"They Say / I Say": The Moves That Matter in Academic Writing (Third High School Edition)

The book that demystifies academic writing, now in a high school hardcover edition with an introduction and teaching notes by Jim Burke.

“They Say / I Say” demystifies academic discourse and shows students that writing well means mastering some key rhetorical moves―the most important of which is to summarize what others have said (“they say”) in order to set up one’s own argument (“I say”). Students learn that writing is always part of a larger conversation, and the book provides templates to show students how to bring their own views in conversation with those expressed by others. AP® is a trademark registered and/or owned by the College Board, which was not involved in the production of, and does not endorse, this product.

Gerald Graff, a 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.

Jim Burke, an English teacher at Burlingame High School in California, has been teaching for over twenty years and is the author of numerous bestselling professional books, including The English Teacher’s Companion and The Common Core Companion. In 2014, he received the Distinguished Service Award from the California Association of Teachers of English. In addition to his commitment to his own classroom, Jim serves as an advisor for the College Board’s Advanced Placement English Language and Literature Courses and Exams Review Commission as well as consults for the Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers (PARCC). For more information, visit his website (www.englishcompanion.com) or follow him on Twitter (@englishcomp).