Throughout my time in the Freshman Composition course, I learned the valuable skill of supporting ideological positions through synthesizing and analyzing scholarly and professional sources. This is indicated through my synthesis essay, a persuasive research assignment in which I argued that Generation Z’s communication across digital spaces hinders 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 in the essay, I examined each source for applicability to my argument, ultimately strengthening my claim with objective knowledge. Additionally, I juxtaposed two sources for each larger claim in order to demonstrate multiple dimensions of evidence, presenting nuance to the subject matter. 

“In the sixteenth century, the term “queer” was commonly used to describe odd nature—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, though many modern dictionaries still define the term as “odd”  (Weisbard et. al.). Thus, the label “queer” is modernly destigmatized and adapted by the LGBTQ+ community. The term 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 of the LGBTQ+ adults 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 rise in the usage of its reclaimed meaning simultaneously identifies many members of the LGBTQ+ feeling otherwise unencompassed through different labels. Generally, the rise in queer identity among those frequently occupying digital spaces gives diversity within the larger LGBTQ+ community a further reach.”

Through this synthesis essay, I developed skills pertaining to drafting, revision, editing, and collaboration processes. Prior to these processes, the first development of the essay included no introductory analysis of the claims later discussed. However, the first revision, overseen by a peer editor that read for clarity, established introductory personal analyses that were often complexively-worded and, therefore, not as coherent or cohesive. 

“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 revision and editing process of the essay, I implemented the introductory feedback provided from peer collaboration, transforming sentences structures and powerful word choices throughout the beginning paragraph. Ultimately, I was able to recognize the importance of extrinsic opinions and comprehension as well as maintaining a personal writing style and flow throughout drafting processes. 

“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 implement rhetorical strategies and terms in my writing. In an analysis of June Jordan’s  “Nobdoy 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 teacher teaching black-written literature to black students. Through this, I inferred a larger modern social meaning I observed outside of merely the essay, supporting it with Jordan’s credentials implied through 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. 

“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.” 

Separate from my writing, I gained knowledge of modern MLA 9th edition citation conventions and implemented them into source credits. This is demonstrated through the citations I provided in my rhetorical analysis worksheets, accommodating publication differences in each essay whether it be from a scholarly magazine or a published book. Overall,  I was able to correspond identification of details within the source material, such as author’s name, publication source, and publication date, with modern academic citation standards to correctly credit the sources I used to support claims I made in my writing. 

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.