The subject of this article on school bullying is something that I feel is imperative to examine and ponder in the community. I am expounding on the essay of school bullying in light of the fact that I need to make more students, teachers, and educational professionals mindful of the violence around them. To make them more mindful of the instances of school viciousness is the the purpose of my writing on this topic. Additionally, to learn procedures in managing instances of school viciousness in the present society to keep more school brutality from creating.

Most of the revisions in this improved essay were made through suggestions from my classmates and myself after reading other students’ essays. After perusing other students’ essays, I realized that there was a serious problem with my essay. I was basically using information to summarize my arguments. I did not think that I had explained the main idea of each paragraph and simply used the information that I found to explain it, I found that I was missing my own thoughts. This is the problem that I realized in this essay. The best solution to this problem would be to add more of your own thoughts to the paragraphs and then combine the information you found with your own thoughts, which might look a little better. Also, as my classmate suggested, I think I should have more evidence to prove my point. In addition, I think my vocabulary is too simple, and my grammar and tenses are very weak, which may require a lot of cumulative learning in my daily life.

Secondly, my intended audience is primarily students, followed by teachers, educators, and then parents. Students are advised to maintain a good attitude towards learning, to have proper respect in their friendships, and not to ignore bullying even if a friend is around. Helping educators realize the seriousness of bullying in schools and establishing a positive educational environment is something that educators must manage. Finally, parents are reminded that the home environment is also something that needs to be managed for education. This is the only way to effectively reduce school violence.

I feel that writing a research paper has really taught me a lot of things, writing skills, techniques, and finding effective research materials have improved a lot. Also, I was able to learn a lot about cases, or the law, while writing the research paper. Furthermore, I can  learn more about social impact from my writing papers.

With my research question, I already knew that I wanted to stick with the topic of immigration because it is a very important issue that has been defended for, but it sometimes becomes overlooked. Especially with the last presidency of the past 4 years, immigration has been targeted and criminalized for simply being denied basic human rights. I did come across some challenges while going through my research because I wasn’t sure on what I wanted to focus my essay on. I was able to find one model essay, but it was difficult to follow because the points made in there was not the same points, I wanted mention, however I still included them. Since the beginning of this semester, my research skills have improved a lot because I’ve been able to look for the exact materials that I need for my paper. Its easier for me to base my paper on the thoughts already created by other writers, which improved my own style of writing. While analyzing my texts, I did have trouble picking out the most important evidence to use but I knew that if I have one point I want to talk about, I need to stick to that. In general, this essay wasn’t as hard as the last essay because I’ve gotten used to writing essays longer than 3 pages, and it helps me construct my writing more professionally.

My research topic was finding ways to improve the quality of American education which I had initially thought about this research question prior to the essay because it was a similar topic for my last essay and I wanted to dwell even further into it. I felt that this was an important social issue because I feel like there are a lot of things wrong with the quality of the education system. I didn’t find any trouble finding information for my media sources since most of the groundwork was laid out there for me in my first essay. However, I did have to search for some scholarly articles which were a little tedious because I found a lot of scholarly articles relating to my issue, but I had to dissect which was the most effective for my essay. The problems I encountered when analyzing my text were trying to figure out which quotes I should use because there were a lot of good points in my articles and I had to scrutinize which was the best quote for me to analyze. Most of the negative feedback I had received in my essay was the quotes I used were not effective since my evidence was unclear in how it led up to my analysis and didn’t line up so I had to find a different quote to fit my analysis. Furthermore, I needed to organize the information from sources relating to my research question. The role of my intended audience played an important role since educators were the intended audience for my question and I wanted to write this essay to show them various ways on how they can improve the educational quality. This process has influenced my writing because it has helped me increase my researching abilities which can be utilized in the future. Also, it showed me that quotes are very important in writing an essay because it leads up to a good analysis. A bad quote can be detrimental to my essay because it can make my analysis look unclear so I need to be more careful in choosing my quotes. In order to be an effective writer, I must present valuable research information about my topic and choose effective quotes regarding my issue.

My topic is about depression for college students in the United States. When I was creating my research question, I faced some troubles, and my topic was vague. At first, I was thinking about a lot of things, and I came up with a lot of ideas when I was trying to figure out my research question. My mind was vague, and I did not know what I am going to write about. However, I took some time to figure it out by writing all my ideas on a piece of paper and connect them all into a single one, which has helped me a lot. Especially with the technique of what professor Shamecca provided, she has helped me a lot by giving feedback and some pieces of advice to me to make my research question more focused.

