"They Say / I Say": The Moves That Matter in Academic Writing with Readings

The best-selling text/reader on academic writing.

They Say / I Say demystifies academic writing by identifying its key rhetorical moves, the most important of which is to summarize what others have said ("they say") to set up one's own argument ("I say"). The book also provides templates to help students make these key moves in their own writing. This version includes readings that demonstrate those moves―and provide stimulating conversations for them to enter. The Second Edition includes an anthology of 44 readings that will provoke students to think―and write―about five important issues, including two new ones: Is Higher Education Worth the Price? and Why Does It Matter Who Wins the Big Game?

Gerald Graff, Emeritus Professor of English and Education at the University of Illinois at Chicago and 2008 President of the Modern Language Association of America, has had a major impact on teachers through such books as Professing Literature: An Institutional History, Beyond the Culture Wars: How Teaching the Conflicts Can Revitalize American Education, and Clueless in Academe: How Schooling Obscures the Life of the Mind.

Cathy Birkenstein is a lecturer in English at the University of Illinois at Chicago. She has published essays on writing in College English, and, with Gerald Graff in The Chronicle of Higher Education, Academe, and College Composition and Communication.

Russel Durst is a professor of English at the University of Cincinnati, where he teaches courses in composition, writing pedagogy and research, English linguistics, and the Hebrew Bible as literature. A past president of the National Conference on Research in Language and Literacy, he is the author of several books, including Collision Course: Conflict, Negotiation, and Learning in College Composition.