For my next essay, the research question I have chosen is “how does cultural influence have an effect on a child’s development?” I am a first-generation Dominican who lives in a suburban town where more than half the residents are caucasian. I have seen the differences between my fellow classmates and me. My friends from my hometown and I  have two different lives, their parent went to highschool, mines didn’t, their parent has stayed in the same state all their lives, mine had traveled to a new country without their parents.  There are also so many memes that show the difference between how a Dominican mom would look at the situation and a caucasian mom. I believe that your cultural background will reveal how you handle different situations or problems. Being a person of color you are not allowed to do many things that a caucasian person is able to do. It is very intriguing to me how when two people that are both from the same town and went to the same school all their lives, have two different minds because of their cultural background.

I have chosen my research question to focus on the topic of mental health. I have come up with the question “To what extent does depression affect an individual’s day to day life?” as the basis of my essay. I’ve picked this research question since I personally relate to the issue of mental health, specifically depression, which is the main reason I’ve decided to make it my research question. I’d like to understand the full effects that it has on someone’s day to day life and if any of it is similar to my own struggles, which I expect in all honesty, and overall just become more informed. I believe it’s an important and relevant social issue as more and more people today are being affected by mental health issues in today’s society. Depression is becoming more and more common over the years and it’s important to understand the problems it can cause in our lives since it affects such a large proportion of our society. The timeframe is listed here: By 10/19, I’ll have my research question along with other materials. By 10/22, I’ll have some research done and present all sources I have at the moment and analyze them. By 10/25, I’ll hopefully have the workings of a rough draft based on my model essay which will be revised after peer review. Lastly, around 10/28-29 I’ll have a final draft finished that I can submit.

The audience I hope to direct my essay towards are those with depression as I’d like them to become more informed about how it affects their lives on a day to day basis. The link to my model essay is https://www.rtor.org/2020/03/18/depression-and-its-effect-on-your-life/

A possible source is https://cuny-cc.primo.exlibrisgroup.com/permalink/01CUNY_CC/qlf695/cdi_proquest_miscellaneous_1781541540

What effects does climate change have on outcasts in society such as those incarcerated and those in poverty?

The reason that this has my interest is that when searching for climate change what is most likely found is stuff that is common knowledge which is why I want to write a research paper about this. In my paper, I would want to inform them about what has already happened to those in communities like the Isle de Jean Charles tribe which is one that now needs to be relocated because of climate change. I also want to make sure to show how the criminal justice system is affected by climate change. The audience for this paper should be those that are trying to understand more about how climate change affects those not often thought about.  I plan to have most of my sources found by the 22nd. The example essay that I will be using is called “Climate Change: Causes, Effects, and Solutions.”(https://spark.parkland.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1163&context=ah)  This is by a student from Parkland College in the honors program, that has a well-formatted essay in my opinion.

Sources so far:

https://link.gale.com/apps/doc/A667763446/ITOF?u=cuny_ccny&sid=bookmark-ITOF&xid=fe9fff9a

https://www.jstor.org/stable/27027144

https://www.jstor.org/stable/resrep01413

The topic I’ve chosen to explore is zero net carbon. The term “net zero” refers to achieving a balance between greenhouse gas emissions and removal from the atmosphere. “How can we attain net zero carbon?” will be my first research question. I’d want to highlight the word “we” because I believe it encompasses everyone in today’s world. This topic arose because I feel that anybody can contribute to preventing climate change, and that net carbon is present everywhere we walk, and I’m curious how it relates to my major, architecture. We’ll need big thinkers, inventors, academics, and policymakers to devise answers as we progress toward a more sustainable civilization. It’s a massive undertaking that will necessitate bold steps beginning now. The goal is to achieve net zero by 2050. Countries must, however, show how they will get there. Efforts to achieve net-zero emissions must be accompanied by adaptation and resilience measures, as well as the mobilization of climate finance for developing nations. My audience would be citizens of every country as our energy use at home, at work, and on the go contributes to our “carbon footprint.” I also want to branch out towards building professionals again because it’s also a key component of attaining efficient, zero-carbon building performance while lowering future investments in electric grid infrastructure, which is a high priority if we’re going to fulfill the 2050 targets.

