Sample Literature Proposal

Sample Literature Proposal

Field(s) of study or investigation: Neurodevelopmental Disorders and Literature

Describe in a few sentences what you want to do in your independent study or project:

I will research and analyze the works of Tito Rajarshi Mukhopadhyay and Naoki Higashida (東田 直樹), two of today’s prolific nonverbal autistic authors. I will search for connections between the ways Mukhopadhyay and Higashida express their methods of identifying with the world around them. My study will culminate with a paper examining the depths to which these authors’ perceptions impact their inner understanding of and outward relations with society.

(Answer the following questions in one or two paragraphs)

How did you become interested in this topic?

I have been interested in autism research all my life. Specifically, I was intrigued to discover that nonverbal and verbal autism are understood to be neurologically distinct. While on the fully verbal end of the spectrum autism may mean a lack of brain connections involved in social relatedness, on the nonverbal end, autism may be more of a disorder of integration of sensory and motor systems. A person with nonverbal autism may be working with a condition very different from that of a fully verbal “Asperger’s type” who can be perceived as “socially awkward”. Nonverbal individuals may have a more typical social-emotional brain locked in a body that they have difficulty controlling, while their visual and auditory systems provide distorted sensory input.

Moreover, I am moved by the extreme amount of work Mukhopadhyay and Higashida have to do to express themselves to their communities. Doctors told both of their families that they would never be able to communicate their thoughts to others. Tremendous effort was required for the two to begin to write. Both authors penned their first full-length books before the age of fourteen and have published several critically acclaimed volumes of fiction and nonfiction. These two individuals motivate me to become a writer, and I would like to read more of their works.

What past experience do you have in this subject area?

I enjoy reading books for connections and patterns. I frequently read multiple books a week on any and all topics: nonfiction, fiction, poetry, prose, journalism and research articles. I have always been interested in analyzing the writings of people who have been labelled by others as “those who experience the world through a ‘different lens’”. Last year I came across Temple Grandin’s 1996 work Thinking in Pictures: Other Reports from My Life with Autism, which clicked with my previous interest in reading, researching and thinking about autism. Ever since that time, I have set out to personally understand the writings of other authors who are themselves autistic. I recently learned about Higashida’s and Mukhopadhyay’s works, and am excited to learn more.

Specifically, out of Mukhopadhyay’s works I have read The Gold of the Sunbeams: And Other Stories and hope to tackle Beyond the Silence: My Life, the World and Autism, The Mind Tree, How Can I Talk if My Lips Don’t Move, and I’m Not a Poet but I Write Poetry this summer. I’ve never read any of Higashida’s works, but I am particularly interested in reading The Reason I Jump: The Inner Voice of a Thirteen-Year-Old Boy with Autism. Unfortunately, there are few English translations of Higashida’s recent works from his native Japanese, so I’m not sure if I will be able to find much else by him.

What steps might you take to help you reach your goal?

If given the chance to be a Junction student this summer, I have the following plan in mind for researching, interpreting and connecting the works of Mukhopadhyay and Higashida: In May I will write a list of the volumes I wish to analyze, and try to find some secondary sources about the authors as well. In June I will begin to systematically comb through these volumes for connections that I will clearly outline in my notebook. I will also start jotting down ideas for an overarching theme of my paper. Throughout July I will work with my mentor to establish a more firm timeline for compiling my research, and hopefully in this month I will get close to establishing an argument and outlining my ideas. By early August I will have some drafts written of sections of my paper, but will not be fixed in my ideas and will start the full-blown writing stage. At Junction, I plan to be writing intensively every day. I am excited to collaborate and share my ideas with other writers at Junction and would be interested to peer edit essays with the other students. I hope to come out of Junction with a completed academic paper and possibly slides for a presentation I could give on the final day about my independent study.

What kind of guidance do you seek from a mentor?

Through email correspondence over the summer, my mentor can help me stay focused by offering specific pieces of advice about drafts that I send to them and by helping me plan my research process. While I have written research papers analyzing literature for school in the past (to the tune of a five-paragraph essay), I’ve never written a formal paper longer than ten pages. A mentor experienced in writing academic papers could read over my drafts and offer suggestions in style and word-choice. Furthermore, a mentor could help me refine my research process so it is streamlined to meeting the goal of writing an academic paper. I recognize the fact that I can get involved in studying tangents that cause me to lose sight of the “big picture” of my study; I will want to stay focused on my goal in my Junction independent study, so a mentor’s advice would be very helpful in this regard. On the days of Junction I will be actively putting together my final paper, and will be very interested in getting feedback on this paper from my mentor at our daily meetings.

What are some challenges that may arise as you carry out this independent study or project? How might you mitigate these challenges?

As mentioned in the above ‘mentor guidance’ response, I have been known to get lost in the details of a major project, especially when the subject material is so interesting to me personally. I anticipate my greatest challenge to be losing sight of the “big picture” when new tangents emerge in my research and I hasten to see where they will lead me. In following these tangents I leave my main work behind for the time being and therefore lose time on central aspects of my research. I recognize that an independent study writing project at Junction will require me to be strict with myself in this sense. I will need to stay focused in pursuing my area of interest if my goal is to gain and express insights at a deeper level. To thus mitigate the challenge of staying “on task” and not getting lost in the details I will work closely with my mentor to develop a structured plan for writing and research that I will stick to. Even if my ideas develop in unexpected ways, I will always be working and modifying along the lines of this structured plan, and so will keep steady aim at my goal.