Best 1

Alexandria Best
Professor Ditch
English 113A
8 December 2015
Reflection Essay
I have been a student at Cal State University Northridge for almost one whole semester,
during this semester I took a course called English 113A. The goal of English 113A is to help
freshman college students become better writers, preparing them for the rest of college. Coming
into this course I was never a confident writer in high school, I never learned the correct way to
write a university level essay. During this course my professor and classmates taught me to write
and express my ideas in a professional and clear way. I have always struggled to put my thoughts
on paper, but after this course I find it much easier to write a University level paper. John Dewey
states, Failure is instructive. The person who really thinks learns quite as much from his failures
as from his successes. Learning from my writing mistakes during this course has helped me
become an overall better writer and college level student.
Coming into this course I was not a very strong writer, I was very nervous going into
Progression 1. I worked very hard on Progression 1 and my hard work paid off, I received an A
on my first University level paper. I was so excited and happy to see that I received the highest
grade in the whole class. This was a huge accomplishment for me personally because I have
never been a good writer growing up. I think I received a high grade on my first paper because I
applied everything I learned in SI and in English 113A. I applied the Quote Sandwich to my
writing, I used quotes from composing gender to support my ideas. I would explain my ideas

before I used a quote and then I would explain how the quote supported my ideas. This all
connects to my thesis. Here is an example from my own writing in Progression 1. The way
parents talk and communicate with their children can shape a childs social demeanor for the rest
of their life. The way we communicate shows other people a lot about what kind of people we
are and what personality traits we carry. Renzetti and Curran state, Parents are teaching their
daughters to be more attentive to others feelings and to interpersonal relationships, while they
are teaching boys to be assertive, but unemotional except when expressing anger (79). Parents
are creating identities and personalities for their children based on their sex, children are taught
to act and react a certain way by their parents. Parents are teaching their children that boys need
to be unemotional and tough while girls have to be emotional and nurturing. I explained my own
ideas and used the quotes to support my ideas, this is called evidence. In the article, Teenagers
and The Media by Eagle Ranch Troubled Teen Support Resource quotes, Magazines, movies,
television shows, social networking sites and many more sources of media have a daily influence
on everyone that comes into contact with them and they maintain an especially great effect on
young teenagers, struggling through a turbulent and confusing stage of life. This is one way I
improved in my writing because I never used quotes in my writing in high school.
During this course I learned so much on what information is university level appropriate,
my professor taught me what information is credible and not credible. In the middle of the
semester we took a trip to the library to learn about credible sources. The librarian took all of us
into a study room and showed us how to use the CSUN Database and how to choose what
sources are credible. There are some sources that are not credible and you need to be able to
determine what sources are appropriate for a university level essay. We also learned how cite our

sources in a works cited properly. In Progression 2, I cited my sources properly using what I
learned in the library, English 113A, and SI. I learned a lot about what sources are appropriate
for a college level paper. In Progression 2, I showed my new skills that I learned this semester.
Childrens minds are shaped to think that they have to act or behave based on what sex they were
born with, their minds are shaped based on what they are taught by their parents and
environment. Our parents and environment we grow up in as children form and build the people
we become as we grow older. From Devor, As we move through our lives, society demands
different gender performances from us and rewards, tolerates, or punishes us differently for
conformity to, or digression from, social norms (35). If we do not conform to these gender
performances, we will be punished, and if we do conform to follow societies rules, we will be
rewarded for our actions. Everyday people perform to what society wants them to be, what we
see in the media also influences our perception about what we are to do and who we are to be in
society. People use femininity or masculinity to claim and communicate their membership in
their assigned or chosen, sex or gender (38). Masculinity and femininity shape western
societys view that there are only two groups people can conform to and live under. In
Progression 2, I learned from my mistakes in Progression 1. I took what my professor said and
listened to all of her comments that she wrote on my essay.
This past semester I have learned so much in English 113A and in SI. Throughout all of
the class lessons and readings, I have truly learned how to write at a university level. All
throughout my life I struggled with writing, in high school I never really learned how to write a
proper paper. We would use MLA format but I didnt truly understand why it was needed. In this
course learned how to cite my sources properly and how to use quotes that were credible. I am
overall very happy I took this course; it has prepared me for university level papers.