Journal articles, primary sources and books, mainly in the humanities and social sciences.
You've been tasked with writing a seminar paper as the final project for a course. Writing a long paper can feel very daunting, but if you know where to look, you'll discover that you have more than enough to say!
Before you start writing, you should settle on a topic. It's a good idea to start with a topic that other scholars have addressed. First, see if there is a Grove Music Online article related to your possible topic. Read the article and make note of any interesting sources in the bibliography. Then, use keyword searches in TWUniversal to see what else has been written on your topic. If there seems to be literature related to your topic, it may be a good choice for your seminar paper!
Once you have a topic, begin searching databases to find relevant articles. TWU subscribes to databases like JSTOR, Project Muse, and Academic Search Complete, which are all great places to start! Begin making citations, downloading articles, and skimming the bibliographies to find related articles. Be sure to add any interesting sources found through TWUniversal and Grove Music Online.
Journal articles, primary sources and books, mainly in the humanities and social sciences.
Journals, magazines, and newspapers in almost every subject area.
TWU's search system is limited to what the library owns. But sometimes, TWU doesn't own a copy of a source that may be helpful to your project. In these cases, it's easy to request items through Interlibrary Loan. Articles will often be sent as PDFs, while books and scores will be sent to the library for you to check out. Don't worry--you'll be notified via email when your materials are ready. Google Scholar and Music Index make it easy to see what research is out there beyond the TWU library, and you can use WorldCat to fill out the citation for Interlibrary Loan.
Between the sources owned by TWU and those requested through Interlibrary Loan, you may have too much to read! This may be a sign that your topic is too broad, so consider narrowing your paper to focus on a smaller part of your initial idea. Alternatively, some of your sources may be more relevant than others. If an article is from the twentieth century, it's possible that more recent scholars have built on those earlier ideas. You may want to remove older or ancillary sources if they seem less relevant to your topic.
Use the "Writing & Citing" tab of this LibGuide for guidance on writing your paper and citing your sources. Typically, musicological writing uses Chicago Notes-Bibliography Style citations, but it's best to check with your instructor.
Guide to style, usage, and grammar in editing.
