With a traditional essay, I conducted an immense amount of research to help supply the information that helped develop the essay.  As for composing the Composition in Two Genres, I applied the information already gathered to create the visual pieces that were to be used in the composition. This essay allowed me to be expand my creativity on the issue I was trying to present. It helped me get the message across to different groups of people and display the purpose with a new perspective. Unlike a traditional essay, I was able to provide rhetoric strategies within my visual genres to illustrate the issue being addressed.

The genres I chose include a political cartoon and a subway advertisement. For the political cartoon, I wanted to draw attention to the people in power. On the cartoon was a door, on one side of the door is a happy family discussing matters with a social worker, on the other side is two dark figures holding a cigarette and a belt while the kid hid in a corner crying. The purpose of this is to demonstrate the matters that go overlooked within a foster home, to target social workers, the Department of Child Protective Services, or Human Services and make them take notice on these matters. As for the advertisement, there are two images, one image shows a girl crying followed by a girl opening up to someone, the second image demonstrates a vulnerable boy followed by a group of boys with a happy family. The purpose of this is to express the changes that can be made in regards to abuse. The girl crying has been a victim to abuse and because she never spoke up, another boy was left vulnerable to that abuse. Meanwhile, the girl who opened up to an individual about the abuse she endured saved other kids and allowed them to end up in happy homes. The advertisement also includes statistics on the amount of abuse that occurs in foster homes followed by quotes encouraging people to make a change and speak up. This advertisement was made in hopes to reach previous foster kids that have been physically or sexually victimized and encourage them to speak up and make a change.

In these genres, logos and ethos was used to help develop the ideas presented. The statistics appeal to the audience’s sense of logic. While the images and drawings of kids crying, or kids being scared, appeals to the audience’s sense of emotion.

My intended audience consists of socials workers and the Department of Child Protective Services, as well as, previous foster kids.

By targeting the people in charge, I want to reach people who work with foster kids, who possibly aren’t aware of the situations these kids are placed under and how much of an effect it has on them. Social workers and Child Protective Services would need a more logical approach, in addition to, an emotional approach. If provided with factual information and comparisons, then they can begin to understand the issue that’s living within the system. They’ll be more willing to look further into these situations and possibly make a change to their methods. By appealing to their sense of emotion, it’ll allow them to build a connection with the kids and understand the importance of what’s being addressed. I’ve decided to use a political cartoon to present this matter to my intended audience because it will provide a visual demonstration on how life is for foster kids during and after the foster care system. I want to illustrate how every encounter has influenced both behavior and future success. By applying my ideas onto a political cartoon, I hope to highlight the underlying issues that aren’t investigated, to give the people in charge a reason to take a different approach in the way foster kids are cared for.

As for previous foster kids, especially ones who have been victims to any of the situations presented within the foster care system, ones who’ve felt scared to speak up about the things they underwent, I want to be able to give them a sense of comfort and to not feel alone in that aspect. Advertisements are displayed wherever you look: on the side of a bus, on the train, billboards, on the internet. I want to appeal to their emotions through a subway advertisement. Something that will be seen every single time you decide to take the train. Previous foster kids might view this advertisement and feel safe enough to speak up about their experience, to spark a change in the way the system is run by introducing the things that went wrong while being in the system.

The previous topic I wrote about was the foster care system and how the conditions foster kids undergo have an impact on their behavior. I would like to readdress this issue on the following visual genres.

There are two different types of audiences I’m targeting, that being previous foster kids and the people in power in relation to the foster care system, this includes social workers and the Department of Child Protective Services.

With that being said, one of the genres I intend on using is an advertisement. Advertisements can be seen anywhere by anyone at any given time, especially a subway advertisement. If previous foster kids see an advertisement addressing an issue they’ve experienced, they would be more likely to speak up about anything they went through so they didn’t feel so alone. I’m thinking about using images found online of kids going through a happy childhood and kids going through the conditions presented in the foster care system to demonstrate the difference. However I want to use a little editing to almost blend the two images to illustrate how their situation has been overlooked.

