I have attached all the files provided by the instructor. Just need to follow the instruction and need to include all the items mentioned. Should be plagiarism-free.

I have attached all the files provided by the instructor. Just need to follow the instruction and need to include all the items mentioned. Should be plagiarism-free.
What is the They Say Section? Remember that your final project for this class is a full-length argumentative research paper. Each of the units from now on will feature one of the sections of that research paper. REMEMBER: You need to write all of your sections about the same topic (research question), so that they can be put together into one coherent research paper at the end of the semester! First, Listen to What Others Are Saying I want you to think about research writing as a giant conversation. You are one piece of that conversation—one person participating. Before you can join that conversation, you must first listen to what others are saying. Imagine you walk into the classroom 10 minutes late. A discussion among your peers has been underway since before you arrived and has been building momentum with different views and perspectives from various students. In this scenario, you would not walk in and just start talking, right? First, you would need to listen to what others are saying; you would need to learn as much as possible about the topic being discussed and the views being expressed before contributing. Once you gathered enough information, then you could provide your perspective on the issue. In the same way, the first part of your research paper that you will draft is the They Say section. You can think of this as the background or the context of your research project. Your primary task throughout Unit 2 is to find out what other people are saying about your topic before you can say anything. The They Say section is your opportunity to provide a background or a context for what your research is about. Because no argument just pops up out of the blue, you need to understand what you are responding to. Maybe it’s something that has been in the news recently or has been plaguing our country for many years. Either way, you need to situate yourself and tell your audience what you are responding to. There may be opposing viewpoints, several different angles, or the voices of many different scholars/researchers. You need to preview all of that for your reader. If you want to take the above analogy a little farther, try this: Your friend walks into class 10 minutes after you arrived. The same discussion continues, but your friend has missed it. Your job is to tell him what “they say” so that he understands the context of the conversation and understands what you are about to contribute. That’s what the They Say section is all about. NOTE: I am asking you to find at least three different viewpoints for the They Say section of your research project. There will most likely be a pro, a con, and something in the middle (a third perspective). Where does it go? The They Say section of the paper will end up following the introduction of your research paper. Your reader will need to know the context for your argument early so they know what you are responding to. Your response will come after the They Say section. We will get to that section (the I Say section) in Unit 3.
I have attached all the files provided by the instructor. Just need to follow the instruction and need to include all the items mentioned. Should be plagiarism-free.
Unit 2 Introduction: Starting Your Research Project Your primary goal for ENGL 1302 is to plan and execute a research project related to the course theme—Homelessness, Poverty, and Food Insecurity. Each remaining unit will be focused on a different aspect of research writing and the completion of a different part of the research project. Parts of your Research Project: Introduction They Say (Unit 2) I Say (Unit 3) Naysayer (Unit 4) So What (Unit 5) Conclusion While we will discuss how these individual parts work together to complete an effective research project, it’s important to remember that with each unit your mission never changes. The mission is to complete a research paper due at the end of the semester. The successful completion of this mission and the entire research project requires that you start early and plan your research. There is a saying that seems appropriate for research projects like this one: If you fail to plan, you can plan to fail. Don’t be that student at the end of the semester who is scrambling to finish 8 weeks of work in a matter of a few days. Habits of successful researchers There are many things that researchers do that can help them get their work done successfully and on time. First, plan your work. Work a little bit each day and stay on schedule. That is why I have broken up the research paper into different parts and established a series of due dates throughout the semester. Second, take initiative. Get engaged and stay engaged: pick a topic that you care about and that you will be able to do a research paper on for the entire semester. And don’t wait for assignments from me. Assume that you should always be searching for new information, gathering sources, and reading/learning new information about your topic. Third, keep a research log. (See below.) Fourth, employ a range of reading skills. This one is important to be efficient with your time. Skim articles, books, and Internet articles, and then once you’ve discovered whether or not they will be helpful for your research paper, then read deeper. If you spend too much time reading articles and books that aren’t helpful for your research paper, you will waste a lot of time. One thing that you can do with books is look at the table of contents or the index to see if it talks specifically about your topic or something that you think you need for your research paper. Another good thing to do is to read abstracts for articles. See if the abstract sounds like something that would be helpful for you and the argument that you’re trying to make. Fifth, avoid premature closure on thinking and research. This means that you don’t just use the first sources that you find