Blog 9

1. Identify your focus.  This is a general statement of what you are interested in.

My focus is on how novels are adapted to on the screen, finding out how the words change when they are no longer just on paper, and also to see people's reactions to those changes.

 2. Identify your research question:  What in particular do you want to find out?  State your question in as specific terms as you can: the age/identity of your subjects, the location of your study, the particular activities/features you will focus on. 

I am not exactly sure yet what my research question would be but I would like to find out how authors feel when other writers adapt their novels to scripts or how a writer can distinguish on what to leave in or to leave out when writing the script.  If the author is both a novelist and scriptwriter like Nicholas Sparks for an example, do they write the novel first or the script to the movie first? and also how they would distinguish the changes they make for their work to work better on screen.  I would like to interview an author who fits in either of these criteria and also to interview some people who have read books who have adapted into movies.

Your research question is really a group of related questions, stated in specific terms, where you narrow in on what in particular you want to learn about in your study.

 3. Who has studied this question and what do they say.  For this prompt - mention any article that you have read where researchers have explored answers to your question.  If you can't find any articles - tell me something about what you searched for and what you found (even if it wasn't right).

I have not researched as of yet on my own but with the meeting I had with you, we researched this article: She wrote a book called "A Theory of Adaptation" by Linda Hutcheon. I have no yet read the book or have gotten the book.

 4.What do I need to find out to answer this question?  This prompt is to help you clarify and deepen your research question.

First, I need to do research on the differences between a novel and a script, also the different types of each. Then once, I find out the back story of each, I need to figure out who would be the perfect subjects to talk with and see how they feel about when novels are adapted into films. Does it work? Is there a point that it might work for one novel but not another?

 5.  What do I need to do to gather information that will answer my question?
 This prompt is to help you think about how to design your study.  Who will you work with?  Where?  what will you do together?

I am thinking about interviewing a few people who have read The Last Song or any of the Nicholas Sparks' novels that have adapted into movies.  I'm also thinking about doing surveys to see how people feel about novels adapting into movies, in general.  If possible, I thought I could try to get in touch with Nicholas Sparks and do an interview with him.

List of what I may need to do before I start:
Do some more research of other papers that have been done on the topic.
I will also need to figure out a concrete research question.

List of what I might need from my professor:
You said that you have bought the book I mentioned above, I was wondering if I could borrow it, which you have mentioned about loaning it to me. :) UPDATE: Thank you for loaning me the book last class.