ABOUT THIS STYLE SHEET
The School of Music Style Sheet is for the use of students enrolled in most MUSC-coded
academic courses offered in the School of Music. It provides guidance for the presentation
of essays and other written items of assessment. It may also be used by postgraduate
research students in the preparation of critical commentaries or theses. Some MUSC courses,
including those in Music Therapy, have different requirements concerning scholarly style,
the presentation of essays, and, in particular, the documentation of sources. In such cases,
consult the lecturer or tutor concerned.1
The Style Sheet covers various matters related to academic writing about music, including
aspects of presentation, formatting, terminology, referencing and citation. Examples given
throughout are oriented specifically to music-related studies and writing.
The Style Sheet is divided into several sections. Section 2 concerns the presentation of
undergraduate essays and assignments; it may be ignored by postgraduate students. Section 3
covers various issues of scholarly writing for music-related undergraduate essays as well as
postgraduate work in musicology and related areas. Section 4 discusses the basics of the
MLA system of parenthetical documentation. It also outlines issues relating to plagiarism
and the ethical necessity of source documentation. Section 5 concerns the use of footnotes in
an essay which uses mainly parenthetical documentation. (Those wanting to use footnotes as
the method of documentation should consult section 8.) Section 6 outlines, in general, the
information required for citations of various works. Section 7 provides a series of examples
of citations of different types of work, such as might be found in music research. Section 8
outlines the use of footnotes as an alternative to documentation by parenthetical references
and is probably of more interest to postgraduate students........
ABOUT THIS STYLE SHEET
The School of Music Style Sheet is for the use of students enrolled in most MUSC-coded
academic courses offered in the School of Music. It provides guidance for the presentation
of essays and other written items of assessment. It may also be used by postgraduate
research students in the preparation of critical commentaries or theses. Some MUSC courses,
including those in Music Therapy, have different requirements concerning scholarly style,
the presentation of essays, and, in particular, the documentation of sources. In such cases,
consult the lecturer or tutor concerned.1
The Style Sheet covers various matters related to academic writing about music, including
aspects of presentation, formatting, terminology, referencing and citation. Examples given
throughout are oriented specifically to music-related studies and writing.
The Style Sheet is divided into several sections. Section 2 concerns the presentation of
undergraduate essays and assignments; it may be ignored by postgraduate students. Section 3
covers various issues of scholarly writing for music-related undergraduate essays as well as
postgraduate work in musicology and related areas. Section 4 discusses the basics of the
MLA system of parenthetical documentation. It also outlines issues relating to plagiarism
and the ethical necessity of source documentation. Section 5 concerns the use of footnotes in
an essay which uses mainly parenthetical documentation. (Those wanting to use footnotes as
the method of documentation should consult section 8.) Section 6 outlines, in general, the
information required for citations of various works. Section 7 provides a series of examples
of citations of different types of work, such as might be found in music research. Section 8
outlines the use of footnotes as an alternative to documentation by parenthetical references
and is probably of more interest to postgraduate students.
The School of Music Style Sheet generally follows MLA style and is based largely on the
recommendations given in the MLA Handbook.2 You are advised to consult this work for
more detail on MLA style than is covered in here. The Social Sciences and Humanities
(SS&H) and Architecture-Music (ARMUS) Libraries both hold multiple copies of the MLA
Handbook.
The School of Music Style Sheet is modelled to some extent on the Style Sheet of the School
of English, Media Studies and Art History (EMSAH), in the Arts Faculty, which may be
downloaded from the EMSAH website:
The School of Music Style Sheet does not cover issues relating to the mechanics of writing,
such as grammar, punctuation and spelling. For guidance on grammar and punctuation there
are a number of sources available, including the MLA Handbook itself. A useful starting
point is the Grammar and Punctuation Guide on the EMSAH website:
pdf for STYLE-SHEET be able to download.
