5 Steps on How to Sound like Mozart in a Music Term Paper: Full Guide

Everyone has apparently heard about such a great composer as Mozart. His symphonies are surely listened by thousands all over the world. In fact, his musical works have been celebrated, studied, and performed when he hardly began composing music. Always want to know what inspires people to create prominent art pieces?

We hope that our complete guide on how to write a music term paper will be effective for writing your music term paper. As an academic paper is referred to music, get inspired by the famous Mozart’s works to establish fame as a brilliant student at a college or university.

What Topics Can Be Covered in My Term Paper?

As a term paper is the main research that is written by a student for a particular class or subject during the school year, the topics must:

• Refer to the subject in which you are going to write a paper. If you’re a student of Music, find a topic that would be related to the main concepts in music – genres, styles, history, expressive techniques, etc.
• Limit the research area in which you’re going to investigate a topic. If a topic is too broad or narrow, it will be difficult to research. Even if the research area is Music, specify what you’re going to work on.
• Be reasonably practical in the academic world. If a topic interests only you as a researcher (maybe, it seems to you that it is easy to deal with it), be sure that it may be of little interest among the others. Choose the topic that could double the value of your work.

The following list of topics meets all the criteria above mentioned. All of them are divided into subcategories. Just look at the topics and start to work on one of them.

• Genres of music. There are various genres of music to speak about. Don’t talk about taste in music. Be objective while presenting genres. For example, you can explain how they affect the listener.

1. Orchestral and Symphonic Music: Main Features that Attract the Listener;
2. Jazz Age: Its Role in World Culture;
3. Reggae Music: Identity, Place, and Representatives.

• History of music. According to the BBC article, the prehistory of music begins about 40,000 years ago. It means there are some issues that can interest the modern scientists.

1. Early Humans and Music: What Are the First Forms of Music Expression;
2. The History of Country Music: From the Early 1920s to Present;
3. The Origins of Popular Music: Its Distribution to Large Audiences.

• Philosophy of music. By nature, a human being is always engaged in philosophical speculation. Music is an area in which people have different philosophical perspectives as well.

1. Musical Perceptions Differ from Generation to Generation;
2. A Phenomenology of Music: What Is Beyond the Sound Phenomena?;
3. Aesthetics of Music: What Makes Music Aesthetically Pleasing?

• Music in Commercials. Nowadays, music is everywhere. Many commercial companies use music as an effective way to influence an audience.

1. Does Really Music Affect Brand Perception?;
2. The Meaning of Music for Commercial Needs: What Works, What Doesn’t and Why;
3. What Types of Music Are Used by Commercials?

• Music as therapy. Today it is possible to receive treatment in different ways. One such means is music therapy.

1. The Effects of Music Therapy on Human Health: Is It Effective Today?;
2. Practical Means of Using Music with the Therapeutic Effect;
3. Approaches to Music Therapy Used in the 21st Century.

If you decide to deal with the topics suggested in the list, you should read all the available background material. It allows you to:

• get an overview of the topic;
• know how many information sources you can rely on;
• appreciate the research rationale.

How to Select a Topic for My Term Paper by Doing It Myself?

After all, find it hard to know what topic exactly suits your academic interest? You have several options – choose something interesting from our list or invent your own. Try to choose the most valuable one on your own like the ability to develop a good research topic is not less important than the writing skills.

1. Focus on keywords or concepts that may be interesting for you in Music. Like composers and their outstanding artworks? Write them down. Proceeding from keywords, you can go ahead.
2. Define the narrow aspect from which you’ll use the keywords. Want to discuss the effects of music on human beings? It isn’t a good idea to investigate this issue from the perspective of musical trends.
3. Focus on your research questions. Know what you want to cover in a research paper? Great! Specify the questions that you want to answer while researching.
4. Start researching a topic to answer questions. Asked yourself but don’t know the detailed answers to the research questions? You can read the encyclopedia articles, for example, the Encyclopedia Britannica Online.
5. Don’t be afraid to modify your topic during the research process. After you decide on what topic you’ll explore on paper, be ready to change it slightly. This is normal practice when a researcher finds some aspects more interesting and feasible.

Remember that you need to do some research and reading before the final topic can be selected. On these grounds, it is reasonable to think of writing a term paper in advance.

What Strategies Are Effective for My Term Paper Writing?

Most college students are so impatient that skip the essential stage – prewriting. As a rule, such impatience often turns out to be costly. Moreover, the kind of writing without proper preparation can be much more time-consuming than you can imagine. What is better for a carpenter – to prepare all necessary wooden objects beforehand and then work with them altogether, or work with a wooden object, then go to the woods to take one more, and do it again and again?

