They Say / I Say: The Moves That Matter in Academic Writing

I must say that I have always appreciated W. W. Norton, especially because of the excellent thorough anthologies that the company produces. As a rule, Norton can be counted on to turn out top-notch titles available to academics and general readers. The publication company produces a number of fiction titles, but it is Norton’s classics series that are particularly useful. I once taught a course on Mary Shelly’s Frankenstein a few years back using the Norton edition, and the book proved to be of great value to myself and to my students. Included with the text were essays by contemporaries of Shelly as well as by present-day literary critics. Additionally, the Norton edition contained original drafts of Shelly’s magnum opus.

Suffice it to say, I love W.W. Norton. When I think of reading for pleasure’s sake or for pleasurable academic pursuits, Norton is the name that immediately comes to mind. Imagine my surprise about a year ago when I researched Norton only to discover the company is entirely employee owned! While employee ownership is fairly new, the trend is starting to catch on. Bob’s Red Mill, WinCo Foods, and New Belgium Brewing Company are just a few companies that claim to be organized in such a fashion. (Some of these are set up as Employee Share Ownership Plans, which allow workers to own stock options, while other employee owned companies are organized slightly differently.) I am told by one of the Norton representatives who I deal with that the company is an excellent place to work for, the employees enjoy great benefits, and that she would not exchange the experience for the world. Whether she was speaking in hyperbolic terms remains to be seen, but I trust her when she says the company is an excellent place to work for.

However, this entry is meant to be a book review, not a company review. They Say / I Say by Gerald Graff and Cathy Birkenstein is an excellent affordable book that provides students with easy-to-grasp understanding of the essay writing process. The book itself is not a traditional textbook that teaches the importance of, say narrative and observational writing, however. Rather, They Say / I Say provides student writers with a series of guiding templates to help them through the writing process. The edition of They Say / I Say that I use is divided logically into four main sections:

  1. Part 1: “They Say”: Students are taught the art of summarizing and quoting source material.
  2. Part 2: “I say”: Students are taught how to respond to the source material that they quote.
  3. Part 3: Tying It All Together: Students are taught how to develop their own professional essayistic voice.
  4. Part 4: In Specific Academic Settings: This latter half is a section I rarely refer to, but it is useful nevertheless for teaching students how to engage in academic discourses in the classes themselves.

I find myself frequently referring to this text in my own class, and have even adopted some of Graff’s and Birkenstein’s ideas. One particularly useful visual image is the “Quotation Sandwich.” Graff and Birkenstein explain:

To adequately frame a quotation, you need to insert it into what we like to call a “quotation sandwich,” with the statement introducing it serving as the top slice of bread and the explanation following it serving as the bottom slice. The introductory or lead-in claims should explain who is speaking and set up what the quotation says; the follow-up statements should explain why you consider the quotation to be important and what you take it to say. (46)

The authors then go one to provide templates for introducing quotations. For instance: “X states . . . ” “As the prominent philosopher X puts it . . . ” and “X agrees when she writes . . .” (46) .The templates themselves are particularly invaluable because many people are often at a loss for words when trying to set up quotes.

At first glance, the idea of relying on templates seems limiting and one might argue that templates actually stifle one’s imagination. In fact, templates do the exact opposite. All writing that falls into specific genres naturally adheres to specific conventions. Technical writers have their set of rules, screenwriters have their own set of rules, novelists have their own set of rules, and so on. Why should essay writing be any different? As the authors explain:

The aim of the templates, then, is not to stifle critical thinking but to be direct with students about the key rhetorical moves that it comprises. Since we encourage students to modify and adapt the templates to the particularities of the arguments they are making, using such prefabricated formulas as learning tools need not result in writing and thinking that are themselves formulaic. (xxii)

The goal of any composition course should be to make writing an easier task. As Graff and Birkenstein correctly point out, templates simply save time by allowing students to express the ideas they want to convey in a freer, surer, and faster matter.

It is important, though, to understand what this book is not: The slim edition of They Say / I Say does not provide information on critical thinking, critical reading, or conventions of logic. It also does not provide MLA, APA, or Chicago style manuals (for such references there is always Purdue OWL) Instead, the book is best used as a handy reference guide for setting up quotes and establishing a dialogue with other texts. Or, as Graff and Birkenstein put it, the book helps with “putting in your oar.” The authors quote literary theorist Kenneth Burke’s The Philosophy of Literary Form in which he compares intellectual exchange to a never-ending conversation at a party. Burke writes:

You come late. When you arrive, others have long preceded you, and they are engaged in a heated discussion, a discussion too heated for them to pause and tell you exactly what it is about. . . . You listen for a while, until you decide that you have caught the tenor of the argument; then you put in your oar. Someone answers; you answer him; another comes to your defense; another aligns himself against you. . . . The hour grows late, you must depart. And you do depart, with the discussion still vigorously in progress. (13)

The world of academia and the experience of academic discourse need not be tedious. They Say / I Say works toward this ends, making academic discourse easy and delightful. I recommend this book to anyone who is taking a course requiring research essays or to anyone simply wishing to learn how to improve one’s writing skills in general.

Purchasing Information: The book can be purchased at the W.W. Norton website, where it currently sells for $23.12. Powell’s Books sells it currently for $29.95, although the nice thing about Powell’s is that the online store does sell used books.

Publication Information: Graff, Gerald and Cathy Birkenstein. They Say / I Say: The Moves that Matter in Academic Writing. New York: W.W. Norton, 2009. Second Edition. ISBN: 978-0-393-93361-1