Writing a Master's Thesis
When it comes time to writing a thesis/dissertation/project report (or any lengthy paper for school), there are several hurdles to cross before your finished project is completed and you can proudly show off your paper to anyone who is willing to listen. You need to first come up with a topic that is of interest to you, then there’s the research, and after many days and weeks of toughing it out in the school library, there’s the actual paper writing. Then, you’re not done yet! There’s the hours and hours of editing and checking margins and page numbers and line spacing and formatting issue after formatting issue (easily the most tedious part of the paper in my opinion). Writing a music paper is really no different than any other paper you’ve been writing throughout your schooling, there is just the added bonus of getting to listen to the music you are writing about. Below, I have laid out the process that I used to write my thesis.
Step 1: Coming Up with a Topic
Perhaps the most difficult part for me was coming up with a topic. It is important that you find one that holds enough interest for you on which to write a multi-chapter paper. Find something you enjoy, not necessarily something you think is the most academic or that sounds most impressive. If there is an idea you find more interesting or may be relevant to your future schooling/work, that topic will actually help future you out by preparing you for upcoming research.
In my schooling, the crowd I ran with was very academic. It seemed to me that something with more historical weight would be more impressive. So, I began researching an idea I had on the J.S. Bach Flute Sonatas. While I love playing Bach and I enjoy analyzing Bach, I did not actually much care for the topic I had come up with. I wanted to try to discover the composition dates of the sonatas, as not every sonata has a set composition date and they are actually kind of a hot topic among some flutists. After doing a bit of research into this, I discovered that 1) This was an already overdone topic with many papers out there and 2) I found this material rather dry and uninteresting. I kept at it for a while longer to see if there was something of merit and interest I could dig out of all my research, but I had to give up and abandon the topic.
I threw around several other thesis ideas with topics of interest to me, but could not come up with a solid thesis topic. In frustration, I made an appointment outside of regular lesson hours to speak with my flute professor/advisor about what to do with all these dead end ideas and if there was any way to make any of them work. About ten minutes into our discussion, my professor told me to stop trying to make myself interested in topics that didn’t inspire me; find something I actually enjoyed learning about. Getting a master’s degree shouldn’t be painful because the topic you choose should be of interest to you. It took maybe only another five minutes after that to discover that writing about flutes of the world should be my topic. I have always had a passion for learning about music and instruments of other cultures. I walked out of my professor’s office after a half hour meeting with thesis topic in hand and a new sense of direction and excitement.
Step 2: Researching/Gathering Resources
The research started online for me. I needed to narrow down my topic a little more as “Flutes of the World” is pretty broad and would take far more than a simple master’s thesis to cover. I needed to narrow down the scope to certain flutes and specific countries. To do this, I began researching all the flutes I could find and choosing the flutes or regions of the world that interested me the most (I chose four or five flutes/regions and had to narrow still more after reaching my page limit with only half my topic written out). Wikipedia can get a bad wrap from professors about being factually inaccurate, however I find it a good place to start research. It can give a basic overview of subjects to help you decide if it holds any interest for you. It also usually has a large list of references as the bottom of the page which you can scan for your own reference use. Google Scholar was also my best friend as this limits your search results to peer reviewed articles and thesis/dissertations only. This is a huge help and you don’t want your paper to have inaccuracies simply because someone on some website somewhere wrote something that was incorrect. Many schools also subscribe to large online catalogs such as WorldCat or RILM. These are very handy as well as they scour the web and library catalogs for articles and periodicals pertinent to your topic. It is helpful to note along the way where you found each resource as when you are done, you may have several pages of resources and will want to make it easier by notating where each source came from. The next step was going to libraries and finding books. I still prefer a good solid book over online papers. You do have to be careful sometimes with these as information can become dated depending on your subject. I was lucky enough to find a large amount of newly published books pertaining to my topic from several different libraries.
