User:Zfischer97/sandbox

Thirteen Reasons Why Edits

The following contains our drafted edits to the article on Jay Asher's novel Thirteen Reasons Why. We will be adding a Characters section using some of the info from the current Plot section, pulling the article's current Recent Developments section to create a Reception section, and copy-editing the long Plot section if needed.

Characters

• Hannah Baker is the subject of the novel. She was a female high school student who committed suicide, leaving behind recorded tapes that implicated twelve people as the thirteen reasons why.
• Clay Jensen is the narrator of the novel. He is a shy high school student through whom Hannah's tapes are revealed in the novel. He is the subject of the ninth tape, on which Hannah clarifies that he was always kind to her and that he does not deserve to be on her list. Clay is the only person on the tapes that isn't directly blamed as a reason for Hannah's death.
• Justin Foley is the subject of the first and tenth tapes. A year older than Hannah, he was her first crush and first kiss. Hannah blames Justin on the first tape for starting rumors that she is a slut, and she blames him on the tenth tape for allowing Bryce to rape Jessica.
• Alex Standall is the subject of the second tape. After breaking up with Jessica, he published a "hot or not" list, giving Hannah the title "Best Ass in the Freshman Class." Hannah believes this further reinforced her reputation of a slut started after her kiss with Justin.
• Jessica Davis is the subject of the third tape and a friend of Hannah's before Alex's "hot or not" list ended their friendship. Hannah blames Jessica for believing the rumors about her and telling people that Hannah stole Alex from Jessica. Jessica is later involved with Justin and raped by Bryce at a party.
• Tyler Down is the subject of the fourth tape. A classmate of Hannah's who worked as a photographer for the yearbook, Tyler allegedly stalked Hannah and took pictures of her through her bedroom window. Feeling unsafe, Hannah enlisted Courtney's help in catching the perpetrator, whom Hannah determined was Tyler based on his nervous reaction at school.
• Courtney Crimsen is the subject of the fifth tape and a once-acquaintance of Hannah's. Hannah describes Courtney as fake, despite being known at school as friendly. After helping Hannah catch Tyler, Courtney spreads rumors about finding sexual "toys" in Hannah's bedroom, further smearing Hannah's reputation and making her feel more alone. Courtney later accompanies Hannah to a party but leaves her after arriving.
• Marcus Cooley, the subject of the sixth tape, once went on a date with Hannah after matching with her through a Valentine's fundraiser. At a diner, Marcus tries to take advantage of her and calls her a "tease" when she rejects him. Following Hannah's death, Marcus takes part in throwing rocks at Tyler's window for stalking Hannah, but refuses to take responsibility for Hannah's accusations about himself.
• Zach Dempsey is the subject of the seventh tape. After trying to comfort Hannah following her confrontation with Marcus, he turns on Hannah when she rejects him. In a shared class, Zach takes Hannah's "notes of encouragement" so that she no longer receives the anonymous support the class previously gave her.
• Ryan Shaver is the subject of the eighth tape; he was briefly friends with Hannah when the two attended an out-of-school poetry class. After gaining her trust, Ryan steals and anonymously publishes one of Hannah's poems in the school newspaper. Despite the anonymous submission, Hannah is humiliated when her poem receives criticism.
• Jenny Kurtz is the subject of the eleventh tape and a cheerleader who offers to take Hannah home from her first party. She comforts Hannah, but after she hits a stop sign and fails to tell the police, Hannah blames her for causing a later car accident that kills another classmate.
• Bryce Walker is the subject of the twelfth tape and a frequent bully throughout the novel. At the first party Hannah attends, Bryce rapes an unconscious Jessica. Later, he invites Hannah into a hot tub at another party and rapes her when she does not actively resist him.
• Mr. Porter is the subject of the thirteenth tape and the final person slotted to receive Hannah's reasons. He is the school counselor who fails to help Hannah when she admits to him that she is suicidal.
• Tony is a good-natured high school student who, though he is not on any of the tapes, receives copies of them just before Hannah's death. Though he tries to warn Hannah's parents, she succeeds in committing suicide, leaving Tony to watch over the people who are named as reasons for her death. He particularly looks out for Clay as he struggles through the tapes.
• Skye Miller is a female high school student and former friend of Clay's who is not named on any of the tapes. Clay suspects she is suicidal and reaches out to her at the end of the novel.

