Here are some guidelines to help you write a project proposal. In preparing your written proposal please use the headings discussed below to organize your ideas and plan your work. Type it according to the presentation format that I've requested for all written papers.
The benefits of thinking through your project in this kind of detail and writing a formal proposal are immeasurable. Most important, when it comes time to write your final report you will find the proposal to be a very useful guide and you may even find yourself quoting sections of it.
TOPIC
You may have a general subject that interests you, for example jazz music, or Mexican music, or music and healing, but you need to determine a specific topic for a manageable investigation. There is a diverse world of music and you will need to focus on specific items of a subject in order to get a topic. To start narrowing down a topic start thinking about your musical history, life, and opinions. What issues interest you? How can you connect them to the basic subject so that you arrive at a specific topic.
MOTIVATION
Why did you choose this topic? Why is the topic important? Why should your readers care about this topic? What does this topic promise to help people understand? The answers to these questions should help you write a paragraph explaining why this is a project worth doing.
QUESTION(S) YOU WILL ADDRESS (PRELIMINARY THESIS)
What basic question do you want to answer regarding your topic. Do you want to know how jazz players learn to improvise? What are related questions? What kinds of answers do you anticipate getting? For example, do you expect that more young players have learned jazz skills in formal lessons or schools whereas older players are more likely to have picked up skills by playing, and in a sense teaching themselves? Such expectations might lead you to propose a thesis such as: "The growing acceptance of jazz into university and other formal settings for music instruction has reduced players' reliance on the aural/oral method of learning."
Again the questions you will ask will depend upon the topic you choose. If you want to know where Deep Forest obtains the samples of Pygmy song they blend into their dance mixes, or how many listeners are aware of the presence of such sampling, you will begin with a different set of premises and ask a different set of questions.
APPROACH (METHODOLOGY)
By what means will you obtain information? DO NOT write, "I will look in the library or use the internet"-- statements like this are too vague and are meaningless since any reasonable reader will assume that you will use basic reference collections. Indicate specific sources, specific disciplines that promise to offer you clues. For example, your project may profit from consulting medical studies that discuss the use of music in therapeutic contexts; while for another study an examination of certain pages of the local telephone directory would be helpful. Another project may require a daily survey of the arts column in the New York Times. Still another might require familiarity with existing printed books on mariachi (mention authors and titles).
Your specific project may benefit from interviews, or from administering a carefully designed questionnaire. You may need to listen systematically or comparatively to a series of CDs or radio broadcasts, or you may find it useful to create a summarizing map of the use of music used in a particular sequence of film. You may need to participate to observe, by engaging in activities such as: sitting in on local jam sessions, taking dance lessons, attending rehearsals, singing or playing with a local ensemble. Perhaps you can obtain the information you need simply by attending several performances.
In all cases, the methods you choose will correspond to the topic you have chosen and the questions you hope to answer.
RESOURCES
Here is where you will attach a list the materials you will consult in full detail. A brief bibliography (and webliography) is in order for almost any subject. Consult theChicago Manual of Style for basic citation and bibliographic styles in the Chicago/Turabian format. If you have been asked to annotate your reference list, you should indicate how you plan to use the source. It may be that Charles Girard's book on Salsa will supply you with wonderful information on how to play basic rhythms, but that you will turn to another source for a more up-to-date survey of new performers and musical blends.