Music in Social Movements

Writing Your Literature Review For Sociology Of Music, you will be writing a Literature Review (min. 10 pages) on a chosen topic. Students should ask themselves: what is the possible ‘research question’ concerning the Sociology of Music that you will investigate? In other words, I am open to your pursuing any topic relevant to the class – but you first need to arrive at a ‘sociological question’ concerning your potential research interest. Therefore, the first item of business for you is to investigate and see whether anything has been academically written concerning your possible topic. IF THERE IS NO LITERATURE ON YOUR PROPOSED TOPIC – THEN THERE IS NO PAPER. Ten academic/peer reviewed sources must be utilized for your literature review. You may use sources from the assigned material for this class; but, you will have to conduct research to expand upon your topic. These may comprise books written by academics, or peer-reviewed, sociologically oriented journal articles.. The goal of a literature review is to ‘set the stage’ for further research. In this course, you do not have to worry about conducting original research into your topic, as you would do in the Senior Seminar. (However, I encourage you to think of a topic that you might be able to pursue one you actually take the Senior Seminar.) **NOTE THAT A LITERATURE REVIEW IS NOT ‘JUST’ A SUMMARY OF WHAT OTHERS HAVE WRITTEN. A LITERATURE PROPOSES INSIGHT INTO A RESEARCH QUESTION/TOPIC.** IN OTHER WORDS: THE PURPOSE OF A LITERATURE REVIEW IS TO HELP BUILD AN ARGUMENT. You need to move, logically, from one point to the next, reaching a conclusion that would form the basis for further research. Therefore, you do not want to just ‘summarize’ one source, and then move on to the next. The best approach is to integrate the material – compare and contrast your sources, and build a foundation for your argument and research interest! You will need to provide an Introduction that clearly states what your topic is, and why your topic would be of interest to sociologists/ criminologists. I suggest that you follow an Introduction to your Sociology of Music topic with a ‘theory’ section. What is the sociological perspective through which you will ‘frame’ your chosen topic and the relevant research materials? (Note that a ‘theory’ section means that you will have to draw on sociological theory – which means that scholarly theoretical work will be part of the sources you will incorporate into your Literature Review!) 15 Some of the issues that you should keep in mind while writing your Literature Review: A. What aspects of your topic have already been researched by others? B. Who are the experts in the field? You should familiarize yourself with their work…Again, this is potential source material! C. PRESENT A SYSTEMATIC SUMMARY OF THE LITERATURE. This means that you will have to discuss the material that you have read!: i.) Identify the major issues, controversies, and unknowns underlying the subject that you are researching. This means that you should compare and contrast the material that you read and analyze on your topic. ii.) What are the ‘holes,’ biases, and limitations in the existing research? Be critical of what others have written! iii.) What questions does the holes, biases, and limitations raise about existing studies? iv.) What is YOUR contribution going to be? How would your own future research address the issues (as outlined above) in the material? A rough outline to keep in mind for your literature review might look like the following: I. Introduction a. Proposed research question/argument b. Possible history of topic II. Theory a. Discuss sociological theory/perspective which will ‘frame’ the research materials that you have read III. Compare and Contrast Sources 16 IV. Conclusion – a. …also, indicate where your research (if you were to conduct research) would be headed – what questions would you seek to answer, that the research you have covered does not answer? (This should fit with your overall argument!) ALL MATERIAL MUST BE IN YOUR OWN WORDS – DO NOT PLAGIARIZE! REMEMBER, ANY MATERIAL – WHETHER A DIRECT QUOTE FROM A SOURCE, OR SUMMARIZED FROM A SOURCE (OR SOURCES) – MUST BE CITED APPROPRIATELY! THE FIRST DRAFT OF YOUR LITERATURE REVIEW IS DUE ON TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 24, 2020. Our library has excellent services that can help you obtain academic materials for your Literature Review. Should you find a relevant book at another college, REMEMBER that inter-library loan usually takes two days for your material to arrive, but it could take longer – maybe two weeks, or even more. EVERYTHING takes more time than you expect: be a responsible guardian of your own time! The College library also has on-line access to important databases for sociological research. JSTOR, Project Muse, ProQuest, and Sociological Abstracts are all terrific resources to help you find journal articles for your literature review. When conducting research on journal sites, remember – you may receive hundreds, if not thousands, of ‘hits’ concerning a potential topic. But, not everything that is returned via a search engine is relevant. It takes TIME to sift through the ‘hits’ to find the best material