ADOLESCENT LITERATURE
These assignments are designed to encourage independent investigation of literature and related issues. Because the quizzes demand a focus on assigned texts, lectures, and class discussions, the papers provide you the opportunity to explore original territory in the field.They also monitor your abilities to formulate questions, topics, and theses of your own; to generate a thoughtful program of investigation and research; and to demonstrate your rhetorical and linguistic skills through the use of evidence and argumentation — of these valuable critical thinking tools you will need in any professional discipline.

Each paper must be 1500 words long (roughly five pages double-spaced in 12-point font) and make use of outside resources for purposes of quotation, evidence, and authoritative support. In most cases, that means a bibliography or Works Cited list of four to six sources, mostly critical works. You will find advice on how and where to seek acceptable sources on Starting Points for Research (below). Take advantage of it. Take advantage as well of my office hours, which will be expanded on the days indicated on the syllabus. I can help you formulate a topic that will interest you and a good thesis. Further suggestions for writing an A paper are appended as Words for the Wise.

FINAL PAPER!!!:
1.Select a literary work that is not already acknowledged adolescent reading and make the case that it should be, either because of its literary value or a relevant theme.
2.Choose a book that is clearly aimed at the YA or adolescent reader, or that has been made popular by young readers, and argue a thesis for it. Some will be literary in orientation (e.g, Diary of a Wallflower), but many will be genre fiction like the later Harry Potter novels or the Hunger Games series. You might consider why your choice appeals to teen readers.
3.You may select a novel we have read in the second half of the quarter and pursue the same topic as Midterm (2) above.
(MIDTERM REQUIREMENT IS:
There are many literary works that conventionally find their way into secondary school literature classes and reading lists although they do not appear to have originally been written for adolescents. Choose one — perhaps one from your own school experience — and analyze it, as we have done in class. You may consider what justifies its inclusion as adolescent literature, looking back at adolescent themes outlined in the first week of lecture, or argue another thesis entirely. For this topic, your choice should not be a book on the syllabus.
You may select a novel we have read in the first half of the quarter (through Week Five) and explore it from a standpoint other than one advanced in class. This could be a critical response to issues mentioned in lecture or something completely original. Whatever you do, do not simply reprise material we have already covered.)