Reception

Since its release, the novel has received both praise and criticism. The novel ranked number 3 on a list of the most "Challenged Books" of 2012, but also garnered praise, becoming a bestseller after its release and holding a spot at number 16 on USA Today's list of Top 100 Books of 2017 after the release of the Netflix adaptation earlier that year. While the show's popularity increased interest in the novel, its notoriety among suicide prevention groups drew criticism of the novel's premise. After the show's release, school psychologists criticized the novel's premise for failing to address mental illness and making Hannah's death seem like the mere result of "stressors or coping challenges."

Another concern is how the novel's subjects of bullying and suicide impact young adult readers. Despite its proposed controversy, Festus High is one example of a school that supports the novel. According to Angela Beumer Johnson, through reading, young adults can learn about different behaviors to look for and determine what could be harmful to others. Further, educators James Chisholm and Brandie Trent argue that incorporating the novel into school curriculum can not only increase students' reading comprehension and analytic skills, but their ability to apply the themes of the novel in their own lives, as well. Other proponents of teaching the novel claim that its use in school anti-bullying efforts benefits young adult readers who are close in age to the characters; the authors encourage high schools to adopt the novel as a means of starting conversations on bullying. More generally, the novel has been hailed by adults outside the classroom as being a supplement to local initiatives in starting the conversation between parents and their children about suicide.

Due to its depictions of sexual assault, in particular, another question about the novel is whether it should be given a warning label to alert readers of the content. Alev Scott takes up this question, arguing that adding a precaution at the beginning of the piece could create a negative mindset that readers will carry with them into the reading, even if they might not have initially had this mindset. Nevertheless, especially after the release of the Netflix show, critics are revisiting the novel to question whether it glorifies suicide through Hannah's reasons.

Plot

High school student Clay Jensen one day receives a mysterious package in the mail with seven cassette tapes recorded by Hannah Baker, a classmate who recently committed suicide. The tapes had been sent to various other people before arriving at Clay's front door. As he listens to the tapes, he learns that there is a side for each person to whom Hannah attributes her reasons for committing suicide. The first, Justin Foley, started a rumor at school that Hannah was a slut after they kissed once in the park. Alex Standall reinforced this by awarding Hannah "Best Ass" on a "hot or not" list. Because of this list, Jessica Davis started spreading rumors that Hannah was the reason she and Alex broke up. They got into a fight and Jessica slapped Hannah. Jessica then continued the rumor that Hannah had ruined her relationship with Alex. Shortly later, Hannah learned that someone was stalking her and taking photographs, who she suspected to be Tyler Down. The next tape goes to Courtney Crimson who had helped her discover what Tyler was doing. Courtney spread stories about sexual "toys" she "found" in Hannah's room while they were catching Tyler and later ditched her at a party. Around Valentine's Day, Hannah went on a date with Marcus Cooley for a cheerleader fundraiser and he tried to take advantage of her. Hannah refused and he called her a tease. Zach Dempsey swooped in to comfort her, but she refused his advances, as well. In response, he took away her "notes of encouragement" from the only class that she looked forward to. When she later anonymously wrote a note saying she was considering suicide, no one took it seriously. Hannah eventually joined a poetry group outside of school that Ryan Shaver was a part of, but he stole one of her poems and published it anonymously. It was harshly criticized, and Hannah took it personally even though it was published without her name.

At this point, the tapes come to Clay, who Hannah apologizes for including because he does not deserve to be on the list. She says he is the nicest person she has met and even seeks out time to spend with him at party where they end up kissing. She says she wishes she had more time to know him, but the last time they spoke was at that party. Up until this point, Clay has been following the rules of the tapes: listening to them in order and following the instruction of where to visit in each one.

