Jackson 1

Dee Jackson
English 115
Professor Beadle
30 November 2016
Reflective Essay
Throughout the first semester of my 2016 fall term at California State University,
Northridge, my classmates and I were required to write a series of essays, referred to as
progressions, for our English 115 course. Being that there were a total of three progression
essays, we were instructed to display new skills or levels of understanding for each consecutive
one. We began Progression I by analyzing text; more specifically, articles from the book entitled
Composing Gender, edited by Rachael Groner and John F. OHara. The second progression
required me and my classmates to analyze a series of images that were either chosen by us, or for
us. While working on the third and final progression, there was a combination of visual and
textual analysis, as we focused on the different elements of a comic entitled Ms. Marvel: No
Normal, by G. Willow Wilson & Adrian Alphona. Beginning Progression I with minor
typographical errors and lack of evidence to support my claims, I eventually worked my way up
to being able to provide more in-depth analyses with little or no typographical errors in
Progressions II and III, showing improvement in areas addressed by my professor.
In Progression I, although I would say that my final essay was generally satisfactory,
there were a few aspects that required a bit of improvement. In the very first sentence of my
introductory paragraph, there was a typographical error that was probably due to a lack of
attention to detail. My first sentence began with In the articles, Becoming Members of Society:

Jackson 2
The Social Meanings of Society: The Social Meanings of Gender This was a complete
mistake, as the title of the article was intended to be Becoming Members of Society: The Social
Meanings of Gender. In addition to having typographical errors, I also failed to further elaborate
on a few claims that were made throughout the essay, receiving comments from my professor
such as, Good, but be more specific, and Why do these things matter? However, he did add
that it was a strong essay with some great analysis, then suggested that I further improve it by
addressing why society constructs gender, and why the claims that I made were important. These
are all things that I kept in mind before beginning my Progression II essay.
Even though my Progression II essay was not perfect, or even significantly better than
my Progression I essay, I did manage to make improvements to my introductory paragraph, by
fully addressing the significance of my chosen topic, sexual objectification. While reviewing this
essay, my professor commented Good thesis, considering the larger significance. As far as
errors are concerned, I did have one small punctuation error, and some issues with evidence that
did not support all of my claims. In the third body paragraph of my essay, I mentioned that
sexual objectification has the potential to affect the way that women are viewed by men in
society, while never actually providing supporting evidence. Nonetheless, I was told by my
professor, Your thesis is good, though some of the claims in the body of the essay need more
evidence and/ or explanation, and You also need a specific discussion of the counterargument,
and a refutation with support. This time, I also made the mistake of not meeting the page
requirement. Seeing that the rough draft instructions indicated a minimum page requirement of
three pages, I neglected to re-read the final draft instructions in full, which required a minimum
of four to five pages.

Jackson 3
In my third, and final essay, I set out to make improvements in areas where I lacked,
while working on my Progression I and II essays. Noticing that there were typographical and
grammatical errors in the first two, I made it a point to pay very close attention to these things in
my Progression III essay, while writing about the comic Ms. Marvel: No Normal by G. Willow
Wilson and Adrian Alphona. Although the semester ended before my classmates and I were able
to receive feedback on our final drafts, there were a few areas in which I noticed improvement.
For instance, I continued to provide a strong thesis that properly answered the prompt. In
response to Does Kamala Khan radically alter her identity? Why or Why not, I stated, In the
comic Ms. Marvel by G. Willow Wilson and Adrian Alphona, Kamala Khans desire to be
socially accepted by her peers causes her to dramatically alter her identity as she makes the
transformation from a simple, less than popular Pakistani Muslim girl, to a visually appealing,
butt-kicking superhero. Aside from the thesis itself, I made sure that my supporting evidence
was as strong as it could be, making statements such as, By wishing to become someone else,
Kamala not only abandons her social identity, but she literally becomes a different person, with
blonde hair and blue eyes. Being that she was previously a girl with dark hair and dark eyes,
amongst many other different traits, this is a strong piece of evidence as it relates to my stance on
the topic, because it is undeniable that this transformation occurred.
Even though none of my three essays were flawless, I definitely did make noticeable
improvement in areas that I previously lacked with each consecutive one. In the first Progression
essay, I had a good thesis, but there were typographical errors and lack of supporting evidence,
which I attempted to correct in the second Progression. The thesis in my next essay was slightly
better, considering the larger significance by better answering the question Why do these
things matter, which I seemingly failed to do in the first Progression, where I stated my claims,

Jackson 4
but did not explain how or why they were important. The only issue with my thesis, according to
my professors personal comments and corrections, was a minor punctuation error. As far as the
body paragraphs were concerned, my claims needed more evidence and/or explanation, a
clearer counterargument, and to meet the page requirement that I unintentionally failed to meet in
the second Progression. Despite not being able to receive feedback on my final Progression
essay, there were still noticeable improvements as far as grammar and punctuation, page
requirements, and analysis. Overall, I would say that even though all of my essays had their own
errors, even after improving other errors, it is undeniable that at least some level of improvement
was made each time.