when you do a database search. You’re probably going to come up with hundreds of thousands of possible articles. If you pick the first six, you are probably overlooking many other articles that would be more helpful than those first six listed, so make sure you employ a range of reading skills to scan through them to look at the abstracts and to read a little bit of each one to see if it will be helpful for your research paper. Finally, ask for help. Let me say that again. Ask for help! Our library has many reference librarians who are expert researchers, and their job is to help students. I am not exaggerating; our reference librarians know how to help you find the information you need. You can do this online or in person. There is more information about this in the library guide. Creating a Research Question I hope the Current Events Essay gave you a bit of an introduction to the course theme and allowed you to begin thinking about a possible topic for your research. Go beyond just a general, vague topic like “homelessness in Dallas” or “COVID-19’s influence on poverty.” Explore your topic more and write a research question.  It’s important that your question leads you to an argument since this is an argument research paper. Some questions that you can use to help you come up with a good research question are: What are the causes of X? What are the implications of X? What larger context does X belong to? What issues are people debating about X? What do most people think about X? Consider this example (from a different course): If we were going to look at recent cases of police brutality and possibly requiring police officers to wear body cams, then we would ask: What are the causes of police brutality? What are the implications of using body cameras? What larger context does body cameras or police brutality belong to? What issues are people debating about body cameras? and What do most people think about police brutality? I would then attempt to answer one of these questions with research. Hence the term “research question.” With enough research, I would be able to answer this question in the form of a clear thesis statement. My research paper would then be my attempt to argue and support that thesis statement. Consider Different Perspectives You also want to look at your topic from different perspectives. Play the make-believe game: pretend that you’re on the other side. What would somebody who is on the other side of the debate say in opposition to your topic? You can also use reporters’ questions. Ask the who, what, where, when, why, and how. Again, your question must lead to an argument though. For example, your research question might be “How does princess culture affect young girls?” or “Should police officers wear body cameras?” Both of these questions lead to an argument. For the first one, you could argue that princess culture is good for young girls or that it is harmful for young girls. For the second one, you could argue that police officers should wear body cameras or that police officers should not wear body cameras. Create a Research Log While I do not require you to keep a research journal, I highly recommend keeping track of your research in a way that feel natural to you. You will be working on this project all semester. Without some kind of notetaking and record-keeping strategy, things could get messing and unorganized really quickly. The first thing you want to put in your research log is your research question. You should also keep track of any other ideas or questions you think of while doing your preliminary reading and research. The next thing you want to keep track of is the search terms that you’ve used when you start looking through the library’s databases. You want to keep track of what terms you use today so that you don’t use the same terms tomorrow because if you keep using the same search terms over and over again, you will come up with the same results over and over and you won’t be getting any new articles that could be helpful for your research paper. For instance, if we were going to do the issue of police brutality, you might start on day one by using the search terms “police” and “brutality.” However, the next day you would want to change it up a little bit. Maybe you would want to use “police” and “race relations” since a lot of this topic deals with race. Another suggestion would be to change police to “law enforcement” so you could say “law enforcement and brutality.” Or if you wanted to be specific about looking at body cameras, you could say “police and body cameras.” You would probably want to search all these different terms to find to see if you could find many different types of articles that might be helpful. Additionally, you want to keep notes about which databases you’ve searched. It’s the same thing as using the same search terms over and over again. Our library has many different databases that can be helpful for you, so if you search on Academic Search Complete today, maybe tomorrow you want to do Opposing Viewpoints. The final thing you should include is a working bibliography. This is where you include the MLA citations for each of your sources so that you aren’t in danger of plagiarizing. More Tips Here are a few more tips to help you as you’re going through the research process. If you are going to copy or print any of your sources, make sure you don’t cut off the page numbers. These page numbers will be helpful once you do your in-text citations for MLA format. Make sure that you print all your pages so you don’t lose any necessary information for the works cited page. Be sure to staple printed copies and keep them in a folder so that you don’t drop some of the pages. Whenever possible, choose PDF files. This is important for page numbers, which you will need for in-text citations in your research paper. Keep all electronic copies in a clearly labeled folder. I suggest that you email all of your sources to yourself and make a folder in your email for English 1302. Keep all of your sources there so that you can easily find them if you lose one of your sources. And you can also bookmark online sources to help you keep track of them as well.
