“They Say, I Say” Introduction

klynnc2008 — Thu, 10 Sep 2009 15:37:42 +0000

In the introduction to “They Say/I Say”: The Moves That Matter in Academic Writing, Gerald Graff and Cathy Birkenstein provide templates designed to help you successfully enter the world of academic thinking, writing and worlds of civic discourse and work. Specifically, Graff and Birkenstein argue that the types of writing templates they offer will help students appreciate the difference between disciplines and genres. As the authors themselves put it, “It is our belief, that the ‘They Say/I Say’ pattern cuts across different disciplines and genres of writing, including creative writing.” Although some people believe it would not ba a good thing to use templates. Graff and Birkenstein insist that is will help students. In sum, their view is that templates are not for everyone, but can be very useful at certain times.

I have mixed feelings. In my view, the types of templates that the authors recommend could take away from ones creativity, but also help others that are no so creative. For instance, a creative person could have millions of ideas for a paper, but they have a use a strict template that doesn’t allow one to express all their feelings thoroughly. In addition, some people never know how to write or what to write and templates may help. some might argue that templates are a great way to ge a start on writing. Overall, then, I believe templates have pros and cons, an important point to make given every person has a different way of learning.

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“They Say, I Say” Introduction