They Say, I Say: What’s the Purpose? 1/22/14: Reading Review and Template Practice

Reading Review: The authors of our course text write: “What makes writers masters of their trade is not only their ability to express interesting thoughts but their mastery of an inventory of basic moves that they probably picked up by reading a wide range of other accomplished writers” (Graff and Birkenstein 1). Based on our reading last night, what basic moves should you focus on “mastering” in order to be effective when writing in and for your university courses?

Reading Review: According to Graff and Birkenstein, what is the “underlying structure of effective academic writing”? The author’s draw attention to Martin Luther King Jr.’s “Letter from Birmingham Jail” as a model of effective argumentation—as a model of they say, I say writing behavior. What about King’s arrangement do the author’s praise and why?

Reading Review: On page 8, Graff and Birkenstein explain: “‘William Shakespeare wrote many famous plays and sonnets’ may be a perfectly true statement, but precisely because nobody is likely to disagree with it, it goes without saying and thus would seem pointless if said.” Based on this point, what should we understand as the point, the objective, of academic writing?

Activity 1, Part 1: Read the text together Excerpt form Exercise 1, page 14: The term “vegetarian” tends to be synonymous with “tree hugger” in many people’s minds. They see vegetarianism as a cult that brainwashes its followers into eliminating an essential part of their daily diets for an abstract goal of “animal welfare.” However, few vegetarians choose their lifestyle just to follow the crowd. On the contrary, many of these supposedly brainwashed people are actually independent thinkers, concerned citizens, and compassionate human beings. For the truth is that there are many very good reasons for giving up meat. Perhaps the best reasons are to improve the environment, to encourage humane treatment of livestock, or to enhance one’s own health. In this essay, then, closely examining a vegetarian diet will show that vegetarianism is clearly the better option for sustaining the Earth and all its inhabitants.

Activity 1, Part 2: Analyze the writer’s moves in groups of 3 Across pages 9 and 10, Graff and Birkenstein introduce a template and then explain the argumentative/rhetorical moves that the template encouraged writers to make. Use their discussion of the moves their proposed template offers in order to discuss the moves that Emily Poe uses in the paragraph excerpted on page 14 (the one we just read aloud). What does she do first, why? What does she do second, why? What does she do next, why? Work in groups of 3 to map the movement/to identify HOW and WHY Poe structures her argument (likely an introductory paragraph) in this way.

Activity 2: Trying out template use… (exercise 2 on page 15) Directions: Write a short essay in which you first summarize our rationale for the templates in this book and then articulate your own position in response. Use the template below to organize your paragraphs, expanding and modifying it as necessary to fit what you want to say. Use the template to write the short essay and post it to your personal blog. Visit the blogs of your two other group members (from the last activity). Read and comment on their blog posts.