I have attached all the files provided by the instructor. Just need to follow the instruction and need to include all the items mentioned. Should be plagiarism-free.
ENGL 1302 Research Paper Assignment Sheet Description The final project for ENGL 1302 is an argumentative research paper that develops an argumentative claim related to the course theme: homelessness, poverty, and food insecurity. This is not a strictly informative report wherein you simply compile information you’ve gathered from other sources. Instead, I want you to take a stand about an issue related to homelessness or poverty or food insecurity. Your research will be used to establish a context for the argument and support your claim. Necessary Components Thesis Statement—You research paper must have a clear, focused thesis statement that establishes your claim. Depending on your topic and the type of argument you are making, it might be beneficial to use the word “because” in the thesis statement and give your reasons (which would also serve as a preview of your main points in your “I Say” section). Context or “They Say” Section—You should include a summary of the overall conversation—the main arguments made in your research area. In this summary, you should mention all of the important, necessary information that a person who is unfamiliar with your topic would need. You should use summaries, paraphrases, and quotations from your relevant sources to illustrate the different points-of-view that emerge from your research. “I Say” Section—This section is the bulk of your essay. You should include your argument with support from outside source materials. Remember not to use “dangling quotes;” instead, blend the source author’s words with your own. (Use the sandwich method of giving an introduction to your quote, giving the quote, and then giving an explanation of the quote.) All of your source material should be helping you prove your point. Naysayer—Don’t forget to address the opposing arguments and give your refutation of these arguments. You must include at least one naysayer source which you will refute. “So What?”—Make sure that you answer the “so what?” question at some point in your text. It may make sense to put this at the end of your essay, but it depends upon your topic and your argument. Citations and Works Cited Page—You should have at least six sources (sources from our class readings may be used but do not count as one of the 6) documented according to MLA format on your Works Cited page. You need to appropriately cite these sources throughout your essay using correct MLA format. Types of Sources—Your essay should include sources showing a variety of authors and source types. In other words, don’t get all of your research from the New York Times or from one author. Vary your research and draw from different voices. NOTE: You must use at least one journal article from the library’s databases. Other Requirements Organize your essay using an appropriate pattern that makes rhetorical sense considering your purpose and audience. Your essay must be at least 2,000 words in length. It should be typed, double-spaced, 1” margins, 12-point font. Your essay must be submitted as a Microsoft Word file to eCampus by 11:59pm on the due date. Suggested Process for Completion Pick an appropriate topic related to the course theme. Brainstorm ideas about what you already know about the topic. Go to the library and/or the library’s website to research more information about the topic. If you have trouble finding sources, ask a reference librarian for help. Take notes from your sources keeping track of where all quotes, paraphrases, and summaries come from. Group your ideas into similar categories and start to form a rough outline. Decide what your claim/argument will be and write a thesis statement and outline with topic sentences. Use your outline to write a rough draft that includes evidence in each main point paragraph. Revise and edit your rough draft. Use the feedback from your peers and instructor to changes parts of your essay that are weak. Proofread and polish before turning in the final draft. Plagiarism Plagiarism is using someone else’s words or ideas without giving credit and is a serious academic offense. It can range from: Turning in a paper any part of which you did not write,  Cutting and pasting a paper together from various sources without attributing the sources correctly, Changing a few words but basically keeping most of the words and sentence structure of the original, Using the ideas of another without giving credit to the person who originally had the idea. Using the exact words of the source without using quotation marks even if you give the name of the source. If you plagiarize on your research project, you can expect to receive an F. Grading This essay is worth 30% of your final grade for the course. Please see the rubric on eCampus for specific information on how you will be evaluated. Due Date The final draft of your full research paper will be due Monday, October 11th 2021.
I have attached all the files provided by the instructor. Just need to follow the instruction and need to include all the items mentioned. Should be plagiarism-free.