After that, I also get troubled searching for data to support my research paper because most of the results that came out might talk about something else that doesn’t relate to my particular query, especially for the scholarly sources that didn’t always come out what I was trying to look for, which took me a lot of time to find it out and look for the ones that really support my paper. It took me even more time while I analyzed the text because some of my resources came from long papers, which
I had to spend a lot of time reading it and seeking out some pieces of evidence to support my argument. Professor Shamecca, however, has also offered a lot of help by offering some suitable ways to find out whether the paper links to our topic by asking us to read the abstract, introduction, and conclusion first, which has really helped a lot to minimize our time.

My intended audience was to help college students and educators from higher education institutions to help students overcome the problem of depression by offering some guidance to reduce their difficulty and alleviate the risk factor of anxiety.

I think the experience of initially having some challenges and difficulties when writing our research paper has helped me a lot with my writing skills because it has taught me to look for appropriate resources when planning to look for information that supports my subject, but it has also helped me a lot to organize my paper in a better way.

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.

My research topic was sexual assault. From the beginning, I was struggling with my research question. I came up with a lot of ideas, but still, I was struggling to find out the research question that fits my criteria. Then I came up with a question that feels unclear and it was too broad for the scope of this assignment. Then Professor Shamecca shared an article on how to develop your essay question. Also, she shared some ideas that helped me a lot to come up with a well-developed research question. When I was thinking about how women can protect themselves from sexual assault, I was having trouble finding these pieces of information. Most of the articles share how sexual assault affects women living in society. But I found an article that talks about how self-defense can help women to protect themselves. Then I get some ideas that I can add this information to my research. After analyzing my text, I realized that I provide a lot of quotes in a paragraph. Without explaining those quotes it makes no sense how these quotes related to my research question. Also, I did rush to provide all information at a time. That makes my essay looks so weird. So, I break down into pieces of my information, explain each of my quotes to support my ideas, and then relate it back to my research question. My intended audients are feminists, parents, police, government officers. In my essay, I explained each of my intended audience roles in society and what they do to prevent sexual assault. Furthermore, I tried to influence our parents on how they can motivate their daughters to join the self-defense program. Our government and police officers should motivate the victim to report the incident and they need to protect the victim’s family so that they don’t have to experience any threat. This process of writing helps build-up my critical thinking, improves my writing skills. This process influences me to organize my writing, make a connection with my readers so that they can understand my ideas. This essay helps me on how to break up information into different pieces that help my audience to connect with my ideas easily.  

What are the effects of illegal logging, mining, and farming on the indigenous tribes in the Amazon and how can public policy help to address these consequences?

I found my sources by searching for articles using key words like illegal mining, logging, and farming in the Amazon, respectively. I then searched for effects of illegal mining, logging, and farming on the amazon. I tried searching first for the causes of these illegal activities to get a better understanding of why they occur/what influences them. I then searched for the effects they have on the Amazon because indigenous communities live in and survive off of the Amazon, meaning in the end, they are the ones who immediately suffer the consequences. I was able to find many sources that talk about and link these effects to indigenous communities. My sources include newspaper articles from The New York Times and The Guardian, a report from Humans Rights Watch, and a YouTube video of an interview with an illegal logger.

My newspaper article, In the Amazon, Fires Steal Breath, but Smoke Smells of Money, talks about the increase in fires that are raging in the Amazon, which are intentionally started by ranch owners. It’s the fastest, and illegal, way to transform large parts of the Amazon into fields fit for grazing. It also talks about how, ever since Brazil’s president has been in office, he’s prioritized economic development over environmental concerns. Many ranch owners and farmers have seen this as encouragement to burn down more of the Amazon. This source will help my audience understand why people burn down the rainforest.

Another source I will be using, Illegal Mining, ‘Worse Than at Any Other Time,’ Threatens Amazon, Study Finds, talks about how the surge in gold prices has led to an epidemic of illegal gold mining in the Amazon, threatening indigenous territories. A study by a group of environmental organizations analyzed data from six Amazon countries and identified 2,312 illegal mining sites. They have caused the rivers to be contaminated with mercury. These toxic pollutants seep into the earth contaminating plants, animals and people. Aside from polluting, these illegal miners are getting close to uncontacted tribes which poses a mortal threat to them in terms of illness. This source will help me explain the causes behind  illegal gold mining in the Amazon as well as how it affects indigenous communities, including the bigger risks it poses to uncontacted tribes.

I am unsure about using this article, Amazon Deforestation in Brazil Rose Sharply on Bolsonaro’s Watch, because it doesn’t really give me any specific details about any public policies. It does talk about how president Bolsonaro (of Brazil) has had his government ‘scale back efforts’ in fighting against illegal mining, logging and farming by cutting down funding for government agencies that have been tasked with enforcing environmental laws and regulations. He’s been outspoken about the importance of economic development and how conservation policies are just getting in the way of it. He fully supports the mining and agriculture industries and their expansion into protected reserves, including indigenous lands.

