“They say, I say” Templates

Why Templates?

Successful academic writing involves presenting both your sources’ ideas and your own ideas fairly and effectively to your readers. According to Graff and Birkenstein, to do so, you should engage in “a conversation about ideas” in which you react critically to your sources (ix). Graff and Birkenstein’s templates may help you to have this conversation in a reader-friendly fashion, so that your thesis, supporting evidence, opposing evidence, and conclusion are clear. They Say/I Say discusses these templates more fully, and includes useful lists of them, especially In the end of the book. While you don’t want to adopt these templates mindlessly, the templates do provide sensible language for engaging in academic conversations, and we all benefit from adopting good language for our own purposes. Here are a few of the examples that I have adapted from their text. Remember, these forms still require proper citations so readers know who “they” are.

Introducing standard views:

Americans today tend to believe that _______.
Conventional wisdom claims that ________.
My whole life I have heard people say that ________.

Capturing authorial action (e.g., to write a summary):

X acknowledges that ________.
X agreed that ________.
X argues that ________.
X complains that ________.
X demonstrates that ________.
X emphasizes that ________.

Introducing quotations:

X insists, “_______.”
As the prominent philosopher X puts it, “______.”
According to X, ” ______.”
In her book, Book Title, X maintains that “______.”
X complicates matters further when he writes that “______.”

Explaining quotations:

Basically, X is saying _______.
In other words, X believes _______.

Making what “they say” into something you say:

I have always believed that _______.
When I was a child, I used to think that _______.

Introducing something Implied or assumed:

Although X does not say so directly, she apparently assumes that ______.
While they rarely admit as much, ______ often take for granted that ______.

Introducing an ongoing debate:

On the one hand, X argues ______. On the other hand, Y claims ______. My own view is _______.
In a long-accepted argument, X argues ______, but Y and others disagree because ______. In fact, Y’s argument that _______ is now supported by new research showing that _______.
In recent discussions of ______, a controversial issue has been whether ________. On the one hand, some argue that ________. On the other hand, however, others argue that _______. My own view is _______.
As I suggested earlier, defenders of _______ can’t have it both ways. Their assertion that _______ is contradicted by their claim that ________.

Disagreeing, with reasons:

I think that X Is mistaken because she overlooks _____.
1 disagree with X’s view that _____ because, as recent research has shown, _____.
X’s claim that _____ rests upon the questionable assumption that ______.

Agreeing, with a difference:

X is surely right about _____ because, as he/she may not be aware, recent studies have shown that ______.
X’s theory of ______ is extremely useful because it sheds insight on the difficult problem of ______.
I agree that ________ a point that needs emphasizing since so many people believe_______.

Agreeing and disagreeing simultaneously:

Although I agree with X to a point, I cannot accept his/her overall conclusion that ______ because ______.
Although I disagree with much of what X says, I fully endorse his/her final conclusion that ______.
Though I concede that ______ I still insist that ______.
X is right that ______ but she seems to be on more dubious ground when she states _______.

Signaling who is saying what:

X argues _______.
My own view, however, is that _______.
Yet a careful analysis of the data reveals _______.

Embedding voice markers (e.g., introducing your point of view):

X overlooks what I consider an important point about ______.
I wholeheartedly endorse what X calls ______.
My discussion of X is in fact addressing the larger matter of ______.
These conclusions will have significant applications in _______ as well as in ______.

Making concessions while still standing your ground:

Although I grant that ______, I still maintain that ______.
While ______ is ______, it does not necessarily follow that ______.

Indicating who cares:

Researchers have long assumed that ______. For instance, one eminent sociologist, _______, long argued that ______. However, new research has clearly demonstrated otherwise; in fact, _______.

Establishing why your claims matter:

X matters because ______.
These conclusions have significant implications for ______ as well as for ______.

Commonly Used Transitions:

Cause & Effect:

Accordingly
As a result
Consequently
Therefore
Thus

Conclusion:

As a result
Consequently
Hence
In conclusion
Then
Therefore

Comparison:

Along the same lines
In the same way
Likewise
Similarly

Contrast:

By contrast
Conversely
Despite the fact that
Nevertheless
On the contrary

Addition:

Also
Furthermore
In addition
In fact
Moreover

Concession:

Admittedly
Of course
Naturally
To be sure

Example:

After all
Consider
For example
For instance
Specifically

Elaboration:

Actually
By extension
In other words
To put in another way

Adapted with changes by Chris Hunter from: Graff, Gerald and Cathy Birkenstein. They Say/I Say: The Moves That Matter in Academic Writing. New York: Norton, 2010.