They Say / I Say

PREFACE

They Say / I Say by Gerald Graff and Cathy Birkenstein

Just starting this book and I can see how useful it will be as I begin my writing for this PhD. It Suggests a series of templates can be the way to open up academic writing and show it’s workings (without making it formulaic).

Basically, I have to summarise the “They Say” to set up my argument (“I Say”)

Check out the They Say I Say blog HERE

Some Logical principles of argument not covered in the book (but worth an investigation)

• Syllogisms: An argument that arrives at a conclusion based on two or more propositions :

  “All men are mortal. Socrates is a man. Therefore, Socrates is mortal.”

• Warrants: The reason the evidence supports a claim. Or the reason the evidence is trustworthy and therefore your argument is built on a solid foundation of fact.

• Logical Fallacies: Basically this is errors in the facts. They can be spotted due to a lack of evidence or misuse of statistics for example. Just think of Donald Trumps’ use of coronavirus statistics.

• Inductive Reasoning: This starts with facts and works it’s way to a conclusion through more of an explorative process. It may be a way to generate a hypothesis from a series of facts rather than using those facts to prove a hypothesis.

• Deductive Reasoning: Starts with a theory or hypothesis and works its way towards a conclusion based on evidence. For example, my hypothesis is that technology can be used to create engaging interactive experiences. If I can provide examples and evidence that supports this I can deduce (Mr Watson) that technology indeed can be used to create engaging interactive experiences.