https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2021/09/how-to-build-zero-carbon-buildings/

https://www.nytimes.com/guides/year-of-living-better/how-to-reduce-your-carbon-footprint

https://www.oneclicklca.com/designing-net-zero-carbon-buildings-article/

https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2020/09/carbon-emissions-net-zero-global-warming-climate-change

https://www.c2es.org/category/climate-solutions/reducing-your-carbon-footprint/

In the first essay I spoke about how mental health in men is often not given enough attention and especially by how men are taught to deal with emotions that keeps them from healing and/or seeking help. In this research essay I want to ask myself, why does our generation today have so many issues regarding their mental health? There are many factors that play into this. The younger generation “gen z” faces a lot of problems when it comes to mental health now with the greater use of social media, more importance in your social image, and how you wish to be viewed, perceived, and accepted. I came up with this question because of how many people I see today who are around my age range that all either have trauma that made them develop a mental health problems or even mental illnesses or social media that has given people insecurities about themselves and so much more, I relate to some of those things as well. It intrigues me because I think many people are aware of it but choose to ignore it. By Friday I want to have all of my sources and my model essay all figured out. I also want to read carefully through my sources and collect whatever data I can when it comes to the statistics of my topic. I have not completely decided on a model essay though I am leaning towards this one

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7364393/

It covers the effects that social media has on children and teenagers mental health. It starts off with the story of a little girl who was bullied into suicide and I think the paper is really interested and informative.

So far my scholarly sources include

https://t.co/5jPMJMhzIx?amp=1

https://t.co/iyp0vWdgMh?amp=1

https://t.co/I6ZUttwk6M?amp=1

https://t.co/sOAxHjD989?amp=1

These are all subject to change but for now they all cover or relate to my topic in a way that I think would be useful in my paper.

Possible media sources include

https://t.co/Py9ZoiQaGw?amp=1

https://t.co/UCLYfFV3qm?amp=1

These also relate to my topic heavily and after reading through them both a bit I think they’d be very useful to me in providing good data and research to my paper.

For the upcoming essay, the research question that I plan on exploring is “To what extent to race and gender influence the possibility of being a victim of police brutality?” This question correlates with the topic of my last essay where I discussed the opposing solutions that have been proposed to solve the issue of police brutality. I therefore chose this question to gain a better understanding of those solutions. Some of the solutions that I found seemed to undermine disproportionate amount of black people that have fallen victim to police brutality compared to white people. By choosing this research question, I am looking forward to gaining a deeper understanding of the racial inequality issues that plague our society and to be able to back my understanding with genuine statistics and data.

My goal is to complete my research for secondary sources by October 22. I have already analyzed one scholarly source that I plan on incorporating into my essay, called “A Psychological on Police Brutality” by Ashley Salter. This essay includes various statistics on police brutality and the populations that it impacts, as well as provides context for these statistics. I therefore look forward to utilizing this source because it will assist me in analyzing the influence race has on becoming a victim of police brutality. Additionally, my audience for my essay is U.S. citizens that do not believe that the black community is disproportionately affected by police brutality. This is my target audience because I plan on making this essay an argumentative one in which I convince this group of people against their current belief. The article that I plan utilizing as a model essay is the New York Times article “Police Killings of Blacks: Here Is What the Data Say,” because this article has an organized layout with data and clearly holds the stance that the black community is heavily impacted by police brutality.

URL for model essay: https://www.nytimes.com/2015/10/18/upshot/police-killings-of-blacks-what-the-data-says.html

Current Bibliography:

Salter, Ashley. A Psychological Perspective on Police Brutality, June 2021, https://digitalcommons.nl.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1617&context=diss.

For essay number, the research question is where does the money for the public schools of the united states money actually go? Public schools are very unfunded and it’s irritating to see kids not have enough resources. The secondary source research will be completed by Friday. The model essay I will be using is a TCF study finds the U.S. underfunded by nearly $150 billion annually, written by The Century Foundation. The model essay talks about how children are basically being robbed of billions of dollars every year that should be going into their education. Most of these cuts are based on race/ ethnicity and income which is not the way public schools are supposed to be portrayed because every child has the right to a good education. It is very important that education is free and available to all types of families. Esspecially in the United States where we thrive on diversity and helping improve each and every generation that follows.

https://tcf.org/content/about-tcf/tcf-study-finds-u-s-schools-underfunded-nearly-150-billion-annually/?agreed=1

https://www.nationalpriorities.org/budget-basics/federal-budget-101/spending/

Questions I’m deciding on are:

• How have social media sites such as Facebook, Instagram, and Snapchat affected the mental health of teenagers in today’s generation?
• Do video games such as Call of Duty, Battlefield, or Halo, have a relationship with gun violence crimes in America?
• How negatively does the foster care program affect a kid’s mental and physical health issues?

