The Independent Project Clarification

I've received a similar question from three different folks, so I thought I'd address it here. They've all asked something along the lines of, "I have this great question, but I don't think I can answer it. What should I do?"

If you are in this situation, you should ask your question and, in your essay, tell me how you might go about answering it. It's not necessary for you to actually answer your question - the best questions might be impossible to answer - but you ought to be able to make progress towards an answer. You need to learn something along the way, even if you never reach your destination.

Example:
In the spirit of the Independent Project, I began this summer with a simple question: How do you write a song? I constantly tell poetry students that a song is nothing more than a poem set to music, but how do you sit down and set a poem to music?

Over the course of the summer, I've taken a variety of steps towards answering my question. I've read books from library, watched a DVD about songwriting, searched the 'net, played music with my friends, played along with my songs on my ipod. At each step, I've encountered problems and made gains. At each step, I learned that there was more to learn.

Will I actually write a song by the end of the summer? Maybe, but I'm leaning towards not likely. Will I play it for the class if I do? That would be a definite no, thanks for asking. Am I a much better musician than I was at the beginning of the summer? Yep. Do I have a better sense of what else I need to learn as a musician? Yep again. Do I know more about learning than I did five weeks ago? Yes indeedy-do.

And that's the point.