"They Say / I Say" with Readings

by Gerald Graff, Cathy Birkenstein, Laura J. Panning Davies

The essential little book that students love for demystifying academic writing, reading, and research
Millions of students love “They Say / I Say” because it offers lively and practical advice they can use throughout their college career (and beyond). Now, students can learn how to connect their “I Say” to broader public conversations through a new chapter “In My Experience,” and they will engage more deeply with their assigned readings thanks to new co-author Laura Davies’s work on both a dynamic Norton Illumine Ebook and an energetic revision of the version with readings—making the Sixth Edition an even more useful tool for students throughout their college experience. This purchase offers access to the digital ebook only.

Genres: College, School, Nonfiction, Textbooks, Reference, Read For School, Writing

802 pages, Kindle Edition

Published July 1, 2024

Reviews

[malayna · Rating 3 out of 5]

MY OPINION: ***

I read this for my summer college class (my first class at college!) on reading and composition. My GSI wanted us to have a "guide" for writing proper essays and research papers in an academic setting. As someone who loves writing and has been fairly prolific in that field, I found this book to be quite an interesting perspective on the "proper" way to write.

Obviously, there is no real one way to write. Everyone has their own styles and abilities and rightfully so (otherwise, writing would be very boring). This book definitely doesn't act like it's the end-all, be-all way to write an essay. Instead, it offers several templates and examples of "good" writing that will generally fall within expected guidelines from professors and other academics in the field. I found the templates a little off-putting, since I don't like to have such cut-and-dry writing in my essays but in the end, they were at least a little helpful in terms of organization and helping me to voice my thoughts properly. Obviously, since my GSI had required us to read this book, we were pretty much expected to at least try to incorporate what we learned from this book into our own writing, so I learned how to write in this style fairly well.

While actually having to read an entire book about how to write is clearly not the most entertaining piece of literature, I found it generally helpful or at least attempting to be helpful to any of its readers. The writers didn't come off as pretentious know-it-alls and seemed to acknowledge that many of their readers may not end up using the exact templates and guides that they suggest. Instead, this book is more of a resource for those who are stuck writing argumentative essays and trying to incorporate other viewpoints besides their own.

I actually am horrible at including other perspectives in my writing to back up my own points. I find it challenging (and rightfully so). This book helped me come up with different, unique ways to include other quotes, examples, and arguments to back up my overall thesis in a way I hadn't really practiced before in high school.

The overall writing style of this book itself is very easy to follow and went by very quickly. I would definitely recommend trying this one out if you are taking any sort of college English class!

Main Character: N/A
Sidekick(s): N/A
Villain(s): N/A
Academic Nonfiction Elements: This book is a guide to academic writing.

[Andrew Martin · Rating 5 out of 5]

This a tremendously useful and accessible textbook. It is jam-packed with templates to support student writing, specifically students who intend to write college- and near-college-level responses (which are themselves arguments, given that all good academic writing is conversational). I was hooked from the beginning because the authors make quick work of establishing and constantly reaffirming salient points about writing and low-bar-for-entry methods to turn those points into reality. I expect that it will play a central role in the writing instruction I develop for my college-bound seniors later this year.

[Elizabeth Raley · Rating 5 out of 5]

I use this text when teaching my ENG-103 course (second semester college composition) and find it incredibly useful. The chapters are brief and concise, the language used is interesting and relatable, and the readings are some of the best I’ve found in a combination textbook + reader. A particularly useful tool is the authors’ use of templates for writing. When students are “stuck” or simply need a jumping off point, referring to and using or modifying a template, and there are many, really helps them. Templates are organized by chapter: how to discuss what “they say,” how to respond to a text (an “I say” statement), how to transition between ideas, how to integrate a quote into my sentence… it’s all there! The readings deal with topics like the environment, division in America, how technology is changing us, the usefulness of a college education, gender roles, etc.; these are topics my students find very engaging, from writers who keep it interesting and offer diverse perspectives. It’s also small and relatively inexpensive—this is fairly important when you teach at a community college with a diverse student body, like I do. Two thumbs up from me!

[Coco Yuen · Rating 3 out of 5]

stupid book that points out the obvious with no substantial insights; read this for advanced rhetoric class.

