Author: ZHILING PAN

Zhiling Pan

Prof. Molly

ENG 2150T 

19 May. 2023

Reflection Essay

         Judging from the essays I have completed so far; I think there is a good chance that I have partially completed my course learning goals for the semester. I feel that I am doing well in Identify and engage with credible sources and multiple perspectives, Compose as a process, and Use conventions appropriate to audience, genre, and purpose. purpose. I also learned how to be a good writer in these three learning objectives. I think I did less well in Read and analyze texts critically and Write your own texts critically because I think I am still stuck in some confusion. 

            In the learning objective of Identify and engage with credible sources and multiple perspectives, I recognized and learned how to identify credible sources and how to find multiple perspectives. I applied this learning objective in my research paper. In my research paper I used some official government websites to support my research and my position. The official government websites are reliable and also have more reliable information and analysis to allow me to analyze the formation and consequences of school bullying from more perspectives. In my research paper I cited “Stopbullying.gov”, an official government website, to analyze why bullies are created.

            In the course learning objective Compose as a process, I learned that I should treat writing as the formation of an interesting story. I prefer to describe writing as the process of making a cake, because when I make a cake, I enjoy every step of its making and change, and my writing is like my cake. Every paragraph and quote in my writing is my material, and adding it to my Essay in a proper way will form a perfect “cake”. If one of the ingredients is missing, the piece will not be perfect, and I will not feel the change in the process of transforming the ingredients into a piece of work. Just like the process of producing my research paper, I will use introduction, body paragraph and conclusion as my materials. And my body paragraph will be formed by my analysis and quotation. Finally, all the materials will be combined in a suitable way to form a “cake” called Research Paper.

            In the course learning objective Use conventions appropriate to audience, genre, and purpose, I learned to use the appropriate tone and writing style for different audiences. In my narrative essay, the audience I was dealing with was my teacher and my classmates. Although the audience is not my friend, the tone and wording should not be too serious and formal. A tone that is too serious and formal will seem too distant to be read by peers or readers who want to understand my experience. The audience of my research paper is everyone, so I should use a formal and serious tone and wording to express my purpose and research. A formal and serious tone and wording better expresses the professionalism and seriousness of the topic. It is also more convincing to the audience and makes them look at my research.

            I am still not able to do well in the course learning objectives of Read and analyze texts critically and Write your own texts critically. I was never able to analyze the readings and texts more deeply. I am not sure if it is because my concentration is distracted or because of lack of reading. Sometimes I can’t analyze the events expressed in the reading so deeply that I need to read it many times to understand a little of what it says. In this regard, I think I probably need to read more articles and news to better inform my thoughts and ideas for my writing. I often subconsciously ignore this aspect of Write your own texts critically when writing. So much so that I need to spend a lot of time revising what I have written wrong or logically incorrectly each time I write an article. I think I need to make more progress in this area, and I need to think about the context of my writing as I write.

            In summary, this is how I reflect on my current learning goals for the course. I still need additional learning and progress in the areas of Read and analyze texts critically and Write your own texts critically. But it’s not as if Identify and engage with credible sources and multiple perspectives, Compose as a process, and Use conventions appropriate to audience, genre, and purpose, I’m already doing a perfect job in these three areas. I still need to practice and learn in these three areas. I will continue to study and practice these course learning objectives in my subsequent writing.

Zhiling Pan

Prof. Molly

ENG 2150T 

19 May. 2023

Research Paper

The word about school bullying is a foreign word to me. I first heard the word when I was in junior high school, and it was a speech about school bullying. It was about a boy who died because of school bullying. I was shocked at the time when I heard this speech because it was something I had never been exposed to before. In my life, since I was a kid, all my parents taught me was not to bully others freely, it is bad behavior, but if someone bullies me, don’t be afraid and make sure to fight back. But I was fortunate that I was surrounded by very friendly people and I was not bullied. I didn’t realize how lucky I was until I watched this speech. After that speech, I learned about school bullying, and that’s when I learned about the effects and consequences of school bullying. After that, I felt sad and powerless when I saw the suicide caused by school bullying on the news. I chose this topic because I wanted to make more people aware of the consequences of school bullying. I also wanted to find out the question that has been bothering me for a long time, that is why someone would want to commit bullying behavior on others, a behavior that I still can’t understand. Another question is why would any parent or school choose to ignore the bullying that their children and students are subjected to? These two questions surface every time I see news about bullying in schools.