FirstName LastName Professor’s Name ENGL 1302 30 January 2018 They Say Example Cities and states all over the United States have been questioning their use of Confederate symbols. It has been 152 years since the end of the Civil War, but many of the same tensions are still very prevalent in today’s society. While the Union, or the North, was victorious against the Southern Confederacy, questions are still being asked, such as: Was the war really about slaves? According to numerous historical sources, and basically the current generation’s general education, the answer is yes. So, that brings us to the next question: how should we remember the Civil War, without glorifying it? According to a 2016 inventory taken by the Southern Poverty Law Center, there were still a whopping 718 confederate monuments and statues in the United States (Gunter & Kizzirre). There are a few different positions on what the statues mean, and a few monuments have since been removed, but the current issue is America’s heated debate about what to do with the remaining Confederate monuments. In the debate about Confederate monuments, there are three main perspectives: to leave the statues alone, to destroy the statues completely, and to keep the statues – but move them to somewhere less glorifying. Conservatives, the ‘right’, tend to be the party most opposed to removing Confederate statues. Defenders of that position focus on the importance of remembering war heroes, regardless of if they won. George W. Bush’s quote, “A great nation does not hide its history, it faces its flaws and corrects them.” is used as an example from conservatives that we must keep the statues in order to ‘face’ our history (Nelson ). On the opposite end of the spectrum, ‘leftists’ compare America keeping statues to the hypothetical idea of Germany displaying statues of Hitler. “Hitler was part of German history and culture, too. But to this day, Germany rejects him as a traitor of his people” (Kuntzman). This statement really makes the reader ask themselves: why are we honoring these war heroes, when they were defending slavery? The same article continues, “These statues are not part of our culture. They are part of a racist effort to turn a segregationist, traitorous movement into part of our culture” (Kuntzman). The most moderate and reasonable position is the last – to put the statues somewhere for historical purposes, like a museum – but to quit idolizing the m in parks and schools. The majority of people involved can agree that we should not forget history, and that is important to know what happened, to avoid repeating the past. Regarding museums, Holland Cotter makes a good point: “… though to be truly useful schools, [museums] must be willing to identify themselves as historical halls of shame as well as halls of fame… where [the statues] can be presented as the propaganda they are” (Cotter). This reasonable compromise between the two poles follows that logic, while also limiting the ‘glory’ value the statues receive. As the old saying states, “you can’t change history, but you can learn from it .” Note from Instructor: Notice how the student gives 3 perspectives that are all different from each other (on different sides of the tug-of-war rope). She states each perspective and then gives a quote that supports that perspective. She is just summarizing other people’s ideas rather than arguing for a particular side. The They Say section should just be a summary of what other people say. You will get to give your own argument in the I Say section. Works Cited Cotter, Holland. “We Need to Move, Not Destroy, Confederate Monuments.” The New York Times, 20 Aug. 2017, www.nytimes.com/2017/08/20/arts/design/we-need-to-move-not-destroy-confederate-monuments.html. Dubenko, Anna. “Right and Left on Removal of Confederate Statues.” The New York Times, The New York Times, 18 Aug. 2017, www.nytimes.com/2017/08/18/us/politics/right-and-left-on-removal-of-confederate-statues.html. Gunter, Booth, and Jamie Kizzirre. “Who’s Heritage? Public Symbols of the Confederacy.” Southern Poverty Law Center, www.splcenter.org/sites/default/files/whoseheritage_splc.pdf Kuntzman, Gersh. “U.S. should see Confederate leaders the way Germans see Hitler.” NY Daily News, 17 Aug. 2017, www.nydailynews.com/news/politics/u-s-confederate-leaders-germans-hitler-article-1.3420013. Nelson, Sophia A. “Opinion: Confederate monuments should stay and here’s why.” NBCNews.com, NBCUniversal News Group, 1 June 2017, www.nbcnews.com/think/news/opinion-why-i-feel-confederate-monuments-should-stay-ncna767221.
I have attached all the files provided by the instructor. Just need to follow the instruction and need to include all the items mentioned. Should be plagiarism-free.
