ENGL 1123 Langara Holec

They Say / I Say Templates

From They Say / I Say by Gerald Graff and Cathy Birkenstein
Please use these in your academic writing!

Reporting Expressions / Useful Verbs

Verbs for making a claim: argue, assert, believe, claim, emphasize, insist, observe, remind us,
report, suggest
Verbs for Expressing Agreement: acknowledge, admire, agree, endorse, extol, praise, celebrate
the fact that, corroborate, do not deny, reaffirm, support, verify
Verbs for Questioning or Disagreeing: complain, complicate, contend, contradict, deny,
deplore the tendency to, qualify, question, refute, reject, renounce, repudiate
Verbs for Making Recommendations: advocate, call for, demand, encourage, exhort, implore,
plead, recommend, urge, warn

Transition Words
Addition: also, and, besides, furthermore, in addition, in fact, indeed, moreover, so too
Elaboration: actually, by extension, in other words, in short, that is, to put it another way, to put
it bluntly, to put it succinctly, ultimately
Example: after all, as an illustration, consider, for example, for instance, specifically, to take a
case in point
Cause and Effect: accordingly, as a result, consequently, hence, since, so, then, therefore, thus
Comparison: along the same lines, in the same way, likewise, similarly
Contrast: although, but, by contrast, conversely, despite, even though, however, in contrast,
nevertheless, nonetheless, on the contrary, on the other hand, regardless, whereas, while yet
Conclusion: as a result, consequently, hence, in conclusion, in short, in sum, therefore, thus, to
sum up, to summarize
Concession: admittedly, although it is true, granted, naturally, of course, to be sure
Using pointing words: this, these, that, those, their, his, he, her, she, it, their
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Introducing Ideas
Introduce “Standard Views”
A number of sociologists have recently suggested that _______________________.
It has become common today to dismiss ________________________.
In their recent work, Y and Z have offered harsh critiques of _________________ for
_______________.
Americans have always believed that __________________________.
Conventional wisdom has it that _________________.
Common sense seems to dictate that ___________________.
The standard way of thinking about topic X has it that it is often said that
_____________________.
Many people assume that __________________.

Introduce something implied or assumed

One implication of X’s treatment of is that ___________________.
Although X does not say so directly, she apparently assumes that _____________________.
While they rarely admit as much, __________ often take for granted that ______________.

Introduce ongoing debates

In discussions of X, one controversial issue has been _________________. On the one hand,
____________________ argues _________________________. On the other hand,
___________________contends ___________________. Others even maintain
_____________________. My own view is ______________________.

When it comes to the topic of _____________, most of us will readily agree that
___________________. Where this agreement usually ends, however, is on the question of
___________________. Whereas some are convinced that _________________, others maintain
that _______________________.
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Introduce summaries and quotations

 She advocates ____________________________.
 They celebrate the fact that __________________.
 _____________________, he admits.

Body Paragraphs
Introduce quotations
• X states, “________________________.”
• As the prominent philosopher X puts it, “________________.”
• According to X, “___________________.”
• X himself writes, “________________.”
• In her book, ________________, X maintains that “____________________.”
• Writing in the journal Commentary, X complains that “_______________________.”
• In X’s view, “______________________.”
• X agrees when she writes, “__________________.”
• X disagrees when he writes, “___________________.”
• X complicates matters further when she writes, “_________________________.”

Explaining quotations
• Basically, X is warning that the proposed solution will only make the problem worse.
• In other words, X believes __________________.
• In making this comment, X urges us to__________________.
• X is corroborating the age-old adage that _____________________.
• X’s point is that ________________________.
• The essence of X’s argument is that ______________.
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Agree
• X is surely right about________________ because, as she may not be aware, recent
studies have shown that ______________________.
• X’s theory of ____________________ is extremely useful because it sheds light on the
difficult problem of _____________________.

