They Say I say

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They SayI say

• By Gerald Graff
• and Cathy Birkenstein

AP Language and Composition Mariana Hughes
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Rationale for Text

• Intellectual writing is almost always composed
  in response to others texts.
• AP Assessment
• Students need to understand the moves that
  matter in language they can readily apply.

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I know what I mean but I cant get it on the
paper

• Disconnect exists Solution?
• You have skills to comprehend, summarize,
  analyze, etc.
• Problem arises when you have to do many of these
  together in your own writing.
• Templates can help!

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Sample Template

• In discussions of ------, a controversial issue
  is whether ------- or --------. While some argue
  that ----, others contend that -----. That is
  not to say that ----.
• What do they/I say in the following?
• For decades, weve worked under the assumption
  that mass culture follows a path declining
  steadily toward the lowest common denominator
  standards, presumably because the masses want
  dumb simple pleasures and big media companies try
  to give the masses what they want. But the exact
  opposite is happening the culture is getting
  more cognitively demanding, not less.
• Steven Johnson, Watching TV Makes You Smarter

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Sample Template

• Sometimes the author response is to views that
  they do not identify explicitly.
• I remember the day I became colored.
• Zora Neale Hurston, How It Feels to Be Colored
  Me

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Sample Template

• Of course some object that -----. Although I
  concede -----, I still maintain that ----.
• What does a writer accomplish through this
  template?
• Templates do not have to be used word for word
  It is a framework

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Some Important Moves in Writing

• Summarizing
• Framing quotations in your own words
• Indicating the view that the writer is responding
  to
• Marking a shift from a sources view to the
  writers view, offering evidence, entertaining
  counter arguments.

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What are some concerns with templates?
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Some templates to summarize

• Many Americans assume that ----.
• On the one hand----. On the other hand----.
• I agree that ----.

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Example from Letter from Birmingham Jail

• You deplore the demonstrations taking place in
  Birmingham. But your statement, I am sorry to
  say, fails to express a similar concerns for the
  conditions that brought about the
  demonstrations.
• Look back at text Do you see his rhetorical
  pattern? They say/ I say?

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Example

• My daughter, who goes to Stuyvesant High School
  only blocks 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
• Who is the they in this example?

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Example

• 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

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Editorial Example

• If ever there were a newspaper headline
  custom-made for Jay Lenos monologue, this was
  it. Kids taking on McDonalds this week, suing
  the company for making them fat. Isnt that like
  middle aged men suing Porche for making them get
  speeding tickets? Whatever happened to personal
  responsibility?
• I tend to sympathize with these portly fast-food
  patrons, though. Maybe because I used to be one
  of them. - David Zincezenko, Dont Blame the
  eater

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Practice

• Write a short intro that responds to the authors
  rationale for using templates. Use the They say/
  I say format.

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Importance of summary

• Clarifies topic
• Gives you a frame for your discussion
• Gives evidence of your careful reading

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Orwell

• Most people who bother with the matter at all
  would admit that the English Language is in a bad
  way, but it is generally assumed we cannot by
  conscious action do anything about it. Our
  civilization is decadent and our language--- so
  the argument runs---must inevitably share in the
  general collapse
• But the process is reversible. Modern
  English.. Is full of bad habitswhich can be
  avoided if one is willing to take the necessary
  trouble.
• ---George Orwell, Politics and the English
  Language

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Dangers of summary

• Reducing authors ideas to a cliché that you know
  of
• Too much summary
• Not enough summary

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Keep your reader aware of your purpose!

• Use return sentences to cue your reader

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Examples for AP

• Defending authors claims
• She argues ---, and I agree because---.
• Her argument that ---is supported by new research
  showing that -----.
• Qualifying
• He claims that ---, and I have mixed feelings
  about it. On the one hand I agree that ---. On
  the other hand I insist that ----.