They Say Section Instructions Description For the They Say section of your research project, you should include a summary of the overall conversation—the main arguments made in your research area.  In this summary, you should mention all of the important, necessary information that a person who is unfamiliar with your topic would need. You should use summaries, paraphrases, and quotations from your sources to illustrate the different points-of-view that emerge from your research.  Necessary Components You must include context that your reader needs to understand the topic. Since you are picking a recent topic of debate from the news, you will want to give your reader background about what has happened recently. Here are some questions to think about: Why is this topic in the news right now? Is congress or the president talking about doing something about this issue? You must represent at least 3 perspectives on your topic. This means that you’ll probably have a pro, a con, and something in the middle (or a third perspective that might not fit precisely in the middle. Think of your topic as a tug-of-war rope and ask yourself what people pulling on each side of the rope are saying. You must have a source (quote, paraphrase, or summary) for each of your 3 sides. You will probably want to keep this brief, though. You don’t want to go into too much detail in the They Say section. This section is only about a page (350 words) long, so you have to be succinct. Organization I recommend you divide your ideas into at least 2 paragraphs: the context and the perspectives. Later, when you put the entire research paper together, you will probably move the context to the introduction for the final research paper. Context Summary of past events that have led to this issue. Summary of what is going on with this issue right now.  Perspectives 1st viewpoint on the topic 2nd viewpoint on the topic 3rd viewpoint on the topic   Other Requirements Your They Say section should be 300-400 words in length.  It should be typed, double-spaced, 1” margins, 12-point font. For a sample of MLA format, see the Purdue OWL Website. Be sure to include a Works Cited page that follows MLA format. See the Plagiarism and Documentation folders from Week 1 for more information about MLA format. You will submit your They Say section for peer review in Week 3. Use the feedback that you get from your classmates to improve your draft before turning it in. Plagiarism Remember that plagiarism is using someone else’s words or ideas without giving credit and is a serious academic offense. It can range from: Turning in a paper any part of which you did not write. Cutting and pasting a paper together from various sources without attributing the sources correctly. Changing a few words but basically keeping most of the words and sentence structure of the original. Using the ideas of another without giving credit to the person who originally had the ideas. Using the exact words of the source without using quotation marks even if you give the name of the source. Due Date A polished draft of your They Say paper will be due on Sunday, September 12th at 11:59pm NOTE: This polished draft is not your final draft but should be pretty close to final. I will give you comments and feedback on each section throughout the semester so that you can improve those sections before putting them together in the final research paper.
I have attached all the files provided by the instructor. Just need to follow the instruction and need to include all the items mentioned. Should be plagiarism-free.
Entering the Conversation Think about an activity that you do particularly well: cooking, playing the piano, shooting a basketball, even something as basic as driving a car. If you reflect on this activity, you’ll realize that once you mastered it you no longer had to give much conscious thought to the various moves that go into doing it. Performing this activity, in other words, depends on your having learned a series of complicated moves—moves that may seem mysterious or difficult to those who haven’t yet learned them. The same applies to writing. Often without consciously realizing it, accomplished writers routinely rely on a stock of established moves that are crucial for communicating sophisticated ideas. Hence this class, which will guide you through some of the basic moves of academic writing. It is true, of course, that critical thinking and writing go deeper than any set of linguistic formulas, requiring that you question assumptions, develop strong claims, offer supporting reasons and evidence, consider opposing arguments, and so on. But these deeper habits of thought cannot be put into practice unless you have a strategy for expressing them in clear, organized ways. Thus, the “they say; I say” approach. State Your Own Ideas as a Response to Others The most important rhetorical concept that we will focus on in this class is the “they say; I say” approach to writing. If there is any one point that I hope you will take away from ENGL 1302, it is the importance not only of expressing your ideas (“I say”) but of presenting those ideas as a response to some other person or group (“they say”). Remember this: the underlying structure of effective academic writing—and of responsible public discourse—resides not just in stating your own ideas but in listening closely to others around you, summarizing their views in a way that they will recognize, and responding with your own ideas in kind. Broadly speaking, academic writing is argumentative writing, and I believe that to argue well you need to do more than assert your own position. You need to enter a conversation, using what others say (or might say) as a launching pad or sounding board for your own views. For this reason, one of the main pieces of advice in this class is to write the voices of others into your text. The best academic writing has one underlying feature: it is deeply engaged in some way with other people’s views. Too often, however, academic writing is taught as a process of