Writing A Template In They Say I Say

Everybody has their own methods for writing; however, I believe there is always room for improvement. Chapter 3 in Everyone’s an Author has shown me that writing involves processes that need to be mastered through constant practice. It also revealed helpful tips on how to develop writing processes that can help write effective papers.

Bullock, Richard, and Goggin, Maureen D, and Weinberg, Francine, editors. The Norton Field Guide to writing with readings and handbook. W.W. Norton & Company, 2016.

Paul McHenry Roberts wrote an article 70 years ago that is still relevant for writing student’s today because the major issues he elaborates on are concepts most young writers need to improve on today – stance, content, and word choice. He begins by explaining the importance of taking a proper stance. A problem with writers today is that they will take the side that requires the least work, usually filling the space with overlapping information. Mr. Roberts promotes a solution: take the less obvious side. While many today wish to avoid extra work, by taking a stance that isn’t the most common, finding information that isn’t overused is much more accessible.

In their book They Say I Say, Gerald Graff, Cathy Birkenstein, and Russel Durst outline strategies writers can use to avoid common mistakes often seen in academic writing. The book thoroughly outlines the different components that make up academic writing, such as initially summarizing what others have said before, responding with original ideas, proving a purpose to the writing, and connecting the writing in a logical and eloquent manner.

As Goshgarian states in Exploring Language, “Most college writing is an exercise in persuasion – an attempt to influence reader’s attitudes about the subject matter” (90). In order to effectively persuade our audience, we must not only write skillfully, but also be able to send a clear, interesting, and concise message. In chapter two of the above mentioned book, Goshgarian provides various articles with insights on how to improve our writing. I found “Beware the Trap of Bore-geous Writing”, by Ayelet Waldman; “The Case for Short Words”, by Richard Lederer; and “Saying is Believing”, by Patricia O’ Conner very interesting as they all highlight the importance of writing clearly and provide valuable advice on how to do it better. However, I personally found “Saying is Believing”, by Patricia O’Conner, to be the most helpful resource due to the reasons I intend to explain in this essay.

First, to start out talking about some of the styles and types of writing I have learned about, many of these things may be very common to some but, were new to me. The things we have gone over, to name a few are types and subtypes of arguments and how to present and argument. In these sections I have learned that there are different claim types of the arguments and that the need to understand who is addressing who in these arguments, in any given paper, is crucial if we are going to learn from the discussion. It is important to be able to use quotations and be able to paraphrase things that are being said in papers that are being researched to accurately understand the arguments and form an opinion of our own, as well as be able to construct

Although some people believe that the templates may take away their freedom to express themselves as well as their originality and creativity, Graff and Birkenstein insist that the templates in their book aid the writer, to become more creative and original, not lessen, hinder or take away from the writing.

Many college students find themselves struggling, while trying to write papers in their English classes. This book was written to help you though these struggles. They say/I say by Gerald Graff and Cathy Birkenstein is a book that was designed to help students be better writers. I think that this book is absolutely a huge help to anyone in need of becoming a much more confident and better writer. This book has helped me learn how to write more structured sentences and how to form them in ways that sound better and are also more grammatically correct than before. I have learned how to properly demonstrate and use many writing techniques such as making quotations, playing the believing game, how to write strong summaries, how to plant a “naysayer”, and incorporate “so what?” and “who cares?” into my writing. This book can be extremely helpful to anyone in need of assistance or for people interested in

In “How to Write with Style,” by Kurt Vonnegut, Vonnegut explains effective methods to write an outstanding paper. Vonnegut advises to connect with the subject one is writing about, he also includes to keep ideas minimal and not rant in the paper. Moreover, Vonnegut advice to have a well-detailed paper for readers to understand the main idea of the paper. There are multiples methods of writing a paper; however, with many methods of writing a paper, which strategy is better for oneself to write by including all parts that will present ideas, and be understood by the reader. There are numerous techniques of writing a paper, for myself, the following technique is most helpful for me hopefully, this can help others as well.

In our society, people communicate through various ways. One of the most essential way is writing. Through writing, people convey their thoughts and ideas, connect to others, and pass on wisdom generations by generations. More importantly, writing effectively promotes the advancement of society. Though some people have not realized the how writing benefits from writing, the author of the article “How to Read Like A Writer”, Mike Bunn illustrates that focusing more on the rhetorical “strategies” and structure rather than the content can improve our own writing.

The college textbooks always suggest in order to write a good article there are several stages and several points that you should take and consider. For example before you start writing, first you have to brainstorm ideas, take notes, and make outlines. After getting everything in order, you have to decide what kind of article you are writing: a comparison and contrast writing, a cause and effect writing, or etc. Then you have to think of a good thesis statement, subtopic statements, introduction and conclusions, central paragraphs, and many more. Finally you have to worry about having sentence variety, not to use passive voice, not to have run on sentences, not to use too much ‘is’ and ‘and’. I do not know about

Kurt Vonneguts "How to Write with Style" is full of very helpful writing tips. He has his eight steps of writing, which he describes in great detail. Throughout the whole reading I keep having memories of a story that my friends father told me. He explained how he writes papers as a lawyer and professor for over 30 years. He said that he lists all of his main ideas down in bullet points and starts the paragraphs off. Then you write the story by bullet point four or five paragraphs at a time so you don’t get bored and don’t get writers block. This was helpful information, however he never really went into very much detail about how to elaborate on smaller topics. This story gave me a very descriptive path to follow to have a successful paper.

The tips I found most helpful for my writing was to proofread my work, to not allow others to discourage my writing, and to have motivation to think outside the box. To proofread my work means to always re-read what was writing before I turn it in for grading. Proof reading is important because any first time mistakes made can easily be recognized and fixed. When I present my work I may not always have great input of my work, there will always be critiques and negative opinions of how I should write my work. However, I am to remain positive, take the constructive criticism and to not allow someone else’s opinions discourage me from writing how I feel. I also have to have the motivation to think outside the box and that simply means to demonstrate

Research types of writings at college helped me strengthen my writing skills because as I started to research on a topic, not only I learned more in depth, but also learned how to draw further connections outside of the course(class). I want to improve my writings in making correct connections and organizing ideas. Sometimes, I misunderstand the readings and end up making the wrong connections. In fact, my ideas are all over the place whenever I try to make connections, which does not clearly show that I have understood the assignment. These mistakes often led to downside of my grades. The most useful advice I received that helped me improve my writing is that “the word ‘writing’ actually means to put things together, so don’t be afraid of express your opinions in your writing your opinion.” This encourage me not to be afraid of writing and expressing my opinions.

Since beginning to write papers in English class, I have had countless successes and failures. While many of my English classes have taught me how to improve my writing, I have not learned very much in others. My most recent English class was last year, my sophomore year. My class was particularly undersized; therefore, it gave each student the opportunity to have additional individual attention. Throughout the class I experienced high points, weaknesses, and even difficulties that I never overcame. Overall, my writing skills improved, but only marginally.