[Isla ⭐️ · Rating 2 out of 5]

man fuck gender studies.

[Imani Jaldin Hartsough · Rating 4 out of 5]

I liked this book the essays in it were engaging and the writing tools were helpful. My only complaint was that there was some fairness bias. *Let's hear from someone who thinks we should help solve climate change with these scientifically backed ideas! Now, let's hear from someone who thinks the government should start paying companies when they go below their carbon predictions for the upcoming year.*. So that definitely annoyed me.

[Yinzadi]

Table of Contents (6th Edition)

*indicates new content

PREFACE TO THE SIXTH EDITION

PREFACE: Demystifying Academic Conversation

INTRODUCTION: Entering the Conversation

PART ONE: “THEY SAY”

1. “THEY SAY”: Starting with What Others Are Saying

2. “HER POINT IS”: The Art of Summarizing

3. “AS HE HIMSELF PUTS IT”: The Art of Quoting


PART TWO: “I SAY”

4. “YES / NO / OK, BUT”: Three Ways to Respond

5. “AND YET”: Distinguishing What You Say from What They Say

6. “SKEPTICS MAY OBJECT”: Planting a Naysayer in Your Text

*7. “IN MY EXPERIENCE”: Using Personal Stories to Energize Your Argument

8. “SO WHAT? WHO CARES?”: Saying Why It Matters


PART THREE: TYING IT ALL TOGETHER

9. “AS A RESULT”: Connecting the Parts

10. “YOU MEAN I CAN JUST SAY IT THAT WAY?”: Academic Writing Doesn’t Mean Setting Aside Your Own Voice

11. “BUT DON’T GET ME WRONG”: The Art of Metacommentary

12. “WHAT I REALLY WANT TO SAY IS”: Revising Substantially


PART FOUR: IN SPECIFIC ACADEMIC CONTEXTS

13. “I TAKE YOUR POINT”: Entering Class Discussions

14. WHAT’S MOTIVATING THIS WRITER?: Reading for the Conversation

15. “BUT AS SEVERAL SOURCES SUGGEST”: Research as Conversation

16. “ON CLOSER EXAMINATION”: Entering Conversations about Literature

17. “THE DATA SUGGEST”: Writing in the Sciences

18. “ANALYZE THIS”: Writing in the Social Sciences

*19. “HELP ME UNDERSTAND . . .”: When Your “They Say” Is a Bot


Readings

*19. WHO DECIDES WHAT FREEDOM IS?

*NESRINE MALIK, The Myth of the Free Speech Crisis

*KATHA POLLITT, The Left Needs Free Speech

*ERIC HOLDER, Our Unfinished March

*ARTHI SIVENDRA, American Democracy: One Person, One Vote?

MICHELLE ALEXANDER, The New Jim Crow

*JOHN PFAFF, A Response to the ‘Standard Story’ about US Incarceration Rates

*LUTICHA DOUCETTE, If You’re in a Wheelchair, Segregation Lives

*CARISSA VÉLIZ, If AI Is Predicting Your Future, Are You Still Free?

*MARTIN DEMPSEY, 90 Seconds Together


20. HOW IS TECHNOLOGY CHANGING US?

KENNETH GOLDSMITH, Go Ahead: Waste Time on the Internet

*CHRISTINE ROSEN, Keep Them Offline

NICHOLAS CARR, How Smartphones Hijack Our Minds

JUSTIN VINH, Social Media: The Screen, the Brain, and Human Nature

*JOE GARCIA, Left Behind: Internet Access for People Behind Bars

*ANNA ROMINA GUEVARRA, Here Come the Robot Nurses

*LANA SWARTZ, In Praise of the Dollar Bill

CAROLE CADWALLADR, Google, Democracy, and the Truth about Internet Search


21. WHY CARE ABOUT THE PLANET?

*EMMA BARNES, The Fast and the Fashionable: How Your Closet Contributes to a Global Crisis

BEN ADLER, Banning Plastic Bags Is Great for the World, Right? Not So Fast

*AYANA ELIZABETH JOHNSON, What I Know About the Ocean

*DAVID WALLACE-WELLS, from The Uninhabitable Earth

ALICE CHEN AND VIVEK MURTHY, Should We Be More Optimistic about Fighting Climate Change?

