Getting Started
This guide is designed to help you find the articles, books, and other resources you need for your first-year writing class in twentieth century music. For articles, use Academic Search Premier (a general interest resource with many articles on music and related topics).
Search tips:
- use the "suggest subject term" search to find keywords
- put exact phrases in quotes ("rite of spring")
- start your search off broad then begin to narrow your results by using the "refine results" tool
- once you found a good resource, use the references cited to find more research
- not all articles on your topic are appropriate; don't try to make an article fit into your research; let it go!
- Academic Search Premier This link opens in a new windowA favorite for the social sciences, humanities, fine arts, medicine, and education, ASP indexes 8,200 periodicals. Full-text articles from 3,750 peer-reviewed, scholarly journals are found here, plus a number of popular sources.
Evaluating Resources
Use this checklist to determine if a source is appropriate:
Authority: Who wrote it? What credentials does s/he have? [PhD, affiliation with university]
Source: Where was it published? How was it selected for publication? [look at submission guidelines for evidence of peer review or other editorial processes]
Currency: When was it published? Has it appeared in other forms with/out revision?
Research: Are other sources cited in a bibliography/reference list? Are foot/endnotes used?
Bias: Is there an objective viewpoint? Is the author making assertions without documentation, or with questionable documentation? [e.g., her/his own work, crackpots]