I’m interested in the social media topic because I’ve read many articles about the negative effect of social media such as isolation, anxiety, depression, stress, etc. I want to learn how these factors of mental illness can be caused by social media. I also want to learn more about the positives of social media because the media usually focuses more on the negative. The video game topic also interests me because I completely disagree that video games are the cause of gun violence which is why I want to write about it. I think it’s fascinating that the media turns to the violence of video games as the cause of gun violence rather than looking at the gun laws/restrictions that are put in place for America. However, I do have an open mind and will research the statistics of the relationship between video games and gun violence. Foster care is another issue that I’m intrigued by because not many people talk about it. Foster care can both be a positive and negative effect on kids who were put in that system. It can be positive because if they are lucky enough, these kids will be placed in a loving/stable home where resources are easily accessible for them. On the other hand, it can be negative because most of the time, they are put in a place with a bad influence on them and a lack of resources, and can even be victims of sex trafficking.

Sources I’ve found so far:

https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s41347-020-00134-x

https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamanetworkopen/fullarticle/2734799/

https://psycnet.apa.org/fulltext/2014-49445-001.html

How I plan to model this essay:

Social Media and Mental Health

For assignment 2 the research question that I’ve chosen is “Why has mental health worsened in teens over the past generation?”. I chose this topic because I thought everyone should know why so many teens’, including ourselves, mental health have been suffering, even pre-covid. Over our life course, there has been at least one time an adult has invalidated the way we felt by saying we were too young. But in reality, there are problems teens face in this generation that the last generation did not have to go through. The reason why I chose this topic is that this is something that’s current and is affecting everybody in the world.  Something that also interests me is learning the actual factors that contributed to the wording in mental health. I would like to know why people have let this go unnoticed.

My research sources should be done by Friday the 22nd. One of the scholarly sources that I’ve found so far, talks about the factors of why the new generation’s mental health has significantly decreased, such as social media (a given) and generational trauma. The text was also able to communicate to people some of the signs that are seen in teens who can be suffering from a mental illness. The article gave a voice to the teens that have been suffering but have not been able to communicate it. The audience of this text is to parents, specifically parents who neglect their child’s mental health. 

The main audience for this essay is for adults who see their children suffering yet play it off as if it was normal or say that the child knows nothing about pain. The link to my Model Essay on the Annie Casey Foundation is: https://www.aecf.org/blog/generation-z-and-mental-health

The link to my google scholar source is: https://www.uhhospitals.org/Healthy-at-UH/articles/2020/01/a-growing-mental-health-crisis-among-americas-children-and-teens

The topic I decided to choose is Mass incarnation on marijuana . I chose this topic because I believe it’s not spoken as much as it should be.Those imprisoned face extremely lengthy prison sentences, particularly African Americans as it pertains to marijuana possession. The thesis is “Mass incarceration impacts the community by having the children being raised by one parent.”How mass incarceration impacts the community ? The following is the timeframe for this project: by 10/19, I will have organized my research proposal, ensuring that my research topic is clear and complicated, and that I have a thesis that supports the objective of my writing. By 10/22, I’ll have a few additional sources, including scholarly papers as well as normal magazine or newspaper pieces, to back up my research topic with rhetorical aspects.By having a model essay to follow, I will be able to organize my research ideas in a professional manner to meet my topic and thesis. By 10/25 I am planning on having a detailed outline of my draft in terms of following a model essay which help me to develop my research question answers in the text, and lastly by 10/27-29 have a finish draft written and revised following the outline I wrote .A description of my audience for this research paper will be the black community because they will be able to see how injustice the system is towards black people. This will assist me in focusing on my researching goal and formulating a strong, complicated research topic. The model is essay is called We must reform marijuana laws . The link for the essay is :https://www.bartleby.com/essay/We-Must-Reform-Marijuana-Laws-PKCGNGSYTJ