English

Order Description
In the textbook (“They say/I say”: the moves that matter in academic writing, with readings/ Gerald Graff, University of Illinois at Chicago; Cathy Birkenstein, University of Illinois at Chicago; Russel Durst, University of Cincinnati. – Third Edition.) read chapters 1 (“THEY SAY…”), 2 (“HER POINT IS…”), 3 (“AS HE HIMSELF PUTS IT…”), 14 (“WHAT’S MOTIVATING THIS WRITER?”), and Michael Pollan (“Escape from the Western Diet) on page 420. You will be writing a “They Say” paper on Michael Pollan’s (“Escape from the Western Diet). Chapters 1, 2, 3, and 14 are to help you know how to read Michael Pollan’s essay and help you write a good “They say” paper.
NO more than 15% should be quoted in the essay.
Assignment: For this initial paper the idea of “they say” is enacted following the direction given in the They Say part one (19-51). Starting with the idea of participating in a “conversation” in our academic environment, the content and intent of one of the selected readings is presented as completely as possible. The goal for the writing is to bring forward to the audience a clear and thoughtful sense of the thinking found in the article.
In support of that goal, the writing is organized with a considered presentation of both the “present” discussion and the “past” thinking as found in the discourse surrounding the topic under consideration. One is composing a paper which makes its way into the “conversation” through the careful investigation/ interrogation of thinking and writing offered for examination supported with the deliberate arrangement of the ideas taken up for examination. The significance of the writing is disclosed in the attention given to understanding the article “on its own terms”. The degree to which one is conversant with the ideas and thinking should be made apparent to the audience.
Audience: We can assume the readers are aware of the topic as one of significance for some portion of the culture, especially for those who have begun to participate in the exchange of ideas, the “conversation”. The immediate reader is a classmate who has two interests in the work: first to learn about the article, its ideas and its thinking and second, to see how one could shape a writing into this “they say” configuration, as a guide to being ready for other academic discourse (papers).
Requirements: The paper is four pages (4) maximum formatted in MLA with correct MLA documentation and a works cited entry.
Organization: (these points are given in the most rudimentary fashion as reminders more than directions) however the general characteristics for the sections/parts of the paper should be used as a guide for some stage in the composing process.
Opening: (Opening is ONE paragraph) At the outset, the reader must be given a careful sense of the article, its thinking and the “place” it might have in the larger discourse. In addition, the needed and necessary frame for the discussion taken up in the article should be apparent, a sense of context and relevance. To complete the opening, the reader needs to be given enough sense of the meaningfulness of the thinking so that what follows in the essay has a basis. It would be helpful to think of the opening as the basic and necessary preparation for the complexity of the work to come in the body of the paper.
Body: (Body needs to be FIVE paragraphs) Here the greatest range of choices and decisions is found because the task is to be as complete, complex and comprehensive as the space and resources allow. The exact shape of the work done depends on the manner that the article is understood and seen as available to the readers, both the readers of the article and the reader of your paper. Therefore, follow to some extent the following suggestion: the article must be “looked” at, all or nearly all of the important ideas and information needs to be presented and laid out for examination; after which, to the extent one is able, the article must be “looked into,” its thought has to be explored and made available to the reader so that the range of the significance of the work done in the article is appreciated.
To the extent one can, the body of the paper is ordered around some sense of the significance in the thinking found or the meaningfulness of the thought in relations to the value of the topic. The reader should be able to have a grasp of how the writer of the article has come to think as he has and how the writer of the paper, you, have come to be able to understand the thought encountered and achieved.
In order to be engaged in a comprehensive “reading” of the article, the writing in the paper will have to “move” from looking into the thought to thinking through the thought, what must one now be able to accept to proceed with this line of thinking, how must we now accommodate this thought as we continue to work in this discourse, with others who are part of the conversation.
The challenge is to find, discover, the best, most sound order for the presentation of the thought found for discussion and comprehension by the reader. It would be useful to follow the basic approach, at least initially: move for the least difficult to the more challenging and then to the truly significant and even “problematic” thought, thereby, providing the reader with as much support to engage the thought and its “meaning” on its terms, if possible.
Closing: (Closing is ONE paragraph) In the effort to be complete and complex, the closing must be able to take account of the work done and the necessary steps to complete the thought being offered and investigated. In order to show this sense of the “conversation” the closing must be free to point forward to the next line of though t worth our consideration or to revisit some of the more fundamental points having been explored.
When writing the “They say” essay, write the body paragraphs first then write the opening and closing.
Also, when writing the “They say” essay you do not have to follow the order of Michael Pollan’s essay. Just use the parts from Michael Pollan’s essay that follow your interest. Read Michael Pollan’s essay and write the “They say” essay from the prospective of Nutritionism.