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Oscar De Jesus
Professor Ditch
Eng114A
9 December 2014
Reflection
Before the course began, I didnt know what kind of environment my classroom
would posses. I questioned what type of personalities I would encounter and what type of
professor I would listen to on a scheduled basis. My guess was that I would arrive to
class, sit for a little over an hour, and listen to a professor ramble about grammar. But my
experience was anything but my expectations. It was a class that allowed me to witness
my progress as a writer; the first step into uncovering my potential as a writer.
Writing was never one of my favorite subjects. I struggled with it throughout high
school, so I never found it to be useful to me. But recently, it came to me that writing is
needed in any field of work. That and my professor would recant her experience with
graduates returning to school for writing courses. With this in mind, I had to take this
course seriously for the sake of my future. Writing became one my priority courses.
Like I mentioned earlier, the experience in my English course was much more
than lectures on grammar; it gave me a wider range of knowledge on topics like gender.
Ive come to adore the term gender nonconformity because of its significance in our
society today. Many of us might be unaware that we are going against the social construct
of gender, so it would make many of us nonconformists as well. An extremely personal
example would be my hesitation to posture myself correctly when sitting in public.
Before I was enlightened and encourage by this course, I was afraid of sitting in public

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with my legs crossed. Foolishly, I thought that only women were allowed to cross their
legs when sitting, but if theres one thing that Ill take away from this course it would be
gender nonconformity. Im not going to remain afraid of sitting a certain way in public
just because it would make me look feminine. To this day, I remark those who question
my posture and inform them that I go against the social construct of gender.
Aside from social challenges, I was a bit intimidated by my grade on my first
essay. A bigger concern was doing just as bad my next assignment, so I had to reinforce
myself to take the required steps to ensure a better grade. That meant going to the Writing
Center more than once and taking more time to complete my essay. With my time
investment, I discovered what my biggest issues were: making an argument and being
organized. These are the two areas that I strived so hardly to master for my individual
presentation. Adding to that, I felt pretty comfortable with my ability to present my ideas
to an audience. Fortunately, my organization and argumentation for the individual
presentation assignment had significantly improved, and my score displayed my
improvement as a writer. Im not sure if presenting can be considered a writing strength,
but this aspect of my writing strength has made me a proud student.
My new knowledge on gender has already been applied in other courses. This
semester, I wrote a research paper on Chicana women in higher education. My work
contains significant portions of writing on gender nonconformity and the social construct
of gender in American educational systems such as the Los Angeles Unified School
District (LAUSD). I am hoping to have opportunities in the future where I can apply my
knowledge on gender again.

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A word of advice to incoming students for Eng114A: keep an open mind and do

not be afraid to search for help. I know for a fact that there are students like me who
dislike critique and failure, but I cant stress how important it is to accept failure as an
opportunity to progress as an individual. I am hoping that others will take a positive
experience from this course and take the challenge of becoming an improved writer.