School bullying, it’s a word that is both familiar and unfamiliar. Some people are far from this word, but others are very close to it. Through this research paper I hope to make everyone understand the serious consequences that come with this word. Bullying in schools is a very common bullying phenomenon in today’s society, and it mostly happens to students. Whether it is from elementary school or through college, these school bullying is constantly happening. School bullying is an issue for most students that they are beyond their common sense. Especially for younger students, they are more likely to feel helpless and scared. It is believed that most students’ first reaction when they encounter a problem is to go to their parents. However, the actions of the parents also directly affect the response of the victimized student. If the problem of school bullying is not addressed properly, it will directly lead to damage and distortion of the mental and physical health of the victimized students.

            When students are chronically oppressed and bullied, they are filled with stress. When the stress is so great that they have nowhere to vent it, they develop a tendency to self-doubt and self-harm. When such tendencies emerge, it is too late to undo them. In the article “Cyberbullying, School Bullying, and Psychological Distress: A Regional Census of High School Students,” it was noted that bullying In the article “Cyberbullying, School Bullying, and Psychological Distress: A Regional Census of High School Students,” the percentage of students who were bullied who developed psychological problems and the percentage of students who developed self-harm. for example, reports of depressive symptoms were highest among victims of both cyber and school bullying (47.0%), followed by cyber-only victims (33.9%), and school-only victims (26.6%) Similarly, attempted suicide was highest among victims of both cyber and school bullying (15.2%); however, it was Similarly, attempted suicide was highest among victims of both cyber and school bullying (15.2%); however, it was also elevated among cyber-only victims (9.4%) and school-only victims (4.2%) compared with students reporting neither form of victimization (2.0%). ” Here we can observe that the distress caused by school bullying can be health and life threatening. 26.6% of students suffer from depression as a result of school bullying, a symptomatic illness that is temporarily incurable with current medication. It is safe to say that school bullying can cause tremendous damage and irreversible effects on students who are still psychologically immature. When depression progresses to a certain point, it may stay with them for the rest of their lives, leaving them in the shadows for the rest of their lives. They may also choose to end their lives in unrelenting pain, which means suicide. The quote above shows that 4.2% of school victims attempt suicide, a figure that is only for attempted suicides and does not include those who succeed. This statistic is enough for us to imagine the trauma that school bullying inflicts on students. This trauma causes them to want to end their lives despite the pain. And once a life ends, it is an irreparable tragedy for the entire family. And school bullying is the trigger that leads to this tragedy. In the National Center for Education Statistics, I found another piece of data. This data shows that students may be bullied by others because of their gender, race, age or characteristics. Some of the data collected on the website shows that “Students’ reports of being bullied varied based on student characteristics such as sex, race/ethnicity. In 2019, a higher percentage of female students than of male students ages 12-18 reported being bullied at school during the school year (25 vs. 19 percent)…” In this information, we can see that the percentage of bullying experienced by female students is higher. From this we can also conclude that the reason for this high percentage is that girls are more vulnerable in this area and therefore may not be able to fight back against the bully. But girls are not the only ones who are vulnerable. People who are younger or have some physical disabilities are also more likely to be bullied. Victims of bullying because of these problems will be more likely to develop disenchantment and low self-confidence in themselves, and more likely to develop self-harming behavior. Disenchantment and low self-confidence can themselves create stress for the victim, and once the stress is not addressed, it can completely overwhelm the victim.

