Post #9

Writing the methodology section of my prospectus was one of the most difficult parts, if not the most difficult part, of this drafting process so far. I initially felt as if my methodology could be summed up in one or two sentences. Simply, I’m using two different Salinger archetypes of children and comparing and contrasting Salinger’s children in “The Laughing Man” with two representative children found in “For Esme--With Love and Squalor” and “Teddy.” Composing methodologies for psychology or biology papers involves long descriptions of experimental conditions, subject breakdowns, and methods used to conduct the experiment. This could take up many paragraphs and pages of a lab report. How much really could I stretch out that my sentence? Everything I want to say about what I'm doing, I can do clearly and concisely in one or two sentences. I think I’m fairly talented at expanding upon an idea, but this exercise would test my abilities. However, as I kept staring at my computer and then began writing, I realized that it might be necessary to explain a little bit more about these types of children, how they are used, specific places where they can be found, and other examples. I should also define specific terms that I plan on using throughout my paper. To truly understand what I’m hoping to do in the essay, I need to fully understand these aspects of childhood and the three short stories I’m using and so does the reader. I feel a little wary about the fact that I may be repeating myself, and too much of the information found in my introduction or literature review is repeated in my methodology. Once I begin to piece together each of these sections to form a complete prospectus, I will certainly have to do some editing to eliminate overlap. However, I think my methodology will be most effective condensed into one or two paragraphs, as opposed to sprinkled throughout the prospectus.