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Aron Martinez
Professor Ditch
English 113A
8 December 2015
Reflection Essay
Throughout the fall 2015 semester of my English 113A class, I came across new
techniques, activities, projects, and assignments that allowed me to grow as a student writer. This
different approach really enabled me to enhance my writing as a student and develop my writing
skills whether it was annotating or analyzing a text, it acquired me to gain new abilities towards
my writing. Since the class theme was about gender, I was truly able to go more into depth about
gender and cover all aspects of it. This eventually led me to focus solely about gender which
helped improve my writing because I was able to grasp a better understanding of the concept
about gender. With the use of my class assignments and essays, I was able to determine that my
writing has definitely improved.
In my progression one essay, there were assignments in class that were assigned to us that
led to the making of our first essay. These assignments were like the building blocks of the essay
because it helped us get a better idea about gender and, it helped with writing our essay because
we were able to use our new knowledge and use the assignments to help start and write our
essay. In the progression one essay we were asked to read articles in the book Composing
Gender and use it for evidence as to how it supports our thesis in which we were to describe how
the two articles we chose connect with each other and how it can be applied to our own life
experiences. The articles that we read, we were also supposed to analyze and write rhetorical
summaries for them. When I started to write the first essay I was able to implement the

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knowledge and assignments into my essay. For example, in my progression one essay I used the
articles Night to His Day: The Social Construction of Gender by the author Judith Lorber and,
Becoming Members of Society: The Social Meanings of Gender by the author Aaron Devor.
Using those two articles in my progression one essay I stated A common idea that I realized that
were between the two readings was both mention how society constructed gender and how we
must abide by the rules of our gender and perform them appropriately if not, then being punished
will become an option in order to put us back in our appropriate place. This new task I was able
to use in which I was to analyze the readings and write rhetorical summaries for each of the
readings we had to do, shows how I improved as a writer because I was able to execute the
progression one essay with the new tools I gained and the knowledge I gained as well.
As for my progression two essay, I have also gained new strategies towards writing
essays that makes me a new and improved student writer as I was still learning and gaining even
more knowledge on the aspects of gender. The assignments for progression two were also once
again leading up to the second essay. These types of new assignments were actually different for
me and enjoyable as well because it was a new approach to help with the writing of my
progression two essay. The first assignment of my progression two essay was complete a
rhetorical analysis of each short video we were asked to watch which were Miss Representation,
Tough Guise, and Tough Guise two. For this assignment were assigned to analyze the arguments
the short videos were making. The second assignment that was part of the progression two essay
we were assigned to choose four images of our own and analyze what the visual text was arguing
in terms of gender roles and expectations. Once again these two assignments were new and
different for me because it was a new method to help with the writing of my essay. For example,
in my progression two essay I stated Men have always been viewed as dominant throughout

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mass media. In the visual text that I chose, King Leonidas from the film 300 is depicted as
wearing his Spartan uniform where you can see his masculine body with great muscle definition
as he throws a spear. The visual text illustrates how men are always portrayed by the media that
they are always in the position of dominance. With this distinct way of having an approach to
my progression two essay, it comes to show that my writing has improved because I took into
account a new style of approaching an essay and I once again was able to come about the essay
with new profound knowledge.
Since the class theme was about gender, everything we did in class covers all aspects and
the concepts of gender. I was able to focus solely on gender which empowered me to be more
knowledgeable about gender which of course improved my writing because I was permitted to
go more into depth in my essays. As the semester went on and on, every time we had a new
assignment or project it will add on to what we learned previously and add on to the next
assignment or project. This led to me improving my knowledge and writing slowly but surely.
With the use of assignments and new approaches to writing an essay, I was able to apply what I
had learned into my essays. I have definitely made some improvements in my writing as a
student writer by performing new strategies I came across in class and put them into perspective
in my work. Not only has my writing improved by learning and taking a creative way to
approach an essay, but my writing has improved with the help of the class overall. I was able to
take away from my classmates my teachers and learn from my own mistakes as well like how
professor Ditch says, we must have a growth mindset. What helped with the improvement of
my writing was also the fact that the center of attention of our class was about gender so we all
kept learning more and more about it. With the new approach to writing an essay and learning
the aspects solely on gender throughout the fall semester of my English 113A class, I was

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enabled to amend and enhance my writing as a student writer. It is secure to say that my writing
has definitely improved and will continue to develop and progress.

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Works Cited
Devor, Aaron H. Becoming Members of Society: Learning the Social Meaning of
Gender. Groner, Rachel and John F. OHara. Composing Gender: A Bedford Spotlight
Reader. Boston: Bedord/St. Martins, 2014. 35-43. Print.
Lorber, Judith. Night to His Day: The Social Construction of Gender. Groner, Rachael and
John F. OHara. Composing Gender: A Bedford Spotlight Reader. Boston: Bedford/ St.
Martins, 2014. 19-30. Print