Orellana 1

Valerie Orellana
English 114B
Professor Freddy Garcia
12 May 2015
Reflection
Over the course of the semester, in English 114B: Approaches to University Writing: I
gained a better understanding of social constructivism in Film, Television, and Literature and
how social constructions can be found being used to perpetuate stereotypes made by societys
influence to omit and subvert identities.
In the essay presented, Gender and Race Constructions, many ideals are brought up in
order to show the great deal of understanding and further interest I have grown in the subject. I
exemplify the ideals with my personal experiences and view on how the location I grew up in
influenced how I identified myself. I had referred back to the class readings like from Sophie
Freuds The Social Construction of Gender to show how I was able to process my experiences
and to make sure I understood the concepts I was learning and further looking into. For example,
when I mention specific identities like female or male, I am referring to the social construction
society has divided genders into. I consider myself a female, but with this label falling under the
social construction of gender, the stereotypes that follow with that label should not undermine
my abilities to be intelligent or physically stronger in order to privilege the male construction. To
reiterate, as exposed through my writing, I express that media perpetuates these ideals towards
their audiences as a normality.
First finalizing my Gender and Race Constructions essay I found it difficult to separate
my ideas into separate paragraphs and explain how those ideas fit into my essay. I consider this

Orellana 2

inconsistency to be one of my greatest weaknesses as a writer; although, being able to define my

weakness will help me develop as a writer because I can then get help to pinpoint how to
strengthen that weakness. I was then able to cut unnecessary information and better clarify what
each paragraph was consisting with the help of my professors notes. One of the notes mentioned
my incapability to write clear sentences where the fragments and run-ons made my paragraphs
sound awkward; another weakness. I also separated my run-on sentences to formulate a clear
sounding essay. To conclude the revisions I made, I simply corrected the grammatical and
punctual errors.
My writing developed from the continual practice of writing small increments called
Moodle Posts in the English 114 B course. The Moodle Post prompts would refer back to our
thoughts on the class readings in order to progressively get exposure and to keep me constantly
exploring my ideas on Social Constructivism. It was a way of keeping the critical thinking skill
intact for the essays that would then require such ideas to be expressed. I believe my greatest
strength was being able to capture those ideas and reflect my understanding of the readings to
provide a cohesively written essay.
Throughout the course I was able to learn from the process to provide all of the material
presented in my portfolio. The revisions I made will show what I will be taking from the course
and what I was able to learn specifically on the subject of Social Constructivism. In this portfolio
I presented required works that will extensively provide an insight of how my thought process
influenced my writing process and how the readings influenced and helped shape the ideas in my
writings throughout the course; a biography, reflection, revised essay, summary of the revised
essay, cover letter, resume, and job link.