Throughout my time in the Freshman Composition course, I developed a variety of reading and writing skills that enhanced my knowledge of linguistics and communications. Through essay assignments and rhetorical analyses, I practiced source synthesization, revising and editing processes, identification of rhetorical language and strategies, and the usage of proper source citations. These strategies allowed me to become a more efficient and thoughtful  linguistic analyst. 

I first learned the valuable skill of supporting personal ideological stances through synthesizing and analyzing scholarly and professional sources. This is indicated through my synthesis essay, a persuasive research assignment in which I argued that communication across digital spaces, especially among members of Generation Z, tends to hinder the social progress established within the usage of generalized sexual identity-based labels. I relied on twelve professional and scholarly opinions and databases, ranging from historical research studied at universities to modern statistical data. For each claim I introduced into the essay, I examined each source for applicability to my argument, ultimately strengthening my claim with carefully researched objective knowledge. I proved the sources’ applicability to my argument by first summarizing each source for its credibility, and then analyzing the sources as they related to my aforementioned thesis. Additionally, I compared the relevance of multiple sources for each identity label I introduced in order to incorporate a myriad of evidence to enhance reliability. Through the essay, I learned to “compose texts that integrate a stance with appropriate sources, using strategies such as summary, analysis, synthesis, and argumentation.” As I wrote, 

“As discovered by history and psychology researcher Meredith Worthen at the University of Oklahoma, the term “queer” was commonly used to describe odd nature in the sixteenth century—a gateway to its usage as an insult towards LGBTQ+-identifying folks in both the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. However, in an act of rebellion and reclamation, the term was repurposed by the LGBTQ+ community as a generalized identity label amidst the 1990s  (Worthen ). The label now signifies the community’s social progression as opposed to social oppression. Self-described queer identity is, in the twenty-first century, commonplace. A 2025 study conducted by the Pew Research Center reveals that when LGBTQ+ adults were polled on their identity, 48% described themselves as queer. Furthermore, a significant 59% of the polled queer-identifying adults are between the ages of eighteen and twenty-nine, representing the aforementionedly most prevalent in the digital age (“A majority of young LGBTQ adults describe themselves as queer”). Through separating the term from its originally oppressive meaning, the community’s adaptation of its reclaimed meaning simultaneously identifies many members of the LGBTQ+ feeling otherwise unencompassed through different labels. Generally, interpretation of the term “queer” depends on both social and emotional comprehension of community members’ histories and present comfortability.”

Through this synthesis essay, I also developed skills pertaining to essay drafting, revision, editing, and collaboration processes. Prior to these processes, the first development of the essay opened with a paragraph that introduced my thesis and observations about digital communication and linguistic development. However, the paragraph’s wording was overly complex, and several sentences ran together. This meant that the wording was not as coherent or cohesive. As I first drafted, 

“The digital age has become a catalyst for accessible communities to entail the anonymity of its members. Modernly, digital spaces offer an array of conversational opportunities that, without the social feedback of live dialogue and with the increased anonymity of each participant, removes dialogue from mutual awareness of personal upbringings and progressions of ideology. Behind a screen, social variables, such as reception to conversational cues and knowledge of the opposite party’s familiarity with a given topic, can become lost. Generalized language, carrying with it ambiguity or progressing significance, is especially threatened by the loss of interpersonal intimacy established by digital spaces. Particularly, this could threaten the social awareness of language progression in relation to how marginalized communities identity and communicate. This essay will explore how communication across digital spaces as opposed to live interaction can hinder the social progress established through the usage of generalized sexual identity-based labels.”

In the final development of the essay, I implemented the introductory feedback provided from peer collaboration edits, transforming complex sentence structures throughout the introductory paragraph. I was also able to recognize the importance of universal comprehension while maintaining a personal writing style and flow throughout my own revising and editing processes, and “develop strategies for reading, drafting, collaborating, revising, and editing.” As my final introductory paragraph reads, 

“The digital age has integrated anonymity into communication. Because of this, digital spaces offer an array of conversational opportunities that, separate from live dialogue, hinders both emotional and intellectual awareness on both ends of an exchange. Behind a screen, social variables, such as reception to conversational cues and mutual awareness of educational backgrounds, can become lost. Language with generality, carrying with it ambiguity or progressing significance, is especially threatened by this loss of interpersonal intimacy. On a larger scale, this could threaten language progression in relation to minority communication and identification among those raised in post-progression societies. This essay will explore how Generation Z’s communication across digital spaces, as opposed to in live interaction, can hinder the social progress established within the usage of generalized sexual identity-based labels.”

Furthermore, I learned to identify and apply rhetorical strategies and terms in my writing. In an analysis of June Jordan’s essay “Nobody Mean More to Me than You,” I explored the essay’s rhetorical exigence, or situation that prompts an author to address an audience, through textual inferences and awareness of Jordan’s background as a black educator teaching black-written literature to black students. Through this, I inferred a larger social meaning I observed outside of merely the essay, supporting it with the exigence. Ultimately, this shaped my knowledge of how identification of an author’s purpose lends to not only a more impactful stance from the piece, but a more impactful understanding of social systems and pressures. Generally, I was able to “recognize and practice key rhetorical terms and strategies when engaged in writing situations.” As I analyzed, 

“Published in 1988, June Jordan’s “Nobody Mean More to Me Than You” refutes the societal assumption that Black English, or African-American Vernacular English, is a less proper and communicative form of the English language. Jordan noticed how quickly her predominantly black students critique the Black English in the literature while speaking in similar syntaxes. Jordan finds Black English to be communicatively valuable, and challenges her students’ contradictory thought processes to reveal the importance of cultural community in language. She draws on the linguistic trajectory of Willie, a student in the class, had used this language within his own pieces, but would assimilate into Standard English upon professional endeavors in South Africa when writing about his brother’s murder by police. Jordan illustrates how a white-washed linguistic standard does not effectively communicate with or understand the black community, and that this leads to dramatic linguistic assimilation when speakers of Black English within the black community want to be understood.” 

Finally, I gained knowledge of modern academic citation standards through practice with MLA ninth-edition conventions. This is demonstrated through the citations I provided in my rhetorical analysis worksheets, accommodating publication differences in essays across  scholarly magazines and published books. I was able to identify distinct details within the source materials, such as authors’ names, publication sources, and publication dates. Overall, I learned to “practice systematic application of citation conventions” to correctly credit the sources I used to support my claims. As the citations from my rhetorical analysis worksheets listed,

“Jordan, June. “Nobody Mean More to Me Than You.” Harvard Educational Review, 

            vol. 58, no. 3, 1988,    pp. 363-375.

Tan, Amy. “Mother Tongue.” The Threepenny Review , vol. 43, 1990, pp. 315–320.

           Writing Centers and the New Racism : A Call for Sustainable Dialogue and        

           Change,  edited by Laura Greenfield, and Karen Rowan, Utah State University 

           Press, 2011. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/

           ccny-ebooks/detail.action?docID=3442874.

Writing Centers and the New Racism : A Call for Sustainable Dialogue and Change,   

           edited by Laura Greenfield, and Karen Rowan, Utah State University Press, 2011. 

           ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/ccny-ebooks/

           detail.action?docID=3442874.” 

   Overall, my time in Freshman Composition exposed me to new linguistic skills that enhanced my knowledge of modern academic writing standards. Additionally, the course equipped me with the ability to maintain my stylistic voice while implementing these techniques. In this way, Freshman Composition taught me to be both a better and more comfortable writer.