Ibarra 1

Josue Ibarra
Professor Corri Ditch
English 113A
8 December 2015
My Progression
Throughout my years of education, I improved to become a better writer. I am currently
in the process to improve my writing skills every year. I cannot stop practicing my writing skills
because I struggle with writing. The key component for improvement is practice. I written many
essays and I learn to correct my mistakes. I took my instructors advice in order to improve my
essay. Their advice was to rewrite an essay as many times. When it comes to rewriting your
essay, revision is a key component in writing because you are able to catch mistakes and correct
them in a certain way. Writers improve their writing skills when they are revising their paper.
There is a less of a chance to fall in the same mistakes because you already caught the mistakes
earlier. In my current situation, I have written two essays for my English 113A class this
semester. The most important outcome in writing these essays is my progression as a writer. Was
I able to improve my writing skills from the previous progression essay to the next essay? I do
belief that I have grown as a writer because I felt more prepared to do my second progression
essay.
In my first Progression essay, the prompt was to find a common idea between two articles
in Composing Gender. The authors reason to write about their common idea. I needed to find a
connection between their common idea and my life experience. The key component to this essay
was my credible sources from Composing Gender. I needed to back up my main point with
evidence from the two articles I choose from. The first thing I improved as a writer was

Ibarra 2
understanding who I am referring to. In my introduction of Progression I essay, I said
Individuals could say that our society has a set of instructions that must be applied into gender.
In other words, I am referring to any society. I needed to refer to American society because my
evidence is based on American traditional values and the process of gender construction. In my
revise Progression I essay, I changed my sentence structure in order to refer to American society.
American society has a set of instructions that must be applied to each individual. To put in a
way, I am now referring to American society. I analyzed my point even further because the
reader might be confused about the instructions applied to each individual. These instructions are
called gender roles. It is important to let your reader know who you are referring to because your
main point might be misunderstood.
I started on track when I finished my introduction and claim my main point. The problem
I needed to fix was the outcome of my thesis. Individuals organize their lives based on societys
demands. In American society, gender construction is a process started by parents in order to
establish their gender identity and become members of society. In other words, if an individual
does not establish their gender identity or does not conform, the individual might be
marginalized. In my revise essay, I included the possible outcome of my main point. If
individuals do not conform to their appropriate gender roles, they will be marginalized by
society. I informed my reader that there can be an outcome if the individual does not conform to
society. In my last couple of paragraphs, I definitely improve as a writer because I was
misunderstanding an idea I learned from Composing Gender and from my instructor. Gender is
not the same as sexuality. I am not the only one who thinks like me because there are men that
are straight and have feminine characteristics. In other words, I am saying that sexuality is the
same as gender. In my revise essay, I am not the only one who thinks like me because there are

Ibarra 3
men who have feminine characteristics. There are women that preform in a masculine way and
feminine. It is societys traditional beliefs that is constructed on gender roles and gender
identities. To put in a way, I took out anything that has to do with sexuality and only focused on
gender. I noticed that I needed to be careful when I am referring to someone or something. I
misunderstood things, so my goal was to correct these mistakes before going on to Progression
II.
Going on to Progression II, I felt prepared to write this essay. I learned different methods
to introduce my quote and to analyze my main point. My evidence needs to back up my
argument and I need to have a counter argument and a refutation. I improved from my last
progression essay because I was more clearly to who I was referring to. I notice a common
mistake that was in my second essay. My paragraphs needed transitions in order to flow and to
connect my points. Gender schema theory suggests that individuals learn the difference between
the classifications of male and female from society and just let their behaviors to meet
expectations. In other words, I did not introduce my quote and it creates confusion. In my revise
essay, I introduced my quote. Individuals become gendered in society by members of their
culture. To put in a way, I included individuals in order for my reader to understand who I am
going to talk about. The way individuals are gendered through members of their culture. I also
improved in my organization of my essay because I had a paragraph that did not transition well
with the next paragraph. I was connecting my argument to Rouseys front cover issue in the first
couple of paragraphs until I transition to a totally different idea about the causes of socially
constructed norms. After the socially constructed norms paragraphs, I connected back with
Rouseys issue again. I cannot be jumping through my main points and connecting to my
argument. There needs to be a flow in the whole essay.

Ibarra 4
The biggest improvement I noticed from my first and second progression essays was my
evidence and the way I connected to my argument. The way I included metacommentary after I
quoted my evidence. Another way to explain what the quote means. In my second progression, I
quoted a phrase from Aaron Devors article Becoming Members of Society, without further
explanation of what the quote means. In my revise Progression II essay, I added a
metacommentary. In other words, Devor states that masculinity is seen to be on the top or
viewed in a hierarchical way and femininity is submissive. My reader can now understand the
meaning of the quote and the way it connects to my argument.
My journey through Progression I and Progression II was a learning experience. I
improved as a writer. My grade did not change significantly, but my second progression essay
contain fewer mistakes and my argument was insightful and well supported. My journey does not
end this semester. I will continue to improve my writing until I am not breathing no more.