Araceli Alejo

Professor Ditch

English 115

6 December 2017

Writing Never Ends

One of the few ways to communicate is by writing and we see this in our everyday life.

Writing sends different types of messages and can be interpreted in various ways. We not only

see writing in books but also in posters, billboards, movie subtitles, etc. In literature there are

different types of writing but they all have a one specific purpose and its to send a message.

Writing is not something permanent because it is always changing and we do every time we want

to edit something. Throughout this semester my writing has improved and not only is it reflected

by my essay but my grade as well.

To start off, I started this semester thinking that college writing would be difficult since it

seemed like higher expectations. When I began writing my first essay which was Project Space,

the rubric and requirements seemed like too much and it was all at once. The fact that I needed to

do a detailed outline beforehand just added a lot to my work. However, what looked as a

downside to my load off work was actually one of the ways that helped me improve as a writer.

While doing the outline I had realized that organizing my own thoughts in chronological order

would make my writing steady. The reader would know what Im talking about since all my

thoughts would connect to one another. The outline helped me do this since I had organized all

my ideas beforehand so it would flow.

 Project Space was the first paper I wrote for my English class this semester. The prompt

for Project Space was how I as a person conform and break from gender roles and in order to

get my point across I needed to use evidence from Composing Gender. It wasnt my best writing

and my grade reflected that. For instance, I wrote without necessarily putting that much time to it

since I thought I can easily get it done when the time comes. In the beginning I realized that one

of the poor decisions I had made in my outline was divide some of my ideas into two. This was

not the best idea since at times I would contradict myself on the point I had made beforehand. I

started writing my paper and had to go to the LRC as one of the requirements for the assignment.

I went to the LRC and showed them a draft of my essay and the feedback was not necessarily

helpful. I had showed them my essay and they had stated that I needed transitional sentences but

other than that it seemed decent. In one of the body paragraphs in the essay I had written how I

conform into my gender role when I am with my girlfriends. I explained how when we hang out

we tend to be loud and gossip about almost anything. I was writing how this is one ways how I

conform to my gender roles. However, I sort of word it wrong and I had not type of textual

evidence that explained girls are usually the ones that gossip the most. This made me realize to

not write out my opinions on how society has socially constructed for girls to do this, but rather

back it up with facts.

To add on, in my project space essay I had my evidence which was a quote from

Composing Gender in the middle of my paragraphs. My professor and the tutor had explained

how I should change and put the evidence in the beginning of the paragraph rather than my

commentary first. I learned how to do this while adding a topic sentence but not giving the quote

away. I took her advice and did as I was told. The comments I had received after getting my

essay showed how I need to explain more things in detail because I was being broad in certain
parts. I can still say that Project Space was not the best essay I wrote but I learned from my

mistakes and took some of the advices into my next writing assignment.

On the other hand, Project Text was not necessarily an easier assignment. The purpose of

Project Text was to analyze two characters in the book The Guernsey and Potato Peel Pie

Society by Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows by stating how both characters break free and

conform into their gender roles. The two characters I was analyzing was Juliet Ashton and Mark

Reynolds. I had an idea of what I wanted to write and I definitely set higher expectations for

myself. I took my time in gathering the right evidence when doing my outline. According to all

the feedback I had gotten in my previous essay, it made me realize that I needed to take this

writing assignment even more serious. Since I had to go the Learning Resource Center (LRC)

once again, I showed them my outline this time. I had gotten feedback on how I was on the right

track since I had my evidence in the write place and how I should emphasize more on the points

I was giving. I learned that from my previous essay that if I wanted to give opinions on the

reading I had to support it with textual evidence.

To Prove, I put my time into this writing because when doing a rough draft, I had asked

advice from several of classmates if what I had written made sense and got my point across. I

had edit my paper more than three times in order to make it sound better than the previous one.

This was shown in the comments I had gotten from my professor how my support was solid and

how in some parts I had analyzed the story well. I wrote some insightful commentary when

writing about how my character conforms into her gender role. For example, I had said how

Juliet conforms into her gender role when she associates herself with female staples by applying

make-up to look more attractive. I had supported this with Composing Gender, the article

Becoming Members of Society by Aaron Devor when he implies, Feminine styles of dress
likewise display subordinate status greater restriction of the free movement of the body, greater

exposure of the bare skin, and an emphasis on sexual characteristics (41). I had explained how

in society have the need to look more attractive than man for several occasions etc. I wrote a

well-rounded opinion and proved how Juliet conforms into her gender role which answered the

prompt correctly. I learned how to add enough commentary without being irrelevant.

In brief what I had learned through this semester helped me grow as a writer since I

learned that never write without giving textual support because than it just becomes an opinion. I

learned to always have opinions from various people and to ask what do they think of your draft

and what parts to improve on. Most important I learned that doing an outline are important to do

since it sorts out your ideas and makes your whole process of writing a paper much easier. I

personally never like making an outline since it was never necessarily required but it does make

it easier.