Business (Ad) Manager: Noreen Diamond Burdett, massmusicnews@gmail.com
Editor: Christy Whittlesey, editor@massmea.org ​
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Advertising with the Massachusetts Music Educators Journal (formerly the Massachusetts Music News)
The MMEJ is the quarterly publication of the Massachusetts Music Educators Association, published in September, December, February and June. The MMEJ also publishes the annual All-State Concert Program in March.
Advertising is available in all issues.
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Circulation, Closing Deadlines, Rates and Artwork Specifications are available at the following link.
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Ad Reservation Form
Click on the link directly below to reserve advertising space for any of the 2024-2025 Volume 73 primary quarterly issues and the MMEA All State Concert Program.
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Payment methods:
No Credit Card payments accepted. Please pay by Purchase Order/Business Check, made payable to:
MMEA (Massachusetts Music Educators Association)
PO Box 920004
Needham, MA 02492
The Massachusetts Music Education Journal is a quarterly publication which is published digitally at www.massmea.org in September, December, March, and June each year. An additional printing occurs for the All-State Concert Program in March at the All-State Music Festival.
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Readership is worldwide and includes K-12 music educators, college music professors, music students, collegiate musicians, and parents of music students in grades 9-12, as well as NAfME National and Divisional Leaders, and subscription holders around the country.
Earn PDPs:
You can now earn professional development points for reading and reflecting on MMEJ articles! Each article with a successful reflection is worth one pd hour. You will receive a copy of your submission via email. We have the Google Form set to allow you to edit and add more submissions throughout the year! All submissions are due by June 1st, 2025. If you have successfully completed ten or more hours of journal reflections, you will receive a PDP Certificate. DESE requires ten or more hours to count as PDP’s. If you have submitted below ten hours worth of submissions, you will receive a PD Hours Certificate which you can use to bundle with other music pd to reach the 10-hour threshold required by DESE.
You can start reflecting using this Google Form.
Editorial Policy and Submission Guidelines
Editorial Policy
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The Massachusetts Music Educators Journal (MMEJ) will publish solicited and non-solicited material. Solicited material will be given first priority, followed by unsolicited material by authors that are members of MMEA.
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Articles and news items written to promote a non-affiliate organization or commercial enterprise will be treated as advertisement and redirected to the business manager.
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All unsolicited manuscripts will be acknowledged in writing by the editor. Authors will be notified via e-mail if their article will be included in the upcoming issue. All manuscripts not included in the current issue will be kept on file for future use.
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Once an article is included in the MMEJ, copyright belongs to the MMEJ. Permission to reprint articles in other MEA journals and NAfME journals and Spotlight Series books may be granted by the MMEJ editor.
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Authors are encouraged to include images (photos), illustrations, or video with articles. Music examples can greatly enhance the effectiveness of an article, as can photography and video. Electronic images should be saved in .jpeg, .tiff, or .pict format at a high resolution. Please submit images or video as a separate file.
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Manuscripts referencing sources and/or including quotations must contain a full bibliographic reference. References should be in APA format.
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The opinions expressed in articles, news items, and updates do not necessarily represent the views of the editor, the MMEJ, or the Massachusetts Music Educators Association.
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Submission Guidelines
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Submissions should be relevant to topics of music education at any level and of interest to music educators. Articles should be new, original work that has not been previously published.
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Short news-type announcements are welcome, and will be placed in “Noteworthy” or “Spotlight” sections of the magazine.
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Submitted manuscripts should be concise and well constructed. Articles should be approximately 1,000 words in length (1,800 word maximum). Authors wishing to submit significantly longer material should contact the MMEJ editor to discuss splitting the article into multiple sections to be printed as a series.
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Manuscripts should be submitted as a Word document file (e-mail attachment) whenever possible.
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Authors are encouraged to include images (photos) and illustrations with articles. Music examples can greatly enhance the effectiveness of an article, as can photography. Electronic images should be saved in .jpeg, .tiff, or .pict format at a high resolution. Images should not be placed directly into a Word document. Please submit them as a separate file.
