AL Moktader Sadman’s ePortfolio

Below you will be able to review every work that I have done for ENG 1101. Hopefully you will enjoy!

In my educational career so far, I have encountered many events that have formed me into the thinker and student I am today. Some took place throughout my elementary school. Some took place during high school but out of all those events, however, two events stuck out to me the most. These are the events that turned me into the positive and optimistic thinker that I am today who has been able to overcome everything with strength and willpower.

The first event was my first actual interaction with a teacher back in first grade. Even though I started going to school in pre-k I never really had an interaction with a teacher until I was in first grade because I was a really shy kid. It was the 3rd day of school. It was a sunny day, but the breeze was cold. The wind felt really good and the surroundings smelt like burnt wood. School buses were dropping other kids off and the sounds of the traffic can be heard from miles away. With my backpack on my shoulder and my water bottle in my left hand, I kiss my mother goodbye and went off to another great day of school. As soon as we enter class our teacher gave us a short assignment. It was math class so we had to solve 3 maths problems. It was just division and multiplication so it was easy. I was one of the first kids to raise my hands as I was done with questions. I got up and walked to my teacher to show him my answer. And as soon as he saw as to how neat and well done the problems were he let out a big smile and said- “Kid, you have a bright future ahead of you:” I can still remember the joyous tone he said that statement in and how hopeful his face looked.

My teacher’s optimism changed my life forever. It was him who was able to light a fire in me which wanted me to do the best regardless of what I did and where I was in life. And that played down the foundation for the rest of my education career. The second story took place a little further in the future. That is right, high school. High school is really hard. Maintaining a life between school and social life can get messy and tiresome. And by this time, the fire lit by my first-grade teacher was almost gone. I was trying to maintain a life between my school and my social life, but I would be so tired that I would not be able to keep up with daily assignments. Although, one day it all changed.

I still vividly remember this day. I was a sophomore. It was a chill December morning. The weather was cold, but the sun was out bright and putting this warm coat on everyone’s face and body. As I left my house and made my way to the station, it was crowded, it felt like everyone was out to chase the best out of the day as everyone looked eager and excited. With the same expression on my face, I exited the train and made my way to my school. As I was walking I could hear birds chirping, people laughing as they were meeting up with their friends, and buses dropping everyone off. It smelt like wet wood that day as it did rain the day before, so the sidewalk was a little muddy. As I was walking I also met my friend who had the same class as me for the first period that day. As I met my friend and we started to talk about our day, we entered the building together and started to head for our classroom. As we entered the class, I saw there weren’t many students in the class, probably due to the rain the day before. Me and my friend saw this as an opportunity and decided to sit next to each other. The teacher announced in a really exciting voice that we have a math quiz tomorrow, which will account for 20% of our grade! For us, the news wasn’t that exciting. All the students, including my friend, turned their heads towards me. I was supposedly one of the best students in class and because our teacher said that we would use the current day to study for the quiz, they all wanted me to tutor them. Being the shy kid I was, I told them there’s no way I would do it as they might blame me for getting a bad grade. Eventually, they all started to request me so badly, I had to accept it.

As I started to tutor them, I realized maybe it’s not that bad. Maybe I could be a good tutor! Fortunately, my teacher noticed that too. At the end of the class, he told me to stay behind as he wanted to talk to me. I got scared as I thought he wanted to talk to me because I was helping out other kids but he said something completely different than what I imagined and it motivated me a lot. He said, “Keep up with this attitude, and one day you will become successful because people will remember you for your behavior.” That was similar to the statement that my first-grade teacher told me, and it lit that fire inside of me again to be the best and to be successful.

These two stories were the core moments of my educational career. I was grateful to have them as teachers and grateful that they were able to shape me into the thinker I am today. It’s very rare to have these experiences because of how the education system is built for students. You can’t blame the teachers either because they aren’t paid enough. Some teachers have to do 2 jobs to survive. So they are more focused on survival than they are on the students. It makes me feel sad the fact that other students weren’t able to have the same experience as I did because their teachers just simply didn’t care and it was all for a valid reason. The education department should also focus on teachers as much as they focus on students because without teachers, there won’t be any students. These experiences have enabled me to understand the true meaning of self-esteem and confidence. It also enabled me to understand the meaning of true bonding and I plan to make sure every other kid can experience what I have

notated Bibliography

Topic- How does uncontrolled funding for police officers affect the lives of citizens.?

