Good afternoon everyone! Happy Friday!!

 

AGENDA:

1. We're going to revisit the conversation that we had at the end of class yesterday about feminist criticism.

2. We'll be doing a mini-lesson on Part 1 of They Say, I Say by Gerald Graff and Cathy Birkenstein.

CHAPTER 1: STARTING WITH WHAT OTHERS ARE SAYING

• When you write, you are entering an academic conversation
• A writer needs to clearly indicate both their thesis AND the larger conversation the thesis is responding to.
• Explain what you are responding to before offering your response
• Summarize what you're responding to first, briefly because you will elaborate later, then state your own position as soon as possible.
• Ways to introduce what "they say"
• Illustrative quote
• Revealing fact or statistic
• Relevant anecdote

CHAPTER 2: THE ART OF SUMMARIZING

• Summarizing: any information from others that you present in your own words (including paraphrasing)
• Paraphrasing: your own rendition of essential information and ideas expressed by someone else, presented in a new form; more detailed than a summary
• Summarizing: a brief statement or account of the main points of something
• In a summary, you need to:
• Balance what the original author is saying with what your own focus is
• Be true to what the author is saying (outward) and what they say that interests you (inward)
• Playing the "believing game": you inhabit the world view of those of whose conversation you're entering
• If you do it WELL, your readers will not be able to tell if you agree or disagree with the author yet.
• If you do it POORLY, your summary will be biased and your credibility with readers will be undermined.
• A GOOD SUMMARY represents what the original author says fairly while spinning the focus of the summary to fit your own agenda
• Align what they say with what you say
• Satirical Summary
• A writers deliberately give his own spin to someone else's argument in order to reveal the glaring shortcomings of the original author's writing.
• Let the summarized argument condemn itself by using its own words against itself.
• What to AVOID when summarizing:
• "Closet cliche syndrome": familiar cliche is mistaken and summarized as the author's view
• "List summaries": inventory of the author's various points without focusing on his overall claim
• Boilerplate formulas: "X says" etc.
• What to DO when summarizing:
• Use action verbs

CHAPTER 3: THE ART OF QUOTING

• Main Problem: thinking that quoting speaks for itself, not understanding what is quote, and having trouble explaining what the quote means.
• When quoting:
• CHOOSE WISELY
• Make sure the quote supports your argument
• Find a thesis first then find quotes that best support it
• FRAME THE QUOTE
• Questions to ask: whose quote is it, what does the quote mean, how does it relate to your own text/thesis
• Always connect what they say to what you say!
• Sandwich the quote
• Introduction of the quote (top bread slice)
• Who is speaking, set up of what the quote is saying
• The actual quote (meat)
• Explanation of quote (bottom bread slice)
• Why is the quote important, how does it relate to your thesis
• Blend the author's words with your own
• "Echo" the author's language while moving the discussion towards your point/thesis
• RULE OF THUMB FOR QUOTE ANALYSIS
• It is better to over-analyze a quote than under-analyze a quote
• Your analysis should AT LEAST be as long or longer than the length of the quote
• Ex) 4 lines of quote = 4 or more lines of analysis