As for the other genre I intend on using, I’m debating between a poster or a political cartoon. Both could raise awareness on issues occurring within the system while also demonstrating its effects on the kids. Through these genres, I can appeal to social services and the Department of Child Protective services to pay close attention to the situations these kids have undergone. While a poster could provide all this information in both visual and textual formats, a political cartoon might draw the attention of more individuals because of its visual and emotional appeal.

When creating my research question, I had a variety of ideas I wanted to address. My topic was on foster homes and the relation between the conditions and the outcomes it had on their kids. However, it was difficult to word the perfect research question but with the feedback I received, I was provided with a better refined version of the original research question I had created.

As for the research itself, I wanted to find sources that discussed the behavioral impact foster homes had on foster kids, in addition to, the conditions they were placed under and their experiences. Despite that, there is a significant amount of information that discussed the mental state of these kids but as for the harsh conditions and assault they underwent, there weren’t many articles on it. Most sources only discussed the effect their biological parents had and the responsibilities they were given. To solve this issue, I had to conduct many hours of research. I also had to take into consideration how I worded the information I was trying to look up. Once I gathered my sources, the main issue that came with analyzing the text was figuring out which pieces of information were necessary enough to include in my essay. Especially scholarly sources, which provided pages and pages of information, it was hard to concentrate on which part of the text would be important to use in the research essay. The way I approached this obstacle, is by picking out pieces of text while I read and adding it onto a separate page, so that when I began to write my essay I would look back at the quotes I gathered and decide which would be useful.

My intended audience were social workers, the Department of Child Protective Services or Human Services. The structure of my essay served as a timeline, it began with the conditions kids faced, to the impact it had on their behavior, to the outcome once they aged out of the system. The purpose of this is to address to these individuals the influence these foster home conditions have in order to spark change.

When writing, it’s important to have an understanding on what you want to discuss and why. I think a problem I have is that I rush my writing in order to finish rather than to get my message out and that is something I need to work on if I want to be an effective writer.

From numerous hours of research, I’ve found around 9 potential sources to further develop my essay. Each source elaborates certain aspects I‘m trying to address in my research essay in regards to the foster care system.
So far I have gathered four scholarly sources, two which were located using Gale Academic OneFile, and the other two found while searching online. All four sources contain the requirements of a scholarly source which makes them viable. These requirements include that it has been peer-reviewed, the author’s credentials are provided, they provide secondary sources, and the publishers are professors, students, or an academic institution.
The first scholarly source, “Foster Care Placement, Poor Parenting, and Negative Outcomes Among Homeless Young Adults,” will effectively support my ideas because it provides data and information regarding how minors are placed in foster homes, the situations they undergo within those homes, at how it all traces back to the homeless foster kids that aged out of the system. This article will further elaborate the idea on how the where the kids are placed leads to negative outcomes.
The second scholarly article, “Effect of Foster Care Intervention on Trajectories of General and Specific Psychopathology Among Children With Histories of Institutional Rearing,” discusses how children who have been subjected to consistent foster care interventions due to criminal activity, have experienced mental disorders because of it. This will adapt well in my essay because it demonstrates individuals who have experienced short periods of time tangled with the foster care system and how it has changed their mental state.
The third scholarly article, “Serving Students in Foster Care: Implications and Interventions for School Counselors,” goes into further detail about the behavior of the kids outside the system, instead of addressing what they’re experiencing, this article describes their attitude in educational environments. This article discusses how they act in school, what changes their attitude, and how they respond to certain situations.
The fourth scholarly article, “”In the system:” a qualitative study of African American women’s foster care stories,” will help develop my essay because it doesn’t just discuss the life within the foster care system, instead this article brings to light six African American women and their personal experiences, which will further elaborate how they felt during this moment and it had shaped them as a person.
The additional three sources I will be using in my research-based essay were found through consistent research on the internet. They’re viable because they’re all news articles or magazines that were published to address a certain issue backed up by data and research. The first article, “Drugging our kids: RX alliance rewards doctors as drug companies get richer,” will effectively support my ideas because it highlights a form of abuse occurring within the system, where kids are overly prescribed with medication in order for companies to gain more money. The second article, “Sex-trafficking sting highlights vulnerability of foster children,” is useful to my essay because demonstrates how children who age out of the system become victims to sex trafficking. Which relates to behavior because numerous kids aren’t taught how to be safe and cautious in situations like these, and when they’re already living poorly they succumb to it. Lastly, “Arizona sued over poor foster-care conditions,” helps to underline a home in Arizona that has already been accused of being a terrible living space for foster kids, which goes to show that there can be numerous other homes that also don’t qualify as a safe space for these kids.
Originally, I planned on using an article found on The Wall Street Journal website, labeled “Parents’ Drug Abuse Strains Child-Welfare Agencies.” The article goes into further detail about how much of a recurring issue it has become for children to be ripped from their families and placed in the foster care system due to drug abuse. At first, I assumed it would be useful to include how certain kids ended up in the foster care system and how that had an effect on their behavior. However, I came to realize that my research essay is based on how the foster care system had an impact on their future behavior outside the system. By evaluating past occurrences before they were placed in the system, it doesn’t highlight the conditions in the foster care system. Instead it would highlight the influence their biological parents had.
The article “Broken foster care system may be contributing to homelessness crisis,” by April Dinwoodie, discusses the correlation between the number of homeless people and the kids in the foster care system. It’s an opinionated article, but she does include research on why they end up homeless and why it’s important for these kids to find a family. Previously I found a scholarly article that also introduces the homelessness situation in addition to more detailed research and data. Therefore, I was debating on including this article in my essay because it wouldn’t be any new information, it would be a topic I already have sufficient information on.
Despite the research already obtained, there are a few things I want to include in my essay but haven’t found the right sources containing the information I need. I’m still seeking additional sources discussing the behavior recorded of foster kids including how their behavior has varied from when they entered the foster care system to when they got out? I have an idea on what to look for, I just want to find the perfect source that addresses this question in detail.

