Schoolwork Help Thread

[mikey]

Don't use dropbox D:

[SlowPokemon]

You don't have to have a dropbox account. You just click the link and you can download it. Easy as pie

[Raymondbl]

     An essay I wrote last year.  It was for recommending an AP Music Theory course to the High School. Now that I look back at it, the wording is very choppy and too repetitive.  Interruptive language elements were used waaay too much. But - I was short on time.  Perhaps there is content here that might help you.

On the importance of AP Music Theory

     Half of all students who took a national theory exam failed it. The high failure rate of the Associated Board's preliminary exam was accordingly attributed to insufficient education on music theory, according to Lucia (16).  Music theory, by general definition, is the study of the structural, ideological, and scientific aspects of music.  The importance of theory is overlooked by Brunswick High School, which only offers performance classes that are of satisfactory quality.  Implementing the AP Music Theory Course will assist aspiring music students greatly with their studies and bring them together in a collaborative community. 
   Put simply, music consists of two parts: theory and performance. At our high school, performance classes, such as orchestra and band, are of satisfactory quality.   However, most people not familiar with music performance know very little of theory, and subsequently do not know that theory instruction is just as important as performance instruction. It is commonly known among musicians that the system of music notation, writing music on paper, is based on theory.  The ability to translate that notation into music is dependent not only on musicians' performing experience, but also on their knowledge of theory – they cannot play what they cannot interpret. According to Erik, "Listeners' ability to detect errors 'in intonation in a melody' or 'melodic intonation' is affected by their ability to perceive underlying harmonic function." Therefore, musicians' performing abilities are limited, to some extent, by their level of theory. 
     Instrumental classes, such as orchestra and band, teach a minimal amount of theory due to its requirement for performance.  However, more advanced concepts, such as chord notation and diatonic function, are usually only taught in specialized theory classes. "Why teach advanced concepts when students can play their music with concepts already taught?" some might ask.  Of course, any student can churn out the bare notes and be technically "correct" with what little theory they already have.   But, advanced theory adds a new dimension to the music: a deeper and more complex understanding of not just the way musical notes interact, but why the notes interact in the way they do.  Mastery of the written music greatly improves musical expression and motivates students with a newfound perception of the beauty and intricacy of music. 
     Another difference between orchestral classes and theory classes is the fact that in orchestral classes, students do not get to socially interact much.  Students walk into the classroom, chat frivolously, tune their instruments, and then silently play them all the way to the end of the class.  Exceptions to this standard procedure are the days in which theory is taught.  Yes, playing in an ensemble can be considered "working together," but students don't actually interact with each other.  What one student plays does not influence another student or change what they play; the work is independent. A theory class trumps run-of-the-mill ensemble classes in that students are truly brought together.  According to Beckstead, they can exchange and present musical ideas, compositions, revelations, and actively collaborate in heavily group-based projects, such as a joint improvisation to be described later on. 
   Performance is not the only thing that benefits from theory.  Because theory encompasses the ability to read music and the tools for writing music, it is the backbone for everything to do with music, including composition, education, psychology, musicology, ethnomusicology –musicology especially benefits, on account of their substantial focus on how theory has changed over time – aesthetics, therapy, and the already-mentioned performance (Lucia 2).  Furthermore, the applications of music theory are not restricted to just music. Almost all disciplines have their own theoretical studies and beliefs, and the beliefs of each can relate in some way to the philosophical/theoretical studies of other disciplines because of the naturally broad scope of theory in general (Lucia 6).  For example, in music theory there are ideas that a musical phrase should generally not have the same volume throughout, but layers, inflections, strong parts and weak parts, and the general shape of soft at the beginning, climactic in the middle, and soft at the end. These same ideas could be applied to linguistics and writing. A spoken English sentence usually has a softer beginning, a syllable near the middle that is the most stressed, and a softer end.  A fictional novel usually has an inviting exposition, an intense climax, and a peaceful resolution.  Of course, there are exceptions: a musical phrase could be cut off and suddenly explode into a frenzied flurry; an English sentence, such as "Feel the power," could emphasize the first word; and a science-fiction novel could have an action-packed and busy exposition for dramatic effect.  But, even these exceptions are similar in their manner of exception – namely, that they all emphasize the introduction.  Similarities between disciples allow other disciples and walks of life to benefit from the philosophical theory of a single disciple.   
     Despite that music is a useful study, some might ask, "Would not any funding available be put to better use in core subjects, such as math and reading?"  It is quite true that if core subjects are severely lacking, funding should be applied to those subjects first. Obviously, the majority of all students are not looking at music careers, but careers more related to mathematics, science, and language arts.   However, Brunswick High School would do well to truthfully evaluate its needs; do core classes really need more money?  Are core classes not already of sufficient quality to meet standards?  If core classes are already sufficient in quality, would not any available funding be more effectively applied to music?  Previously discussed is the ideological effect music has on other academic subjects.  In addition to that, music has a cognitive effect on the brain that benefits skills used in life in general, not just academics. The commonly touted "Mozart effect," a belief that listening to complex classical music immediately increases intelligence, is untrue, but there are several studies that demonstrate concrete evidence of long-term cognitive gains, according to Vitale (7).
