Erazo Trujillo 1

Katherinne Erazo Trujillo

Professor Beadle
English 115
05 December 2016

Reflective Essay
Writing can be difficult, but its something that can be improved on over time or can be
fix. Throughout the semester we have written essays for each of the three progressions that
revolve around the topic of gender. With each of the three progressions there has been a change
in my writing style and the way I format my essays. With each of my progression essays, my
writing has clearly improved not only writing style wise but overall, presenting better quality
work.
One of the ways in which my writing has improved is content wise. Over the course of
the three progressions the content of my essays have clearly improved on providing more
information connecting to the thesis and elaborating more on the issues that are being argued
within the essays. An example of this improvement would be in my progression I essay as I
wrote In mentioning devalued genders Lorber particularly aims at women, and explains that
through the differences imposed by society women have less of what society values most,
money,power,etc., while men obtain/possess these values. Women having less power than men
correlates back to the stratification system the places people with higher power and value, men,
above others, women (Erazo Trujillo 2). This example was the explanation from a quote I
provided in my essay, and although I do explain the purpose of the quote, I dont elaborate much
on the issue that is being discussed/ brought up in the essay. Rather than connecting it back to the
issue I connect it the quote to the previous quote given in the essay, giving the quote more

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importance than what is being argued. Then in my progression II essay for the explanations of
one of my quotes I wrote Although, the Dolce & Gabbana ad does not present the issue of race
it does show how men are viewed as being above women. It further suggest that men are
dominant and women are submissive such as in the case of the ad. The woman in the ad shows
no struggle from being pinned down by the man, showing how she is powerless over the man
and his actions, and to the other three men surrounding her (Erazo Trujillo 2) This example
shows a clear explanation of the quote and discusses how the quote refutes the argument that is
being made, which is that women are viewed as powerless. Apart from this I make a good
connection of the Dolce and Gabbana ad to the article, and show a clearer understanding of
connecting the quote and information back to the thesis.
Another area that I have improved in is, in the structure and content of my thesis. The
thesis is considered to be the most important part of an essay, as it establishes the basis of what
the entire essay is going to discuss. In my progression I my thesis was Amongst these articles,
some share the common idea that there is an existence of inequality between the different
genders, with men being superior to women. This idea of gender inequality is shown in the
articles Night to His Day: The Social Construction of Gender by Judith Lorber and
Rethinking Womens Biology by Ruth Hubbard. The authors present this idea to prove and
show how the different genders interact with their surroundings and everything associated with
their gender is constructed and standardized to be different by society. The idea of gender
inequality can then be applied to our own lives, because as members of society through this idea,
gender inequality, we are labelled accordingly to our gender and based on those gender schemas
one gender is set to the advantage of the other ( Erazo Trujillo 1). My thesis for my progression
II essay was Through comparing how men and women are seen in media (ads), a woman and

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her body are greatly utilized and degraded to sell a brand and its products, in comparison to that
of a man and his body. In this particular ad, it presents this idea through showing how the woman
in the ad is being portrayed as powerless and is being sexualized to draw attention to her and to
what she is wearing. The idea that is presented of women in the media is then exercised in
society, as people treat and act upon women based on what they see in media (Erazo Trujillo 1) .
For the thesis for my first progression essay, I answered all parts of the prompt but failed to keep
it concrete, rather I gave to much of an explanation that getting straight to the point of what the
prompt dealt with. For the thesis of my progression II essay, I give a concrete argument that
clearly explains what the essay will discuss and its purpose. The thesis for my progression also
gives a better understanding of answering all parts of the prompt completely.
Overall my writing has greatly improved in many aspects. After writing my essays I find
areas that can be improved in/ develop a better understanding of writing an essay. With all my
progressions my writing has greatly progressed, have shown that I know what needs to be done
to write a good essay.