When I began reading Rewriting: How to Do Things With Texts, I was quickly reminded of a book from which I have borrowed many ideas for teaching writing. In They Say/I Say: The Moves that Matter in Academic Writing, Graff, Birkenstein, and Durst offer suggestions and even templates that encourage and assist writers to “enter the conversation” of academic writing. As in Rewriting, They Say/I Say explores several ways that writers work with texts to advance their own ideas.
One “move” that Graff, Birkenstein, and Durst suggest, which I find myself reminding students over and over again in my own classroom, is one which asks the writer to explain WHY what they are saying matters. The authors assert that “rather than assume that audiences will know why their claims matter, all writers need to answer the “so what?” and “who cares?” questions up front. ” This assertion not only gives a writer the directive to respond to these questions, but also implicitly requires the writer to consider her audience. Considering audience (whether academic specialization, political slant, gender, or something else) can help the writer determine WHY what he or she has to say will matter to whomever she is writing for, completing the rhetorical triangle connecting writer, subject, and audience.
I have suggested that students in my classroom address this move at the end of their essays (rather than “up front” as suggested in They Say/I Say). In the formulaic final “element of an argument” (after the hook, claim, support, and concessions/refutation), the call to action seems a natural location for writers to directly address their audience by calling on readers to DO SOMETHING as a result of reading the text, providing them with a reason why the text matters – answer the “so what?” However, this move is offered in They Say/I Say as a way to hook the audience from the outset, giving them a purpose for reading the text. I propose that either approach can be effective, as long as a writer remembers to address her audience by telling them why what she has to say matters and why they, too, should care.
In an editorial assignment completed by 10th graders at Conrad Schools of Science, one student (Madison) hooks her audience with the following opening: “Thin hair, baggy eyes, yellow teeth and wrinkles before you’re old: all effects of smoking. Most people agree that the smoke is not worth it; in fact, approximately 3 out of 4 adults in the United States reported that they do not smoke,” and concludes with “If people want to save the next generation, they need to first acknowledge the problem.” She tells us who cares – “3 out of 4 adults,” people who do not want to look old before their time, and people who “want to save the next generation.” She addresses this additional move which calls for academic writers to say why it matters.
E688: Seminar in Teaching Composition 