Project Draft 1
Paper detalis:
Your assignment is to tell a story about your experience with a song, album, or musical artist/group in a specific situation. An effective story will more than entertain: it reveals through experience an insight, belief, or value you, or a community you belong to, hold about an aspect of identity.
Rationale, Or So What?
How, why, when, and where we engage with music arises out of specific situations, out of contexts. Looking closely at the social and personal elements of a situation can reveal forms and functions of music in different community situations. Understanding the context can help you critically reflect on how to understand identity in communities.
Strategies of Narrative as a Genre
The assignment is narrative-based and uses techniques that both “show” and “tell.” Specifically, you will describe scenes, people, places, and actions. Use of sensory detail, concrete specifics, figurative language, dialogue, and other storytelling strategies will strengthen your portrayal of your experience, serving as evidence so that your readers get to see in language what happens rather than merely taking your word for it.
In addition to a vivid portrait of the situation, you will reflect, comment, question, and speculate about what this experience means to you and how examining and reflecting on the experience reveals some insight that serves as the central focusing statement or idea into how music interacts with us on a personal and community level.
Format Requirements
• Your project should have an engaging title.
• Your project should be formatted in 12-pt. font with 1-inch margins.
• Your project should be 4-6 double-spaced pages.
Essay Goals
• Reflection has a clear and engaging purpose and articulates a complex understanding of music as a lens to investigate identity and community–writer provides abundant analysis.
• There is a precise focus. Writer provides necessary context through ample descriptive detail and includes a unique perspective and an effective tone.
• Writer develops the main idea through artful structure, including strong transitions to support central idea. Writer balances compelling observation and detail with insightful personal commentary.
• The music narrative uses conventions—such as language style, organization, and design–in ways that are engaging and appropriate. If applicable, citation conventions are applied systematically according to an official style.
• Writing shows evidence of revision and only slight error.