The next person on the list is Justin, who is mentioned on a second tape for leaving Jessica lying unconscious on a bed at a party. He knew that she was not in a fit state, yet left her there. Hannah hid in a closet, but witnessed someone raping Jessica. Hannah says on the tape that Justin knew about this and let it happen. The next tape is for Jenny Kurtz, a cheerleader that crashed into a stop sign and chose not to report it; this event eventually led to the death of a fellow classmate. The next person listed is Bryce Walker, who is revealed to be the Jessica's rapist. Hannah was walking past a party where Bryce and Courtney were in a hot tub and, not caring about much at this point, joined them in only her bra and panties. When Bryce started to touch Hannah, Courtney left the hot tub. When Hannah didn't actively resist Bryce, he raped her. The last tape is for Mr. Porter, a temporary school counselor that told Hannah that if she was unwilling to press charges against "the boy" that raped her, then she should try to move on, even after Hannah expressed a desire to kill herself.

After sending the tapes to the next person on the list, Clay returns to school and runs into his classmate Skye Miller, whom he suspects is becoming suicidal. The novel ends with Clay reaching out to her.

Potential Articles to Edit

The following is a short list of our potential articles to edit for our project, which we narrowed down from the one in this Sandbox's Talk page. These articles are all currently at a Start-rating with High-importance.

• A Good Man is Hard to Find (short story)
• Thirteen Reasons Why
• Coraline

Reviewing the Talk pages of these articles, we found that the discussions there were not extensive. Looking through the articles, we found that in A Good Man... and Thirteen Reasons... there were whole sections missing and a lot of space to add content and sources. Coraline needs a lot of copy-editing in its long Plot section. We believe we could improve any of these articles by adding new sections and meaningful, research-backed content, as well as conducting thorough copy-edits.

After some consideration, we have narrowed our choices to A Good Man is Hard to Find and Thirteen Reasons Why, as both of these articles need a lot of new content. Specifically, each article would benefit from entirely new sections that we could create, like Characters, Themes, etc. While we discussed a few other articles that needed work (see Talk page), we settled on these two because they appeared to need the most new content overall and would allow us to easily achieve our 500 word requirement for our assignment.

Final Choice and the Plan of Action

We have decided to move forward with editing the article on the novel Thirteen Reasons Why, as it appears to need our contribution most. Specifically, the article has a lot of room for improvement in copy editing and could use some additional sections. The following details our plan of action for approaching the article:

• Copy edit the Plot section of the article for brevity (remove unnecessary detail that can be explained better by another section, such as some character details),
• Add a character section with descriptions including "what tape" each character appears in. This section could also include basic nonbiased information about the characters, like the histories explored in the book and/or show,
• Add to the Reception section, using reliable sources, explaining the controversy surrounding the book and TV show,
• (Possibly) Add a Themes section, or expand on the sections devoted to bullying and suicide already mentioned in the article, adding sources, and
• (Possibly) Expand on, or create a new section for, the article's current information on the differences between book and Netflix show.

Working Bibliography

• "Challenged Books:." The Southland Times, 25 May 2013, p. A17.

This list ranks controversial books that have been most "challenged" and even taken from the shelves. "Thirteen Reasons Why" ranks at #3.

• Childers, Katina D., and Annamary Consalvo. “Teacher to Teacher: What Literature Fosters the Examination of Bullying Behaviors?” The English Journal, vol. 101, no. 6, 2012, pp. 26–27. JSTOR.
  • Summary: This article examines how high school students can learn from young adult literature. Specifically, it notes how books like Thirteen Reasons Why can draw attention to how students treat each other, making them more aware of bullying. It is able to do so by distancing the reader from their actual life to examine what happens in the book, and then apply that to their own reality.
    • This article would be good in the reception section because it goes over how students read it and how it is used in a classroom setting.
    • It might be good to use this article for the argument that there are things that young adults can learn to look for when examining other people's behavior.
    • This would be a good counterbalancing point to articles or sources that say the book has more of a negative influence than anything else.
• Chisholm, James S., and Brandie Trent. “‘Everything...Affects Everything’: Promoting Critical Perspectives Toward Bullying with Thirteen Reasons Why.” English Journal, vol. 110, no. 6, 2012, pp. 75-80.

Chisholm and Trent argue that having students read “Thirteen Reasons Why” in school is valuable to their critical reading skills and awareness of bullying. Based on the authors’ comparison of student surveys before and after reading the book, they conclude that the students’ perceptions of bullied students like main character Hannah became more sympathetic. The authors argue that teaching the book not only increases reading comprehension and analysis, but application of themes and concepts to their real school lives. Most valuable, say the authors, is the students’ newfound ability to recognize that anything done to a person might later have a greater effect, how all actions can have serious repercussions.

