Music of the Spheres

Essay Guidelines

Remember that you are expected to engage with relevant critical texts in the preparation of your presentation and essay. Here you might consider academic articles and books on, or tangential, to your chosen topic. You might also find it useful to refer to relevant theoretical texts, on musicology or methods of analysis, for example. These texts can often provide useful frameworks for analysing your topic, even if they don’t mention your chosen material directly.The web site and seminar handouts provide starting points for conducting your own research into the topic you have chosen. You should use refereed critical texts (the majority of academic books and articles and the electronic sites accessible through Anglia Ruskin’s Digital Library) rather than relying on unrefereed Internet sites (Wikipedia, Gradesaver.com).
Some things to do:

  • Make sure that your essay has a clear structure and argument (i.e. an introduction where you set out the outline of your argument, several paragraphs that develop your argument and a conclusion that draws your ideas together). A paragraph should begin with a topic sentence and consist of a collection of sentences that develop or explain that topic.
  • Make sure that you answer the question.
  • Support your ideas with short relevant quotes, examples, summaries or explanations.
  • Make sure you research your essay – make use of the Resources section in the web site, further research suggestions, seminar handouts and library search tools.
  • Present your essay (layout, referencing) in accordance with the guidelines in the department writing guide under the Resources section.
  • Include a bibliography
Finally:

  • Proof read your work:
    • Make sure that your spelling is correct
    • Check your grammar and punctuation
    • Check apostrophe use
    • Underline or italicise the titles of plays and books
  • Keep to the word limit.
  • Keep to the submission deadline.
Things to avoid:

  • Writing in a colloquial or informal style. This does not mean that your work has to be dry or boring or full of academic jargon, but it does mean that you need to use language appropriate to a university essay.
  • Abbreviations.
  • Unsubstantiated generalisations.
  • Vague and imprecise language (e.g. ‘the music is about colour’). Because it is entirely a matter of personal taste, this kind of language tends not to tell the reader very much.