I was inspired by my first essay’s topic, homelessness. I wanted to do further research, because the eradication of homelessness is very important to me. Although it is very important to me, there is still a lot I do not know in regards to homelessness in New York City. When refining my research question, I considered the feedback the professor gave me. I wanted to analyze how our local government either criminalizes or uplifts our homeless population, so I ended up using the question: How does the local government address homelessness in New York City, and how do their policies affect the homeless population? I was able to examine how the local government affects our homeless population in terms of accessibility to resources like healthcare, overdose prevention, shelters, public spaces, and hygienic necessities. 

I actually found it pretty easy to find information on this topic. There is an abundance of sources on New York City’s homeless population and policies. Sometimes I would come across sources that were not specific to New York City, but that did not affect my process too much as I just moved onto the next one. Despite this, I felt like a lot of my initial sources were too broad and included specific policies, however with little information on said policies. Going to the writing center allowed me to get specific. My writing center tutor helped me take things found in a broader source and locate another source that provided more information on that particular thing. 

When analyzing my sources, I found the reading, Reading Games: Strategies for Reading Scholarly Sources, to be very helpful. For the regular news articles, I found it better to read through the whole thing. But, because the scholarly sources can be so long, I located specific words through the “Find” tool on google chrome. I also made sure to look at the abstract, ending, and slowly skim through the meat of the source. I think the sources I used were pretty straightforward. Going to the writing center was helpful as I also looked through all of my sources with my tutor. I will definitely utilize the writing center more moving forward.

My intended audience was New York Citizens and representatives in our local government. I made sure to include locations around the city for certain sections. Sometimes when a New Yorker reads a street number or name of a neighborhood that they recognize, it provides a sense of familiarity and piques more of an interest. At least for me it does. I also included policies implemented by Mayor DeBlasio, a known name throughout the city. I included understandable language and organized my information in a coherent way. I used a news article specific to New York City as my model to emulate a legit source. Including a picture of a homeless man living in the subway in the beginning of my essay gets the topic of the essay across before one even reads any words. It is also a familiar sight, and can evoke feelings of pity, as I do want my audience to feel the urge to do something or think critically about this topic.

I personally liked writing this essay, more so than the first essay. I am used to this type of informative writing style. After this assignment, I know how to better work with long sources instead of getting overwhelmed. In order to be an effective writer, one needs to be able to think critically when analyzing the sources they are gathering. One needs to know how to analyze lengthy time-consuming sources in a way that does not take up too much energy. One needs to know how to create an outline, as a strong foundation does a lot for the completion of a paper. I also think one needs to keep their motive and audience in mind at all times. The hardest thing about this essay was getting started on the actual draft. It was so difficult for me, I was not even able to submit a rough draft. I think my personal life and other classes contributed to this. However, once I left the writing center, I had a newfound sense of motivation, energy, and determination. So once I did start, I was on a roll and happy with the final product.