Step 3: Writing
Coming up with an outline to follow often helps to direct the thought process. Just like we all probably learned in middle school, an outline with a topic sentence is a great place to start when drafting what your paper may include. Most music schools that require a paper of sizeable length will have a class dedicated to how to research and how to outline. My first outline (see below) was when I was still planning on covering a lot more information. There would have been no way I could cover all the topics in the amount of time I had, with the page restriction given to us and still do a decent job. So I ended up cutting a couple countries and flutes (I did however, keep all the research I had done towards these for future use).
I. Preface
A. Thesis Statement
B. Geographical areas to be explored
1. South America
2. Native North America
3. Japan
4. Celtic Region of Europe
C. Pieces to be covered
1. Flute 3.2.4 Adriana Verdié
2. Winter Sky Joseph Turin
3. The Seventh Healing Song of John Joseph (Blue) James DeMars
4. Nesting of Cranes Wil Offermans
5. In Ireland Hamilton Harty
II. South America
A. Music history of area
1. General
2. Flute (Siku/Pan Pipes)
B. Program notes from Professor Verdie
1. About the composer, Adriana Verdie
2. About the piece
C. Performance practice for Flute 3.2.4
III. Native North America
A. Music history of area
1. General
2. Flute (Native American Flute)
B. Program notes for Winter Sky
1. About the composer, Joseph Turrin
2. About the piece
C. Performance Practice for Winter Sky
D. Program notes for The Seventh Healing Song of John Joseph (Blue)
1. About James DeMars
2. About the piece
E. Performance practice for The Seventh Healing Song of John Joseph (Blue)
IV. Japan
A. Music history of area
1. General
2. Flute (Shakuhachi)
B. Program notes for Nesting of Cranes
1. About the composer, Wil Offermans
2. About piece
C. Performance practice for Nesting of Cranes
V. Celtic region of Europe
A. Music history of area
1. General
2. Flute (Penny Whistle/Tin Whistle and Irish/Scottish Flute)
B. Program notes for In Ireland
1. About the composer, Hamilton Harty
2. About piece
C. Performance practice for In Ireland
VI. Conclusions
At this point, the actual writing can begin. I found it easier to begin writing from one of the inner chapters, as these are what all my research dealt with. The introduction and conclusion could come later. My mind was focused on the meat of the paper and that was what I found easiest to start with. My only tip for this portion is to just sit down and do it. Find interesting quotes that you can use and slowly build a paper around them. All of this will prepare you for the next step.
Step 4: Editing/Formatting
Easily the most tedious part of the process. Your school should supply you with formatting details, but there are also tons of places online to look up the different formats (MLA, APA, Chicago, etc.). It helps if you can get a friend to look over everything for you. An extra set of eyes can often find the mistake that you’ve grown accustomed to looking at.
Forewarning: changing computers via flash drive may mess up some of the formatting that you had in place! Learn from my mistakes here. Changing computers often can and probably will mess up your formatting. Try to consistently work on the same computer or at the very least, the same version of Microsoft Word or whatever document writer you are using. I can’t count the number of times I would try to print from a friend’s computer and the margins would suddenly be different, or that picture on page 9 would suddenly be on page 10 with a HUGE spacing error now in the text. Keep it consistent and save yourself the headache.
If you’re turning in a larger paper that will be published online through your school, such as a dissertation or thesis, most schools will have a Dissertations and Thesis office that checks your formatting once more before anything is published.
At the end of this process, you will hopefully have a paper that you are proud to call yours and that you cannot wait to show off to friends, family, neighbors, anyone who even remotely asks what you are up to….Everyone! Good luck!
For any of you curious minds out there, here is a link to where you can find my Master's Thesis.
Here is a short abstract on the final product:
"This study investigates the siku of Argentina, Peru, Bolivia and Venezuela; and the shakuhachi of Japan and their effect on Western classical flute repertoire. By exploring the histories, construction of the flutes, and the role each flute has in its society, a better understanding of these flutes and the cultural aesthetic in which they work will be achieved thus creating a higher level of authenticity when performing these pieces. The pieces being surveyed are Flute 3.2.4. by Adriana Verdie and Nesting of Cranes by Wil Offermans. Notes on technique of what the author found useful when playing these pieces are found at the end of each chapter."