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Andrew LHeureux

Professor Ditch

English 115

12 December 2017

Growth, Reflection, and Different Perspectives

Throughout the years of academics, I would not have considered English a strong subject

of mine. Although I still would not consider it to be an excelled area of my personal academics,

the evidence of my growth has become greatly apparent. During my time spent in an English

course at California State University of Northridge, I had the opportunity to further test my

literary abilities and build confidence as a writer through exploring different literary concepts,

expanding my knowledge on societal gender constructs, developing grammatic skills, and

pushing my own writing abilities to further my experience and expertise as a writer. The English

115 class taught by Professor Ditch helped me improve upon using outside resources, using new

techniques, understanding specific formatting, pushing my creative literary boundaries, and

finding comfort with the use of sources.

Prior to this course, I limited myself to being the only contributor of all my essays and

writing projects. I did not understand the necessity of having others critique and review my

writings before submitting them. I was able to recognize this necessity because of Professor

Ditch. Before every final draft of paper turned in, Professor Ditch dedicated class time for peer

editing sessions in which the students would read and correct each others papers. In my draft of

Above the Social Constructs, the project space essay, I struggled with presenting a personal

view on my gender performance to the audience. Having Abriass insight allowed me to correct
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this mistake and project a clearer statement. Having another class members insight allowed me to

not only correct my mistakes but better articulate my thoughts and ideas.

The time for peer review was also extremely beneficial because I was able to use my

knowledge in critiquing others. By me looking at the other essays, critiquing mistakes and

praising well done areas, I was able to look over my essay afterwards with a renewed focus and

intention. My peers thoughts and ideas also furthered my own, allowing me to expand parts of

my individual essay simply by being exposed to different perspectives. Furthermore, I used to no

seek outside assistance to review my essay. The Learning Resource Center became an essential

tool for me during this course. At first, we were required to make two appointments in the library

for the specific essays, but I continued to go above the required number of visits and when a visit

was no longer required for the class. For my Project Text Essay, I went in for assistance for

planning the essay and solidifying my ideas. My consistent tutor, Joseph, would ask questions

that triggered me to think deeper into why I was planning the outline the way I was. Ultimately,

the clarification that was brought from that appointment gave me clarity to solidify my argument

that both characters were radical in their gender performances in order to access power. These

appointments would continue to bring clarity to my ideas so that I could confidently write my

papers. Having other eyes to look over my papers and writing, greatly improved my literary

abilities.

The course also helped improve my skills by introducing me to new techniques to use for

my writing. Prior to English 115, I never read my papers out loud in the correction process.

Joseph told me to always try and attempt to do so after my first appointment at the LRC for my

upcoming papers. In the rough draft of my project media presentation, the current phrasing was

awkward and I had not noticed it prior to the appointment. A difficulty of mine was to convince
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the audience of my ideas, but having flawed sentence structure and phrases that failed to make

sense did not assist that goal. After reading out loud, I found that there were certain mistakes that

I was unable to catch by simply reading it inwardly to myself. For instance, in writing the project

text, Power Trip, I was able to notice the need to reformulate paragraph structures from my

rough draft to the final document because I read the essay aloud and realized that the information

did not flow in a way that was necessary for the readers understanding.

Another skill I have learned over the semester was to branch out of old structure and

understand different types of formatting, such as MLA. High school and prior years of education

taught the method of body paragraphs consisting of concrete details followed by commentary.

Although an effective approach, having this structure also prohibited literary freedom in my

writing. With each essay, I became progressively more comfortable with breaking free from this

method and establishing my evidence and evaluation in other ways. The ability to not worry

about following this specific rubric of writing enabled greater fluidity of writing and ideas in my

work. Although there was not a specific method in which body paragraphs had to be constructed,

etc., learning MLA format allowed me to have the freedom of presenting my ideas but allowing

them to be presented in a professional and clear way. These particular writing techniques have

helped my growth and improvement.

The essays I wrote during this course, the project space essay of, Above the Social

Construct, and the project text essay of, Power Trip, greatly impacted my comfort with using

sources for my papers, formatting, and formulating thoughts and ideas in a concise way. English

115 gradually implemented the use of a greater amount of sources required for papers along with

using more in depth articles like the one from Collins in Composing Gender. Through the

constant need to use credible sources and site them correctly, my ability to confidently use a
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source, and identify which sources will best help me defend my personal stance, has greatly

improved. The instruction of using sources also allowed me to realize how helpful it is to infer

outside knowledge into a paper to prove your argument. For instance, in writing, Power Trip,

centered around the novel The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society, I was able to

reference articles written by other authors, such as Aaron Devor, that helped me to expound upon

my personal stances. I also found sources especially helpful in writing the project space essay,

for I was able to defend my own personal stance by using other authors perspectives that aligned

with my own.

My time spent in the English 115 has been extremely beneficial to me as a writer.

Professor Ditch helped me grow in using out-of-classroom resources, the use of new techniques,

and with using credible sources. The growth made in this semester has not only benefited me

temporarily, but for the long run. There has been a large deal of preparation for not only the rest

of college, but also the rest of my literary career.