Templates as Generative for Creativity: Reading They Say / I Say

Gerald Graff and Cathy Birkenstein’s They Say / I Say aims “to demystify academic writing by isolating its basic moves, explaining them clearly and representing them in the form of templates.” 

Overview

Working from the assumption that “academic writing…calls on writers not simply to express their own ideas but to do so as a response to what others have said,” the text maps various ways a writer’s arguments (“I say”) can be positioned in relation to the arguments of others (“they say”). Since the first edition was published in 2006, the text has become a mainstay of postsecondary writing courses, and for good reason: the templates provide a helpful grounding in academic writing and can also assist experienced writers to address feedback or even overcome the dreaded writer’s block. Similarly, for editors, writing coaches or teachers, the text offers a useful toolbox for offering suggestions and potential approaches.

How to think about academic writing

The text makes explicit elements of academic writing that are often implicit. Proceeding from the premise that “all writers rely on certain stock formulas that they themselves didn’t invent,” the authors then present those formulas as templates for any writer. While some may say templates stifle creativity, the authors note that theirs are meant to be “generative…, prompting students to make moves in their writing that they might not otherwise make or even know they should make.” For this reason, the text is particularly useful for those working with academic writing, but it is also applicable for anyone working with any kind of writing. For a developmental editor or writing coach, the text’s overall message is less “this is how you should write,” and more “here are some ways you can think about writing.” In my opinion, this approach can be helpful and productive, especially if you are not sure where to start. 

New edition

While the earlier editions contain many helpful elements, of particular interest to me in the new edition (2024), was the chapter about the role of personal stories in academic writing. Based on my own experience teaching writing at the postsecondary level, the examples and strategies in this chapter could help demystify this aspect of writing for students. For example, the new reading “Disability in Higher Education” by Yael Lenga expertly uses personal experience to craft a well-argued and well-researched academic paper. This could be a useful resource not only for academic writing tutors or teachers, but also for editors of non-fiction more generally. 

One of the notable gaps of the most recent edition, however, is its approach to GenAI. A new chapter on the subject provides templates “to prompt or guide these technologies in a…‘they say / I say’ direction,” although the authors admit that they had to “prompt and re-prompt the bot multiple times” to get the kinds of responses they were looking for. Given that GenAI also uses templates to order language, with occasionally disastrous results, this could be an interesting real-world test case for the limits of template-style thinking. Despite this, the text’s other chapters provide many solid examples of the generative possibilities of templates. 

Conclusion

They Say / I Say is worth reading for writers, editors, and writing teachers or coaches because it does two things very well: it provides a variety of ways to get started writing (or thinking about writing) and gives a solid introduction to key elements of academic writing. For this reason, They Say / I Say is a useful resource for everyone who works with writing, academic or otherwise.   

Join the discussion

Join us on Wednesday, June 10 at 10 a.m. PST / 1 p.m. ESTto discuss They Say / I Say. This event will be hosted by academic coach Kate Vacek (http://yourphdcompass.com/). Purchase the book online and RSVP here to join the conversation! 

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