Research Proposal

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Critical Research Topic Proposal

For this upcoming research paper, I plan on looking at the question of "how/why does young adult literature cover or desensitize delicate or controversial topics (effectively)?" When I think of 5-10 focus questions related to the information I'd be looking for, I think of what I'd look up to support or answer that question. I'd ask, first, what topics do YA novels cover?  And why? Also, what devices do authors use to make the underlying message less prevalent for the work to be entertaining? Is explicit content okay in young adult books?  Are sensitivity readers necessary for YA lit? I bring this up because sensitivity readers are not regular editors or censors. They do not proof, look for holes in stories or rewrite or delete content. In fact, all projects given to the readers are given voluntarily. They read for what the consider to be offensive content. I'd love some ideas for other focus questions!

So for an overview of this topic, I plan as of now to use novels such as The Hate U Give, The Hunger Games, and probably 13 Reasons Why. I never noticed a trend in how YA lit always revolves around sensitive information. I thought that the topics we always "intense" to get younger readers interested. Like adolescents aren't "supposed to know about that" so of course they'll pick the book up. I don't know much beyond that in regard to my main topic question so I'm looking forward to diving deeper! I selected this topic because as the question was presented in class and it really resonated with me. I'd like to learn why these topics are so prevalent in YA lit. I plan to use sorts of book club posts as I'm sure this topic has been discussed before, scholarly articles that will most likely be posted by universities, and news reports/history articles/stats that show the relevance of the topics exemplified in these works. For a preliminary claim to this topic, I'd say that "young adult literature covers intense topics such as (x,y,z) by doing (this and that) to subtly convey real life issues to rising generations." As far as problems I foresee with my paper and the research surrounding it, I think my path will probably change. It's probably evident in this blog post, but I have a lot of ideas but not a concrete focus. I'm going to look up a lot of my questions or concepts presented and see what sticks but I think if I knew exactly how my paper was going to go, I wouldn't be learning anything so it's all good! I am also worried there may not be a lot of  research on YA novels because they are geared towards an audience that isn't diving deep into their reading and even further doing research. We will see!

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