*MATT RIDLEY, Going Nuclear

SANDIS EDWARD WAIALAE WIGHTMAN, Mauna Kea: The Fight to Preserve Culture

*DINA GILIO-WHITAKER, Environmental Justice Is Only the Beginning


22. WHAT’S COLLEGE FOR?

*CARINE M. FEYTEN, The Boys Are Doing Just Fine

*RICHARD V. REEVES, No, the Boys Are Not Doing Just Fine

*YAEL LENGA, Disability in Higher Education: Building Access and Building Futures

SYLVIA MATHEWS BURWELL, Generation Stress: The Mental Health Crisis on Campus

*MIKE ROSE, Community College: The Great Equalizer?

ANNA CLARK, Why We Need to Keep the “Community” in Community College

GERALD GRAFF, Hidden Intellectualism

CHARLES FAIN LEHMAN, The Student Loan Trap: When Debt Delays Life

*ANNA GIFTY OPOKU-AGYEMAN AND FENABA ADDO, Student Loan Forgiveness Critics Are Wrong about Who Benefits and Why


23. HOW CAN WE BRIDGE THE DIFFERENCES THAT DIVIDE US?

SEAN BLANDA, The “Other Side” Is Not Dumb

*YASCHA MOUNK, The Everyday Patriotism of Diverse Democracies

*DAVID BROOKS, The Triumph of the Ukrainian Ideal

SUKETU MEHTA, Jobs, Crime, and Culture: The Threats That Aren’t

DAVID FRUM, How Much Immigration Is Too Much? The Wrong Debate

*ANDRE M. PERRY, Addressing Poverty Can Heal an Increasingly Divided Country

KELLY CORYELL, All Words Matter: The Manipulation behind “All Lives Matter”

*PAOLA RAMOS, Finding Latinx

*BRYAN BETANCUR, It’s Time to Drop “Latinx”


CREDITS

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

*APPENDIX CITING WHAT “THEY SAY”

INDEX OF TEMPLATES

INDEX OF AUTHORS AND TITLES

ABOUT THE AUTHORS

[Jeremy Garber · Rating 5 out of 5]

Faculty often think students can’t learn to write better. Gerald Graff and Cathy Birkenstein think otherwise, and show us all a simple way to help them do so through the use of writing templates. These two opening sentences model the way that the authors have successfully coached students in the art of writing academic arguments – “they say,” and “I say.” They begin in their preface by correctly observing that “The trouble is that many students will never learn on their own to make the key intellectual moves that our templates represent. While seasoned writers pick up these moves unconsciously through their reading, most students do not.” The rest of the book provides specific templates that help students correctly and sympathetically summarize the arguments of the texts they’re reading, and then provide their own agreements and/or disagreements with clear and reasoned evidence. The authors also pay careful attention to maintaining students’ own voices in writing (yes, it’s OK to use “I”!) and the communal, dialogical nature of research and argument. The book closes by providing models of online discussion and writing for several specific fields, including humanities, science, and social science, and several readings for students to analyze using the tools in this text. Online resources also include online tutorials, quizzes, and resources for particular LMSes. As a graduate-level writing director, I plan to use Graff and Birkenstein’s template on a regular basis – students have found these templates not pedantic or babyish, but eminently useful.

[Jackie · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book, recommended by a colleague, is an excellent resource for teaching academic writing/arguing/debating, premised on the idea that clear, scholarly thinking follows regular patterns that can be reduced to templates. It's all about mad-libs style academic writing, or writing with training wheels.

The authors make a strong case for their approach to teaching writing/debate (I was sold before the book began, though). They present their information extraordinarily clearly. They have lovely cartoons and other aids to the reader. And, best of all, they include copious examples from many different fields that are relevant and current and wide-ranging and usefully illustrative.

I wouldn't recommend it to people who don't teach writing, but for what it is, this book could hardly be better made.

[Eason · Rating 5 out of 5]

It's a must-read.

I hope I have read this book much earlier back in high school, so maybe my historical research paper could go and compete on a national level.

But I am still so glad that I have it read before the first day of college.

This book argues that any writing is an ongoing conversation between "They say" and "I say." Nothing stays in a vacuum. By quoting or using what others say (aka. "they say"), it does not weaken the argument just because not everything in the writing is your own so-called "original" idea, instead, it strengthens your argument and weaves your argument into a conversation with others.

