What was the point?

     “Your toe?  What do you mean, you have to “do your toe” by this Sunday night?”  No, I remember explaining to my mystified parents.  My TOW, not my toe.  An assignment I was already dreading, for not only would it entail critically and rhetorically analyzing various works, but would also require doing so on a weekly basis.  What fun.  Unenthused, I set out each weekend to conquer my TOW, a mindset that consequently revealed itself in my writing.  Yes— while I did my TOW dutifully every weekend, my initial entries were hardly more than generic works that simply listed each piece of the “TOW guideline sheet.”  Heavy with summary, these first entries were largely explanatory and seemed to include bits and pieces of rhetorical analyses as mere afterthought.  An audience and author’s purpose were explicitly defined in these early TOWs, which all seemed to follow the same cut-and-dry pattern: simple hook, introductory information, summary, intended audience, rhetorical analysis, and the author’s purpose.  As weeks turned to months and I continued to slog through this weekly chore, I couldn’t help but wonder: what was the point?  Was I actually gaining anything useful from this experience?

     Turns out I was.  Slowly, subconsciously, my TOWs were morphing from simple, amateur writing to more mature, thoughtful prose (in tandem with their increasing length).  As I began to perceive the TOW guideline sheet less as a crutch and more as a guide, I noticed the focus of my TOWs shift from summary to analysis.  A flow became present in the writing between what the author said, my impressions and analyses, and back to the author’s intended purpose.  It seemed less and less as if phrases were stuck haphazardly into the TOW, but rather as if they belonged there, in their natural place beside other analysis and transitional words.  I stopped “doing” my TOWs and started crafting them; stopped analyzing the same few rhetorical devices and began to extend my analyses into the plethora of devices out there.  I noticed marked improvements in my thesis statements and the overall flow of my work; it seemed as if I had begun to master the art of expression, not just of my own thoughts but also of translating into my own words what I perceived to be other authors’ beliefs and techniques.

     Granted, there is still much room for improvement.  I still wrestle with the “consequence” aspect of my thesis statements, and I know that I can always improve and expand upon the sources of my TOWs as well as the devices through which I analyze them.  Sometimes, it still feels as if I’m simply writing sentences to make sure I include all of the TOW’s necessary components, and at other times I sense a rushed conclusion, or a string of sentences that isn’t quite cohesive.  Yet gaining this appreciation for myself as a writer and a more solid understanding of my place in the community through my analysis of the rhetorical elements that surround me in daily life is certainly one of the best rewards that the TOW assignments have provided me.  I understand the purpose of these TOWs was significantly to help prepare students for the AP Exam, and while I cannot say that I used any of my TOWs in either the Mock or actual AP exam, I know that the rhetorical analysis process itself I used in constructing my TOWs certainly helped me on 5-10-13.  Furthermore, the ability to rethink an author’s purpose and find subtleties in works and expressions is a valuable skill that I know I was able to hone through these TOW assignments.  Therefore, it is clear to me now that I benefitted from completing a TOW every weekend.  Although I could not grasp initially how much I was to grow as a thinker and writer through these assignments, I am appreciative now of the diligence and work I put into each TOW, for now I have a much more solid understanding of not only the world around me but also of myself.