This post was written for my Bibliography & Research in Music (MUTH 65200) course at Ithaca College. I will be posting eight reflections from the class here throughout the course of the semester. You can find the other posts under the category Bib Class Reflections.

Reading Reflection

The four readings for our blog this week all have to do with personal relationships to reading and writing. And because they are grouped together for this assignment, I think our instructor is hinting at their relationship to each other.

Reading and writing is inextricably linked to each other, and inextricably liked to our lives. It is safe to say that no matter what field we journey into, reading and writing will be a part of it.

As someone who wants to teach, research, and perform I know that continual learning will be a big part of my process. I will need to stay up to date on matters of performance practice, music history, music theory, pedagogy, human learning, and business. I need to read those resources well to glean their meaning, evaluate their relevance, and to respond intelligently. Part of the continual learning process is also documenting what I do, critically reflect on my own actions, edit my work, and put a stake in the ground that indicates my understanding and insights via writing.

Much like I need to build skills in order to play my violin well in order to perform and teach, I need to build skills in reading and wiring in order to read and write well in order to perform, teach and do research.

What I think the introduction and forward to Writing with Style and Ashley Leyba’s guide, “Reading Effectively (And Efficiently) for History Courses,” tell us is that reading and writing is not a habit but a skill. It is not something that we decide each day to do (like brushing  teeth), but something we must get better at doing by practicing diligently (like playing an instrument).

Angell’s observation of White’s countless, grueling hours in front of the type writer remind me of the hours I see my colleagues spend in the practice rooms on the first floor of Whalen. White’s own observation of William Strunk Jr. devoting his lifetime to skillfully eliminating words that aren’t necessary show someone committed to craft, and honing expertise over a long period of time. Leyba’s instructions to approach text actively by developing questions, comments, and extracting important points show that reading itself is an incredibly nuanced skill that moves far beyond the black at white criterion of eyes scanning a page.

The beauty in our final reading by Gary Provost is that it demonstrates what it says, while saying it. Provost cleverly illustrates the way in which writing affects the reading process. He draws attention to matters of style that we become accustomed to while reading quality writing, but aren’t able to consciously emulate while working through the writing process. It is uncomfortable to read poor writing, just as it is uncomfortable to listen to unrefined playing. It is imperative that writers work to write better by mastering the tools of style and construction which make Provost’s piece so compelling.

How will I improve?

After reading the articles, I have a few ideas for improving my own reading and writing.

• Dedicate time to writing. I don’t think Angell, White, Strunk, Provost, or Leyba would be able to write with authority on this subject if they didn’t dedicate a large part of their life to the craft of writing. Putting in the hours just to become comfortable getting ideas from my brain into words on my screen is imperative for improving. Part of the reason I started this blog is because I want to simulate some sort of accountability for getting my words out to the public. I don’t monitor the statistics on site visits or the popularity of posts, but just knowing that I haven’t published something in a while gives me the urge to write. Now that I am in graduate school (learning all the things!) I can make a push to capture more of what I’m learning through my writing. Between school work, blogging, and research I should have the opportunity to write every day. To put a number to it, I want to make sure I’m typing on my keyboard for at least 20 minutes a day. Regularity is a requisite for building skill– as demonstrated by White’s commitment to improve every weekly column he wrote.
• Editing. The emphasis on the editing process in White’s Forward was a big eye opener for me. The process I generally use to edit my work is to first brainstorm an outline, then type out the majority of my content from beginning to finish, and adjust awkward wording and fix careless typing mistakes in one sweep of re-reading. That doesn’t at all match the painstaking process of revision in which word after word, concept after concept is analyzed for clarity, consistency, and ease of reading. In order to start building this skill I plan to give a third pass to the writing I publish (or turn in). In that final reading I will take a hard look at my word choice and really take out what isn’t necessary. I want to try struggling, sentence by sentence to get it right. I think that’s the only way to get better at being a clear writer in the long run. In a perfect world the writing for a blog post like this would come in three parts: (1) reading the materials, (2) writing, (3) editing for mistakes, (4) editing for clarity.
• Re-order my reading. Leyba’s advice to “read from the outside in” is similar to suggestions I’ve heard before but have yet to put into practice. With the quantity of required (and volunteer) reading swelling in graduate school, now would be the perfect time to practice this strategy. I will read the title, introduction, table of contents, and conclusion first. Then I will move into the relevant body chapters and paragraphs. This strategy can apply equally well to dense, reference series and to simple paragraphs. The point is to determine the author’s claim right away, and to use the body of the text to evaluate their success in making that claim.
• Remember what I read. Because of the importance and volume of the works I will be reading, it is important that I am using my time with a material well enough to sustain me through an entire project. In other words, I can’t keep referring to a text again and again to glean it’s meaning. When I’m reading from the outside in, I need to articulate the author’s main point, formulate hypotheses that I will test in the body of the work, and begin to identify biases that influence the author’s thought process. I also want to make sure to log these thoughts in a common place, and in this common place make references to the way works relate to each other. I’ve started an annotated bibliography research log on Google Drive where I keep a daily journal of sorts. It notes where I’m finding sources, what we are learning from class, and how each source is leading me on new paths of inquiry, but I’m considering keeping a note in Evernote for each source that I analyze in addition to the journal. In Evernote I could also create tags that relate the sources to each other. The hope is that by cataloging my thought process on both the research process and the points specific to my sources on paper, I will actually be able to do more research without needing to refer to my notes as often. Hopefully this will help me identify meaningful, but non-obvious connections and ultimately do compelling, new research in the field of violin teaching.
• Write to read, read to write. As I mentioned above, I think Dr. Shanton’s juxtaposition of these readings is telling. The purposefulness with which White and Strunk approach writing makes me think that their reading style would be critical, perceptive, and evaluative. In reading bad writing they would look for opportunities to make it better; in reading good writing they would seek to understand why it is so effective. Likewise, I think Leyba probably writes with the perspective of the reader in mind. She probably wonder how clear and convincingly her thesis would come across to her readers. I want to do this as well. While reading I want to look through the writing, collecting all of the tools and devices I can. I want to surround myself with good writing and learn from it. While writing I want to think about the best experiences I have had reading, and emulate them.

Ultimately, I know that improving my reading and writing skills is a process. I am better now than I once was, but in order to be better than I am now I will need to work hard to implement the changes above. I’ll be excited to come back to this blog post in a few years to see how my writing has changed, and to publish once again (via words of course) my intentions for making it even better.