I still need to research a bit more on public policies that are meant to protect the Amazon and indigenous lands as well as helping to fight against these illegal activities. Also, ways they can improve and be more effective.

Bibliography

Clifford, Krauss. “In the Amazon, Fires Steal Breath, but Smoke Smells of Money.” The New York Times, 2 Nov. 2019, https://www.nytimes.com/2019/11/02/world/americas/brazil-amazon-fires-cowboys.html

Darlington, Shasta. “Illegal Mining, ‘Worse Than at Any Other Time,’ Threatens Amazon, Study Finds.” The New York Times, 10 Dec. 2018, www.nytimes.com/2018/12/10/world/americas/amazon-illegal-mining.html.

Londoño, Ernesto, and Letícia Casado. “Amazon Deforestation in Brazil Rose Sharply on Bolsonaro’s Watch.” The New York Times, 18 Nov. 2019, www.nytimes.com/2019/11/18/world/americas/brazil-amazon-deforestation.html.

Muñoz Acebes, César, et al. “Rainforest Mafias.” Human Rights Watch, 27 May 2020, www.hrw.org/report/2019/09/17/rainforest-mafias/how-violence-and-impunity-fuel-deforestation-brazils-amazon.

Phillips, Dom. “Goldmining having big impact on indigenous Amazon communities.” The Guardian, Guardian News and Media, 07 Oct. 2020, https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2020/oct/07/goldmining-having-big-impact-on-indigenous-amazon-communities.

“Why I illegally cut down trees in the Amazon rainforest | Interview with a Brazilian illegal logger.” YouTube, uploaded by The Telegraph, 2 Dec. 2019, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zITRFwiBE38&t=187s.

How do social, political, and economic factors influence the conditions of American women in the workplace?

The United States had come a long way since The Equal Pay Act in 1963 when President John F. Kennedy signed the Fair Labor Standards Act, which abolishes wage disparities based on sex. Through my investigation, I have found good sources that have helped me understand this social issue more politically and economically. The First Source I read was “Equal Pay an Introductory Guide.” I thought this source was an excellent introduction to my essay because it helps me introduce relevant topics related to this social issue. This source touches diverse topics such as the government’s role on equal remuneration and the institutions and procedures to enforce the law. This first source was first published in 2013 by the International Labour Organization. In my next source, I decided to go with a source that carries this problem to the present and the challenge of equal pay in the labor market. This source is called “Women, Work, and Inequality.” and is a Scholarly source that carries many editors responsible for the publication of this book, such as the support of the library Congress Cataloging for publication data on women, work and inequality. My third scholarly source is title “Promoting Equity Gender-Neutral Job Evaluation For Equal Pay.” In this book published by the International Labour Organization, the author reflects on the causes of wage discrimination and the principles of pay equity. This source helped me better understand how the scope of the principle of pay equity works and its impact on an organization’s reputation. The source I discarded while looking in my research was “The Unions and the fight for inequality.” This book’s content gives me a lot of detail on feminist history, and I think that is why I discard this topic from the others. I didn’t want to make this essay too personal by talking about the idea of women as housewives and the long fight for feminism during the past years, reason enough to decided not to include this book. While an article I have been considering to include in my essay is a short video from Youtube about a topic that recently caught my attention, this video explains women’s soccer equal pay fight. The title of this video is “Why it’s impossible to give the USWNT equal pay.” This short clip shows the player’s prominence and willingness to change, expressing their frustration by seeing the huge compensation gap that receives the World Cup participants, a pool of 400$ million for a team of 32 men, while only 30$ million for a 24 women’s teams. I have been focusing more on my scholarly sources than my web sources; I have focused on the details about the past Instead of the present. For now, to the first draft, I would look up more recent sources that would help understand this issue, like how much during this pandemic time, the pay gap has been increasing. How much money do men that work from home compares to women that do the same? 

Bibliography:

Oelz, Martin, Shauna Olney, and Manuela Tomei. Equal Pay: An Introductory Guide. Geneva: International Labour Office, 2013. Print.

Chicha, Marie-Thérèse. Promoting Equity Gender-Neutral Job Evaluation for Equal Pay : a Step-by-Step Guide . Geneva: International Labour Office, 2008. Print.

Closing the Gap : Equal Pay for Women Workers : Hearing before the Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions, United States Senate, One Hundred Tenth Congress, First Session, on Examining Closing the Gap Relating to Equal Pay for Women Workers, April 12, 2007. Washington: U.S. Government Printing Office, 2009. Print.