Outrageous funding for the police force was always a curious topic for me. Speaking from personal experience, I have seen on multiple occasions that the majority of the police force are not doing their job. There is always news everywhere about police brutality and since it’s the age of phones, videos travel faster than anything else. As a person of color, it concerns me and that’s why this topic caught my interest. Another thing that caught my attention was its mention during the BLM protests. That made me think if all that money could be spent in better venues which would help a lot of people, especially schools and hospitals where the funding is really low. 

During my research, I expect to find them about the excess funding and where it all goes. I also want to be able to find solutions as I go along. I also expect to find whether we need more money for police training or more money to ensure our safety. As I do my research, 

I could find out that what I had previously hypothesized, could be wrong and not be factual. In that case, I will have an open mind. I will change my opinion towards it and make sure people who think like me change their mindset. I will make sure that I educate everyone on this “topic” and hopefully, we are all on the same page. This research question is not intended to be biased. This research question was formed under the general opinion about excess funding. This research is supposed to help clear the conflict and give everyone a final answer. 

During my research, I will find different types of genres in different papers. There are fifteen different types of genres. Out of all those genres, the ones that will help me the most could be Data Reports and Research Reports. These two are most important because the two main components of my research are data and research from different groups. The data will help me see how much money is getting funded and how much everyone is receiving and the research report will help me analyze the data I will be looking at. One more type of component I might find useful will be blogging since it also lets me know about people’s opinions about how they feel.

Thesis Statement-Outrageous funding for the police force affects the lives of the citizens.

Source Entries:

Auxier, Richard C. “What Police Spending Data Can (and Cannot) Explain amid Calls to Defund the Police.” Urban Institute, 9 June 2020, https://www.urban.org/urban-wire/what-police-spending-data-can-and-cannot-explain-amid-calls-defund-police 

This report belongs to the data report genre. The article includes a bunch of data charts that holds information on different questions. The first one is how much the community is spending on police.  It also talks about how police spending has changed over time and what drives this change. As the author said, “But police spending reflects what communities pay in exchange for public safety—an exchange that does not keep all communities safe. At the least, spending data can help advocates and policymakers understand reforms’ fiscal opportunities and parameters.” This is relevant to my paper because it discusses the main issue of excess funding and what actions need to be taken to solve it.

Hayes, Tara O’Neill. “Assessing Calls to Defund the Police: Police Budgets and Employment Levels.” AAF, 30 Sept. 2020, https://www.americanactionforum.org/research/assessing-calls-to-defund-the-police-police-budgets-and-employment-levels/

This report belongs to the research report genre. The article includes analyzation of data which helps us break it down. What’s different about it from the first article is that it goes in-depth as to how the funding affects other public services. It also talks about how 97% of the funding is spent on operational expenses, including salaries and benefits, and how reducing the funding will result in unemployment within the force. Hayes states, “Finally, advocates argue that greater investment in community needs, including education, health care, economic development, and youth activities, will reduce crime and the need for police in the first place.” This article is relevant to my research because it shows that advocates are showing valid reasons as to why reallocating the money is so important for the society as a whole as it will educate and take care of all we and no one needs to go to extreme measures to fulfill their needs, thus decreasing the need of police forces.

Ray, Rashawn. “What Does ‘Defund the Police’ Mean and Does It Have Merit?” Brookings, Brookings, 3 May 2021, https://www.brookings.edu/blog/fixgov/2020/06/19/what-does-defund-the-police-mean-and-does-it-have-merit/ 

This report belongs to the blog genre. The article talks more about how excess funding is affecting public services. It talks about how the education system is not receiving enough funds and cannot provide enough for the students and keep them interested in education. Putting more police on the streets won’t help the situation either. Ray states, “One consistent finding in the social science literature is that if we want to reduce crime, education equity and the establishment of a working infrastructure is the best approach.” This document is relevant to my research because it talks about how reallocating the money to other sections of the government would help the citizens and reduce crime rates. The funding will be used to create a working infrastructure that would help people live a normal life and it would also help tackle the homeless issue in their respective states.

CNBC. YouTube, YouTube, 24 June 2020, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3iWYbtccLuQ&ab_channel=CNBC. Accessed 14 Nov. 2021. 

This video belongs to the critique genre. The video shows different charts to show how the spending has increased by 200%. It shows the major cities with Los Angeles, New York City, and Chicago who spend the most for their police force. They also take more than a quarter of their city funding. The video also explains defunding the police and how the movement is not about abolishing the police but helping everyone perfectly allocate the money wherever it’s needed and also trying to spend the excess on different public services. Rashawn ray states in the video that the funds shouldn’t just be used by one department, but rather find which services need more or fewer funds and reallocate the money accordingly. This video is helpful for my research because it is showing everyone how funding the police excessively are hurting the community and how reallocating money would mean everyone would get what they need and it would help us grow as a society which is the main point of my topic.

