part 1 of “they say I say”

“they say”

The author notes that if you are a listener or a reader you should be thinking in your head the objectives of what the speaker or writer is trying to get across or the reason why they are even writing or speaking in the first place. Then when you start a conversation you need to begin with “what others are saying” and then come up with your own unique response as a reply says, Graff, and Birkenstein. The authors give many templates and examples of how people have a conversation and how the technique is used. The authors make it very clear and concise of the concept, to keep repeating what “they are saying” in an argument.

“Her point is”

The author begins to talk about what we are doing here now, how we summarize and paraphrase a text without losing ones voice. The balance between these two things can be difficult says Graff, and Birkenstein. They then go on to explain how you have to watch your tone in-order to refrain from biases. The author says “A good summary, in other words, has a focus or spin that allows the summary to fit with your own agenda while still being true to the text you are summarizing.” meaning how you use your tone can be up to, but a good writer keeps it unbiased and can stay talking about the point without making it sound like its a bad idea or a good idea to agree with what the subject, or text is trying to say. Then the author goes on to say that there is “on the other hand” or “except in the scenario” which is “summarizing satirically” Which is going about an argument in such a way of taking their ideas but making it your own and coming up with dead ends on how their argument was basically “not good enough”. Then the author talks about using “signal verbs that fit the action”. Using bigger words or loftier words can improve your tone and your overall argument, in order to not lose your voice or make the argument sound boring.

“As he himself puts it”

In this last part the author hits base with the art of quoting. Graff and Birkenstein say “Such writers fail to see that quoting means more than simply enclosing what “they say” in quotation marks.” meaning that the quote is now apart of your text and has an explanation or a meaning in your newly written argument or text. Then the authors talk about the relevancy of the quote, saying that if you choose a quote you have to have the ability to explain it and make it fir with the rest or whole of the text. Then they say after you pick a relevant quote you have to “frame” your quote as well so the readers can understand them. If you chose to quote something you want it to make sense and not leave it with no explanation says the authors. Graff and Birkensteain say that you can blend that authors words with your own, in other words, you can use your own lingo (aka language) by backing up their quote. The authors also say that its better to over analyze a quote if you are in doubt about it not being explained enough for the readers to understand. Then finally they explain how not to introduce a quote or how not to insert a quote, because it could be “redundant or misleading”.

After reading this first part of “they say I say” I pretty much knew the basics to everything they went over, but they did go into a little more detail in areas that I was a little weary of, like quoting. I am pretty decent at quoting but sometimes not the best at explaining it. That probably has to do with me liking the mysteries of things and having readers interpret my thoughts instead of me being super concise with my perspectives.