saying “true” or “smart” things in a vacuum, as if it were possible to argue effectively without being in conversation with someone else. If you have been taught to write a traditional five-paragraph essay, for example, you have learned how to develop a thesis and support it with evidence. This is good advice as far as it goes, but it leaves out the important fact that in the real world we don’t make arguments without being provoked. Instead, we make arguments because someone has said or done something (or perhaps not said or done something) and we need to respond: “I can’t see why you like the Lakers so much”; “I agree: it was a great film”; “That argument is contradictory.” If it weren’t for other people and our need to challenge, agree with, or otherwise respond to them, there would be no reason to argue at all. “Why Are You Telling Me This?” To make an impact as a writer, then, you need to do more than make statements that are logical, well supported, and consistent. You must also find a way of entering into conversation with the views of others, with something “they say.” The easiest and most common way writers do this is by summarizing what others say and then using it to set up what they want to say. “But why,” as many students ask, “do I always need to summarize the views of others to set up my own view? Why can’t I just state my own view and be done with it?” Why indeed? After all, “they,” whoever they may be, will have already had their say, so why do you have to repeat it? Furthermore, if they had their say in print, can’t readers just go and read what was said themselves? The answer is that if you don’t identify the “they say” you’re responding to, your own argument probably won’t have a point. Readers will wonder what prompted you to say what you’re saying and therefore motivated you to write. As the figure below suggests, without a “they say,” what you are saying may be clear to your audience, but why you are saying it won’t be. Even if we aren’t familiar with the show The Sopranos, it’s easy to grasp what the speaker means here when he says that its characters are very complex. But it’s hard to see why the speaker feels the need to say what he is saying. “Why,” as one member of his imagined audience wonders, “is he telling us this?” So the characters are complex—so what? Now look at what happens to the same proposition when it is presented as a response to something “they say”: I hope you agree that the same claim—“the characters in The Sopranos are very complex”—becomes much stronger when presented as a response to a contrary view: that the show’s characters are “caricatures of Italian Americans.” Unlike the speaker in the first cartoon, the speaker in the second has a clear goal or mission: to correct what he sees as a mistaken characterization. The As-Opposed-To-What Factor To put my point another way, framing your “I say” as a response to something “they say” gives your writing an element of contrast without which it won’t make sense. It may be helpful to think of this crucial element as an “as-opposed-to-what factor” and, as you write, to continually ask yourself, “Who says otherwise?” and “Does anyone dispute it?” Behind the audience’s “Yeah, so?” and “Why is he telling us this?” in the first cartoon above lie precisely these types of “As opposed to what?” questions. The speaker in the second cartoon, I think, is more satisfying because he answers these questions, helping us see his point that The Sopranos presents complex characters rather than simple Italian American stereotypes. How It’s Done: Three Examples Many accomplished writers make explicit “they say” moves to set up and motivate their own arguments. One famous example is Martin Luther King Jr.’s “Letter from Birmingham Jail,” which consists almost entirely of King’s eloquent responses to a public statement by eight clergymen deploring the civil rights protests he was leading. The letter—which was written in 1963, while King was in prison for leading a demonstration against racial injustice in Birmingham—is structured almost entirely around a framework of summary and response, in which King summarizes and then answers their criticisms. In one typical passage, King writes as follows. You deplore the demonstrations taking place in Birmingham. But your statement, I am sorry to say, fails to express a similar concern for the conditions that brought about the demonstrations. Martin Luther King Jr., “Letter from Birmingham Jail” King goes on to agree with his critics that “It is unfortunate that demonstrations are taking place in Birmingham,” yet he hastens to add that “it is even more unfortunate that the city’s white power structure left the Negro community with no alternative.” King’s letter is so thoroughly conversational, in fact, that it could be rewritten in the form of a dialogue or play. King’s critics say _______ King responses by saying _______ The critics say _______ King responds _______ Clearly, King would not have written his famous letter were it not for his critics, whose views he treats not as objections to his already-formed arguments but as the motivating source of those arguments, their central reason for being. He quotes not only what his critics have said (“Some have asked: ‘Why didn’t you give the new city administration time to act?’”), but also things they might have said (“One may well ask: ‘How can you advocate breaking some laws and obeying others?’”)