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.