Bibliography

Brinser, Hannah, and Addy Wissel. “Serving Students in Foster Care: Implications and
Interventions for School Counselors.” The Professional Counselor, vol. 10, no. 2, 2020, p.                             170+. Gale Academic OneFile, https://link.gale.com/apps/doc/A630064938/AONE?                                     u=cuny_ccny&sid=AONE&xid=b4072ed3. Accessed 19 Oct. 2020.
Chaney, Cassandra, and Meghan Spell. “‘In the system:’ a qualitative study of African American
women’s foster care stories.” The Western Journal of Black Studies, vol. 39, no. 2, 2015, p.                           84+. Gale Academic OneFile, https://link.gale.com/apps/doc/A428998149/AONE?                                       u=cuny_ccny&sid=AONE&xid=2b5e4237. Accessed 19 Oct. 2020.
Wade M, Fox NA, Zeanah CH, Nelson CA. Effect of Foster Care Intervention on Trajectories of
General and Specific Psychopathology Among Children With Histories of Institutional                                   Rearing: A Randomized Clinical Trial. JAMA Psychiatry. 2018;75(11):1137–1145.                                             doi:10.1001/jamapsychiatry.2018.2556
https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamapsychiatry/fullarticle/2707957?resultClick=1
Tyler, Kimberly A, and Lisa A Melander. “Foster Care Placement, Poor Parenting, and Negative
Outcomes Among Homeless Young Adults.” Journal of Child and Family Studies, U.S.                                   National Library of Medicine, 19 Dec. 2010,                                                                                                                www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3020041/
Dinwoodie, April. “Broken Foster Care System May Be Contributing to Homelessness Crisis.”
The San Francisco Examiner, 27 Mar. 2016, www.sfexaminer.com/author/april-dinwoodie/
Pitzl, Mary Jo. “Arizona Sued over Poor Foster-Care Conditions.” The Arizona Republic, 4 Feb.
2015, www.azcentral.com/story/news/arizona/politics/2015/02/03/arizona-foster-care-                              lawsuit-child-welfare/22804121/
Group, Bay Area News. “Drugging Our Kids: RX Alliance Rewards Doctors as Drug Companies
Get Richer.” Daily News, Daily News, 28 Aug. 2017,                                                                                                  www.dailynews.com/2014/11/22/drugging-our-kids-rx-alliance-rewards-doctors-as-drug-                          companies-get-richer/
Kamp, Jon, and Arian Campo-Flores. “Parents’ Drug Abuse Strains Child-Welfare Agencies.”
The Wall Street Journal, Dow Jones & Company, 12 Jan. 2016,                                                                    www.wsj.com/articles/parents-drug-abuse-strains-child-welfare-agencies-1452538476
Koseff, Alexei. “Sex-Trafficking Sting Highlights Vulnerability of Foster Children.” Los Angeles
Times, Los Angeles Times, 29 July 2013, www.latimes.com/nation/la-xpm-2013-jul-29-la-                          na- child-sex-20130730-story.html

