Tate Rodriguez

English 115
Professor Beadle
8 December 2015
Final
Before the semester began I expected this class to be much easier than it actually was. I
went to a very small high school where the English teachers werent very challenging, and they
gave little instruction on how to actually write an essay at a college level. So naturally, I
struggled with the first few homework assignments and essay. I soon learned what Professor
Beadle expected of his students and their essays, so I adapted very quickly. The adjust from my
high school level essays to college level was the biggest challenge for me because I was used to
the simple essays and easy grading from high school.
Taking this class helped my writing in so many ways, I improved my writing skills and
became much easier for me to write essays. Coming in to the class, I didnt know that every one
of the paragraphs in my essays had to relate back to my thesis, or that I was supposed to include
evidence to go along with all of my claims. I also knew very little about how to organize my
paper. After learning that I must do all of these things by looking at Professor Beadles
suggestions on my paper and going to office hours I got much better little by little.
I have never been a fan of writing because I have always been so bad at it, but this year I
improved significantly. I did enjoy learning about gender, because I was ignorant of many of the
concepts we learned and I learned more about how diverse the topic of gender really is. I enjoy
writing if it is creative writing, such as stories or topics of my choice, but essays are very
stressful which is the reason why I dislike writing.

Another thing that I learned this semester is ethos, pathos, and logos. Before the class I
had heard of these three words, but I wasnt sure of their meaning. I learned that ethos is
persuading through the use of the authors credibility, pathos is persuading through the use of
emotions, and logos is persuasion through the use of logic.
The most interesting and new topic that I learned is that gender is socially constructed
through parents and others around you during early childhood. When I learned this I thought it
was interesting because previously, I had never gave any thought to the topic of gender
construction. I had always thought gender was simply a part of our genes and I never really
knew why people act certain ways based on gender. Now that I am educated more about the
topic of gender I feel more comfortable discussing it, since it can be an awkward topic to discuss
at times.
The aspect of my writing that has made me the most proud is how much I improved with
the help of Professor Beadle in just one semester. The huge improvement in my writing gave me
a lot of confidence in myself that will be very useful in my academic endeavors.
Every skill that I learned in this class I can apply to my future English classes, and any
other class that I need to write essays for. Since I had little knowledge of writing before, I
learned all of the basics this semester. I learned how to make a well thought out and specific
thesis, to keep my paper focused on the thesis, and to include evidence to support all of my
claims.
If I were to give advice future students taking this class I would tell them to show up to
class on time, participate in class by asking a lot of questions, and make sure to read the assigned

Composing Gender articles since they are the basis of every essay. I would also advise them to
go to office hours because it helps greatly.