This article presents a positive view of the novel, making it useful in our Reception section. As you might see from other annotations below, the education/ critical community seems to be split on the usefulness and dangers of this novel. This implies that the Reception section, and possibly subsections, are rich in source material and we have a lot we can contribute.

• Hughes, Janette, and Jennifer Lynn Laffier. "Portrayals of Bullying in Young Adult Literature: Considerations for Schools." Canadian Journal of Education, vol. 39, no. 3, 2016, pp. 1-24.

This journal article details the effectiveness of using Young Adult Literature in school anti-bullying programs. The authors note that novels have the potential to be successful in facilitating conversation on bullying, since YAL protagonists are similar in age to student readers. Within the article is a study of students’ understanding of bullying and whether books that portray the issue accurately can help in anti-bullying efforts. While “Thirteen Reasons Why” was not directly used in the study, it was recommended by the testers to high school teachers as a good lens through which to start class conversations on bullying.

This article could be useful in writing our Reception section, as well as commenting on the different opinions of the book (this article supporting the positive side)

• Jacobson, Sansea L. "Thirteen Reasons to Be Concerned about 13 Reasons Why." Brown University Child & Adolescent Behavior Letter, vol. 33, no. 6, June 2017, p. 8. EBSCOhost, doi:10.1002/cbl.30220.
• Kendall, Heidi. “‘Thirteen Reasons Why’ and the Importance of Suicide Prevention.” Missoulian [Missoula, MT], 26 Apr. 2017.

This brief newspaper article details the author’s opinion that “Thirteen Reasons Why” is a valuable conversation-starter around suicide. Commenting on the suicide rates in the author’s state of Montana, the article claims that “Thirteen Reasons” would be beneficial to suicide prevention rates when paired with local initiatives. This source is quite brief and local, but offers support for the book despite its controversial nature.

This article could be used in the Reception section or section on the book’s bullying theme.

• Motoko, Rich. "A Story of a Teenager's Suicide Quietly Becomes a Best Seller." New York Times, vol. 158, no. 54610, 10 Mar. 2009, p. 3.
• Parton, Chea. "Breaking the Binary: Using Kohlberg and Lesko to Examine Adolescence in Asher's Thirteen Reasons Why." Looking Glass: New Perspectives on Children's Literature, vol. 18, no. 1, 2015. EBSCOhost.
• Schnaars, Christopher and TODAY Jocelyn McClurg USA. "USA TODAY's Top 100 Books." USA Today, 4 Jan. 2018.

"Thirteen Reasons Why" ranks at #16 on this list, indicating praise, here. We could add this to a positive Reception section or to general awards/ honors.

