1/27/16

Dear SS,
I didnt realize how much help you were to me until youre gone. I have a lot of bottled up
emotions ready to explode like a shaken soda can. Your there for me during my highs and lows,
calming me down when I get overwhelmed and bringing me back to sanity when Im angry. You
know just what to do without saying one word. Love isnt the word I would use to describe you,
your much more than that. My SS.

Homework- They Say I Say Introduction p.1-15

This book is intended as a short, user-friendly guide to the basic move of academic writing. (p.
1) I like this quote because it is direct and forward, telling the reader what the book is about. The
introduction is giving us a small taste of whats yet to come. The overall just of the introduction
is the book offers templates to guide writers. The authors suggest traditional 5 paragraph paper is
a good basis but it doesnt incorporate other viewpoints. The following quote explains why there
is a need to use other viewpoints in a paper, If it werent for other people and our need to
challenge, agree with, or otherwise respond to them, there would be no reason to argue at all. (p.
4) The point the authors were making was there is a reason why we have an opinion, without that
reason in the text it is hard for the reader to understand why the writer is writing about their
topic. The authors use Martin Luther King Jr.s Letter from Birmingham Jail as a great
example of how to incorporate others ideas or criticism into a paper in order to get your point
across. They also use several other authors such as Kenneth Burke, David Zinczenko, Gerald

Graff and Katha Pollitt to show different ways to craft an argument. One of the templates the
authors used involved having the ability to use yes and no response in the text. The book has
wonderful templates to help the reader begin using they say in different ways.
If there is any one point that we hope you will take away from this book, it is the importance
not only of expressing your ideas (I say) but of presenting those ideas as a response to some
other person or group (they say).p.1

WID 02/24/16: What makes a good conversation? A bad conversation? How can these
features/characteristics transfer to writing?
When I think of a good conversation, the first thing I think of is two or more parties
engaged in it. If one party is less or more engaged than the other, this makes for a boring/
dragging conversation. There are so many forms of conversation. There are different forms of
arguments, friendly conversations, lecturesetc. All at which include others opinions. Along
with opinions, a conversation should have listening and both putting input. This goes back to the
they say, I say book. In order for your reader to understand why you are sharing your
opinion in your text, its good to incorporated others opinion.

WID: What does it mean to articulate our learning, our thinking? (Look up articulate, esp.
the etymology)
Articulate is a Latin word that means expressing an idea or feelings fluently and
coherently. When it says to articulate our learning I believe this means we have to have a
completely understanding of the knowledge consumed. When I think of articulating what I have
learn I think of the phrase If you can teach it, you master the topic. Many of my teachers say

this because once you are able to use your words to explain, the material is mastered. The only
hard part is remembering the material.
I believe articulating our thinking is harder than memorizing and articulating what we
learn. One area I need to improve in is being able to explain what I mean or how I am feeling.
Sometimes I am a loss for words or when I am speaking the words are not logically. My mother
always says Tiffany take your time, think about what you want to day, then speak. I found this
helps to take a moment to think and then this makes is easier to articulate my thinking.