They Say/I Say Chapter 3 Notes PDF

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These are notes taken from They Say/I Say for Ink To Ideas with Dr Colin Beineke from Fall 2018 quarter. This focuses on the art of quoting....

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CHAPTER 3: THEY SAY/I SAY

“As He Himself Puts It” The Art of Quoting Quoting adds credibility and helps ensure that your summary is fair and accurate  

It’s a way of ensuring that you’re not making stuff up. Acts as evidence of claims made

Don’t: 

 

Over quote – you may end up with too little of your own commentary o Can happen when you don’t fully understand what you’re quoting o Can happen when you have too little confidence in the commentary you’re making Under quote – don’t be lazy to go back and source out the claim/ don’t rely on your memory Assume that the quotation speaks for itself!

Think of quotes as orphans that have been taken away from their natural home and need contextualizing in their new surroundings Do this by:  

Choosing quotes wisely with an eye of how they’ll support the particular part of your text By surrounding every major quotation with a frame explaining whose words they are, what the quotation means and how the quotation relates to your own text.

Quoting the “They Say” must always be connected with what you say. Quote Relevant Passages   

Think of how a quote will support your text before choosing it. It must support your argument. Don’t select quotes for the sake of proving that you have read the author’s work. Find the quotes as you go on in the passage

Frame Every Quotation   

Present the quotes that makes them relevant to the reader. Build a frame around them where you do the speaking for them. “Dangling quotations” are quotes that have no frame supporting them “Quotation Sandwich”: the statement that introduces the quote is like the top slice, the quote that explains the quote is like the bottom slice. o The introductory statement should explain who is speaking and set up what the quotation says; the follow-up statement should explain why you consider the quotation to be important and what you take it to say.

Templates for introducing quotations         

X states, “_____________________” As the prominent philosopher, X, puts it, ”___________________” According to X, ”__________________” X himself writes, “_________________” In her book, ____________, X maintains that, “________________” Writing in the journal Y, X complains that, “_______________” In X’s view, “________________” X (dis)agrees when she writes, “_______________” X complicates matters when she writes, “________________”

Templates for explaining quotations      

Basically, X is warning that _______________. In other words, X believes _______________. In making this comment, X urges us to _____________. X is corroborating the age-old adage that _____________. X’s point is that _______________. The essence of X’s argument is that ______________.

Make sure to use language that accurately reflects the spirit of the quoted passage. Blend the author’s words with your own This is done when you make claims on what the author feels or is saying and you incorporate words from the quote that support this. For Example: Deborah Tannen, a prominent linguistics professor, complains that academia is too combative (I say). Rather than listening to others, Tannen insists that academia habitually try to prove each other wrong. As she puts it herself, “We are all driven by our ideological assumption that intellectual inquiry is a metaphorical battle,” that “the best way to demonstrate intellectual prowess is to criticize, find fault, and attack.” Tannen’s “battle,” “criticize,” “find fault,” and “attack,” get translated by the student into claims about how “combative” Tannen thinks academics are. In essence there’s a hybrid of Tannen’s voice and the writer’s. Can you over analyze a quotation? Most explanatory framing is needed for longer quotes with jargon, complexities and hidden or sublime inferences. It is possible to over analyze a quote, however, as a general rule, when in doubt, go for it. It’s better to be overexplicit than too vague. How NOT to introduce quotations “Orwell asserts the idea that_________” or “A quote by Shakespeare says_________” are redundant and misleading. In the 1st one you can write that “Orwell asserts that,” or “Orwell’s assertion is that” The 2nd one makes it seem as though Shakespeare is the one quoting, instead of the writer....