Reflection+and+Evaluation

Wendy Seitz ECI 430 Inquiry Reflection and Evaluation  Dear Dr. Young and Dr. Lee,  When I was thinking about what topic I wanted to do my inquiry on my first instinct was to stick with a topic that has always interested me – the black plague. I thought about looking at the poem “Ring Around the Rosies” or the medical treatments used for the plague. Dr. Lee made me think about the fact that the topic had been extensively probed before. One of the presentations we did in Dr. Lee’s class hit a note with me. When I was in a kid my parents taped a Ken Burn’s documentary about the music of the civil war. The presentation was about the underground railroad and included a rendition of “Follow the Drinking Gourd” that was featured in the documentary. A seed was planted in my brain to write about the music of the civil war.  The documentary provided me with lots of good ideas and starting points for research. The documentary covered the music and some of the societal ins and outs of the civil war. Even with this starting point it wasn’t easy to find some of the information I needed. The Duke University project I found probably gave me the best source of primary documents I could possibly find. It gave me access to thousands of song lyrics from songs. They were in the form of images of the original documents that Duke had cataloged. These documents gave me access to songs I never would have been able to find otherwise and provided me with fresh ideas for the paper. While I am happy with the final document, I’m sure that with further research into the Duke project would provide me with even more insights. My essay is only one glimmer into the complex world that music provides for people both in and out of war.  I think that I would rate my paper at a 2 or a 2.5. It is far from perfect, but I put a great deal of effort into writing it and I think that it is a solid paper. As my paper came along I had to add in context for the music. My first draft was sorely lacking because it talked about the music but not what was going on to influence the music. Adding in the ideas about soldiers looking up to General Jackson etc. really allowed my paper to provide understandable information. When I was writing I was trying to write as though the person reading it had no understanding of the music of the civil war at all, including what songs came from the era. While I did reference several fairly well known songs, many people don’t know that they came from the civil war. I wanted to shed some light on to a topic that many people know almost nothing about.  Looking through the primary documents from Duke was a very interesting. While the sheets provided me with lyrics they also provided me with context. On most of the pages there was artwork in addition to the words. This artwork often provided me with an idea of the thinking of those who produced the music sheets. This artwork often got my mind working to look into other context points to research.  I think that putting lyric into the paper really gives the reader something to imagine rather than just using song titles. Many of the songs aren’t well known as so just referencing the song titles wouldn’t do the reader any good. Including the lyrics gave the reader more reference and maybe something to sing along to.  I hope that my paper provided insight into my topic. I enjoyed writing the paper and taking a closer look at my childhood musical interest. Who knew that a video I watched as a child would become such an in-depth project. Sincerely, Wendy Seitz