            Bullying in schools endangers not only the student being bullied, but also the family of the victimized student. The occurrence of bullying can easily lead to psychological stress and psychological distortion of the victimized students. It turns them into another offender. The article “Understanding the Psychology of Bullying” describes in detail how bullying in schools can cause psychological distortions in the victim, which can lead to effects and consequences within the victim’s family. In the text, it is stated that “Indeed, youth can observe bullying (i.e., bystanders), experience bullying (i.e., victims), and perpetrate bullying (i.e.., bullies) across different situations and/or with different families. Across contexts, for instance, a student may be victimized by classmates at school but bully his or her siblings at home. Across contexts, for instance, a student may be victimized by classmates at school but bully his or her siblings at home.” Chronic stress leaves the bullied student with nowhere to vent their frustrations. This leads to another psychological distortion or psychological change in the student, from victim to bully. As we can see from the quotes above, due to chronic bullying, the victimized student develops anger and fear and has nowhere to vent it. This stress builds up in the student’s mind over time, causing it to become distorted. The student begins to transfer this anger and fear to his or her family or to a weaker party than himself or herself, turning from a victim to another bully. Such a psychological change can easily cause a family’s relationship to become strained, which can lead to family breakdown. It can also create irreversible shadows and trauma for all victims that will be incurable and will stay with them for the rest of their lives and continue to torment them. And the attitude and approach between parents to address school bullying also determines the relationship between victims’ families. In the news article “Bullying and sex abuse scandal engulfs elite Danish School.”, an elite school in Denmark was found to be bullying. In the case of Herlufsholm, however, he said that parents might have been willing to accept some skirting of those values to ensure successful futures for their children. They close their eyes as long as their son can come out of Herlufsholm. “At one level, parents can be considered indirect perpetrators. They close their eyes as long as their son can come out of Herlufsholm,” he said. The relationship between the family and the child will be broken because of the disappointment and blindness between the parents and the child. Younger students have no immediate solution to bullying because they are too young to understand why they are being bullied. The first person they will talk to about their problems will be their parents, but if the parents do not guide and solve the problem, the child will fall into self-doubt, develop psychological problems and become suspicious of their parents, which will be the beginning of a broken family relationship. 

            When it comes to school bullying, the question may arise as to why we have bullies. The bully is the main cause in school bullying, and if this problem can be solved, then the problem of school bullying will be further solved. The official government website of Stop Bullying has references to the factors of bullying and the effects of trauma, in which the factors of bullying can also be found. There are many factors that contribute to bullying, including peer, family and emotional factors. These factors can give the bully the right to be among his or her peers as well as the thrill of venting emotions and escaping extreme family control. These reasons contribute to the birth of the bully and if we want to eliminate bullying in schools, we need to start with these factors and give all students a healthy environment and family relationships. The most fundamental solution is to start with children’s childhood. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention website explains how an adverse childhood environment can be traumatic to a child’s mental health. Children who have experienced domestic violence, witnessed the suicide of a loved one, or suffered from family neglect during childhood may have their mental health compromised, leading to bullying behaviors. By addressing bullying at its source, starting in the child’s childhood, school bullying can be greatly reduced. A healthy family environment and a happy childhood will save more children from school bullying.

School bullying affects the lives of the victimized student and the victimized student’s family; it is the equivalent of destroying a person’s entire life and ruining their entire life, and they will spend their lives in the shadows and in pain. School bullying causes more problems than just psychological distortion, depression and suicide. It can even lead to other psychological disorders or traumas that are difficult to cure with the current level of medicine, meaning that psychological disorders are likely to stay with students for the rest of their lives. If we want to solve the problem of school bullying, then we have to solve it from the source, starting from the childhood of every child to guide and solve it. But this is a long process, one that can last for decades, if not forever. Therefore, school bullying is a serious and sad topic that cannot be solved completely, but can only help the victims in any way when needed.