USAFacts. “Police Departments, Funding, Stats & Data.” USAFacts, USAFacts, 28 Apr. 2021, https://usafacts.org/articles/police-departments-explained/ 

The article belongs editorial genre. This article is really interesting because it explains the police department in the United States. It tells us how many police officers are there and the total number of departments. It also tells us about how much money is allocated towards the police department. it goes into how much the local police gets out of that fund too. This article is relevant to my research because it backs up the data in the other sources of this annotated bibliography. The data can help analyze the information found and be used accordingly to get an accurate answer.          

Conclusion:

In conclusion, the excess funding is affecting the citizens and the communities. Due to excess funding, the other parts of the government, which are built to take care of its citizens, are not financially strong enough to keep supporting them. That’s why allocating money to the right sectors is so important. Before my research, I was expecting to find answers about how the excess funding really hurt the general population and after my research, I can finally say that my Thesis was true. More research is needed on this topic by others to find the perfect solution to this problem. Reallocating the funds doesn’t necessarily mean abolishing the police. It means

@Brownieinfo

Brooklyn New York

The funding that the police forces around America receive seems a bit uncontrolled. They usually take up ⅔ of the city funds. That means that every other social service, such as schools, hospitals, etc doesn’t receive as much funding. This results in them not being able to function at their full potential which ends up affecting the lives of the citizens

Reasons that drive the funding

The reason the police forces need so much funding is that there are so many benefits that come with being a police officer. Evidence states that 97% of the police expenses go into operational expenses such as salaries, pension, etc. lawmakers have noticed that most police officers join the forces for these benefits and how reducing the funds will end up with a lot within the police force quitting. But Tara O’Neil Hayes has given another perspective saying how putting the extra money in other social services such as schools and youth programs would work in character development for a lot of the kids. She stated-Finally, advocates argue that greater investment in community needs, including education, health care, economic development, and youth activities, will reduce crime and the need for police in the first place.”

How can we control the funding but also keep the community safe?

This issue is not as complicated as many people think it is. One of the reasons why crime rates are prevalent in a city is because of illiteracy rates. Kids in schools are not paying attention and are not interested enough to continue studying and most end up dropping out. This results in them not being educated enough about the economy and equity. This funding that is provided for the schools is not enough and we can see that through different statistics. Ray Rashawn had an interesting point to this issue. He states-“One consistent finding in the social science literature is that if we want to reduce crime, education equity and the establishment of a working infrastructure is the best approach.” This quote is pretty relevant in order to find the solution to this issue. Many crimes occur due to desperation or feeling the need to survive. If schools and communities can provide that for the students they will stay away from that life which would result in crimes decreasing.

Conclusion

In conclusion, the excess funding is affecting the citizens and the communities. Due to excess funding, the other parts of the government, which are built to take care of its citizens, are not financially strong enough to keep supporting them. That’s why allocating money to the right sectors is so important.. More research is needed on this topic by others to find the perfect solution to this problem. Reallocating the funds doesn’t necessarily mean abolishing the police. It means that rather than having a one-size-for-all fit, we need to do our research and see which sectors would need more or less “funding” which would help us all grow as a community.

3 months ago:

Hey AL, my man, it’s been a long time aye, hopefully, you have all A’s by the end of the semester man, you know you’ve been pushing yourself to be the best ever since you were a kid, but show me by the end of this semester that you mean it. Oh also don’t forget to hydrate yourself and get some sleep. GOOD LUCK!!!

Present:

Although I haven’t been able to reach all my goals here. It’s okay because I am still proud of myself for trying and giving my best. Hopefully next semester I can reach my goals and do better!

AL Moktader Sadman
The topic that I am working on is called “Police Funding”. I personally worked on this
topic because I figured this subject doesn’t really come up a lot in discussions and I am not
educated on it either. The interesting point about my topic, at least to me, is that I have tried to put data evidence but also sources that extend on this topic and explain further. This helps boil down the data and make it more available for people of every age. What inspired me to talk about this topic is the recent surge in cases of Police brutality. I wanted to find a correlation between the two topics and I thought this topic will help me create the bridge.
What I used for research is different types of sources that help me explain my topic such
as data, reports, research papers, blogs, etc. It was a little hard to find the best sources
because I wanted to make sure the source is not biased and I believe not everyone can do it since some people might have biased opinions towards the police. My personal experience with this topic is that after researching this topic I feel more educated on this topic rather than just having opinions about it. It hasn’t changed my initial hypothesis as it has supported the statement even more. I also made sure that my sources are not biased and are respected in the research community.
This topic is really important to me because overall it strengthens my beliefs. This
research reminds me of me as something knowledgeable. I am knowledgeable and so is this research. It will educate everyone more on the topic so they can stop having biased opinions. I am proud of this research because I feel like I have helped a lot of people see the truth and now they have the knowledge to make decisions regarding the matter.