Metacommentary
• In other words, ________________.
• What______________ really means is __________________.
• My point is not _________but ___________________________.
• Ultimately, then, my goal is to demonstrate that ____________________________.
• Essentially, I am arguing not that we should __________, but that we should
____________.
• This is not to say _________________, but rather _______________.
• X is concerned less with than with _________________.
• Having just argued that __________, I want now to complicate the point by
____________.
• For example, ______________.
• ___________________, for instance, demonstrates ________________________.
• Consider ____________, for example.
• To take a case in point, _____________________.
• Even more important, ___________________________.
• But above all, ________________________________.
• Incidentally, we will briefly note,
• Just as importantly,____________________________.
• Equally,________________________.
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Counterarguments in your Body Paragraphs

Include counterarguments
• Yet some readers may challenge my view by insisting that ______________________.
• Of course, many will probably disagree on the grounds that ______________________.

Name your naysayers

• Here many ____________ would probably object that ____________________.
• But _________________ would certainly take issue with the argument that
________________.
• Biologists, of course, may want to question whether _________________.
• Nevertheless, both followers and critics of ____________ will probably suggest
otherwise and argue that _______________.
• Although not all _____________think alike, some of them will probably dispute my
claim that ___________________.
• _______________ are so diverse in their views that it’s hard to generalize about them,
but some are likely to object on the grounds that _____________________.

Introduce objections informally

• But is ________________? What are the chances of ___________________?
• Yet is it necessarily true that as I ______________? Is it always the case, have been
suggesting, that ___________________.
• However, does the evidence I’ve cited prove conclusively that
______________________?

Disagree without being disagreeable

While I understand the impulse to__________________, my own view is ________________.
While I agree with X that ________, I cannot accept her overall conclusions that ________.
While X argues that __________, and I argue ___________, in a way, we’re both right.
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Disagree and explain why

• X is mistaken because she overlooks ___________________.
• X’s claim that ___________ rests upon the questionable assumption that
_______________.
• I disagree with X’s view that _________ because, as recent research has shown,
__________.
• X contradicts herself/can’t have it both ways. On the one hand, she argues
___________________. On the other hand, she also says ___________________.
• By focusing on ________________, X overlooks the deeper problem of
_______________.

Agree and disagree simultaneously

• Although I agree with X up to a point, I cannot accept ___________________.
• Although I disagree with much that X says, I fully endorse his final conclusion that
_________.
• Though I concede that ____________________, I still insist that
____________________.
• X is right that _____, but she seems on more dubious ground when she claims that
_______.
• While X is probably wrong when she claims that _________, she is right that
__________.
• Though I concede that ____________________, I still insist that
____________________.
• X is right that _____, but she seems on more dubious ground when she claims that
_______.
• I’m of two minds about X’s claim that ___________________. On the one hand, I agree
that ___________________. On the other hand, I’m not sure if ____________________.
• I support X’s position that _______________, but I find Y’s argument about and Z’s
research on to be equally persuasive.

Make concessions while still standing your ground

• Although I grant that __________________, I still maintain that it raises an important
issue.
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• Proponents of X are right to argue that_____________. But they exaggerate when they
claim that ____________.
• While it is true that________________, it does not necessarily follow that
__________________.
• On the one hand, I agree with X that ________________. But on the other hand, I still
insist that _______________.

Conclusions
Indicate the Significance
• ______________used to think ____________, but recently _____________suggest that
_______________.
• This interpretation challenges the work of those critics who have long assumed that
_______.
• These findings challenge the work of earlier researchers, who tended to assume that
_______.
• Recent studies like these shed new light on ______________, which previous studies
have not addressed.
• These findings challenge _________________ common assumption that
___________________.
• At first glance, X might say __________. But on closer inspection _______________.

Establish why your claims matter

• Ultimately, what is at stake here is _______________.
• These findings have important implications for the broader domain of ______________.
• If we are right about ____________, the major consequences follow for
_______________.
• These conclusions will have significant applications in ____ as well as in
_______________.
• Although X may seem of concern to only a small group of _____________, it should in
fact concern anyone who cares about _____________.