            School bullying, a problem that cannot be completely solved and one that has the greatest impact, is my opinion and conclusion after doing this study. In this research study I finally found the problem that has been puzzling me for a long time. The bully may simply be doing the bullying because he or she is enjoying the convenience of the right or venting his or her emotions. I don’t understand this behavior, and this lack of understanding probably stems from my upbringing. This also leads me to think that family and home education can also make the difference between a bully and a victim. When I did this study, I felt depressed and uncomfortable because I saw many students who chose to commit suicide because they couldn’t stand the bullying, and they died at the best age when they could have had the best future. But even if some of the victims didn’t commit suicide, they got all kinds of mental illnesses, and this mental illness may stay with them for the rest of their lives, which is equivalent to ruining their lives, because with the current medical level, we can’t cure mental illnesses for the time being. After doing this research, I developed further emotional changes about school bullying. After this I developed a great dislike for school bullies because their bullying, which deprives the victim of life and motivation to live, is equivalent to a crime in my opinion. But school bullying is not just a matter for the bully and the victim, it is also a matter for the school, the community and the family. If the school and the community would actively intervene, it would save more students, but the reality is that the school and the community are concerned with fame and capital, thus reducing the impact of school bullying. Parents, on the other hand, are trying to disregard the harm their children receive for the sake of a better future, leaving their children to put up with it and thus letting their children down with their parents.

Cited Work

• RW;, Schneider SK;O’Donnell L;Stueve A;Coulter. “Cyberbullying, School Bullying, and Psychological Distress: A Regional Census of High School Students.” American Journal of Public Health, U.S. National Library of Medicine, pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/22095343/. 
• “The NCES Fast Facts Tool Provides Quick Answers to Many Education Questions (National Center for Education Statistics).” National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) Home Page, a Part of the U.S. Department of Education, nces.ed.gov/fastfacts/display.asp?id=719. 

• Swearer, Susan M., and Shelley Hymel. “Understanding the Psychology of Bullying: Moving toward a Social-Ecological Diathesis–Stress Model.” American Psychologist, vol. 70, no. 4, 2015, pp. 344–353., doi:10.1037/a0038929.

• Bubola, E., & Nielsen, J. (2022, August 28). Bullying and sex abuse scandal engulfs elite Danish School. The New York Times. Retrieved March 19, 2023, from https://www.nytimes.com/2022/08/28/world/europe/denmark-bullying-private-school.html

• Assistant Secretary for Public Affairs (ASPA). “Why Some Youth Bully.” StopBullying.Gov, 6 Apr. 2021, www.stopbullying.gov/bullying/why-some-youth-bully. 

• “Risk and Protective Factors |violence Prevention|injury Center|CDC.” Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 5 Jan. 2021, www.cdc.gov/violenceprevention/aces/riskprotectivefactors.html. 

Zhiling Pan

Prof. Molly

ENG 2150T 

19 May. 2023

Narrative Essay

When I immigrated to the United States, I came by plane with my mother and my sister. As soon as I got off the plane, I saw an unfamiliar sight. The scenery was beautiful, but my heart was full of nervousness and apprehension. My grandmother took us to our new home, which was very different from the home I grew up in. I wasn’t comfortable with the wooden floors and the lack of much furniture in the home. This made me feel strange and uneasy because my new home was a constant reminder that I was in a strange environment. I grew up as someone who would only stay in familiar surroundings, and even if I ate, I would only order the food I was familiar with. Perhaps seeing my discomfort, my grandmother and my mother took me around during the month, hoping that I would soon adapt and be relieved of my anxiety. Once I got through the month-long adjustment period, I began to have a new challenge, which was that I needed to go to school. My mom took me to school to report. The teacher who enrolled me asked me some questions, but I never answered them because I was nervous and at the same time didn’t understand what they meant. Although I now understand the meaning of the questions the teacher asked, I can’t answer them anymore.

On the first day of school, my mom woke me up early so I could eat breakfast and pack my school supplies. When I arrived at school, I was very nervous because the school here was very different from my previous school in China in terms of style and construction. When I walked into the school, one of the teachers led me to my class where I met my classmates that I was going to spend time with. My first day was one of confusion as the discussions of the people around me and the lessons in class were all unknown and unfamiliar to me, a situation that left me a bit helpless and woefully unprepared.