Think of the writing process like in any job. Take enough time to plan and get your ideas organized on paper. Only after that, you should start the first draft. The Writing Center of the University of Kansas offers some useful prewriting strategies.

To write a term paper, you are highly recommended to:

• Use mind mapping. It is a graphic way to capture all your ideas. You place a topic in the center of the page and draw a circle around it. Different words, phrases, and ideas that come to your mind are written around and circled as well. Connect the related circles. Continue as long as you have the complex map of your thoughts. Below is an example of a mind map created for the topic: ‘Cultural Production of the 21st Century: Is a Remix Reality or Invention?’
• Make an outline. It is an important skill that every student should have. It involves the ability to present the main ideas or facts about something, without giving details. This way of organizing your thoughts saves greatly your time.
• Start freewriting. It means that you’ll start expressing all your ideas from your head on paper or computer screen in full. Concentrate on writing itself without paying attention to grammar, spelling or punctuation. Just write for 5-10 minutes non-stop.

If you adopt all these strategies for your writing, be 100% sure that you will stop struggle with any written assignment.

What Steps Are Vital for Writing A Research Paper?

The procedure of writing is definite and should be followed to produce an A+ term paper. Our step-by-step guide is to help you to know the peculiarities of good academic papers.

1.   Hunt for Information Sources

Asking, “Where to find sources that would add credibility to my research paper?” Firstly, you should know what type of information is needed:

• Want to know the latest news? Visit such broadcast media sites as BBC or PBS.
• Need the background information? Consult an encyclopedia.
• Want to underpin your paper with the statistical data? Click on the statistical portal.
• Need research on a topic? Find scholarly articles by subject from the database.
• Need information on music events? Scroll the website of a popular magazine.

Secondly, you should know 3 types of sources:

1. Primary sources present the original materials on which your research can be based. They are speeches, reports, articles, surveys, dissertations, recordings, artworks, etc.
2. Secondary sources contain the information provided by primary sources. Examples of secondary sources are bibliographies, reviews, monographs, etc.
3. Tertiary sources provide an overview of what the topic includes (a terminology, the background information). They include dictionaries, encyclopedias, guidebooks, indexes, etc. However, they aren’t so acceptable in academic researches as the previous ones.

After you find a necessary source from which you can take information for your research paper, you need to have a notebook at hand. Just write down the author’s name, some facts or evidence near it and a page number if it is a book. It will be much easier to fill in a reference page. Additionally, there are more chances to grasp some valuable ideas while browsing through resources.

2.   Draw an Outline of Your Term Paper

Previously, we explained why it is important to outline any paper. It’s time to get prepared for excellent writing. Only if a properly structured outline is in front of your eyes, you’ll manage to structure the whole research paper properly as well. Take care to mention all the necessary points. Then, you can delete some if you consider them unessential for your term paper.

3.   Work on the First Draft

After notetaking, creating an outline, it is quite significant to write drafts, at least a draft. It is just a rough copy that you will have to shape, edit and strengthen along the way towards an A+ term paper. Focus on the content. Measure the flow of information mentioned in an introduction, body paragraphs, and a conclusion.

• Stick to the point;
• Compose logically complete parts;
• Vary sentence length – from simple to complex.
• Use smooth transitions between sentences;
• Avoid too long sentences and too short paragraphs.

4.   Write the Final Version of a Term Paper

Now, you’re ready to start writing a term paper with the detailed presentation of the factual evidence, a proper structure, a reasonable accuracy. Pay attention to the features of an academic paper. It should attempt to be accurate, impersonal and objective. Study some examples of writing in your subject area. Then, you can proceed to your own writing by developing your own writing style.

5.   Give the Finishing Touches to Your Paper

Yes, you can breathe out after the full point is placed at the end of your paper. However, you shouldn’t ignore the stage where the final editing is planned. Look through your paper several times. It would be much better if you could find enough time to read it aloud several times. You’ll be able to notice all possible errors in grammar or spelling.

Be as precise as possible when giving facts or figures, and providing someone’s words – a name, source, year, page should be noted. Keep in mind that there is a notable difference between citation styles (APA, MLA, Harvard, etc.) Check your assignment to be sure that you write according to the particular formatting style.

Well done! Finally, your paper can be successfully submitted if you follow properly all the steps in pre-writing/writing/post-writing. You will notice how simple it becomes to deal with a term paper if you’re supported with the correct guidelines from your instructor or our professional custom paper writing service.