—all to set the stage for what he himself wants to say. A similar “they say / I say” exchange opens an essay about American patriotism by the social critic Katha Pollitt, who uses her own daughter’s comment to represent the patriotic national fervor after the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. My daughter, who goes to Stuyvesant High School only blocks from the former World Trade Center, thinks we should fly the American flag out our window. Definitely not, I say: the flag stands for jingoism and vengeance and war. She tells me I’m wrong—the flag means standing together and honoring the dead and saying no to terrorism. In a way we’re both right. . . . Katha Pollitt, “Put Out No Flags” As Pollitt’s example shows, the “they” you respond to in crafting an argument need not be a famous author or someone known to your audience. It can be a family member like Pollitt’s daughter, or a friend or classmate who has made a provocative claim. It can even be something an individual or a group might say—or a side of yourself, something you once believed but no longer do, or something you partly believe but also doubt. The important thing is that the “they” (or “you” or “she”) represent some wider group with which readers might identify—in Pollitt’s case, those who patriotically believe in flying the flag. Pollitt’s example also shows that responding to the views of others need not always involve unqualified opposition. By agreeing and disagreeing with her daughter, Pollitt enacts what is known as the “yes and no” response, reconciling apparently incompatible views. While King and Pollitt both identify the views they are responding to, some authors do not explicitly state their views but instead allow the reader to infer them. See, for instance, if you can identify the implied or unnamed “they say” that the following claim is responding to. I like to think I have a certain advantage as a teacher of literature because when I was growing up I disliked and feared books. Gerald Graff, “Disliking Books at an Early Age” In case you haven’t figured it out already, the phantom “they say” here is the common belief that in order to be a good teacher of literature, one must have grown up liking and enjoying books. Don’t Shy Away from Controversy As you can see from these examples, many writers use the “they say / I say” format to challenge standard ways of thinking and thus to stir up controversy. This point may come as a shock to you if you have always had the impression that in order to succeed academically you need to play it safe and avoid controversy in your writing, making statements that nobody can possibly disagree with. Though this view of writing may appear logical, it is actually a recipe for flat, lifeless writing and for writing that fails to answer the “so what?” and “who cares?” questions. “Youth homelessness in Dallas is a problem we need to solve” may be a perfectly true statement, but precisely because nobody is likely to disagree with it, it goes without saying and thus would seem pointless if said. But just because controversy is important doesn’t mean you have to become an attack dog who automatically disagrees with everything others say. Disagreeing Without Being Disagreeable There certainly are occasions when strong critique is needed. It’s hard to live in a deeply polarized society like our current one and not feel the need at times to criticize what others think. But even the most justified critiques fall flat unless we really listen to and understand the views we are criticizing: While I understand the impulse to _____, my own view is _____. Even the most sympathetic audiences, after all, tend to feel manipulated by arguments that scapegoat and caricature the other side. Furthermore, genuinely listening to views you disagree with can have the salutary effect of helping you see that beliefs you’d initially disdained may not be as thoroughly reprehensible as you’d imagined. Thus, the type of “they say / I say” argument that I promote in this class can take the form of agreeing up to a point or, as the Pollitt example above illustrates, of both agreeing and disagreeing simultaneously, as in: While I agree with X that _____ , I cannot accept her overall conclusion that _____. While X argues _____, and I argue _____, in a way we’re both right. Agreement cannot be ruled out, however: I agree with _____ that _____. Putting In Your Oar Though the immediate goal of this course is to help you become a better writer, at a deeper level it invites you to become a certain type of person: a critical, intellectual thinker who, instead of sitting passively on the sidelines, can participate in the debates and conversations of your world in an active and empowered way. Ultimately, this course invites you to become a critical thinker who can enter the types of conversations described eloquently by the philosopher Kenneth Burke in the following widely cited passage. Likening the world of intellectual exchange to a never-ending conversation at a party, Burke writes: You come late. When you arrive, others have long preceded you, and they are engaged in a heated discussion, a discussion too heated for them to pause and tell you exactly what it is about. . . . You listen for a while, until you decide that you have caught the tenor of the argument; then you put in your oar. Someone answers; you answer him; another comes to your defense; another aligns himself against you. . . . The hour grows late, you must depart. And you do depart, with the discussion still vigorously in progress. Kenneth Burke, The Philosophy of Literary Form This passage suggestion that stating an argument (putting in your oar) can only be done in conversation with others; that entering the dynamic world of ideas must be done not as isolated individuals but as social beings deeply connected to others. This ability to enter complex, many-sided conversations has taken on a special urgency in today’s polarized, Red State / Blue State America, where the future for all of us may depend on our ability to put ourselves in the shoes of those who think very differently from us. The central piece of advice in this course—that you listen carefully to others, including those who disagree with you, and then engage with them thoughtfully and respectfully—can help you see beyond your own pet beliefs, which may not be shared by everyone. The mere act of crafting a sentence that begins “Of course, someone might object that” may not seem like a way to change the world; but it does have the potential to jog us out of our comfort zones, to get us thinking critically about our own beliefs, and even to change minds, our own included.