When musicians play memorized passages, they access a region of their brains associated with planning and problem solving. During musical improvisation, the spontaneous composing of music, musicians switch to cognitive processing associated with meditation, daydreaming, and creative activities (Beckstead). The use of two distinct mental regions shows the extensive varieties of essential skills that music involves.  As Baker wrote, "Musical training has a profound impact on other skills including speech and language, memory and attention, and even the ability to convey emotions vocally." This reinforces the idea that music influences mental growth.  How does music impact other skills?  It engages the mind in so many areas, it shapes the brain to have more neuroplasticity; an ability for the brain to adapt and become more versatile. As further support for this concept, a study by Pascual-Leone at Harvard Medical School demonstrates that pianists have an enlarged and adapted motor cortex (Begley). 
     These findings demonstrate that education of music in general physically increases mental ability, thereby positively influencing musicians' later life.  This is certainly a good reason to fund music, and funding is scarce enough that music teachers would accept any funding they can get, even if the said funding is only for academic gains that music gives (Vitale 18).  But, academics and intelligence should not be the only reason music is funded. Cutietta wrote, "The problem with these reports [that music makes you smarter] is that they send the wrong message. They say that learning about music, or learning to play music, is not important unless there is some other reason for doing it . . . Music is required to justify itself because of unrelated learning" (qtd. Vitale 20).  Is music not worthy of education for its own sake?  Music itself is valuable in society. Weddings have music.  Church has music. Presidential inaugurations, student graduations, military processions, flag-raising ceremonies, birthday celebrations, and innumerable iconic traditions in our culture have music; without it, they would be missing an internal meaning - a colorful dimension.  Music also adds its emotional depths to some other arts, such as film, dance, video games, and to a lesser extent, acoustical architecture. Additionally, music is simply one of the most popular forms of entertainment – some world-class music concerts are commonly known to have attendance rates of tens of thousands of people per concert.  Compounded with these qualities is a belief by many musicians that "a large part of a person's ability to enjoy the aesthetic qualities of music is the degree to which he or she understands the elements of music" (Erik).  Surely, such widespread existence and significance of music warrant it a healthy education. 
It is plain that a music theory course is a major supplement to other classes.  But, Brunswick High School already has a music theory class.  What is the point of this writing, then?  The current music theory class is deemed inadequate.  For the best social and intellectual atmosphere and the most useful content, the course should be based off the College Board's AP Music Theory guidelines.
     An AP course ensures that advanced concepts, such as Roman numeral progression, figured base, and modal keys are explored to benefit serious musicians who have already mastered the basics. The College Board's guidelines also have many coinciding standards with the Ohio Department of Education's Academic Content Standards of 12th grade Music, such as the ability to discern and name textures and compose/improvise a harmonizing part for a given line.  These standards are very high for most orchestral students at the High School, and an AP Music Theory course will be of much more difficulty and quality than the existing theory class. 
According to a survey of Brunswick High School music students, many students are unwilling to take the currently offered course because they already know rudiments taught in the basic course, or, in the case of a high-ranking student, cannot afford the hit to their Grade Point Average by a level two class. Furthermore, the current class is only offered biannually.  This leads to little knowledge of the course, and compounded with the fact that it is only offered one period, conflicts with other single-class courses on students' schedules, such as Post Secondary Enrollment Option courses and higher foreign language classes. Many serious musicians would jump at the chance to take an AP Music Theory course for higher knowledge and the invaluable community, which would be greatly diminished in value in a regular course lacking of serious students.
     Methods of teaching theory in an accessible way to students have been developed by highly experienced teachers and would be put to effective use in the AP course. One basic method is "arpeggiated singing," in which the students must learn the individual intervals of chords and sing them from any key without a piano reference.  This is one of the most effective ways of both teaching harmony (Erik) and developing relative pitch.  As a traditional idiom goes, "Boom – killed two birds with one stone." Arpeggiated singing will probably be used extensively throughout the first quarter to internalize fundamental harmonies. The method is very effective; it fulfills the standards of College Board and Ohio on several fronts related to texture, harmony, progressions, and keys. Arpeggiated singing is based on the idea of "chunking," in which large amounts of information are broken down into associated chunks, making memorization more easy.  The piano reference is one of the base chunks; the alternating intervals inside the chord are memorized as one or two chunks of chords.  The method also uses the "zone of proximal development," which is a theory that "a range of tasks that are too difficult for an individual student to master alone... can be mastered with the guidance and assistance of adults or more skilled peers" (Erik).  The idea is that if a few students cannot grasp the chord at first, other students and/or the teacher singing the chord at the same time will eventually help them understand the chord. 
     A major staple of music theory class is the joint-improvisation.  Improvisation, properly defined, is the creation of spontaneous and unprepared music.  It is one of the rarer skills in the musical world today, and being able to improvise is a huge plus in the composing requirements by the Ohio and College Board standards.  As such, a big improvisation project would not only effectively fulfill requirements, but also motivate and interest students while having them work creatively together.  In this project, students are assigned to improvise in a certain tonal key and its relative keys.  When they are ready, they perform the improvisations in class, and other students can improvise accompaniments to those improvisations.  The process is repeated and lengthened until a whole musical composition manifests from the joint improvisations of the students (Beckstead). 
Theory education that conforms to these standards and efficient teaching methods will deepen musical understanding and analysis, giving students permanent skills.  Theory classes are much more socially motivating than ensemble classes.  Music in general is valuable in society. For these reasons, it is worth funding music classes in lieu of already sufficient academic courses; an AP Music Theory course can bring musicians to work together and achieve high goals they would otherwise never reach.

