Ghadir Khalil

Professor Foy

Composition 105

18 September 2017

They Say/I say Introduction

In the Introduction to They Say/I Say: The Moves That Matter in Academic Writing,

Gerald Graff and Cathy Birkenstein provide templates designed to guide writers so that they

write in a way that acknowledges multiple perspectives on a certain topic. Specifically, Graff and

Birkenstein argue that the types of writing templates that they offer will make writing easier in

the long run as well as properly organize thoughts/points from both the writer and the publics

opinions into one piece of writing. As the authors themselves put it, academic writing is

argumentative writing, and to argue well you need to do more than assert your own opinion.

Although some people believe that the use of templates take away from the writers originality,

Graff and Birkenstein insist that using templates are merely formatting the thoughts the writer

chooses to write about. In sum, then, their view is that with the use of templates, writers

acknowledge more than just their own opinions and are free to write as they wish since the

material they write about does not interfere with the format in which they write it.

I agree with Gerald Graff and Cathy Birkensteins stance on the use of templates. In my

view, the types of templates that the authors recommend, offers writers a more structural way to

write argumentative pieces where more than just facts are communicated. For instance, with

these templates, opinions from both the public and the writer are countered which results in a

more academic form of writing that resembles real life conversations. In addition, writing needs

to have some type of foundation before it becomes a complete piece; these templates can pose as
that base so that writers are guaranteed a solid and structural format for their writing. Some

might object, of course, on the grounds that using templates can not be applied to all types of

writing writing other than opinion based and argumentative. Yet, I would argue that the point of

these templates is to simply provide a structured format in which writers formulate their original

compositions. Overall, then, I believe that these templates can improve a writers skills as well as

give writing a more realistic influence, which is an important point to make given that most

writing disorderly acknowledges one point of view.