Gerald Graff And Birkenstein's 'THE SAY, I Say'

Have you ever noticed that the voices of others build up your own response? Gaining a perspective on this question is not an easy task to reflect on especially when people’s arguments determines your own. Gerald Graff’s and Cathy Birkenstein’s book, “THEY SAY, I SAY”, abridges their perspective on difficulties students face with persuasive writing. By deliberately including academic templates, the book assists students to overcome their inability of constructing their own arguments, based on what others have said. Covering the first four chapters; “they say”, “I say”, “trying is all together”, and “In specific academic context” I will showcase how Graff and Birkenstein’s book aid students to better express their personal thoughts.

A writer must explicitly clarify what his or her thesis is responding to. Graff and Birkenstein open their book with a clear realistic example of a speaker’s argument that never indicated the opposition’s claim. The authors insist that, “ to keep an audience engaged, a writer needs to explain what he or she is responding to.”1 Through positioning this information at the very start of the book,

They insist that through taking a position, “readers will have a strong grasp of your position … being able to appreciate the complications you go on to offer.”4 Ways of responding such as agreeing, disagreeing, and being neutral are essential to oversimplify or even lessens the complexity of the argument being made. Thus, it is always crucial to explicitly declare a position as a technique to launch a response.

In conclusion, it 's clear that Gerald Graff’s and Cathy Birkenstein’s book, “THEY SAY, I SAY.” presents us with fundamental rhetorical techniques in academic writing. They achieved this effectively in the four chapters of the book; “they say”, “I say”, “trying is all together”, and “In specific academic