Writing in Music: A Brief Guide

The goal of Writing in Music is to demystify music writing conventions and methods by offering strategies for the types of writing that students most often encounter in college courses on music. Writing in Music offers guidance through the writing process and, for research assignments, through the research process.This book is geared for an audience of music majors and other students taking undergraduate music-major courses, as well as for master's students in music desiring more training in academic writing. The two approaches common to academic coursework in virtually all music-major programs are the study of music with a focus on its cultural and historical contexts, and the exploration of works using the tools of music analysis.

Writing in Music emphasize formal assignments, perhaps the most common type of writing assigned in courses. The writing strategies, however, can also be applied to a variety of media not directly discussed in the book, such as podcasts, blogs, and videos. These media require the same habits of mind and excellent writing skills that are expected in formal assignments. The book also offers guidance in matters of writing style that are unique to music, including the use of terminology and conventions for making observations and expressing ideas.