Question: How do the conditions of the foster care system in the United States influence adverse behavior among foster youth?

Originally, my research question addressed the negligence of foster kids in relation to drug abuse and homelessness, however this new research question tackles the situations foster kids undergo along with the effects it has on future behavior. This research question interests me because there are numerous children, including individuals I’ve crossed paths with, who’ve suffered through terrible predicaments due to the poor conditions they’re placed in. Not only have these circumstances endangered their well being, but it has also impacted their psychological state. This is an important social issue because it occurs to various foster kids that are not only mistreated while under the care of the system, but are also thrown into the real world without any guarantee that they’ll survive. Kids are given to foster families with abusive tendencies. Once they age out, they’re released with no social skills, no connections, no survival skills, and with no support. How are adults with no experience of living outside the system, supposed to thrive? It’s important to take notice of individuals that aren’t offered the same privileges as others, that are expected to survive without family support or reassurance. Most individuals that age out, become victims of sex trafficking, are unemployed, convicted, pregnant, or never get the chance to earn a college degree.

The target audiences are social services, the Department of Child Protective Services or Human Services, even previous foster care kids. By correlating the conditions in foster care systems to the behavioral effect it has on the kids, it brings light to the way these services are handling the situations. The only way to make a change to the way things are being run, is to address it to those in charge. By also targeting the past foster kids, it might encourage them to also speak up about the situations they experienced and how it impacted their behavior. 

Model Essay: Ferrara, Pietro, et al. “Foster Care: A Fragile Reality Needing Social Attention, and Economic Investments.” Redirecting, EUROPEAN PAEDIATRIC ASSOCIATION PAGES, 1 June 2016, doi.org/10.1016/j.jpeds.2016.02.036

The reason for choosing this model essay is because I want to follow a similar idea for my research-based essay. Starting off with a summary of what the research will be based on and why it’s an important social issue. Along with that it will have subtitles to highlight what the following paragraphs will be addressing. It will consist of a summary, then the situations the foster kids face within the system, followed by the impact it has on their behavior, and concluding with how their influenced behavior led to struggles outside of the system. As for sources, most secondary sources have already been gathered relating to situations within the system and outside. However, I have to do a bit more research on the behavioral aspects. Despite that, I have a clear idea of how I will approach this research-based essay.

Bibliography

Brinser, Hannah, and Addy Wissel. “Serving Students in Foster Care: Implications and

Interventions for School Counselors.” The Professional Counselor, vol. 10, no. 2, 2020, p. 170+. Gale Academic OneFile, https://link.gale.com/apps/doc/A630064938/AONE?u=cuny_ccny&sid=AONE&xid=b4072ed3. Accessed 19 Oct. 2020.

Chaney, Cassandra, and Meghan Spell. “‘In the system:’ a qualitative study of African American

women’s foster care stories.” The Western Journal of Black Studies, vol. 39, no. 2, 2015, p. 84+. Gale Academic OneFile, https://link.gale.com/apps/doc/A428998149/AONE?u=cuny_ccny&sid=AONE&xid=2b5e4237. Accessed 19 Oct. 2020.

