Finally, all said, the blog you have created for yourself IS YOURS! You may certainly post more personal ruminations and you are welcome to invite your music friends to participate in our blog discussions, thereby extending our e-learning community.

Blogging Assignment for Jan 08

Choose a song from the popular music, musicals, or film music repertoire (ethnic music is possible, but subject to the approval of the instructor). Analyze to comment on various interesting aspect(s) of the song—e.g. wordsetting, harmony, form, phrase structure, rhythm, accompaniment, etc.

You will each be assigned about a month to post your analyses. During your assigned period, post a minimum of two entries as well as respond to any peer comments/questions that come your way. During your ‘lull’ periods, you need only respond to fellow students’ blog postings. At the end of the semester, you will need to reflect on and summarize your learning.

As the teacher, I will play the dual role of participating as an ordinary member of this learning community as well as facilitating the whole process to ensure a good level of fruitful discussion.

Completion and submission deadline: 6 Apr 08

Updated policy guide on (edu-)blogging (Jan 08)

Underlying principle: Respect yourself and others.

Privacy and decency: Please remember that your blog is in the public domain, you may not wish to reveal certain personal information. As this blog is associated with your study at NTU-NIE, under no circumstance should you post materials that are pornographic, vulgar, racially-discriminatory, or in any way consider unbecoming of your teaching profession.

Copyright issue: please do not post extensive excerpts of copyrighted music scores; when posting sound/video clips (including those via U-Tube), please check the copyright status and obtain copyright clearance if necessary.

Netiquette: Please maintain an atmosphere of collegiality. This does not mean you cannot be critical in your comments, but there must always be a sense of mutual respect and be constructive. A sense of humour is always welcome.

Language policy: For blog discourses, you may be more informal in tone but basic grammar and spelling must be observed. Some use of point form is acceptable but these should be intelligible. On the other hand, uncontrolled rambling should be avoided: learn to be succinct (you’ll appreciate this when you have to read many blog postings).

Plagiarism: please acknowledge your sources of information, especially when quoting directly or paraphrasing. Any offence discovered will be dealt with according to the university’s policy on plagiarism.

Finally, may I emphasize again that the blog you have created for yourself IS YOURS! You may certainly post more personal ruminations besides those stipulated as our course requirements. You are also welcome to invite your music friends to participate in our blog discussions.

Welcome for the new academic year!

Welcome to another year of exciting music learning via blogging. For those who are new to this, you may sample the blog discussions by previous students using the link on the RH column. To get you started this year, here are some guidelines:

1. Creating your own blog: go to http://www.blogger.com/start and follow the three steps there. - After creating your blog, please do not remove the "Comment" function.
- Bear in mind that if you attached audio to your blog such that it automatically plays when viewed, the webpage may take longer to open.

2. Copyright issue: please do not post extensive excerpts of copyrighted music scores.

3. Netiquette: Please maintain an atmosphere of collegiality. This does not mean you cannot be critical in your comments, but there must always be a sense of mutual respect. A sense of humour is always good.

4. Language policy: For blog discourses, you may be more informal in tone but basic grammar and spelling must be observed.

Finally, all said, the blog you have created for yourself IS YOURS! You may certainly post more personal ruminations besides those stipulated as our course requirements. You are also welcome to invite your music friends to participate in our blog discussions.

Welcome on board this learning journey!

Posting your analysis

When posting your analysis, please use the song title (abbreviated if necessary) as your post title for better organization. Try not to edit your post after publishing so that any comments given can be related back to the original posting. Should you wish to amend your readings or add further to your analysis, start another blog entry using the same title (e.g. Memory I, Memory II, etc).

Linking our blogs

Please refer to instructions under Blackboard announcements.

Blogging - getting started

Go to http://www.blogger.com/start, follow the 3 easy steps to set up your own blog site.