• Scott, Alev. “Are Trigger Warnings More Harmful than Taboo Subjects?” FT.com, 31 Mar. 2017. Accessed 18 Apr. 2018.
  • Summary: Scott observes the trends of popular literature and culture in the current era and reflects on the effects of have a 'trigger warning' beforehand has on those pieces that are potentially harmful for those who have experienced such occurrences in reality. Asher's novel and the production of the Netflix show of the story are only a part of the larger trend that is arising. What he finds to be problematic though is that the warning itself sets up the reader to have a predisposed idea of what they are about to read or view that in itself could be dangerously leading.
    • Presented in this article is an interesting perspective on this sort of content, especially as the second season of the show is about to air with a trigger warning at the beginning of it.
    • This piece could be beneficial to have in a section about the effects of the story on readers.
    • It could also be useful to have in the section about the popularity of it as it fits a trend that Scott notes in his article.
• Thorsen, Leah. "Festus High Doesn't Shy Away from Controversial Book." St. Louis Post-Dispatch (MO), 11 Oct. 2014.
  • Summary: This novel has reached several different lists of prohibited books, but not all schools adhere to these lists. At this particular high school, they held an even for Asher to speak and sign copies of the book afterwards. What the article goes on to argue is that the students who read the book were able to connect with the main character Hannah and feel their voices being heard. It also taught them to be mindful of every little thing that they said or did and how it affected those around them.
    • Similar to other pieces we have, this can go into the reception section of how students respond positively to the story.
    • It is important to note that it is on several lists for the topics that are presented within it.
    • This one article could show both sides of the spectrum, the good that can come of it and the bad of the kind of content it has inside.
• Trites, Roberta Seelinger. "Growth in Adolescent Literature: Metaphors, Scripts, and Cognitive Narratology." International Research in Children's Literature, vol. 5, no. 1, July 2012, pp. 64-80. EBSCOhost.
  • Summary: What this article argues is that in Asher's Thirteen Reasons Why there is a series of basic/fundamental narratives that are interwoven throughout the plot in a way that allows them to be reached by the young adult audience without being too overwhelming, yet still impactful. It looks at this novel from a scientific point of view by examining how the layout of the text and the story reaches and teaches about larger issues in life and society in a way that a teenager can understand. From there, the reader is able to take what they have read in the book and learn from it in a controlled environment instead of experiencing it first hand themselves for the first time in the real world.
    • This article could be useful in discussing the controversy surrounding the story.
    • It offers a way that it is constructive and instructful instead of negative and dangerous.
    • Counterbalance point to the other psychological cases that this book has a bad influence.
• Watkins, Kaitlyn. "Thirteen Reasons Why ‘13 Reasons Why’ Matters." University Wire [Carlsbad], 27 Apr. 2017.

This article mainly discusses the Netflix spin-off, fleshing out its positive and negative features. Among the notable positive impacts of the show, the article says, is its ability to start conversations about suicide, a quality it shares with its novel counterpart. This article, while mainly about the show, might be helpful in our contributions to sections on the differences between the show and the book, as well as on the mixed reception of each.

We could use this article in our Reception section or the existing section of the article commenting on differences between the book and show.

Plan of Action for Absalom, Absalom!

Looking to improve this article, I noted that changes were needed in content or copy editing, research and referencing, and organization or sections. Overall, it seems the article would benefit most from some more research to form new sections and improve existing ones, as well as general copy editing for grammar and tone.

Content or Copy Editing Changes

• Edit for grammar and sentence fluidity,
• Reshape current content by editing for tone,
• Evaluate current sequence of explanation and restructure for better flow, and
• Locate/ explain more content to do with the novel, such as characters and themes.

Research and Referencing Changes

• Find more reliable resources to support current content of the article, and
• Reference further reliable sources as more content is added.

Organization or Section Changes

• Add more sections for new content, such as "Characters" and "Themes,"
• Organize sections of the article, as well as individual sentences, logically, and
• Evaluate article for overall flow/fluidity.

Article Evaluation

Thinking through the Feed article, I noticed it had some language that felt a little too skewed to be on Wikipedia. While the article clearly tries to be neutral, I feel like it still leans toward opinionated claims at times. For example, when it talks about Titus buying pants, it cites that moment as an exercise of "grief," when this might be contested in a discussion of the book. I wouldn't say that the article is ever "heavily biased" exactly, but there is room to make it more neutral.

As others have stated on the talk page, I agree that the technology theme of the novel is understated.

The 12th citation of the article links to "Page not found" and must be replaced. Additionally, the summary-portions are the article are lacking in references, causing it to read a lot like a book report instead of a Wikipedia article. While the information written is not bad, and not even entirely biased, it sometimes sounds a little unqualified without a reference.

The sources seem to check out, but there are not many of them, overall.

Some of the referenced cites are a little old and could possibly use updating in the future. However, the information coming from them does not seem to be inaccurate or out-of-date.

The Talk page of the article contains mainly discussions about potential edits in wording, tone, and references. It seems that much of the Talk page is concerned with some of what I detailed above regarding references for summary-reading sections.

The article has a C-rating and is of Mid importance. It seems to be a part of WikiProject Novels.

Compared to our class discussion of Feed, the article is rightfully more focused on outlining an overview of the plot, characters, and themes, while we sought to discuss the book within the context of our course's key themes. There was some overlap (we marveled over the lesions as a concept, and the article made sure to detail those gross things), but the article left out some details of the book that we discussed and largely strayed away from making any claims about the book, while we did not.