Paper guidelines 
Write a 300-wordessay in which you defend your view about music.

Step 1.  
Select a governing question for your essay. (Select a question or topic specify the problem.)You have to defend your claim.

For example:
What counts as an original musical piece?
What is the most essential characteristic of the blues?
What kind of sound is musical sound? 
What counts as organized sound?  
What is musical improvisation?
What is the difference between a copy of an original song and a cover song? 

Step 2. 
Write in one sentence the answer to the question you want to answer. 
Underline this sentence.  This sentence will be your claim, your thesis, your view, your opinion, and so on.  Now your will have to defend your claim. You will defend your claim against a possible criticism (see step 3). 

Step 3. 
Explain how someone can disagree with your claim. Your explanation of the opposite view is called the counterargument.  

Step 4. 
Show the reader what might be wrong with the opposite view (the counterargument). This is the most important part of your argument. You need to demonstrate why your claim is stronger, more rational, and more compelling than the opposite view. 

Step 5. 
Read your paper out loud.  When you read each sentence and you are not sure what you mean in that sentence, you can be certain that your reader will not be either. What you write should be extremely clear and intelligible to the teacher as well as your classmates. If you think your classmates might not find the main point of your paper, then perhaps you should clarify the point and the reasoning supporting your claim.