In A Style and Usage Guide to Writing About Music, Thomas Donahue presents a collection of guidelines to help express through the written word the special notations, terms, and concepts found in the discipline of music. It concentrates on questions of style and format in the interest of good formal writing within the context of United-States English, so that writers may communicate their ideas clearly and effectively. While compiling the guidelines, Donahue reviewed content from many other music and general guides. He documented the most common formats in order to assist the writer in selecting an appropriate format for the given circumstance when more than one may apply. The book draws on profuse musically-oriented examples and is arranged by topics both musical and typographic, such as the proper use and spelling of composer names and musical concepts; the use of notes, pitches, and octave delineations; letters and numbers employed to describe form and harmony; when, where, and how to apply compound words and hyphenation of terms and names; and the proper citation of musical and audiovisual sources. The book concludes with a glossary of typographic terms, a bibliography, and a comprehensive index, making this a valuable resource for students, scholars, teachers, and writers.

Written in a clear and conversational style, A Short Guide to Writing About Music examines a wide range of writing assignments for music courses at all levels of the undergraduate curriculum. Employing a variety of writing samples as a means to illustrate effective writing, this brief and inexpensive text teaches writers how to deftly research and write about music.

This guidebook provides practical and specific assistance to undergraduate students about writing research papers and other types of projects in the field of music. It also offers practical help in writing effective prose on any topic and ways to improve one's writing style. The Third Edition has been extensively revised and rewritten. The organization of the material has been changed in order to present issues in a more logical order. There are expanded sections on new approaches to musicological research, electronic resources for research, and how to use word processing programs to draft and edit a paper. The section on format issues has been revised and expanded to make the detailed information it offers clearer and more useful. Finally, a new sample student paper has been included in the Appendix, along with discussion questions designed to help students analyze the paper, read more critically, and understand better the process of researching a topic, designing a paper, and arguing a thesis persuasively.

The premier source for journalists, now revised and updated for 2015. Does the White House tweet? Or does the White House post on Twitter? Can "text" be a verb and also a noun? When should you link? For anyone who writes--short stories or business plans, book reports or news articles--knotty choices of spelling, grammar, punctuation and meaning lurk in every line: Lay or lie? Who or whom? That or which? Is Band-Aid still a trademark? It's enough to send you in search of a Martini. (Or is that a martini?) Now everyone can find answers to these and thousands of other questions in the handy alphabetical guide used by the writers and editors of the world's most authoritative news organization. The guidelines to hyphenation, punctuation, capitalization and spelling are crisp and compact, created for instant reference in the rush of daily deadlines. The 2015 edition is a revised and condensed version of the classic guide, updated with solutions to problems that plague writers in the Internet age: · How to cite links and blogs · How to handle tweets, hashtags and other social-media content · How to use current terms like “transgender,” or to choose thoughtfully between "same-sex marriage" and "gay marriage" With wry wit, the authors have created an essential and entertaining reference tool.

Music in Words is a compact guide to researching and writing about music, addressing all the issues that anyone who writes about music--from students to professional musicians and critics--may confront when putting together anything from brief program notes to a lengthy thesis. The book is a writing guide and a reference manual in one: the first part, a "how to" section, offers a clear explanation of the purpose of music research and how it is to be done, including basic introductions to the most necessary tools for musical inquiry (with special emphasis on strategic use of the internet), and how they can be accessed and used. The second part is a compendium of information on style and sources for quick reference, including a straightforward presentation of the purpose and use of citation and reference systems as they are applied to and in music. As a whole, the volume gives readers a clear picture of how to write about music at different levels and for different purposes in a handy, thoroughly cross-referenced format. This American edition has been thoroughly revised and expanded, and features an extensive section on writing for the Internet and new sections on writing for jazz, popular music, world musics, and ethnography. Additionally, a companion website presents a broad range of writing samples and links to key resources.

Explains how to create songs to be played on guitar, including advice on such basics of songwriting as structure, rhythm, melody, and lyrics.