The Shimer Great Books School recently sponsored “Curriculum of the Absurd,” an event that hosted Gerald Graff and Cathy Birkenstein, the authors of “They Say / I Say: The Moves that Matter in Academic Writing.”
For those of you who don’t know, “They Say / I Say” is a book designed to teach first-year writing students how to enter a conversation through academic writing. “To help students write their way into the often daunting conversations of academia and the wider public sphere, the book provides templates to help them make sophisticated rhetorical moves that they might otherwise not think of attempting,” said Graff and Birkenstein in the preface of “They Say / I Say.” “Learning to make these rhetorical moves in writing also helps students become better readers of argument.”
The event focused on the subject of argumentative writing presented in their book and how it needs to be the central model for teaching writing in all schools. Although mastering this type of argumentative language is no easy task, Graff and Birkenstein believe that it is the best method of writing.
They argue that the nation’s education curriculum is sending students confusingly mixed messages about the fundamentals of writing rather than focusing on teaching persuasive argumentation. “Teachers choose to emphasize different aspects of ‘They Say / I Say,’ but we teachers need to open up our classrooms and teach together,” said Graff and Birkenstein.
Students need to consistently practice this style of writing in order to learn it well and prepare themselves to successfully enter conversations and generate their own arguments in the future, according to the book.
