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They say I say analysis.

English learners always think that academic writing is all about grammar, spelling, and structure which is not the case. College writing requires a lot of skills and knowledge on what to do. The book, They Say, I Say The Moves That Matter in Academic Writing by Gerald Graff and Cathy Birkenstein is a good example of a text that explains this. The book has a great impact on how to write in many schools in the United States. According to Gerald, students make writing appear to be a hard task than it is thus the goal of the text is to make academic writing better by removing the mystery out of it (Graff, G., and Cathy B. pg. 2). These two authors help us to structure our work, think critically and make it interesting.

Reading the text, they say I say makes me feel smarter while reading it because I now know what to do after reading the book. First, through the templates, Gerald and Cathy enlighten me on how to explain and formalize counter-arguments, for example, I still insist that, though I concede with, and I believe that. This is counter arguments for the ‘I say ‘ while they say can be explained by, In recent discussions of, according to the explanation of, and in recent writings. From this templets, I feel I can argue and give explanations of something in a better way of making me smart. Also, as a writer, I feel motivated to write better as I understand that when presenting something you start with ‘they say’ then followed by ‘ say.’ This gives sense and creativity to my piece of writing giving me the urgency to write more.

From reading the text at the end of it, I feel bold enough to Write a book summary including ‘They say / I say ‘ many writers shy away from doing book summaries because they lack information on how to report someone’s work. First I clearly understand to write a good summary you have to put what ‘ they say’ in view. Readers are not at a position to follow what you are unfolding unless you keep reminding them of the claims you are reviewing. ‘ They say acts as a motivating comment to keep the audience following what you are presenting. Cathy also gives the art of summarising where she prefers balancing the author’s point of view and my point of view(Graff, G., and Cathy B. pg. 61). Also, the art of summarising involves suspending your thoughts and putting yourself in another person. The text explains that a good summary contains a focus that allows my agenda to fit while maintaining the originality of the text I am summarising. From these, I can ascertain to, give a good summary.

The audience for this book is teachers, students, and professional writers. After reading they say/ I say, the audience at large will feel enlightened because there are some tips on writing and reporting which they didn’t know and have now read them. The audience skills of writing will be improved from reading the text where they will know the order in which to report things and how to give An explanation of his or her work. You first introduce the ‘ they say ‘ then followed by your response. The texts enlighten its audience by further going ahead to give examples of how to introduce the statements both their own and the other party’s. An example of the templates is, In their recent work, Y and Z have offered harsh critiques of and issues (Graff, G.and Cathy B. pg. 22). From this, the students can relate and write a better article or blog. In the united states, many students and teachers have taken the ideas of Cathy and Gerald and applied it in different directions.

Teachers and instructors as an audience will feel their teaching made easier by the text since both the teacher and learner get the knowledge from the text. Students will know how to write their essays, and hence the teachers will receive quality work. ‘ They say/ I say ‘ has made teaching easier because the book gives explanations on how to write your own and report other people’s work. This makes education feel appreciated and that people are willing to add value to literature. The text is used widely in different courses which is heartening to the authors since they intended it to for the first year students (http://compositionforum.com/issue/18/they-say-i-say-review.php.) This shows that teachers feel their teaching will be easier by having the students reading the book. We can summarise by saying the book generally adds value to English and knowledge at large making people more bright and creative. Also, the audience feels challenged since many think English is all about grammar, spelling, and structure but now Gerald and Cathy add something new to it. The professionals and students are challenged to come up with a new piece of writing that will add some value to English an,d writing as the text did by opening and broadening our minds.

Besides the book being educative it has its high and low points, places where the reader feels the authors performed their best and where we feel the text was not performing its best. According to me, the book is performing its best when it tries to explain to the reader on how to respond to every situation giving examples by the use of templates. The book adheres to its title. They say I say where it teaches the students how to be creative on developing ideas on someone’s piece of work. For example, according to X, I agree with Y on his idea. With the idea of templates, the authors were creative in trying to explain to the reader what he or she is supposed to do (https://learningenglish.voanews.com/a/tips-for-writing-they-say-i-say/2598428.html.). Learners need a place to start, and with the temples, I get to clearly understand the structure and how to make quality moves in my writing.

At the instructor guide, we can say the fourth edition is at its best by providing the teacher with more ideas on educating academic writing. The book is performing well at the point where it gives examples to explain each aspect of writing. For example, the summary of who is responsible for obesity in children which highlighted Zinczenko research and the writer’s argument (Graff, G., and Cathy B. pg. 52). Also giving examples of signal verbs to fit the action makes it easier for the reader to relate. Despite the book being of much help if find the text performing low by teaching the students on simplification of an argument, the authors encourage deliberate ignorance of the complex conversations. Templets allow students to get into a debate with a realizable form, which reduces the complex issues leading to discussions that represent deductable voices of the past conversations.

The book they say I say is responding to the things that matter in academic writing that many didn’t know. It gives an introduction to present an argument and how to write conversations relating to other people’s. I feel the two authors accomplished their aims since they gave ways on how to present an argument which is an issue with most students. They did tackle this by giving examples on when to use ‘they say’ and ‘I say’ giving ways to present it. Also examples of article summaries and practice techniques on ways to use quotes. The situation responded to is the fact that we all think English is about grammar and spelling but also creativity, structure and how we present our arguments (http://compositionforum.com/issue/18/they-say-i-say-review.php.). The authors make sure we understand all this and even gives practice exercise to help us familiarise and see if we understood. The book argues in teaching the students the rules and creative skills required in the art of writing.

The author tries to be persuasive making his work quality and one that can be read by everyone. From a rhetorical perspective, we can say that the boog is logic since it gives examples and summaries of works already in place, for example, the Zinczenko research on obesity. It uses examples of philosophers such as feminist Susan Bodo who laments that media is giving pressure on women to a diet which is still the case currently (Graff, G., and Cathy B. pg. 64). The work is logical since it explains current issues such as people referring to British and American culture as western culture.

Pathos, on the other hand, is observed when he gives an example of a class that is we are all middle class, and we are a nation of opportunity. This makes the reader feel that class divisions are a determining factor of the society we live in this divisions are real. The reader feels sorry for the society that classifies itself according to the social classes. Finally, the credibility of this work can be seen at the start of the book where over 1000 institutions are using this book in teaching and teachers have appreciated it (Graff, G., and Cathy B. pg. iv). The book is said to be selling across the world, and the authors of this book are a professor and a lecturer, Gerald Graff is a professor of English at the University of Illinois while Cathy Birkesten, a lecturer in English. As writers and English students, we need to embrace the text. They say I say and use it for reference purposes in writing our articles. Work Cited

Birkenstein, Cathy, and Cyndee Maxwell. They Say, I Say. Gildan Audio, 2014.

Graff, Gerald, and Cathy Birkenstein. “they Say / I Say”: The Moves That Matter in Academic Writing. , 2018.

http://compositionforum.com/issue/18/they-say-i-say-review.php.

https://learningenglish.voanews.com/a/tips-for-writing-they-say-i-say/2598428.html.