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

One of the central points (if not the only point) of They Say/I Say is presented in the form of a metaphor: Argumentative writing is a conversation, and Graff and Birkenstein refer to this idea constantly throughout. They use this metaphor to stress that it impossible to make a point without responding to something, either implicitly or explicitly. “A key premise of this book,” they write, “is that to launch an effective argument you need to write the arguments of others into your text” (42). That’s what makes the writing-as-conversation metaphor so apt. As in everyday conversations, a person must listen to what other people are saying before they can respond, and a thoughtful response will incorporate those other ideas.

Graff and Birkenstein encourage writers to practice empathy for their readers in the “conversation” of arguing. This is not necessarily an appeal to emotion or compassion; rather, it is a strategy for filling a reader’s needs more effectively: “Put yourself in the shoes of someone who disagrees with you and ask if such a reader would recognize himself in your summary,” they write, describing what they mean by “empathy” for the reader (86). “Would that reader think you have taken his views seriously, as beliefs that reasonable people might hold? Or would he detect a mocking