Gerald Graff and Cathy Birkenstein

They Say/I Say

The Moves that Matter in Persuasive Writing

"The Strunk & White of academic writing."—Richard Bullock, Wright State University

As employers, politicians, parents, and other citizens lament the decline of writing skills among Americans, this little book comes to the rescue. An instant bestseller when it first appeared as a college textbook, They Say/I Say gives writers precisely what they need to know in the all-important domain of persuasive writing. Cutting through the clutter of educational diagnoses and nostrums, it goes right to the heart of what writers most need to do, and that is to listen to what others are saying (they say), summarize it, and then offer their own argument (I say) as a response. Offering user-friendly templates to help writers make these key moves in their own writing, They Say/I Say is already being called the Strunk & White of persuasive writing.


Gerald Graff is a professor of English and education at the University of Illinois at Chicago. He is the author of a number of award-winning books, among them Beyond the Culture Wars and Clueless in Academe, and he will become the president of the Modern Language Association in 2008. Cathy Birkenstein teaches writing at the University of Illinois at Chicago. Both authors live in Chicago.
They Say/I Say book jacket


August 2007 / hardcover / ISBN 978-0-393-06545-9
2006 / college paperback / ISBN 978-0-393-92409-1
5" x 7" / 208 pages / Reference/Writing
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