The last piece of information of importance in They Say, I Say is the use of templates for revision. “Asking yourself these large-scale revision questions will help you see how well you’ve managed the “they say / I say” framework and this in turn should help you see where further revisions are needed” (140). The templates help the writer create a strong structure for essay guides the reader to understand clearly the overall conclusion of the writing. The templates not only assist in giving direction of what type of essay you are wanting to write, but can give ideas on how to connect parts of paragraphs in the essay. This makes clear all communicative parts of the essay: the emotions expressed in the topic, the opposing arguments to initiate
In an excerpt of Unteaching the Five-Paragraph Essay," Marie Foley reveals how the Five-Paragraph Essay formula contradicts writing instructor's most basic goals. Foley shows that the formula deters from generating individual thinking. In today's society, essays are used by millions of people in order to express their different ideas. The Five-Paragraph Essay formula was originally developed to help retain the efficiency and clarity of the essay. Foley, however, believes that this process eventually separates the student from his or her written expression and should be used only as a first step tool for beginning student writers. Foley insists that the formula blocks discovery, squelches authenticity and undermines the reader's need for coherence. Foley shows that patterns of organization and more natural thinking can benefit the student.
“Unteaching the Five Paragraph Essay” by Marie Foley demonstrates how a five paragraph essay formula disturbs the thought process of the students and limits what they can write. A five paragraph essay is an introduction with the main idea, with three supporting topics showing the relationship to the main idea, and a conclusion summarizing the entire essay. Foley argues that this formula forces students to fill in the blank and meet a certain a word limit. She noted that this formula was intended for teachers in the education system to teach an overcrowded class how to write. While it is beneficial for the first-time students learning how to write. In the long run, this standard destroys any free style writing, new connections between a topic,
However, though John Warner’s argument is strong, Kerri smith’s argument is stronger. In Kerri Smith’s article “In Defense of the Five-Paragraph Essay,” She claims that the five-paragraph essay should stay taught in schools as a guideline for a well-structured essay. She explains the five-paragraph essay as an “introduce-develop-conclude structure” that even great expository writing follows this structure (Smith 16). She purposefully communicates to her audience this idea to show that this structure gives students the knowledge and capability to write a professional essay. The five-paragraph essay includes the three key points to have a well-structured and organized essay. By mentioning that other great writers use this form of structure, she creates a stronger argument as to why the five-paragraph essay is important to education. She continues her article by explaining her early stages of writing and how she was taught; over time, her teachers would show her new ways to improve her writing which, in the end, she was told to think “of those five paragraphs simply as a mode of organization” (Smith
The point is just to let the unrestricted thoughts flow, for me most of the time it ends up being a rant that makes me look like a less than nice guy. To prove my point in the third essay for the class titled “Writing for all” the first draft was a total rant. The they say a portion of the essay had lines like “ A student would go to class, learn “... drop the E and add -ing” to make something a verb. Only to later down the line learn, doto some detail, it doesn’t always count as a verb.” making me sound pessimistic. Not something I generally would allow people to read. After a combing through the rant filled pages of that first draft I managed to salvage I created this as the better opening “A scholar may use writing as a way for us to preserve what we learned, for future generations to build off of. A book author will use writing to pull people into the book’s world of mythos and legend.” The First draft had essayed gold mired in the rant somewhere and just took rereading and picking out those lumps of gold. Which then have the opportunity to be part of the main essay after smelting or filtering it
In the article, “Stop Googling. Let’s Talk” author Sherry Turkle wants to tell the reader that people should value and respect their relationship by replacing smartphone with face-to-face conversation. She is a professor who studying psychology for around 30 years; she uses many other psychologists study to proved that people are rely on smartphone too much and start to replace conversations with texting. In the essay, she explains how the smartphone is becoming an essential part of America lives; which later affected people’s way of communication. She also provides several solutions for people to solve the negative effect that come from those devices; so people can learn how to push back against it and start to engage more in the conversation for benefit yourself with friendship and society.
“Queer Theory: According to My Grandmother” by Richard Blanco and “The Right Way to Speak” by Jacqueline Woodson both discuss the lives of children who are being forced to hide a part of who they are. “Queer Theory” is written from a grandmother’s point of view. The grandmother is telling her grandson all of the stereotypical things he can not do because she does not want him to look like he is gay even if he is. “The Right Way to Speak” is written from a daughter’s point of view while she is watching her mother hit her brother with a tree limb. The brother is getting punished for saying a common Southern word, “ain’t”. The mother was born and raised in the South where she was raised to always obey her elders. However, she does not want her children to have anything to do
I agree with what Allen states in the article “The Inspired Writer vs. the Real Writer” because of how much my writing skills had evolved over the years. When I first started in high school, I believed I was a horrible writer and I struggled a lot just to write a few paragraphs. However, after determination, and several trials and errors, I was able to improve greatly on my skills. In Irvin’s article, “What is ‘Academic’ Writing?” goes over the myths about writing. When I first started to write essays, I believed some of the myths that Irvin talks about in the article. Such myths were the five paragraph essay and the use of “I.” However, the more experience I gained in writing, the more I realized how the five paragraph essay is more of a suggestion. The format might had helped when I first started, but I had grown apart of it now. In addition, I had learned how the use of “I” is situational. In some of my past essays, I have used “I” to help develop my essays. In Bunn’s article “How to Read Like a Writer,” it mentions the importance of Reading Like a Writer. When I first started writing essays in high school, my essays were cookie cutter. The essays were not imaginative and lack literary devices. However, the more I payed attention to how an author writes, the more creative my essays become. I am able to include methods that give creativity in my writing,
In the Introduction to "They Say / I Say": The Moves That Matter in Academic Writing, Gerald Graff and Cathy Birkenstein provide templates, that were created from fundamental writing moves, that writers usually pick up along the way without realizing it. Those moves are so common that the authors turned them into templates in their book. The authors consider the main template “They Say / I Say” to be the foundation for all successful dialogue. Specifically, Graff and Birkenstein argue that the types of writing templates they offer help less experienced writers, as well as accomplished writers guidance and direction, to structure and generate their own writing. As the authors themselves put it “One of our key premises is that these basic moves are so common that they can be represented in templates that you can use right away to structure and even generate your own writing.” In other words, the authors offer a simplified tool to create writing on an academic level.
