They Say, I Say: Step #1

Exercise 1
    The term "musician" brings to mind several images: Long-haired, scruffy guitar player, a violinist in a tuxedo, or even a high school nerd who spends their weekends playing the tuba. They see musicians as being extremist, who are either dirty, scums, high-class, overachievers, or unsociable teenagers. However, these generalizations are false for a huge portion of the musical society. On the contrary, many of these musicians are average people, who took up a career to put food on the table. For the truth is that whether music is their hobby, career, or extracurricular activity, it does not define their character or position in society. In this essay, then, comparisons between musicians and average people will prove that not all musicians fit the generalizations bestowed upon them.

Exercise 2
     In the Introduction to "They Say / I Say": The Moves That Matter in Academic Writing, Gerald Graff and Cathy Birkenstein provide templates designed to assist students while learning to structure their writing on an academic level. Specifically, Graff and Birkenstein argue that the types of writing templates they offer do not decrease individuals creativity, but instead provide a basis for an increase in the students writing fluency. As the authors themselves put it, templates "represent the stock in trade of sophisticated thinking and writing, and they often require a great deal of practice and instruction to use successfully" (11). Although some believe that these templates are plagiarism, or are for those in elementary school, Graff and Birkenstein insist that they are actually the opposite, and prepare students for a college-level education. In sum, then, their view is that peoples writing skill can escalate with the help of templates.
     I have mixed feelings regarding the use of templates. In my view, the types of templates that the authors recommend could be very successful in assisting people during writing; however, excessive dependence on these templates would force people to become reliant on them. This reliance would go against the reasoning for using the templates in the first place. Some might disagree, on the grounds that one couldn't use templates for all writing, because there won't always be the necessary templates available. Yet I would argue that, one wouldn't become aware of this until after he had become dependent on this resource. Overall, then, I believe that templates would be helpful in developing positive writing habits, however, they shouldn't be used once the writer can successfully write an efficient essay.

Dialectic Journal #1 (Chapters 1-15)

Chapter 1

p.1: "You don't know about me, without you have read a book by the name of 'The Adventures of Tom Sawyer', but that ain't no matter. That book was made by Mr. Mark Twain, and he told the truth, mainly."

p.1: "The Widow Douglas, she took me for her son, and allowed she would sivilize me; but it was rough living in the house all the time, considering how dismal regular and decent the widow was in all her ways; and so when I couldn't stand it no longer, I lit out. 

Comments & Questions

The first quote I found specifically interesting, because it is different from any other phrases I've read in books; Mark Twain, the author of the novel, refers to himself through the eyes of the main character, Huckleberry Finn. The second quote indirectly describes the rugged, uneducated, and barbaric qualities of  Huckleberry Finn.

Chapter 4

p.12: "Oho-o. I think I see. You want to sell all your property to me, not give it. That's the correct idea. "

p.13: "He said there was a spirit inside of it, and it knowed everything."

 Comments & Questions

Both of these quotes show the unsophisticated aspects of Huckleberry Finn. Through the words of Judge Thatcher, Huck Finn's mistaking of selling versus giving is emphasized; this confusion adds to the other details Mark Twain uses to present this young boy as an uneducated individual. Also, by Mark Twain using first person point of view, Huck Finn is able to present himself using misspellings and other grammatical errors.

Chapters 6 & 7

p.20: "... a man's own son, which he has had all the trouble and all the anxiety and all the expense of raising."

p.24: "I wanted an axe, but there wasn't any, only the one out at the wood pile, and I knowed why I was going to leave that."

Comments & Questions

I found the first quote, spoken by Huck Finn's father, ironic and kind of funny; his father is complaining about how the government is trying to take away his son, who he believes he put so much time and effort into raising. His dad was a drunk? Who left him alone, and in the care of Miss Watson? The second quote seemed to foreshadow the plan Huck Finn used to escape captivity from his father.

Chapter 11

p.45: "So I said it wouldn't be no use to try to play it any longer, and I would just make a clean breast and tell her everything, but she mustn't go back on her promise."

Comments & Questions

When Huck says "play it any longer", he is referring to lying; this is one of the first steps he makes to act clean and end his mischievous ways. This quote explains one of the important and repeated themes in the book: deceit. 

Chapter 15

p.61: "I jumped into the canoe and run back to the stern and grabbed the paddle and set her back a stroke. But she didn't come."

Comments & Questions

I comprehended this sentence as Mark Twain using syntax to enhance the uniqueness of the novel. The text in the novel is written how it would be said if it were Huck Finn talking. Twain continually uses long, flowing sentences  followed by short, incomplete sentences.By doing this, the point gets across much more effectively to the reader, in a way that Huck would present it.