Tips for preparing your research paper

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The research paper topic includes a tentative title, research question, one paragraph abstract, and a short bibliography. You'll expand this to become a paper outline, and finally the paper itself.

Here are some tips:

1) Check to see how your topic will fit into the wikipedia framework. Anything is possible, but be sure you're not replicating anything already in there. Investigations leading to the presentation of a topic are more welcome in an encyclopedia than hypotheses that you prove. Recall that I've compiled many wikipedia links on Arab music (on this wiki) - and the class has been contributing more.

2) don't let your topic become too broad or unfocussed. If it seems too broad, consider limiting to a specific place, time period, individual, region, ethnic group, or society.

3) at the same time, be sure you can find enough sources (usually secondary, but maybe primary) to do the research. More generally, ensure that you have a methodology enabling you to answer your research questions in the time available (i.e. you're not going to be able to travel to Egypt, learn Arabic, and interview musicians!).

4) avail yourself of our library's wonderful online databases, especially the fulltext services. Here are a few databases which you should scan, to find information, bibliography, or both.

Note that while you should not rely too heavily on general tertiary sources (e.g. general encyclopedias or dictionaries) in your paper, you can certainly use them as a guide, especially for locating additional sources.

[Under "course resources" I've also listed a number of these.]

5) take care that you're not merely summarizing a particular source or author's view. Your research must synthesize a variety of sources (primary or secondary) in order to come up with something new, even if merely to juxtapose known information in a new way.

6) topics centered on public discourse can be pursued via primary sources, e.g. critical journalistic responses to particular forms of Arab music. While most of you don't know Arabic, you may be able to pursue such topics via English language primary sources as well, e.g. when investigating reception of Arab music in North America via newspaper reports.

7) You can include cultural or musical analysis in your methodology, though it may be hard to do fieldwork in the time remaining. For this don't neglect the possibility of content analysis (on CD covers, liner notes, etc.), and analysis of online media, such as youtube videos.

8) If you're seeking inspiration, check out the books I ordered in the bookstore (they're all on reserve too).

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