Gregory, Jeanne, Rosemary Sales, and Ariane Hegewisch. Women, Work and Inequality: The Challenge of Equal Pay in a Deregulated Labour Market. New York: Palgrave Macmillan Limited, 1999. Web.

How does the local government address homelessness in New York City, and how do their policies affect the homeless population?

So far, I have found a lot of sources that directly address my topic question. Most of them are newspaper articles and scholarly articles. I used the CUNY Academic Database to find my scholarly articles. I used google’s search engine to find my newspaper articles. Because my topic for our first essay relates to my current topic, I was fortunately able to reuse one source from that assignment. The sources I have found are published on reputable platforms, like the New York Times or Maternal and Child Health Journal (scholarly journal). Some sources describe a policy/policies that exists in New York City which then affects our homeless population. The other sources provide statistical data regarding our homeless populations, and various necessary definitions.

One source I found while doing research but am not sure about is Characteristics of Mothers and Infants Living in Homeless Shelters and Public Housing in New York City. This source has a lot of helpful and relevant statistics and information. This source was also found using the CUNY Academic Database and is a scholarly article. This source mentions different services offered to homeless women and children, but not necessarily how the services itself affect them. They mostly include this information to shed awareness on the amount of homeless people who used the services and compare that number with mothers and children living in NYCHA buildings. However, I do learn about the many health disparities that plague our homeless mother population. I also learn that when a baby is born to a homeless woman, Medicaid is used to pay the hospital for the delivery. This shows that the government issues Medicaid to the homeless, and the homeless can use Medicaid to help with hospital costs. Homeless women often go to clinics for prenatal care. Clinics tend to be free or low cost to those who do not have healthcare. Clinics are also implemented by the government. As I read into this source more, I realize I can definitely use the information for my essay. I was unsure was because this article did not explicitly state “this policy exists in order to do this and affects the homeless like this”, I had to connect the dots on my own.

One source I found that I discarded was actually from my previous essay, www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/10911359.2012.707941. I decided to discard this source because the statistics are not specific to New York City. I will find other scholarly articles that fit better with my essay. I remember when brainstorming, I thought of using TikTok videos made by homeless people as a popular media source. Now that I have a definite topic, I am not sure how using a TikTok video would be effective for my essay. For example, there is this account I follow by a homeless woman named Bugs. However, I realize she does not live in New York City. My topic question is specific to the happenings of New York City. I remember I follow a homeless man on Instagram, https://www.instagram.com/mauriceboldenphotography/, I see him often in Harlem. When looking through his profile, I realized he documents his lifestyle as a homeless person, but there is nothing about policies or how the government treats him as a homeless person. Because I want a testimonial from a homeless person, but so far do not feel what I have come across is sufficient, I thought of visiting https://www.instagram.com/humansofny/ on Instagram. This person documents words from homeless people, maybe I can find evidence here. It is time-consuming to scroll through the account, so I may decide to keep searching google instead. My plan is to find more scholarly articles. I also want to intentionally include policies that both negatively and positively affect the homeless, and I believe the sources I have so far do just that.

BIBLIOGRAPHY:

Hu, Winnie. “’Hostile Architecture’: How Public Spaces Keep the Public Out.” The New York Times, The New York Times, 8 Nov. 2019, www.nytimes.com/2019/11/08/nyregion/hostile-architecture-nyc.html. 

“Homelessness & Poverty in New York City.” The Bowery Mission. Rebuilding Lives Since 1879., Oct. 2020, www.bowery.org/homelessness/. 

Hennelly, Bob. “How New York’s Programs and Policies Are Keeping the Homeless on the Street.” CSNY, 8 Mar. 2020, www.cityandstateny.com/articles/policy/housing/how-new-yorks-programs-and-policies-are-keeping-homeless-street.html. 

Ricciulli, Valeria. “Housing, Rental Vouchers, Outreach: Can NYC Fix Its Homeless Crisis?” Curbed NY, Curbed NY, 25 Feb. 2020, ny.curbed.com/2020/2/25/21146143/homelessness-new-york-city-how-to-fix. 

Reilly, Kathleen H., et al. “Characteristics of Mothers and Infants Living in Homeless Shelters and Public Housing in New York City.” Gale Academic Onefile, Springer, May 2019, go-gale-com.ccny-proxy1.libr.ccny.cuny.edu/ps/i.do?p=AONE. 

