Hey all, so you may have heard that I'm currently writing a thesis that has to do with--what else?--young adult literature. (Yay!) Essentially I am trying to answer the question, "What makes a good YA text?" Knowing that different people have different opinions of what makes a good YA book, I am gathering data and readings regarding four different populations that interact with YA lit, one of them being teens themselves.
The thing is, there's not much out there in academia that has successfully captured the teen opinion on YA lit, so I was wondering if you would help me out! I know there's a bunch of teen bloggers out there, and I'm sure that all of you know teens who read YA lit. I have an open-ended questionnaire that I'd like for teens to answer. It's a pretty extensive questionnaire: it might take you 30-45 minutes to complete. I'm looking for teens between the ages of 11-19. You can live anywhere in the world. If you are interested in helping me out with my thesis by answering some questions about YA lit, or if you know teens who would be interested in participating in this questionnaire, please fill out this form here. I will then send you a link to the questionnaire within the next few days.
All data, of course, will be confidential and used only for my thesis; if I refer to your answers specifically within my thesis, I will use pseudonyms.
Thank you so much! Long live YA lit (which scholars back in the 90s didn't think was going to survive, let alone flourish the way it has. Huzzah!)!
I'm very excited to help you with this! :)
ReplyDeleteYou're probably already aware of this, but try http://writeonteens.blogspot.com/ to see if any of the participants there would want to help out. Best of luck!
ReplyDeleteIs your whole thesis on other people's opinions on YA lit or have you chosen select examples? I'm sorry, I don't actually know other teen bloggers, but I was just curious... and wanted to know which books you would choose to analyze.
ReplyDeleteChristina, I am studying scholarship written by and/or for teachers, librarians, those in the publishing industry, and teenagers, to determine where there is or is not overlap in what each population qualifies as "good YA." The second half of my thesis is an examination of The Hunger Games from the POVs of these 4 population groups, hopefully trying to figure out why this book could be considered "good" within these 4 fields. Hope that clarifies!
ReplyDeleteIt did a lot. And now I'm wondering why you chose The Hunger Games. Were you looking more for recognition of the series or was it a choice on the type or novel or?
ReplyDeleteI'm sorry if I'm asking too many questions! It just sounds like a fascinating idea to explore.
ReplyDeleteGlad to help!
ReplyDeleteGood luck with your thesis! If I was under 19, I'd take the survey! :)
ReplyDeleteI think I'll take part in this questionnaire. Sound interesting!
ReplyDeleteIf I were a bit younger (or a lot) I'd love to help! As it is, I want to wish you tons of luck and encouragement! I, too, wrote my thesis on YA lit, and the lack of scholarly lit or lit crit can be a bit frustrating/discouraging at times. But if I can do it, you can do it!!
ReplyDeleteI teach 13 year olds. I share this with them.
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