Edwin Khachatourians

Jon Beadle
English 115
6 December 2016
Reflective Essay
When we come to the end of our journey it is simple human nature to look back and see
the distance we have traveled to get to where we are. We are reminded of the many hardships,
late hours and obstacles we endured to further grow in our lives. Upon looking back on our
journeys it becomes clear if we did indeed grow into better versions of ourselves and our work
due to the process of growth that they inhabit. If we have improved ourselves that shows, we
have indeed grown through our journey. In my life, one journey I have gone through is my
English 115 that I am taking at Csun under the instruction of Professor Jon Beadle. When I first
walked into the class I felt like my writing was at a point where it could not improve any further.
I walked in thinking that I already knew everything there was on writing. As the weeks
progressed and more and more classes pasted I soon realized that my initial thoughts were in fact
not accurate. There was so much more to writing at a college level than I had ever thought
possible. I started to learn and take in to account the aspects Professor Beadle showed the class
and learned new ways to improve upon my own writing. Now when I look back and reflect on
my journey I can say I have learned a lot and improved greatly in my writing ability and essays.
The fact that I understand more about my writing and now know new things that I didnt know
before is a great gift that will help my writing in the future. I can honestly say my writing has

improved from the begging of the year due to my ability to implement images in my essays as
evidence and correctly format my sources on my work cited page.
Looking back from my first progression essay to the second progression essay I can see I
have improved in many aspects, like in my work citied page. When I first came into the class, my
belief was that I had already mastered creating a work cited page, however I was wrong. When I
look back at my progression one essay now I see all my little mistakes that I didnt even know to
be errors like, Lorber, Judith. ""Night to His Day": The Social Construction of Gender."
Composing Gender. Ed. Rachel Groner and John O'hara. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin's, 2014. 1934. My mistakes can be seen when I put Ed. instead of edited by, made mistakes on the date,
and . This can be used as a reference point since this is an example of how my writing was
towards the beginning of the year. My writing was filled with structural errors and wasnt up to
the Mla work cited guidelines. However, as the class proceeded I learned what my mistakes were
and how I should go about fixing them. When I was assigned the second progression essay I
made it a priority to go back and make sure my work cited page made sense and was up to the
standards that a university student should be writing at. I was able to change my citation so that
they looked like, Renzetti, Claire, and Daniel Curran. From Women, Men, and Society.
Composing Gender. Edited by. Rachael Groner and John F. OHara. Bedford/St. Martins, 2014.
Page 82-83 where it is free and clear of all errors that would be keeping me from growing in my
writing. This example of my citations is able to reveal my improvement in regards to my writing
since it shows that I was able to learn and understand where my mistakes were and go about
fixing them to improve my work cited page. Through my ability to understand how to fix my
work cited page and actually make sure it is up to the universitys standards reveals that I have in
fact improved in my writing.

Through my reflection of my progression one essay I also noticed how my ability to

incorporate new forms of evidence into my essays has developed. In the start of the year I never
knew how I could incorporate images into my essay. When I first started this course I was
restricted to the standard evidence as quotes like, Hubbard address the differences of men and
womens physiology and that Women are smaller because they eat less than they should be to
fill that stereotypical behavior that society has placed on women (Hubbard 48). This reveals
that my starting point in the year was limited to only normal quotes. However, as the class
progressed the class I learned that I could incorporate images to help strengthen my argument
and further develop my evidence. During my second progression essay I incorporated an image
to further develop my thesis, This advertisement is a perfect example of media representing the
inequalities of our society in terms of gender in todays day and age and can be analyzed through
many outside sources, and the book Composing Gender by Rachael Groner, and John F.
OHara. Through this I was able to show that my evidence on other aspects does in fact apply to
other things revealing its significance. Using a picture a new method as opposed to the standard
quotes only method I had become accustomed too. This was a new way of going about arguing
my thesis that I was able to learn, use, and practice through my essay which was able to show
improvement in my writing from what it once was by implementing new aspects to view.
Our journey of English 115 maybe coming to an end in a week but I have learned so
much from it. I learned so much from this course and now I can honestly say I am a better writer,
and my writing has improved so much. The fact that I now understand that I can add more
aspects to my essay and have learned how to successfully create a work cited page, that follows
the MLA guidelines are able to portray the fact that my writing has improved through this
course. Professors Beadles goal for this class was to get us to improve our writing in some way

by the time the course was finished I can say I have met that goal. My writing has improved
through the months of attendance in English 115.