[mikey]

This really helps!  Do you think you have the articles that you were referencing somewhere?

[Raymondbl]

To be honest, most of what I say is backed by logic and not sources. I only attempted to use sources because they were required. Just like how it is required for the opening sentence to be an "attention getter."

 Some of them are in the EBSCO database, which is a hassle to get to. So, I put them on Dropbox (no, I didn't just do it because you don't like it).

Spoiler

http://content.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1580438-1,00.html
https://www.dropbox.com/sh/7ps2s7oj10iwh6j/XdOysY36XA/musicsources.docx
https://www.dropbox.com/sh/7ps2s7oj10iwh6j/ipoMUuMD3S/EJ946098.pdf
https://www.dropbox.com/sh/7ps2s7oj10iwh6j/HFvOvJO0Pe/33400551.pdf

[close]

Here is my works cited page, just in case you're required to have one.

Spoiler

Works Cited
Baker, S. L. "Music Benefits the Brain, Research Reveals." Natural News Network. N.p., 30 July    2010. Web.
Beckstead, David. "Improvisation: Thinking and Playing Music." Music Educators Journal 99.3    (2013): 69-74. EBSCO. Web.
Begley, Sharon. "The Brain: How The Brain Rewires Itself." Time Magazine. N.p., 19 Jan. 2007.    Web.
Erik, Johnson. "Practical Tools to Foster Harmonic Understanding." Music Educators    Journal 99.3 (2013): 63-68. EBSCO. Web.
Lucia, Christine. "How Critical Is Music Theory?" Critical Arts: A South-North Journal of    Cultural & Media Studies 21.1 (2007): 166-89. EBSCO. Web.
Vitale, John Luke. "Music Makes You Smarter: A New Paradigm for Music    Education?"Canadian Journal of Education 34.3 (2011): 317-43. ERIC. Web.

