TOW Reflection

            As someone who enjoys staying up to date on current events, I looked forward to the weekly TOW assignments as a literary outlet for my interest in global affairs.  Completing them often forced me to contemplate both the text and the issue discussed within the text to a much greater extent than I would have had I just simply read the piece.  Not only has this process allowed me to develop a fuller understanding of the articles I read each week, but it has also caused me to be a more critical reader.  Now when reading TIME Magazine or even just a billboard on the side of the road, I take careful note of how the authors employ certain rhetorical devices.  In this way, I have found that these TOW assignments, and this class in general, has enabled me to become a much more discerning reader.  Just as in Statistics where we are told to be skeptical of graphs or charts created by a biased author, I have learned to be skeptical of texts created only to support the author’s beliefs.  More importantly, I feel as though I am now better equipped to recognize the author’s purpose in creating a text based on his/her use of rhetorical devices.

            When I first began my TOWs, I spent far too much of my time creating a summary of the text as opposed to analyzing its rhetorical devices.  I believe that part of this was due to the fact that I was worried about hitting on all of the points mentioned in the assignment sheet and fitting it all into exactly 300 words or less.  Once I realized that the word limit was more of a suggestion, I was able to devote more time to writing about the author’s purpose and his/her use of certain rhetorical strategies in order to achieve that purpose.  Also, my initial TOWs relied heavily upon discussing ethos, logos and pathos.  While I still occasionally include these devices in my posts, I have learned over the course of the year that there are often more unique strategies present in a text than just the three appeals.  I am also more comfortable in discussing certain aspects of a text even if I am unaware of the specific rhetorical term used to describe it.  Finally, I tended to gloss over the purpose of a text during the beginning of the year primarily because I saw it as just another bullet point on the assignment sheet that needed to be addressed.  Towards the end of the year though I dedicated the majority of my posts to describing the purpose of the text and to analyzing how the rhetorical strategies related to this purpose.

            By the third marking period, I was able to provide the context of the article and a short summary in a way that was complete, yet concise.  Also, I felt I was able to clearly identify the purpose and link the context of the article and the rhetorical devices used for this purpose fairly easily.  Still, I had difficulty expanding the variety of rhetorical devices I discussed.  This could have been due to the fact that I often chose to discuss the ones I could most easily identify, rather than search for those that might be more unusual.  Ultimately, I found the TOWs to be rewarding because they helped me to become more aware of both the rhetorical strategies discussed in class as well as the world around me.