Sommer, Marni, et al. “Menstruation and Homelessness: Challenges Faced Living in Shelters and on the Street in New York City.” ScienceDirect, Elsevier, 25 Sept. 2020, www-sciencedirect-com.ccny-proxy1.libr.ccny.cuny.edu/science/article/pii/S1353829220310923. 

Semuels, Alana. “How Can the U.S. End Homelessness?” The Atlantic, Atlantic Media Company, 25 Apr. 2016, www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2016/04/end-homelessness-us/479115/. 

Mckinley, Jesse, and Vivian Yee. “Questions Over Cuomo’s Order on Homelessness.” The New York Times, The New York Times, 5 Jan. 2016, www.nytimes.com/2016/01/05/nyregion/questions-over-cuomos-order-on-homelessness.html. 

To start I have altered my question to be: How has the #BlackLivesMatter movement influenced public policy in the United States and what other external factors influence the movement’s impact? I believe this question provides me with a clear path on how to organize my essay and how to better present my research without being too vague or even providing too much information.

Right now I have about eight different sources. I have four media sources, two scholarly sources, and the sample essay I chose to assist me. When looking for each source, I attempted to find articles that related heavily to my question and my overall topic. I wanted o get more insight on the topic while also finding valuable resources in which I could use within my essay.

When trying to find media sources, I used google scholar as well as the regular Google search engine to assist me. For my first media source, I used the official #BlackLivesMatter website. I felt as though this website will assist me because it contains the history of the movement and how it came to be. The website also includes other resources such as petitions which could lead me to find more information about the specific cases that started the movement, to begin with. My second media source, “Black Lives Matter goes big on policy agenda”, provides information directly on the policies the Black Lives Matter organizers have proposed and are trying to implement in America. The one policy the article speaks about specifically is the BREATHE Act. The policy came about after the death of Eric Garner and George Floyd who both stated the words “I can’t breathe”. As the article explains, the BREATHE Act contains four parts that cover everything from defunding the police to the injustice within the criminal justice system. I believe this article will assist me with much more information on this policy and other policies that have come into play because of the movement. My third media source, “How Black Lives Matter Changed the Way Americans Fight for Freedom”, explains exactly how the American people have adapted to the injustice within this country and fought against it. The article refers to not only racial injustice but other issues such as the unfair treatment of immigrants by ICE and how Americans have become stronger and more knowledgeable about combatting these issues. My last media article, “What’s Wrong With “All Lives Matter?”, goes into detail about, as the title states, what is wrong about saying “All Lives Matter”.  I wanted to include this information in my essay because I believe it answers the second half of my question which would be what outside factors impact the movement. Because All Lives Matter has become so popular, especially during the past three years, this article will help me discover its impact.

My first scholarly source, “Black Lives Matter: A Commentary on Racism and Public Health”, goes into detail about the Black Lives Matter movement and the issue of racism from a public health perspective. This source was written by Jennifer Jee-Lyn and Mienah Zulfacar Sharif, both of who are members of the Department of Health Sciences. This article what peer-reviewed which provides me with a clear understanding that this is in fact a credible source. I believe this source will provide me with a different perspective of the movement and provide me with information on how the movement has impacted different aspects of America. My second scholarly source, “#Black Lives Matter? Analyzing the Effects of Police-Caused Black Deaths on Media Coverage and Public Interest in the Movement”, speaks about the movement and tries to conclude whether or not news coverage on police brutality or the killing of black men and women has increased. In the article, the writers find that this was not true and only incidents of when the police officers were killed were televised. The entire source is based on figuring out how and why this has come to be. I believe this source will really help me in figuring out what sources have impacted the movement and why the movement has been broadcasted less than other events.

I am still thinking about referring to be chosen essay for help, but I do not think it could be used as a credible source. I think it would assist me in structuring my essay and lead me to other sources, but I do not think it could be used as a source itself. I also looked at other sources but chose not to include them because they either did not have useful information or I had to pay to unlock the rest of the information. I believe I am off to a good start when it comes to my resources and I hope I am able to easily organize myself and my writing in order to do the best job possible.

Bibliography

“Home.” Black Lives Matter, 22 June 2020, blacklivesmatter.com/.

Jee-Lyn García, Jennifer, and Mienah Zulfacar Sharif. “Black Lives Matter: A Commentary on Racism and Public Health.” American Journal of Public Health, American Public Health Association, Aug. 2015, www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4504294/.

Bordonaro, Francesca, and Dale Willits. “#Black Lives Matter? Analyzing the Effects of Police-Caused Black Deaths on Media Coverage and Public Interest in the Movement.” Journal of Criminal Justice and Law: Official Journal of the Law and Public Policy Section of the Academy of Criminal Justice Sciences, vol. 2, 2018, pp. 102–121.