Gerald Graff And Brirkenstein They Say I Say Summary
In the Introduction to “They Say I Say”: The Moves that Matter in Academic Writing, Gerald Graff and Cathy Birkenstein provide templates designed to guide students in academic discussion and debates through writing and also have students engage in critical thinking which in turn makes the writing task easier to complete. Specifically, Graff and Birkenstein argue that the types of writing templates they offer takes writing beyond the traditional five-paragraph essay and engage students in writing styles of debate which requires the writer to listen to others and effectively respond in agreeance or disagreeance. As the authors put it, “the underlying structure of effective academic writing – and of responsible public discourse – resides not
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In my view, the types of templates that the authors recommend can be very beneficial in helping writers express themselves especially for someone that struggles with generating ideas and getting thoughts in sentence format on paper. For instance, the templates provide a guide to write at a sentence level, invoking the thought process, and then allow the writer to go back and elaborate or expand on the ideas/sentences as needed. In addition, the templates provide a supporting guide to introduce quotes, explain the quote in your own words, then state your argument and provide evidence. With this guide, a writer is more likely to include the necessary information needed to prove a point within an argument. Some might object, of course, on the grounds that one might be plagiarizing, because it is a template or work of another author. Yet I would argue that these are more like tools used in the writing process similar to the steps of PEMDAS used to solve math problems. Overall, then, I believe the authors are trying to provide a tool to make the writing process easier and also improve the writing and critical thinking skills of individuals – an important point to make given is that many people struggle with getting their ideas on paper in a logical
In my view, the types of templates that the authors recommend can be very beneficial in helping writers express themselves especially for someone that struggles with generating ideas and getting thoughts in sentence format on paper. For instance, the templates provide a guide to write at a sentence level, invoking the thought process, and then allow the writer to go back and elaborate or expand on the ideas/sentences as needed. In addition, the templates provide a supporting guide to introduce quotes, explain the quote in your own words, then state your argument and provide evidence. With this guide, a writer is more likely to include the necessary information needed to prove a point within an argument. Some might object, of course, on the grounds that one might be plagiarizing, because it is a template or work of another author. Yet I would argue that these are more like tools used in the writing process similar to the steps of PEMDAS used to solve math problems. Overall, then, I believe the authors are trying to provide a tool to make the writing process easier and also improve the writing and critical thinking skills of individuals – an important point to make given is that many people struggle with getting their ideas on paper in a logical