Wade M, Fox NA, Zeanah CH, Nelson CA. Effect of Foster Care Intervention on Trajectories of

General and Specific Psychopathology Among Children With Histories of Institutional Rearing: A Randomized Clinical Trial. JAMA Psychiatry. 2018;75(11):1137–1145. doi:10.1001/jamapsychiatry.2018.2556 

https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamapsychiatry/fullarticle/2707957?resultClick=1

Tyler, Kimberly A, and Lisa A Melander. “Foster Care Placement, Poor Parenting, and Negative

Outcomes Among Homeless Young Adults.” Journal of Child and Family Studies, U.S. National Library of Medicine, 19 Dec. 2010, www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3020041/

Dinwoodie, April. “Broken Foster Care System May Be Contributing to Homelessness Crisis.”

The San Francisco Examiner, 27 Mar. 2016, www.sfexaminer.com/author/april-dinwoodie/

Pitzl, Mary Jo. “Arizona Sued over Poor Foster-Care Conditions.” The Arizona Republic, 4 Feb.

2015, www.azcentral.com/story/news/arizona/politics/2015/02/03/arizona-foster-care-lawsuit-child-welfare/22804121/

Group, Bay Area News. “Drugging Our Kids: RX Alliance Rewards Doctors as Drug Companies

Get Richer.” Daily News, Daily News, 28 Aug. 2017, www.dailynews.com/2014/11/22/drugging-our-kids-rx-alliance-rewards-doctors-as-drug-companies-get-richer/

Kamp, Jon, and Arian Campo-Flores. “Parents’ Drug Abuse Strains Child-Welfare Agencies.”

The Wall Street Journal, Dow Jones & Company, 12 Jan. 2016, www.wsj.com/articles/parents-drug-abuse-strains-child-welfare-agencies-1452538476

Koseff, Alexei. “Sex-Trafficking Sting Highlights Vulnerability of Foster Children.” Los Angeles

Times, Los Angeles Times, 29 July 2013, www.latimes.com/nation/la-xpm-2013-jul-29-la-na-child-sex-20130730-story.html

Although I would like to discuss the issue I previously wrote about, there are a few questions that I believe are also important to touch upon:

How does the sexualization of women in the media affect girls at a young age?

In today’s society, younger individuals as young as 11 years old struggle with confidence and being comfortable with their body because the media idolizes female celebrities and models that are overly sexualized and put pressure on girls to strive for that image. The advancement in technology and popularization of social media platforms such as instagram, snapchat, and tik tok has made it more accessible to young girls now, making them feel like they have to live up to those standards. To further expand on this question, I want to research topics that involve young girls who are given access to ideals like these and how that has impacted not only their mental health, but their self image.

How does the negligence of kids in the foster care system lead to drug abuse and homelessness?

Kids within the foster care system are placed in foster homes and become victims of child abuse, other kids age out and eventually are put out into the world with nothing to fall back on. Some of these individuals end up relying on drugs, prostitution or criminal activity to get by. The reason I want to address this topic is because I knew a girl who was a victim to these situations, she had a burn scar from an abusive foster father who burned her with a cigarette, although she eventually was blessed with a great family that adopted her, she went through some harsh times and she’s not the only one. Numerous kids are just placed in foster homes without a proper background check and are put through difficult, unbelievable situations which usually lead drug abuse and homelessness. I want to further research this topic by searching for connections between the neglect from foster care systems, the problems these children face, and the outcomes.

Originally, whenever I thought about writing a type of poem, essay, report, I thought about it as an assignment more than a way of learning. Now, as I read through the feedback I received, it helped an immense amount to make me acknowledge the things I needed help with and to understand that writing is definitely something I need to work on through practice. I’ve never been big on writing, so everything I’m learning doesn’t contradict any information I previously knew, besides MLA format because growing up you’re taught you only need your name and a title and then write as much as you can, but the format does help to organize my work. Adapting this new information into my style of writing was difficult because I didn’t know how to word certain sentences to give the reader a better understanding. As well as having to look back at the articles and try to draw out who the audience would be, it was proven a bit difficult because I couldn’t find any parts of the text that helped me come to a conclusion, most of the essay was about interpreting, something I still struggle with. When first reading the feedback on my work, I got a little stressed because I didn’t realize I would have to rewrite almost my entire essay, however, the steps I took to approach revising my essay helped to improve my analysis a bit better. I started by rereading every article one by one, and as I finished one article I went back to my essay and I read over the feedback before attempting to take a new approach on my analysis. It helped to fix my essay because I didn’t just overwhelm myself with all the changes I needed to make, instead I took my time to read each article carefully and then read the small corrections presented to me with that one article before I moved on to the second one.