The story I chose for this analysis is “Why, you reckon?” by Langston Hughes. IN this analysis I will be focusing on how the great depression in Harlem had effect on the story, how racism played a part, and how or if the characters were justifyied in their actions. During this time period the intense racial divide combined with the economic harships that plagued the U.S. during the 1923’s makes for an interesting story that makes you think if the charaters were really justified.
Graff, Gerald, Cathy Birkenstein, and Russel K. Durst. "They Say/I Say": The Moves That Matter in Academic Writing: With Readings. Vol. 2e. New York: W.W. Norton &, 2012. Print.
We would do research on a subject or a person, and write about them. We, once again, were not allowed to be unique in our writing or think creatively or critically. This is the time when I was taught the five paragraph essay. As stated in Gray’s article, the five paragraph essay is detrimental to students’ writing. This format for writing is damaging because it doesn’t allow students to express their own ideas about a topic. It does not allow for any creativity or uniqueness in a paper. In tenth grade, I wrote many papers for my English class, but I never once got an A on them. I was led to believe that my writing was weak because I could not relate to what I was writing about. I did not have any emotional connection to the research papers I had to write, and it made it harder for me to write them. I had grown up not being allowed to think critically, and therefore, my papers in high school lacked creativity and deeper
This made the essay hear an actual conversation what researched were talking and then it jumped to Owen and Sawhill respond. By using the formula “They say/I say” it helped the essay have a good flow where readers were able to see many different points of views on the issue. Owen and Sawhill use an element that was mention in the introduction of “They Say/ I Say”: The Moves That Matter in Academic Writing with Reading, “to write a really good summary you must be able to suspend your own beliefs for a time and put yourself in the shoes of someone else” (Graff et al. 31). All the supporting details that were written in the essay related to the author's point of view and were using them to their advantage to have the readers understand their own point of view. They were constantly reminding the readers what was the issue that they were addressing and where they were standing on the issue. This helps me not lose the focus of the thesis and their point of view as
A person could clearly see that by simply looking at the grades that I have made on my final essays. On each essay so far this semester I have been able to earn a higher grade than the previous essay. One thing that I was able to correct by looking back on was usage of the word “it.” As stated by Schwartz, “It is a pronoun, so it must be replacing a noun or pronoun, what is it replacing?” By reflecting to my previous essays and reading this comment I was able to further understand the usage of the word it, and along with this I would be able to correct it in essays after that. Along with getting better grades on my final papers, I was able to further understand the purpose of pre-writing assignments. In the beginning of the year I would look at pre-writing assignments as almost a waste of time, but as I progressed through the course I would see just how much of an impact they could have. Whenever I would do badly on a pre-writing assignment it would usually translate over to a mediocre rough draft. Whenever I realized this I was able to grow off of previous mistakes and spend more time on the pre-writing. The more time I spent on the pre-writing the better grade I would get on that assignment as well as the rough draft. Despite me constantly reflecting to my previous essays, it is still one thing that I need to work on. During one of my essays I was making the same mistakes that I had made in previous essays, so much that my professor stated “See comments in previously graded assignments and apply them to the writing in this one” (Schwartz). I was making so many of the same mistakes that I had to go to my previous paper to see what I was doing wrong. After I read this comment I realized how vital it was to assess the comments made on my papers and apply it whenever I am writing. During the final parts of the course I was able to comprehend comments made by
America has made amazing technology. People believe that technology they own should be private and disclosed only to those they want to. However, Officials should be able to use the information they obtained from private devices or social networking sites in order to protect the community.
“On Not Saying ‘I do’” and “For Better, For Worse” have diverse writing styles. First, Dorian Solot’s essay is in first person. Solot states, “I must have missed the day in nursery school when they lined up all the little girls and injected them with the powerful serum that made them dream of wearing a white wedding dress” (490). This sentence is an example of how Solot’s writing style is mostly in first person. However, Stephanie Coontz’s essay is in third person. Coontz states, “As late as the 1960s, two-thirds of college women in the United States said they would marry a man they didn’t love if he met all their, often economic, criteria” (497). This is an example of a sentence where Coontz’s writing style is in third person. Second, Solot’s writing style is very personal. Solot discusses her personal ideas, experiences, and focuses. Solot explains, “In my early twenties, about three years into my relationship with my partner, Marshall, the occasional subtle hints that my family and friends were ready for an engagement announcement became decided...