—  Powerpoint Outlines

—   

—  They Say/I Say Introduction (Graff & Birkenstein)

—   

—  Conversation

—  Writing is a social, conversational, democratic act

—  To excel, you need to “enter a conversation about ideas”

—  These are the basic moves of academic writing

—  User-friendly templates help you make those moves as you train toward independence and competence as writers

—  These templates open up and clarify academic conversation

—  DNA

–  They Say/I Say – internal DNA of all effective argument

–  Effective persuasive writers do more than make well-supported claims – “I say”

—  They map those claims relative to the claims of others

—  How will this help?

–  This method will not just improve your writing, but also your comprehension

—  Effective arguments are always in dialogue with other arguments

—  Text: tough stuff

—  In order to understand challenging college texts, you need to understand the views to which those texts are responding.

—  College Students…

best discover what they want to say by:

Reading texts

Listening closely to what other writers say

Looking for an opening

                                    Entering the conversation

—  In other words…

—              Listening closely to others and summarizing what they have to say can help you generate your own ideas

—  Moves

—  Think of a sport or activity it took you some time to master.

—  You had to learn the basic moves.

—  Those moves would be mysterious or difficult if someone did not have your experience.

—  Accomplished writers have a set of basic moves to communicate sophisticated ideas

—  Not formulaic

—  Critical reading and writing go deeper than templates or formulas.

—  You will need to

–  Question assumptions

–  Develop strong claims

–  Offer supporting reasons and evidence

–  Consider opposing arguments

—  What will this do for me?

—  Templates will give you the language for expressing deep habits of thought

—  You will gain a language for expressing ideas in clear, organized ways

—  Be responsive

—  To make an impact as a writer, find a way of entering a conversation with others’ views – with something “they” say

—  It is what others are saying that motivates our response

—  Your own argument should always be a response to the arguments of others

—  Example:

—  Martin Luther King Jr.’s “Letter from Birmingham Jail.”

—  Responsive

—  You deplore the demonstrations taking place in Birmingham. But your statement, I am sorry to say, fails to express a similar concern for the conditions that brought about the demonstrations.

—                                      Martin Luther King, Jr., “Letter from Birmingham Jail.”

—  Thoroughly conversational:

—              King’s critics

—              King’s response

—              Critics

—              Response

—  King’s Techniques

—  King treats critics as motivating source of those arguments

—  He quotes not only what they say, but what they might have said

—  He sets the stage for his own argument

—   

—  Another Example

—  They Say/I Say opens an essay about American patriotism regarding the national fervor after post 9/11

—  Find They Say, then I Say…

—  My daughter, who goes to Stuyvesant High School only blocks away from the former World Trade Center, thinks we should fly the American flag out our window. Definitely not, I say: The flag stands for jingoism and vengeance and war.

—                                                              Katha Pollitt, “Put Out No Flags”

—                         

—  They

—  does not have to be a famous author

—  Can be

—              a family member,

—              friend,

—              classmate,

—              or blogger who has made a provocative claim

—  They

—  Can be

—              An individual

—              A group

—              A side of yourself – something you once believed but no longer do

—              Something you partly believe but also doubt

—  - Who is the “phantom” They Say?

—  I like to think I have a certain advantage as a teacher of literature because when I was growing up I disliked and                              feared books.

—  - Gerald Graff, “Disliking Books at an Early Age.”