Newspaper Article

https://www.washingtonpost.com/posteverything/wp/2014/12/15/racial-profiling-has-destroyed-public-trust-in-police-cops-are-exploiting-our-weak-laws-against-it/

Numerous states don’t have a law that bans ethnic or racial profiling, and in addition to that, they doesn’t require for certain states to collect data once they decide to stop a random individual and conduct a search. Minorities live in fear of officers, and those who don’t, simply don’t trust or respect them. This article goes into further depth about how police officers should be trained more before being allowed on the field, as well as, the need to push for banning ethnic and racial profiling and everything that is involved with that concept. This includes any type of loopholes that could be used to refrain from detailing officers who have been accused of profiling a civilian without proper cause. 

Magazine Article

https://www.americanbar.org/groups/criminal_justice/publications/criminal-justice-magazine/2020/winter/racial-profiling-past-present-and-future/

Many police departments have attempted to solve or put an end to ethnic and racial profiling and yet it still remains a common issue. A former captain, stated that more African Americans filled up jail cells more than whites which proved that racial profiling was succesful, however, when put into question, more African Americans and Latinos were stopped than whites and yet more whites were arrested than African Americans and Latinos. Although they were proven wrong, racial profiling only continued to grow. Suddenly, even people with Arab descent were being profiled due to the terrorist attacks that were occuring. With that, soon grew profiling with hispanics and latinos in relation to immigration. This article addresses how racial profiling has devleoped over time.

Scholarly Source 

https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/0003122412448648

This scholarly article connects ethnic and racial profiling and sociaology. By increasing the racial and ethnic profiling you increase the chance of offending. By offending they mean, it will increase the chance of an illegal act to be committed or for a problem to arise. This includes the idea that due to situations that have presented African Americans and Latinos in relation to officers, parents have grown up to teach their children to be aware of racial discrimination and to never trust an officer. Situations that have arisen from ethnic and racial profiling have led to the creation of Racial and Ethnic Socialization.

Open Web Source

https://www.instagram.com/p/ByITd3HBPCU/?igshid=1xwq9kctscoa1

This post has a thread that presents situations in which people have been racially profiled in airports. A girl traveling with her friends is singled out as a group while everyone else is left alone, they had given the girl and her friends unnecessary attitudes. Another individual is traveling with her friends and she is pulled aside to be asked questions when there has been no proof of her carrying anything illegal, and yet her friend who had a sharp object was just politely asked to turn it in. As the thread continues, it presents numerous situations in which people were very clearly being racially profiled in airports.

Ethnic and racial profiling is when someone, like the law enforcement, take action simply based on appearance. Without a trace of evidence, or even any type of investigation, people have lost their lives because someone decided they were doing something wrong or out of the ordinary. Individuals are told to never act a certain way, or to never make a mistake because once they do, it’s a higher chance that they just put their lives at risk. What gives someone the right to point fingers based upon their race, ethnicity, or their demeanor? When did it become justified for someone to shoot before gathering all the facts?There have been minors who don’t even have access to a weapon, but because they look suspicious, someone decides it’s okay to take action. This affects minorities and immigrants, this affects Muslims, Arabs, Latinos, Asian-Americans, etc., this affects different races. Even if you’ve never experienced ethnic or racial profiling, there are people out there who have, there are people who have lost friends, there are people who have been ripped from their families. Some of us have family who we fear we’ll lose because of the dangers that come with ethnic or racial profiling. I want to learn the history behind ethnic and racial profiling, I want to learn what is being done about the matter, I want to read the experiences people have gone through, I want to be informed about the organizations and groups that exist to put an end to these situations, I want to be further educated on the matter.