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Mariam Abdou
Professor Corri Ditch
English 113A
November 21 2014
Reflection Essay
Ive learned a lot from English 113A, more than what Ive expected. Working so hard
everyday on English assignments wasnt easy for me, especially since I hate reading so
much. In the beginning, I expected this class to be all about writing, and I also expected it
to be less work and reading. I like writing because it makes me let my thoughts out on a
piece of paper in a form of words that has an actual meaning. What I dont like about
writing is that I may accidently repeat same sentences using different words.
Furthermore, lots of grammatical mistakes that make me hate writing. I didnt hear about
the gender construction term until I took this class, which gave me an idea of how
American society used to view and now views the difference between gender and sex; in
terms of behaviors, actions, expectations of each gender. Also I never learned how to
write an argument before until I took this class; an argument that has to be debatable and
contains two sides. Moreover, I learned about gender conformity; I never realized that I
was actually conforming to gender norms set by the society, but now I know that I am
acting and behaving in a girls way and following the norms in order to be considered as
one of the normal girls. In addition, I also learned about rhetorical appeals that it is about
facts, emotions and credibility. Ive experienced many challenges throughout this course
since I hate reading very much and cant stand it; annotating my readings helped a lot and

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made it easier on me, especially when I go over the readings again. Also, it took me a lot
of time to be able to write a good argument, but that didnt happen until I practiced a lot
on writing assignments and not getting it right from the first few times. My strength as a
writer is that I can deeply analyze the material and explain it well. Also its that I like
taking my time while writing, brainstorming and organizing my thoughts. I improved a
lot on my writing comparing to last years. Now, I can write a better introduction and
construct a better thesis than before. Also now I use a better way to organize my thoughts
by writing all of them down then choosing the best among them. I improved on writing
an argument since I had a hard time trying to differentiate between thesis statement and
an argument. However, I still need to work on strengthening my argument and providing
a stronger support and evidence for it; which requires me to read more. Also I need to
work on improving my conclusion; usually when I recap my essay, I tend to use the same
words and sentences that I used before in my introduction and body paragraphs. As a
result, I need to improve on wrapping-up my essay in a better way using different words
and a more clear idea for readers to come up with in the end of my essay. Moreover, I
need to work on my grammar in my essays; learning from my previous mistakes would
certainly help me in making less mistakes. Writing a strong thesis statement in my
introduction, then breaking it down in paragraphs, supporting it with evidences that relate
back to it, and tat is one of the things that Ive improved on. In addition, Writing
introductions usually makes me feel good and gives me encouragement to finish my
essays well. I would annotate all my writings in all my future classes. I would also ask
those two questions; and and so whenever I write an argument. If I would give an
advice to a new student, I would tell him/her to never give up on the assignments if they

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are too hard, because thats going to be the beginning of a successful writing journey
which would definitely be a remarkable one. Writing would be used throughout the
persons life such as in school or at work. I would also advice this student to keep up
with all the assignments and instead of saying I am always having bad grades and Ill
never improve on my writing, say Ill learn from my mistakes on all of my previous
assignments and Ill try to avoid using same mistakes on my upcoming assignments.