[close]

[mikey]

Thanks!

[mikey]

Where do I find French primary sources (more specifically Normandy, at the abbey of Mont Saint-Michel) about Benedictine monks from the late 10th century AD?

[DrP]

As-tu éssayé Google Scholar?

C'est bien de chercher les articles en français, commes les journaux academiques et les autres choses très importants pour le recherche!

http://scholar.google.fr/scholar?hl=fr&q=Mont+Saint+Michel&btnG=&lr=
http://scholar.google.fr/scholar?q=Les+moines+b%C3%A9n%C3%A9dictin+du+Xe+siecle&btnG=&hl=fr&as_sdt=0%2C5

[mikey]

As-tu éssayé Google Scholar?

C'est bien de chercher les articles en français, commes les journaux academiques et les autres choses très importants pour le recherche!

http://scholar.google.fr/scholar?hl=fr&q=Mont+Saint+Michel&btnG=&lr=
http://scholar.google.fr/scholar?q=Les+moines+b%C3%A9n%C3%A9dictin+du+Xe+siecle&btnG=&hl=fr&as_sdt=0%2C5

Dude how come my professors never told me about this D:

[DrP]

Ils sont les cons??

I don't know. But Google Scholar REALLY helped me with my research papers in college.
(We also had internal stuff, but when I was lazy, I went to Google Scholar -- It was so much better)

[braix]

Due to my awesome procrastination, I have two pages I have to write about Medieval Ages' swords and knights fighting style and turn it in on Monday, but really, this is all I got and I don't know what to add or where I can get the info:

"There were lots of weapons in the Medieval ages, and the sword was one of them. Knights used them and they, along with the armor and horse of a knight, were very expensive. Medieval swords were the main weapon of the knights in the Middle Ages. Medieval swords changed over time. At the beginning of the Middle Ages, they used a double-edged sword, but later they started using a diamond-shaped sword that could destroy chain mail more easily. There were many different types and styles of Medieval swords.
 
Some parts of the swords are:
Blade - The blades were generally straight with two sharp edges.
Crossguard or Quillion - This was the handle of the sword, in the shape of a Christian cross. It was sometimes covered in bronze, silver or gold.
Edge - The edge is the part of the blade you cut with.
Forte - The forte is the strongest part of the swords blade. It's from the hilt to the middle of the blade.
Fuller - The fuller is a groove in a straight double edged blade. It's also known as the 'Blood Gutter'.
Grip - The Grip was made of horn or wood. It was the part of the swords that the knights gripped.
Hilt - The Hilt is the handle of the sword made up of the crossguard, grip and the pommel.

In medieval times, knights trained using swords called batons. A training fight's end is determined when a set number of hits are met, or when one/both people are satisfied enough. For the first option, different hits and maneuvers counted as different amount of points.
The points were given to the combatants as follows:
Thrusts to the body/head/shoulder(s) - 3 points
Disarms - 3 points"
Thrusts to the body everywhere else - 1 point
Strikes made using the quilliion - 1 point

If anyone can help a bit I might not be so screwed lol

[Maelstrom]

Spoiler

Due to my awesome procrastination, I have two pages I have to write about Medieval Ages' swords and knights fighting style and turn it in on Monday, but really, this is all I got and I don't know what to add or where I can get the info:

"There were lots of weapons in the Medieval ages, and the sword was one of them. Knights used them and they, along with the armor and horse of a knight, were very expensive. Medieval swords were the main weapon of the knights in the Middle Ages. Medieval swords changed over time. At the beginning of the Middle Ages, they used a double-edged sword, but later they started using a diamond-shaped sword that could destroy chain mail more easily. There were many different types and styles of Medieval swords.
 
