Beefing Up a Bibliography

I feel like I was taught to cite & find quality sources in so many different ways throughout my schooling: I learned about MLA in 8th grade, learned how to research one way in 9th grade, another way in 11th grade, Chicago style in college, more research methods in my freshman psychology class, and the list continues. Up until recently I wasn't quite sure what I was doing when it came to producing a bibliography, and got overwhelmed and confused when I had to find quality sources for a research project. I still have some of that anxiety, but the research and citation methods I'm learning in this class offer me very clear pictures of what information I should be looking for and how I find it.

I particularly enjoyed "It's Not Harry Potter" by Rob Weir. This article really highlighted for me that if you don't keep up with consistent research and citation methods, you risk losing the skill. I learned so many different skills that I didn't have a chance of solidifying them, let alone one! Going into reading this article I wasn't even sure if I knew how to properly draw information from a journal. However, the advice Weir offers is simple yet effective. I never considered looking at an author's actual purpose to get us past the "dry" writing of academia-- getting through and absorbing material dense texts was always difficult for me. Just thinking about what I material I want to extract as a reader puts me in a good mindset to find and retain quality information. Additionally, I appreciated Weir's mention of evaluating footnotes. In high school (and perhaps some of college), we are generally taught to assume that any book we read in school is legitimate. Normally it is, but we should learn not to take all seemingly academic resources as gospel and evaluate where an author received their information. I observed this recently in music history where Dr. Haefeli had us quickly assess an article she had given us. Reading through it, the article appeared very legitimate and scholarly. However, upon further investigation into the author's background and use of sources, we discovered that the text is not a prime example of scholarly work. Weir gave the best advice when he said "journals aren't stories." I appreciate the different perspective we need to take in order to properly read journals. Being somewhat relaxed about reading journals in order to wrap your mind the text is the best approach. In the words of my clarinet professor at Crane, "simplify the problem to simplify the solution." 

Though the "Periodicals" article and readings in the APA manual were more "informational" about different types of sources, there are some points that will help me with my research project. The "Periodicals" article clearly outlined music periodical specifics, and I appreciated the mention on how they "reflect, record, and influence musical life." I have a new appreciation for periodicals, for they keep material fresh and relevant (especially popular periodicals). For example, NYSSMA's "School Music News" has featured a great deal of information on teaching music in the pandemic. In the APA manual, I appreciated analyzing the various types of articles and what kind of research they feature. Qualitative articles will most likely be the main article type I search for on my research topic, but my research process will relate to meta-analysis. My aim is to take a number of sources and synthesize them together to find what rehearsal/conducting/communication methods serve to best educate middle school band students. Regardless, I will keep my mind open to the different source types I uncover and I look forward to putting together a cohesive and informative research project.