"They Say/I Say" also provides dozens of "templates" for college students to use in their writings. Practical and easy to implement in our next writing assignment.

[Justin Gainer · Rating 4 out of 5]

This workbook does a great job demonstrating how to connect arguments with evidence and quotations, providing similar ideas in one novel that are taught in the entirety of most college-level or AP English classes. However, the book does permit and advocate for some writing techniques which will harm students in some classes such as the use of personal pronouns. Even though this is addressed in the book, and a reasoning for this belief is provided, it still could result in troublesome grades in some classes. Overall, a great book which connects strong writing principles to specific examples of these principles in use.

8/10

[Sara Palacios · Rating 5 out of 5]

I had immigrant parents who were not educated on essay writing. As a result, I struggled with writing essays during college and university. Thankfully, this book changed how I looked at essays and my grades improved during my last semester of university, and I wish that I had discovered the book much sooner during my academic career.

Fun fact: this book was recommended to me by chatGPT when I asked it for books on how to improve essay writing.

[Michael Goodine · Rating 5 out of 5]

The fifth edition of this excellent guide to writing argumentative essays includes a new chapter on revising essays (which is a welcome addition) and a chapter on writing research essays (which should probably be the subject of a whole ‘nother book). It also includes a couple new sample essays.

Still highly recommended, though the fourth edition is probably sufficient for most people.

[Ali Hashemifara · Rating 5 out of 5]

I absolutely recommend reading this must-read academic book for those who are involved with academic essay writing, however nothing is more important than applying content to real essay writing experiences.
In this book, you'll find out some of the reasons underpin academic movements along passages.
In addition, the linguistics of this book is not very complicated so anyone could read it easily.

[Daphne · Rating 4 out of 5]

It was a very informative book! Much of the information is repeated throughout, and it can come across as redundant. Honestly, you could condense this entire book into only a few chapters. Regardless, it is a good book, and I recommend it for anyone entering college and wanting to improve their argumentative writing.

[Jason Watkins · Rating 5 out of 5]

Just a fantastic book to help a writer formulate their argument, create a conversation with their readers, introduce evidence, quotes, write titles, improve flow, balance, transitions, you name it. Its the kind of book I refer to when I am creating a written work.

[Adelaide Tompkins · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this book. From the beginning it really explains in a concise way how to improve writing and the templates in it are extremely useful. Tbh I’ve learned more from this book than any high school english class I’ve taken.

[Syntaxx · Rating 3 out of 5]

I liked the essay on "Disability in Higher Education" written by the Deaf woman. She mentions learning to change her hearing aid batteries as a step towards independence as a child, in like with tying her shoes, picking out her clothes, etc (p.566). Really resonated with me!

[Diana · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent book on how to structure your academic writing. I wish my college had required it in English 101. I was curious whether it was used frequently in college courses so I googled the title with the words “English syllabus”. The book came in classes at Yale, Stamford and many more.

[Andrea G · Rating 4 out of 5]

good

[Daisy · Rating 5 out of 5]

good templates for my ewrt 1 class

[Lucy Wong · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book had singlehandedly saved my whole college career and I haven't even applied it to my life yet

[Katherine Spruce · Rating 3 out of 5]

This textbook has many great tools, and it will be helpful when I begin teaching students how to write!

[Ron Orr · Rating 5 out of 5]

If you are at all interested in academic writing, read this!

[Hannatu · Rating 4 out of 5]

Quite useful, actually! I'm certainly going to be recommending it.

[Mylenegreen · Rating 3 out of 5]

Woohoo semesters over I’m done with this book! This really shouldn’t count for my reading challenge but oh well😋

[lads · Rating 4 out of 5]

Read this for my academic writing course and I absolutely loved it! We had such great weekly discussions from this book and it honestly helped me become a better writer.

[Rebecca · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5

[Reader · Rating 3 out of 5]

Slightly repetitive in some of its content and has some controversial articles, but very informative and helpful in my college classes

[Jessica LeFort]

I had to read most of the excerpts from this book during the school semester !!! Really focused on structure of argumentative writing, and then controversial topics like consumerism and technology.