TOW Reflection

 The progression of my TOWs of the course of the year is certainly evident. As a writer I have grew throughout the course and my TOWs show that. The writing style that was utilized in all of my pieces progressed from a more simple syntax and prose to a greater level of sophistication. Looking at the first post I wrote, on a more basic level of analysis. The rhetoric I identified in my pieces was fairly minimal and well-known. As the year progressed, I became more critical of the pieces I read and was able to better dissect the mind of the writer. One thing that I identified as a mistake in my pieces was the repetition of the same word starting all of my sentences. With time, I developed a sense of varying sentence structure and how they were composed. In doing so, my posts became even more sophisticated. This is important and essential for all branches of writing and will be helpful in the future.

Of course, there is still plenty of room for improvement in my posts. I always could use more and more analysis into rhetorical analysis of the pieces I read. Many times I would simply pick and choose some small rhetorical devices that did not have a massive impact on the audience. In doing so, I missed the larger point of the piece and possibly neglected more powerful devices. By reading closer and getting the entire gist of the piece, I would be better able to identify the overarching rhetorical devices; particularly when the author wields syntax, diction, and tone. I saw the TOWs as an experience to better hone my skills in regards to rhetorical devices. By better being able to identify them, I would also learn how to incorporate and integrate them into my own pieces similar to the pieces that I had already read.

The TOW pieces have made me a better rhetorical thinker. Without them, I would be not nearly as adept to the devices as I am today. I firmly believe that this identification had an influence on my own writing as I tried to mimic the sane style and prose of the writers that I had read. The one flaw that I can readily see in the TOWs is that sometimes they were hastily composed. Because of this, I was sometimes not able to derive the full benefit of doing the assignment and because of that TOWs may have seemed like a busywork assignment. If I took more time to sit and analyze the pieces I was reading, I would have benefited even more. All in all though, the TOWS have better developed me as both a critical reader and a writer.