Musicology Dissertation

Learning Outcomes

Subject Specific Intellectual and Research Skills

Having successfully completed this module you will be able to:

• Demonstrate an original personal analytical or critical approach to your topic
• Show evidence of synthesising existing scholarly writing in your area
• Argue and substantiate your conclusions to the research questions you have identified

Knowledge and Understanding

Having successfully completed this module, you will be able to demonstrate knowledge and understanding of:

• Develop your own personal approach to the analytical or critical problems you have identified in relation to existing material
• Develop knowledge of primary and secondary literature related to your topic

Subject Specific Practical Skills

Having successfully completed this module you will be able to:

• Demonstrate familiarity with a wide range of specialist materials appropriate to your topic

Transferable and Generic Skills

Having successfully completed this module you will be able to:

• Manage a large-scale independent research project
• Present the results of independent research in a standard humanities format

The Dissertation is the final stage of the MMus in Musicology, completing work started in Preparation for Final Project module. Most of this work takes place over the summer, and should be largely independent; students should, however, meet their supervisors over the summer for supervision or exchange drafts and comments via emails. Students may submit a complete draft of the dissertation to the supervisor for comments, by a date mutually agreed with the supervisor. Supervisors’ comments will primarily address questions of organisation, emphasis and argument. In addition, supervisors may supply detailed commentary on prose style for a short section of the draft to act as a model for prose revision in the remainder of the dissertation. (Supervisors will not, however, edit prose style for the entire dissertation, principal responsibility for which remains with the student.)

Teaching and learning methods

Teaching methods include

• Individual tutorials
• written comments on draft material

Learning activities include

• independent study and writing

Individual tutorials provide regular intensive sessions that are designed around student need and demand. Independent study and writing develops the ability to make autonomous decisions about research questions and priorities, aiding the development of an original approach to the chosen dissertation topic.

Resources & Reading list

General Resources

The Chicago Manual of Style: For Authors, Editors and Copywriters, 17th edition.

Music in Words: A Guide to Researching and Writing about Music.

Writing Your Dissertation in Fifteen Minutes a Day: A Guide to Starting, Revising, and Finishing Your Doctoral Thesis.

The PhD Writing Handbook.

Internet Resources

https://www.chicagomanualofstyle.org/home.html.

Assessment strategy

• Assessments designed to provide informal, on-module feedback
• Tutor comments on draft material (including chapter outlines, working bibliographies, material to be included in appendix)

Summative

This is how we’ll formally assess what you have learned in this module.

Referral

This is how we’ll assess you if you don’t meet the criteria to pass this module.

Repeat

An internal repeat is where you take all of your modules again, including any you passed. An external repeat is where you only re-take the modules you failed.

Repeat Information

Repeat type: Internal & External