Writing Program Notes by Satoko. H

Writing program notes – difference from technical writing in music

As a music major, I had the opportunity of writing program notes for my own piano recital the other day. It was an interesting experience for me – As a performer, I always try to express lots of things just by playing my instrument (in my case, it is piano), without using any words. Having a recital is one way to have a place to express music by playing music. However, writing program notes is different from expressing music. It is a guide for the audience to what to listen to in the music, and to help them understand the music more, by giving them background information.

Technical writing in music could be biographical/historical studies of music, musical style studies, analysis of music, performance study, organological study, etc. These are academic and professional writings in music, in other words, they have lots of musical terminologies, that need to be explained when used for program notes. The audience one writes these program notes for is usually considered an audience of non-musicians who are interested in music (they are sometimes knowledgeable, but sometimes not).

In general, program notes include the components below:

•a brief introduction to the composer
•a section about the work’s historical context and the circumstances surrounding its composition
•a description of the work itself

You will need a good amount of research on the music, and time to analyze and interpret the music, sometimes using your knowledge of music theories.
In order to help the audience appreciate the music in the concert, however, you should not use too much technical language or too much poetic descriptions. The balance between the two is very important to make the information on the notes relevant and interesting.


Reference:
http://www.abrsm.org/resources/writingProgNotesApr05.pdf
http://www.uiowa.edu/~writingc/writers/handouts/WritingAboutMusic.shtml

Template Usage in Writing By Josh Miller

There are times when it is ok to use templates in professional writing, but typically it is best not to use them. Creativity plays a major role in the success of any piece of writing. The one document I feel that you can benefit from not using a template is a resume. Finding employment can be hard now because there are usually many applicants for the same job. Many of the applicants will use the standard template for a resume. Anything to make your resume stand out from the rest will usually work to your advantage.

When first looking at documents most people can tell whether a template was used or not. Seeing the same thing all the time can be boring when looking over similar documents. I know using a template is the easiest way to put together a solid document, but the documents that tend to impress are put together in a way that is unique. I think mostly everyone would agree that it can be advantageous to think outside the box sometimes when writing.

It was a pleasure working with all of you. Best of luck with all of your future professional writing.

How to be persuasive in professional writing by Craig Holten

The goal of persuasive writing is to convince the audience to change their decision or get them to agree with your stance on the topic. Examples would be to persuade a decision on a policy or an advertisement for a product. "When writing persuasively, a writer's goal is to challenge the readers' beliefs and, ultimately, move those readers to accept another belief as being more valid than their own." Now the problem is that most persuasive topics are controversial and the readers usually have very strong opinions towards the subject which makes it very hard to change.

In my public speaking class, we had to write and present a persuasive speech. I happened to do mine on changing the legal drinking age from 21 to 18 and it did bring up a little controversy afterwards between the people who despise drinking and the people who actually do drink or just don't have anything against it.

You need to take a firm stance and do an ample amount of research in order to really get your point across in a persuasive piece.

A Winning Argument

Research has found that people accept an argument for one of four reasons:

1. They perceive the writer or speaker as having credibility

2. They are won over by the research and evidence

3. They are convinced by logical reasoning

4. They are moved by emotional appeals.

If a writer can manage to incorporate most or all of the following ideas above, there will be a very good chance that you will convince or persuade your audience to agree with your stance!

I had a blast working with all of you and taking this class in general!

http://articlecomposition.suite101.com/article.cfm/the_art_of_persuasion

Putting It All Together and Writing Completely by Raphael Costa

Writing completely is going to be the union of all the other tips I have posted before such as tips on writing effectively, clearly, correctly and concisely. I chose to write about these topics on purpose, so I could go over all the tips necessary for us to be great writers. There are some considerations that we have to make when writing a text completely. One of them is, write full sentences. Do not repeat, but include all of the essentials in each paragraph. Another tip is, pay attention to your writing so that you spell words correctly. If you are not sure of the spelling of a word, consult a dictionary or use the spell check function of your word processing program. Use correct punctuation and usage in order to make your text a reliable source of information for whoever is reading it.

It was really nice working with you on this blog!! Hopefully, I brought some interesting subjects to you guys and turned the lessons on how to write better into something fun and easy to learn. I can say that I learned a lot from your posts, so…let’s all become better writers from now on!!

References:

http://business-writing.proof-reading.com/
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F6S6dbzAzxQ&NR=1

Presentations that WOW by Jamie Z.

I hoped you enjoyed the PhotoStory I created. Hopefully you gained a little bit of knowledge from it. I enjoyed working with all of you in creating and establishing Speed Jotters!

References:

http://www.the-eggman.com/writings/keystep1.html

http://presentationsoft.about.com/od/powerpointinbusiness/tp/071231resolutions.htm

http://presentationsoft.about.com/od/powerpointinbusiness/tp/bus_pres_tips.htm

When Use Wikis? by Satoko. H

By satoko View this Toon at ToonDoo Create your own Toon

Reference:
Library Leadership Network, Wikis -- When and How?
http://lln.lyrasis.org/node/378