TOW #27- TOW Reflection

       Throughout this school year, my writing and ability to analyze a text and then argue the purpose has progressed tremendously. As I read through my old TOWs (#'s 3, 13, 23), I realized specific improvements in several aspects of my writing. With regards to the introduction, I feel that I have progressed because I now have the ability to effectively hook a reader into my essay and get them to listen to what I have to say. In TOWs 3 and 13, my introduction consisted of a short summarization of the text, which is useful, but also very boring to the reader. In contrast, by the end of the year when I wrote TOW 23, I began with an interesting hook that was both relevant to the text, but also connected to the reader and grabbed their attention. Another aspect of my writing is the analysis of author's purpose and their use of rhetorical devices to achieve it. After going back to read TOW 3, my analysis was sort of confusing and did not effectively achieve the purpose that the author argued in their essay. Then, after reading my recent TOWs, I realized that my analysis was inadequate because I simply chose devices that stood out to me first, rather than thoroughly analyzing the text and choosing ones that have the greatest impact on the argument. As of right now, I certainly have not mastered this ability, but I am far better at it than I was prior to our Analysis unit.
      Up to this point in APELC, I feel that I have mastered forming thesis statements and topic sentences. In my writing, I can now effectively write an effective and clear thesis that provides a strong argument. In addition, my topic sentences almost always provide a solid transition between points and effectively relate my evidence back to the overall argument and thesis.
      Obviously I am not a perfect writer, as there are multiple aspects that a must improve on. To strive to improve on these aspects I will continue to practice my writing and analysis over the summer by doing informal versions of a TOW. Whenever I come across an interesting article or visual, I will analyze the devices used by the author and maybe write a few sentences about them.
       Given the purpose of the TOWs, I feel that I benefited greatly as I was able to practice my writing and also broaden my horizons in terms of the texts I read, in preparation for the AP exam. Although, I probably could have gotten even more out of them if I took it a little more serious and didn't do it last minute. Perhaps, if more TOWs were graded as assessments, I would have spent more time practicing and becoming a better writer.