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.
Since its release, the novel has received both praise and criticism. The novel ranked number 3 on a list of the most "Challenged Books" [1] of 2012, but also garnered praise, becoming a bestseller after its release [2] and holding a spot at number 16 on USA Today's list of Top 100 Books of 2017 [3] after the release of the Netflix adaptation earlier that year. While the show's popularity increased interest in the novel, [3] its notoriety among suicide prevention groups [4] 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." [5]
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. [6] 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. [7] 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. [8] 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. [9] 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. [10]
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. [11] Nevertheless, especially after the release of the Netflix show, critics are revisiting the novel to question whether it glorifies suicide through Hannah's reasons. [5]
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. [12] 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. [13] [14]
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.
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.
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:
Looking to improve this article [15], 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.
Thinking through the Feed article, [16] 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.
![]() | This is a user sandbox of
Zfischer97. You can use it for testing or practicing edits. This is not the sandbox where you should draft your assigned article for a dashboard.wikiedu.org course. To find the right sandbox for your assignment, visit your Dashboard course page and follow the Sandbox Draft link for your assigned article in the My Articles section. |
{{
cite web}}
: |last=
has generic name (
help)
{{
cite journal}}
: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (
link)
{{
cite journal}}
: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (
link)
Goodreads
was invoked but never defined (see the
help page).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.
Since its release, the novel has received both praise and criticism. The novel ranked number 3 on a list of the most "Challenged Books" [1] of 2012, but also garnered praise, becoming a bestseller after its release [2] and holding a spot at number 16 on USA Today's list of Top 100 Books of 2017 [3] after the release of the Netflix adaptation earlier that year. While the show's popularity increased interest in the novel, [3] its notoriety among suicide prevention groups [4] 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." [5]
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. [6] 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. [7] 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. [8] 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. [9] 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. [10]
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. [11] Nevertheless, especially after the release of the Netflix show, critics are revisiting the novel to question whether it glorifies suicide through Hannah's reasons. [5]
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. [12] 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. [13] [14]
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.
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.
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:
Looking to improve this article [15], 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.
Thinking through the Feed article, [16] 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.
![]() | This is a user sandbox of
Zfischer97. You can use it for testing or practicing edits. This is not the sandbox where you should draft your assigned article for a dashboard.wikiedu.org course. To find the right sandbox for your assignment, visit your Dashboard course page and follow the Sandbox Draft link for your assigned article in the My Articles section. |
{{
cite web}}
: |last=
has generic name (
help)
{{
cite journal}}
: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (
link)
{{
cite journal}}
: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (
link)
Goodreads
was invoked but never defined (see the
help page).