Some parts of the swords are:
Blade - The blades were generally straight with two sharp edges.
Crossguard or Quillion - This was the handle of the sword, in the shape of a Christian cross. It was sometimes covered in bronze, silver or gold.
Edge - The edge is the part of the blade you cut with.
Forte - The forte is the strongest part of the swords blade. It's from the hilt to the middle of the blade.
Fuller - The fuller is a groove in a straight double edged blade. It's also known as the 'Blood Gutter'.
Grip - The Grip was made of horn or wood. It was the part of the swords that the knights gripped.
Hilt - The Hilt is the handle of the sword made up of the crossguard, grip and the pommel.

In medieval times, knights trained using swords called batons. A training fight's end is determined when a set number of hits are met, or when one/both people are satisfied enough. For the first option, different hits and maneuvers counted as different amount of points.
The points were given to the combatants as follows:
Thrusts to the body/head/shoulder(s) - 3 points
Disarms - 3 points"
Thrusts to the body everywhere else - 1 point
Strikes made using the quilliion - 1 point

If anyone can help a bit I might not be so screwed lol

[close]

Maybe discuss styles of fighting a soldier when on a horse, and vice versa. You could also give a few examples of disarming techniques. If you run out of things to say, don't add more on a smaller portion, just reiterate the important information with only a few redundancies. You also could elaborate on the types of swords, like broadswords, long swords, scimitars, rapiers, etc. See if you can get away with katanas and the like.

[Bubbles]

That looks like you have enough? I mean I hope you're planning to not put the lists as lists but as complete sentences. And if its due Monday and only 2 pages you're not really procrastinating

[braix]

That looks like you have enough? I mean I hope you're planning to not put the lists as lists but as complete sentences. And if its due Monday and only 2 pages you're not really procrastinating

It's a two page minimum but I want a better grade.

See if you can get away with katanas and the like.

LOL

[Mashi]

Sentence structure could use some work.  Not sure what grade you're in, but I figure it's acceptable enough for your average aptitude.  As it is now, your sentences are factual, but not necessarily connected.  In a well written essay, information and sentences should flow together.  If you change your diction (word choice) a bit, it can do wonders.  Looking at your initial paragraph:

"There were lots of weapons in the Medieval ages, and the sword was one of them. Knights used them and they, along with the armor and horse of a knight, were very expensive. Medieval swords were the main weapon of the knights in the Middle Ages. Medieval swords changed over time. At the beginning of the Middle Ages, they used a double-edged sword, but later they started using a diamond-shaped sword that could destroy chain mail more easily. There were many different types and styles of Medieval swords.

"Among the variety of weapons available during the Medieval Era (such as maces, pikes, daggers, spears, etc), chiefly the sword was used among the higher classes.  Notably, the knights are closely associated with them, and they heavily relied on them, whether for sport, competition, or training.  Relative to the population, only a small percentage was composed of knights, as the costs of training, swords, horses, and armor were incredibly expensive.  In addition to this expense, knights also had to be particular about what type of equipment they chose for themselves.  The sword, for example, had a variety of forms and even evolved through the Medieval Era.  At its start, swords were primarily double-edged, but as time passed, knights began using swords with a diamond-shaped edge instead, because it would more easily destroy chain mail.  In fact, the changes that occurred to the sword are more intricate than simply alterations to its edges, and there are many more parts to it.

If you take notice, the latter paragraph is slightly longer (but not enough to be redundant), while also supplying more connective ideas and facts.  Of course, the latter paragraph is written in my own style and there's naturally more than one way to express thoughts in cohesive and expressive ways.  The "colour" of one's writing style isn't something that can appear instantly, but it's something you should keep in mind as you continue writing in the future.


maelstrom's suggestions are good.  In addition to his suggestion, maybe write more in depth about the purpose of each part of the sword, why the sword gained popularity for use among knights, why equipment was so expensive (chiefly swords), go more in depth on the types of swords there were, etc.

As for finding this information, you can honestly just Google for it.  This site was the first result for "medieval swords" and it's informative enough.  Be wary of false information, sure, but chances are that it's the first result for a reason!

Anyway, good luck!  You still have the weekend, which should be plenty of time to write it out.  Just write it little by little and you should be fine.