The journal is a very important component of your final grade. In order to excel in this course you must earn a top grade in this assignment. The best way to get a good mark in the journal is to do a good job. This sounds like a cliche but it is true. There are few short cuts to a good mark in the journal. Work hard at it and you will be rewarded. The people who do the best in the journal demonstrate that they put a lot of work into it. You really have to show that you didn't start the jounal 2 weeks before it was due. Believe me after 150 entries, it will be obvious to a 10 year old if you burned through the Journal in 5-10 days.

JOURNAL NOTES

• START EARLY

A journal reads very bad with it is written over a 5-10 day period. The entries are repetitive and banal. The marks tend to be low. The best advice I can give is to start early to give yourself time to be creative and deliver a solid paper. Many of you reading this will postpone everything until 2 weeks before the due date. Please make an exception and get started early. Your marks will be better. You have 5 months to write this paper, use the time.

• REQUIREMENTS

You must fulfill the minimum requirements of 150 songs. This means you cannot submit a journal with 149 songs. The marks plummet dramatically for journals that do not meet the minimum requirements set out in the syllabus. Ditto for the minumum 30 page requirement. Also make sure your journal have each segment of the Jamaican music evolution well represented. Read the directive in the syllabus carefully and do you best to fulfill what is requested.

• WRITE UP

This is the most important component of the journal. Make sure your write-ups are personal and interesting. To avoid repetitive banality make entries over a long period and don't be afraid to get personal. Keep facts and figures [i.e. anything that is public knowledge] out of the write up portion. We don't need to read that the singer was born in Clarendon and moved to Kingston in 1956. This is not going to be rewarded.

• SONG DATA

Include factual information about the songs but this does not belong in the write up. My suggestion is to tabulate this data in some appealing way. Your write up should contain personal information and reactions to the music. Anything that can be found on the internet does not belong in your write up portion.

• SONG EXCLUSIONS

For the first section of the journal, the musical material is somewhat difficult to find. So we allow students to include songs played in class for this section. Once we get into the 1960s it becomes much easier to access the musical material to for this section you may not include songs played in class. Check here to see the complete list of songs that may not be included in your journal.

• PRESENTATION

Put some effort into presenting your journal as a serious document. A Journal make up of hand written sheet ripped from an exercise book held together with a staple doesn't impress upon the markers that you took this assignment seriously and it certainly looks very bad when put beside a well presented journal from a fellow student.

• LATE SUBMISSIONS

Every late journal will receive a 10% deduction in marks. You will also receive an additional 1% deduction for each day past the due date. These deductions really hurt marks. Illness and doctor's notes do not apply to the journal. With 5 months to do this assignment there can be ABSOLUTELY NO EXCUSE for a late journal. If you feel a flu coming on a week before teh due date contact FedEx, UPS or a Courier service to deliver your journal to the Music Office. Once again, there is ZERO TOLERANCE for any late journal. No excuse will be accepted. Just to make sure this is clear I will repeat: NO EXCUSE WILL BE ACCEPTED FOR LATE SUBMISSIONS.

• PLAGIARISM

Everyone has the internet these days. The markers have heard of Google. They have used Google. Any suspicious entry will be checked. If there is a match, the entire journal may be rejected and given a mark of zero.

• VARIETY

The outline prescribe the minimum number of songs you can use for each of the 4 sections of your journal. You can use more if you want, but these are minimums. Spread aroung the material among as many different styles and artist as possible. Your journal can include any music from Jamaica, even Rhythm & Blues type material. If you really love Bob Marley and decide to put in 70 songs from him in your journal, you are making a mistake. Devoting 20% of your journal entries to one artist is not a demonstration of hard, dilligent work. Try to cover many artists and many styles. Even if you hate Mento, you should include some Mento artists.