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Manuscripts containing quotations must contain a full bibliographic reference. References should be in APA Style format.
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Your primary goal as an author is to engage the reader. Address a limited, clearly stated topic. Write in the present tense, and speak to the reader in easy to understand language and terminology.
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Submission Guidelines
We welcome your submissions to Massachusetts Music Educators Journal!
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About the MMEJ
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The MMEJ is the “official publication” of the Massachusetts Music Educators Association.
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The MMEJ is published quarterly (Fall, Winter, Spring, Summer).
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The MMEJ reaches 1,700 MMEA members, as well as collegiate chapters and state, divisional, and national NAfME leaders.
The Purpose of the MMEJ
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The Massachusetts Music Educators Journal prints news stories and articles that underline and help further the mission of the Massachusetts Music Education Association: “MMEA seeks to support comprehensive, quality music education for all students, through advocacy, professional development, and a commitment to lifelong learning.”
Additionally, the MMEJ will:
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Support teacher development by publishing provocative articles that help readers to continually refine their skills as music educators and advocates for arts education within their school systems and communities.
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Provide opportunities for professional growth by soliciting articles written by state educators and pertaining to music education.
Editorial Areas of the Massachusetts Music Educators Journal
We welcome articles geared toward music educators, in the following major editorial areas.
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Advocacy
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Classroom Music
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Contemporary Music
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Embracing the New Music Educator
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Higher Education
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Innovations
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Instrumental
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Last Words: A catch-all category for the editor’s choice!
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News
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Technology
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Vocal
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Voices of the Urban Music Educator
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Suggested Steps in Writing an Article
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Determine the direction of your article.
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Consider your “target audience.” This should consist of your primary peer group, and will evolve over time
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Consider your strengths. What do you know about that others might be interested in learning?
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Consider possible topics to share. Topic should be engaging to a large portion of your target audience.
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Narrow your focus. Choose the exact topic. Plan to cover only some aspects so you can fully support your ideas with details.
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Create a “thesis.” This one or two sentences crystallizes the point you will demonstrate (i.e. argue) in your article. Be sure that all your supporting details will enhance your opinion/thesis.
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Plan your article.
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Plan the evidence you will use to support your thesis.
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Create a topic outline. Decide how many paragraphs you will need, and where each piece of evidence will fall.
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Write!
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Begin writing. Let your outline be your guide.
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Review. Be sure you are using clear, conversational language.
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Be engaging: Talk directly to the reader and use anecdotes when possible.
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Share early drafts with a colleague for input and feedback.
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Gather artwork, illustrations, photos, and/or notated examples.
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All images and artwork submitted should be in as high a resolution as possible. As a rule of thumb, an image that is about 1 MB or larger is usually enough. Jpeg files pulled from websites are often not of sufficient quality for print.
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Be sure that you have permission to use any photos.
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Provide photography credit wherever possible.
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Submit your work.
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Be sure to check the MMEJ for deadlines and meet them (or better yet, be early).
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Send your article as an e-mail attachment. (Be sure to save work with an extension such as .doc or .rtf.)
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Let the editor know by e-mail if material is time-sensitive.
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Send a follow-up e-mail if you do not receive confirmation.
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Final thoughts:
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Be prepared to edit work after it is submitted; don’t take this personally.
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Send photos, illustrations, or musical examples (in finale/notepad or as pdf) if at all possible.
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Consider contacting the department editors to write for a specific section or issue…your article will have a much greater chance of being included quickly.
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Don’t be discouraged if your article is not printed right away…there are many submissions and a very limited number of pages.
Anatomy of a Well-Planned Article
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Opening Paragraph
Engage! Engage! Engage!
Background information about your topic
Thesis Statement -
Supporting Paragraph
Topic Sentence
Supporting Details -
Supporting Paragraph
Topic Sentence
Supporting Details -
Supporting Paragraph
Topic Sentence
Supporting Details -
Closing Paragraph
Restate Your THESIS