TOW #28 Reflection

It is hard to believe that this year has passed by so rapidly and that our class are on our final two TOWS. As I look back at the humble beginnings at TOW #1 and then back to TOW #27, I can see a progression in my posts. As the year progressed, I saw that the diversity of my topics greatly increased and that I was willing to write about different topics and deviate from my "comfort zone." The format of the texts that I was analyzing greatly differed. I went from only writing about things that were exclusively printed to things like speeches and posters. The writing in the posts also seemed to get better as I learned as a writer. Some things that I believe that I mastered... Mastered is a tricky word, because I don't believe that you can master anything when it comes to writing, there is always room for improvement. With that said, I believe that I have gotten good at identifying rhetorical devices and finding their purpose in the passage as a whole. I also have a very good idea of what a well crafted topic and transition sentence. As for what I need to improve, I need to work on bringing it full circle, making sure that my analysis is complete. I also have trouble elaborating on my analysis and expressing my ideas in a circumlocution. Finally, has this exercise helped me progress as a writer throughout the year? I think it has been a good in the fact that it kept me writing through periods where maybe we didn't write as much in class so it helped keep my writing from slipping into a state of not knowing how to write. I also found that it made the words flow much easier and made me a much quicker writer. At the beginning of the year it took me about an hour to do TOWs, but now I can crank one out in 35 minutes. I also found that as the year went on, I cared less and less about how I wrote my TOWs. The fact that they weren't that impactful on my grade made it more like a duty that had to get done as quick as possible rather than an assignment and even if it wasn't up to par it was good enough. I believe that these TOWs can be helpful to keep students honed throughout the year, but need to be to make them mean more than they already do.