TOW #27: TOW Reflection

   Looking at my first and last TOWs and the progression in between, one thing that stands out to me is the change in structure and organization of content (also the length, but I'll get to that later).  My TOWs for the first half of the year were also written in single paragraphs, but by the time I got to marking period three I started experimenting with organization and multiple paragraph structures. My first TOWs follow more closely the instructions and steps listed on our original assignment sheet for giving a little summary, identifying the author and audience etc. while my more recent TOWs are written more freely, more like a mini analysis essay that identifies the purpose and analyzes the piece in the way that it applies to this purpose, while including anything I thought that was worth noting. My later TOWs also presented more of a cohesive thesis.
   After reading through many of my TOWs from over the course of the year, I noticed that there was a development of my understanding of how argument works, and its complexity. With most of my TOWs I was able to pretty clearly identify the purpose of the piece I was analyzing, but my earlier TOWs focused on a much more simple, easily stated purpose while in my later TOWs I tended to delve into the complexities of the purpose that interacted more with the context and the topic. Similarly, my understanding of how the author built his/her argument developed to be more complex. Much of my analysis in the beginning of the year is devoted to explaining the appeals to ethos, pathos, and logos, because these are the patterns I knew how to recognize. Over the course of the year I expanded my knowledge of and ability to recognize how different devices and strategies are used by authors, and I also began to move away from the idea of specifically labeled "devices" and analysed the ways I saw the authors developing their arguments based on the topic, their audience, the context and other relevant aspects. I definitely noticed the influence of the concepts we studied in class when I began seeing how arguments were based on certain assumptions and used other arguments to prove their own (Inductive/Deductive reasoning and Toulmin Model!).
   Despite all this development, I have to say that I honestly think some of my earlier TOWs were of better quality. My more recent ones tend to be more rambling; some of them got pretty long, and they were less thought out before I started writing them. I think over the course of the year my ability to recognize and understand how arguments are put together improved, but the amount of effort I put into each individual TOW declined.
   Overall though, I'm pretty happy with the progress I've noticed in my understanding and my ability to apply new ideas to my writing. The TOWs were good practice and I am pleasantly surprised at the visible indication of how much I have actually learned this year!