The unfamiliar environment and language made me helpless and confused. I didn’t understand what I was learning or what was written in the textbook, and I couldn’t participate in the discussions of my classmates. When I was helpless, one of my classmates reached out to me and became a good friend later on, but we separated in high school. She showed me what I was learning in class and taught me some simple responses and conversations. I was very happy and thankful for her help, and this was the first classmate who reached out to me for a conversation. She also introduced me to more classmates afterwards, so I was able to fit in a little bit and not be as confused and unsure as I was at the beginning.

After the course it was time for lunch and at this time I was also unfamiliar with it because in China we would get out of school at noon and we would go home for lunch, but over here the students eat lunch at school, so this was new and unfamiliar to me. My classmate led me along to get my lunch and also introduced me to the cafeteria, where each class will have a fixed table, and also each student can get a lunch, fruit and milk. Every thing and person here was a new existence for me, and although it was different from the environment I was familiar with before, I would still get to know it because I needed to get familiar and adapt, and I spent most of my days at the school for the next six months. And I also got to know more about my new school with the explanation of my classmates, while such a new and strange experience left me with a deep memory. 

The unfamiliarity and discomfort of a new environment may bring me distress and nervousness, but I will try to adapt as quickly as possible. After a week of familiarizing myself with the school, I have adapted well to the new school environment and atmosphere, thanks to the help of my classmates, which has accelerated my understanding of the new environment. Although I was confused and worried at the beginning, as I got used to it, I was more surprised. The new teaching style was new to me, the new classmates and friends made me happy, and I was surprised by the knowledge of the new language.

From unfamiliarity to adaptation and then familiarity is a very difficult and long process. It means starting over and adjusting, re-establishing new relationships and getting to know a new culture and language. It is inevitable that you will be overwhelmed and confused by the unfamiliarity, but in the end, time will solve everything. Some people adjust to a new environment perhaps on their own, but I was fortunate to have my classmates to help me get to know the school, but it also took me a week to adjust and get acquainted at the same time. Although I was not able to learn everything I learned in class in an instant and fit in completely with the people around me, I did my best to learn what I learned and discussed in class.

Thank you all who responded to my Discussion Board!

In today’s society, countless people have many tasks that need to be completed every day. These tasks come together to form a huge “rock”, and we are overwhelmed by this “rock”. We want to push the “rock” but we don’t know where to start. This article is like a lever to pry up this rock, to give us a new idea to solve these tasks, so that we can free ourselves.

I picked this article up from New York Time. The article is “How to Save Yourself From ‘Task Paralysis'” by Dana G. Smith, a psychologist with a Ph. Dana G. Smith is a psychologist and author with a decade of experience in health and science. She has written extensively about Neoconiosis, mental health, microbiota, and more for The New York Times, The Atlantic, The Guardian, Scientific American, and others.

The article tells us why we experience a sense of “helplessness” when there are too many tasks or when the tasks are too important. This feeling of helplessness is like a threat that causes our brain to “freeze” and lose control. When the brain is out of control, we can’t deal with any problems, and even if we do, we can’t meet expectations, which can greatly affect our psychology. The article also provides us with some ways to solve the “freeze”. We can break down the task into smaller tasks and complete them to achieve success as a way to motivate ourselves. But before doing so, we also need to eliminate distractions, eliminate the instability that affects their focus, and set a time limit for themselves.

After reading this article, I have three questions for you to discuss. If you have any curious questions you can also ask, or any improvements to my questions can also be proposed, feel free to leave a comment.

1. When was the most impressive “Task Paralysis” you’ve ever had?
2. How do you feel when you are overloaded with tasks. Desperate, annoyed, nervous or excited, or some other feeling?
3. In addition to the three methods proposed in the article, can you think of some other ways to solve these overload tasks?