We are almost at the end of this semester and so far we have done a lot of assignments for this class. Sometimes maybe we had to write a DEJ. Sometimes we had to write summaries. Sometimes we had to write essays. Sometimes we just forgot about grammatical correctness and wrote what our heart wanted. All these assignments at first might just seem like a random bowl of just different questions and assignments but all these questions had a meaning. All these assignments had a lesson behind them. All these assignments taught me something and right now, as we are at the end of the semester, I think this is the perfect moment to talk about what this class has taught me throughout the course. This class categorized us into three different perspectives throughout the entirety of it. Sometimes we saw ourselves as the reader, sometimes as a writer, and sometimes just a scholar. These three perspectives are crucial as they are what makes an author better at their craft. Looking at something from a reader’s perspective helps us understand their taste, what they want and what catches their attention. When we put that through a writer’s perspective, now we realize how to write certain segments in certain ways to get a particular group’s attention. At first, it’s not as easy as it seemed but as we went forward more and more with this class, the concept is more clear now. And that’s what brings me to the last point that I want to discuss, being a scholar. After acquiring all the knowledge from this class, we were categorized as scholars. We were able to detect any sorts of grammatical errors or write in a different way than other students would because we had a different perspective than them, and that’s what makes our papers more fun to read.

One of the important things I overcame in this class was my fear of writing. I would never want to write before. I would think whatever I would write is just not good enough. I also didn’t have a guide as a kid to show me the right direction. So whenever a teacher would tell me to write, I would look at others’ writings and sort of try to come up with my own. Later I realized there is no creativity in that so I started to write by myself again but I still thought it wasn’t good enough for me but the first unit that we did for this class is what helped me overcome my fear. When I first read the First Shitty Drafts document, I realized something big. Writing is something that has to come from within. That’s when the wordplay would be at its best. Because something preplanned would mean you just thought of a scenario in one way. But what if we think about it in different ways? That’s what the unit taught me. It taught me to forget about grammatical errors. Write what I want to write because first drafts will always be “shitty”. But that at least opens up the option of creativity because we can always look back and either add more stuff or perfect the product we have in our hands already. We don’t need to make the most perfect versions on the first try. I mean that’s why they are called drafts in the first place. You are not supposed to waste all the energy on it rather distribute that same energy through multiple drafts and make sure that the final product is perfect. Something that I have learned as a reader is how to understand certain quotes in a reading. We did DEJs throughout the whole semester. It required us to find certain quotes from the article that we liked and analyze them and see what they mean. This was very important as authors loved to indirectly put their messages in the texts. The DEJs helped us understand that about authors and now when I am reading a certain piece of writing I always make sure that I am understanding the true meaning behind it. This had improved my talents as a reader. This brings me to my last point, being a scholar. After I acquired all of this knowledge, I realized I am looking at the perspective of writing differently from everybody. My writing style and another student’s writing style won’t be the same because now have different guidance than that student. The way I would read a sentence the other student would do that. The way I would write a sentence to gain the attention of a certain audience, another student wouldn’t do that. I think that’s what comes with being a “scholar” even though I’m not fully one yet. I write differently than everyone else so if I have to compare my writing to someone it has to be someone who can understand the depths of it just like I do.

All these months, every week we always learned something new. We always learned something different, learned to look at certain things from a different perspective. We always kept learning with an open mindset and I think that’s what’s so important. A lot of the time people don’t want to change their style, their ways. This class, on the other hand, will show you why that’s wrong and why you have to have an open mindset when you are writing. You have to make sure that when you are writing something you don’t just write it in one style, you have to be able to target different audiences through different texts. If it’s only one audience every single time, then no one would know about ur writing since only one group of people would know about it. The articles we read helped us become better readers, the essays we wrote helped us become better writers, and the knowledge we gained in that process helped us become better scholars. Even though I have a career in Computer Engineering, these pieces of information will come in handy in my future career events.