They say I say
You come late. When you arrive, others have long preceded you, and they are engaged in a heated discussion, a discussion too heated for them to pause and tell you exactly what it is about. You listen for a while, until you decide that you have caught the tenor of the argument then you put in your oar. Someone answers, you answer him another comes to your defense another aligns himself against you. The hour grows late, you must depart. And you do depart, with the discussion still vigorously in progress. - Kenneth Burke Notes on They Say / I Say The Moves that Matter in Academic Writing By Gerald Graff and Cathy Birkenstein The central claim of the authors It is our belief that the they say / I say pattern cuts across different disciplines and genres of writing, including creative writing. Although students must eventually master the specific writing conventions of their majors, we believe that there is no major or discipline that does not require writers to frame their own claims as a response to what others before them have said. Indeed, students who master the elemental moves prompted by the templates in this book should actually become better able to appreciate the differences between disciplines and genres (xviii). They say / I say is the internal DNA of all argumentation. Coming to recognize the way these moves work in their own writing are positioned to become better readers, too, since the templates help them to recognize the ways that authors are positioning themselves in relationship to other arguments. The book provides templates not to stifle critical thinking but to be direct with students about the key rhetorical moves that comprise it (xv) the forms dont dictate content but provide a way of formatting how you say it (11). Part I. They Say The simplest template for academic writing is this one They say ____ I say ____. In other words, writingall writingis about listening to others, summarizing their views, and responding with