Hi folks!
Let's try something new this week—a "Friday Follow-up" blog post, from me! In these posts, I'll summarize what we did over the past week, what I hope you've taken from our class sessions, and give you some additional pointers and ideas for the post you'll be writing for Sunday. I will also note anything that is coming up for the following week that you may want to be aware of. So, here goes...
Where we've been
Despite my temporary loss of electricity (30 hours!), we had a productive week. On Monday, we began talking about some concepts that are laid out in They Say, I Say, a short handbook for academic writing that I would recommend grabbing from the library some day.
In the introduction to this book, the authors demonstrate why it's important to think about all of our writing taking place within a conversation. Over the next few weeks of blog posts, it will become clear why we are using this premise: you'll be thinking about how your sources respond to your framing question, how you respond to your framing question, and thus how you respond to your sources. It will become a lovely network of ideas!
On Monday and Wednesday, we looked at Op-Ed pieces, all on the topic of remote work, to examine how writers use the "they say, I say" framework in lots of different ways. Sometimes the "they say" is stated very explicitly (example: "Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced…") while at other times it is more implicit ("productivity went up" — in other words, "some people could say productivity is far better with remote work").
Same with the "I say" portion. At times, the author might state quite forthright what their opinion is in relation to their "they say" framework (ex: "I couldn't disagree more..."), while at other times their viewpoint is stated more implicitly ("we decided to get everyone back together").
I also used these Op-Ed samples to demonstrate that there is often a key transition happening between "they say" and "I say," a but or however that moves us from the familiar territory of the opening move ("some people say this, while other people say that") to the writer's own viewpoint ("but there is a problem with this…and here is my solution").
On Wednesday, we defined 4 take-aways that I want you to extend to your own writing:
How are you responding to the framing question? ("yes, and…"; "no, because…"; "maybe…")
What is your "they say"? What other ideas or viewpoints are you engaging with?
What is your "I say"? What is your unique viewpoint, perspective?
How do you transition between the two? What's your "but"?
In an effort to bring this all together, you worked on a mind mapping exercise yesterday on your own (if you didn't complete it and send to me, that's okay; it will count as an absence).
These mind maps can help you lay out the ways in which your sources relate to one another. If you enjoyed the exercise (personally, I love mind maps), this activity can also be applied when you're thinking through your own argument, supporting points, and evidence for any piece of writing, whether that be an op-ed or a research paper.
What I will be doing next
I will send you some remarks on your mind map combined with your framing question. If all goes as planned, you'll have these brief comments by email Saturday morning.
I will also send back a few outstanding writer bio approvals, and I will create a new page on our course site with "About our Writers," so that your bios will appear both on your own profile but also on one collective site. [If you haven't already, please change your displayed username on the site to your first name only.]
Sunday's Post
For Sunday, your assigned post is also Project 1: Framing the Conversation. This 1,000-word post should be uploaded by 6pm on Sunday evening. This is your first graded post.
This post will be a narrative version of your mind map.
You'll want to think very carefully about organization here. Instead of jumping back and forth between ideas, you'll want to bring together sources that have similar responses to the argument and explain how they relate, how they differ, what ideas they add to the nuance of the argument.
Remember to order your paragraphs well, and also to keep them short—blog / internet writing requires smaller paragraphs for ease of processing, and for smartphone display.
You will not be including your own perspective or viewpoint anywhere in this post. You'll want to try to give equal weight to multiple viewpoints. Perhaps you don't have explicitly a "yes" side and a "no" side, but maybe your sources can be gathered into camps about why they might be saying "yes" or the kinds of evidence they draw upon to support their claims.
To help you develop this post, you should look carefully at the template on page 9 of the They Say, I Say introduction chapter. In fact, if you want to directly use this template, or use it with some variations, that is a great idea. Note, however, that you will only use the first paragraph of the template, since we are not stating our own viewpoints.
The point of this post will be to get a firm hold on the ways that your sources interact. What is the framing question that brings them all together? What are the possible viewpoints in response to the question? What do the sources leave out? What variations of thinking do they offer? The model on page 9 helps you lay out what the main topic of discussion is, and then what the multiple viewpoints are ("on the one hand…; but on the other hand…").
Preview of next week…
Monday is a holiday, so the next time we see each other "live" is Wednesday, Oct 14. For next week, we'll be reading three more chapters of They Say, I Say. That is all you will have to do in advance of class to prepare for our meetings. Please see the Assignments page for the links to each day's reading.
That's all for now! If you have any questions over the weekend, please reach out.