Responding to Sources
They Say, I Say Chapters 4 and 5
Thesis Statement Review
• A thesis is the claim about your topic/issue
that you are making in the introduction of
your essay and supporting in the body of your
essay.
• Every paragraph in your essay should work
together with all of the other paragraphs to
support/explain your thesis.
• This means that your thesis is one of the most
important sentences in your essay.
Finding a Thesis for Essay 1
• What do you think about what have you learned about the
issue you set out to explore? You might consider questions
like…
• What have you discovered about yourself and how culture
or subculture you chose for your topic affects your identity?
• Why do you have the relationship with your culture/sub
culture that you do?
• What are the consequences of having the relationship with
your culture/subculture that you do?
• If you are entering into a conversation that is already going
on about your culture/subculture and identity, are there
voices you agree with? Voices you disagree with?
Sometimes, authors find their thesis by articulating
responses to common debates going on in their
communities.
A strong thesis will…
• Make a claim that invites further discussion.
– A thesis should not be a statement of indisputable fact.
– If your thesis puts forwards reasons for or consequences of an
indisputable fact, that is acceptable. You claim is not that the
fact itself is true. Instead, your claim is about some aspect of the
“hows and whys” surrounding that fact.
• Be clear and explicit.
– Do not make your reader guess what you are trying to prove.
State what you will prove clearly and specifically in your thesis.
• Be found near the end of your introduction paragraph.
– In US academic writing, you are expected to place your thesis
near the end of your introduction. Some of the writers we read
may place their thesis statements differently, but remember
that they are writing for different audiences in different
situations. Your situation requires you to place your thesis in the
introduction.
Thesis FAQ
• Do I have to know what my thesis is before I start
writing a draft?
– Answer: Do you have to? No. Should you? That’s up to
you as a writer.
– Knowing your thesis mean you understand exactly
what you’re trying to prove, and this will give you
direction as you write your rough draft.
– Some students start writing to discover a thesis in the
process of drafting. This is perfectly ok, but be
prepared to get rid of sections/paragraphs that don’t
fit the thesis you decide on.
Thesis FAQ
• Can my thesis be a question?
– Answer: Absolutely not. A thesis is a thesis statement. It is a
claim that reflects your informed point of view about the issue.
That means that a thesis might be the answer to a question you
ask in your introduction, but it is not a question itself.
• My thesis seems very long. Is that ok?
– Because thesis statements are trying to shrink down the
argument of an essay into one sentence, they tend to get long.
If you think your thesis is too long, ask me or your peers for a
second opinion.
– Thesis statements often contain the skeleton of an outline for
your essay. This type of thesis briefly lists the major points that
will be discussed more fully in the essay.
Rewritten Thesis Example:
• If I were to re-write “I Am Not a Mascot” as a academic
essay, the thesis might look something like this:
• The use of Native American names and imagery in sports
is problematic and deserving of scrutiny for two reasons:
first, the use of “Indian” mascots encourages harmful
racial stereotypes and promotes a oversimplified version
of history; second, the way in which Native Americans
are being portrayed to vast segments of the population
are made by sports teams, not Native people themselves.
• There will probably be at least two or three paragraphs
supporting and explaining the blue section, and at least
two or three paragraphs supporting and explaining the
green section.
Do I have to write my thesis today?
• No. If you are still researching and deciding
what claim you want to make about the
connection between your identity and your
culture/subculture, you aren’t ready to write
your thesis. After you do the in-class activity,
keep
researching/reading/brainstorming/drafting
so that you can get ready.
They Say / I Say: Responding to
Sources
• As you write essay #1, you should ask yourself if
you are agreeing, disagreeing, or doing a little of
both as you read what you have found. As you
interact with the ideas of others in your texts,
there are two things you need to remember:
– Place yourself clearly in respect to other arguments
by either agreeing, disagreeing, or doing a mixture of
both.
– It is not enough just to say that you agree/disagree.
What else do you need to do? The answer is to explain
why and make your agreement or disagreement
unique to you.
Distinguishing What You Say from
What They Say
• The authors of They Say, I Say call the phrases
that help distinguish the ideas of your sources
from your own ideas “voice markers.” Using
these markers will help your reader to know
when you are referring to ideas that you do
not necessarily agree with.
Example Disagreement
• In the article “Why the Odds are Still Stacked against
women in Hollywood,” the author interviews several
women who believe that women are partially to
blame for the gender imbalance in Hollywood, citing
women’s tendency not to self-promote and to seek
approval in a way that hurts their careers (Masters).
However, by focusing on what women are doing
wrong, the article overlooks the deeper problem of
a business that seems to deny equal opportunity to
Template from page
women no matter what they do. If a woman acts
60 of TSIS.
boldly, “like a man,” in order to be successful, she
risks getting a reputation as bossy and hard to work
Voice marker,
with, thereby missing out on opportunities. But to
hear the women Masters interviews tell it, if a
identifying that
woman acts feminine and accommodating, she
these aren’t my
loses big opportunities to those who are willing to
ideas.
be more pushy. No woman should be forced to
make this choice with no right answer, especially in
Further explanation
an industry that profits so much from female
of why I disagree.
consumers.
Introduces article,
summarizes point
to be discussed,
gives credit to
author using in-text
citation.
Practice With Disagreeing
• Option 1
– If one of the sources you will cite in your Essay #1 about
diversity says something that you disagree with, and you
have that source available to you tonight, use one of the
templates from p. 60 of They Say, I Say to make a quote
sandwich and explain your disagreement. (A bit of advice:
start your quote sandwich with a bit of lead-up/context for
the argument.)
• Option 2
– If you do not have any of your sources from your essay
with you, find a quote or an idea that you disagree with
from any of the essays we have read so far in the class and
make your quote sandwich about the idea you choose. You
should still use a template from They Say, I Say p. 60
Example Agreement
•
Introduces article,
quotes point to be
discussed, gives credit to
author using in-text
citation.
Template from page 64
of TSIS.
Further explanation of
why I agree, adding
something to the
conversation.
Deryl Hannah argues that representations of
gay and lesbian people of color are important
because to portray the LBGT community and
its allies as entirely white would “inaccurately
promote a world in which it would appear
that LGBT people of color do not exist, or that
acceptance of LGBT people is exclusive to
white populations” (Hannah). I agree with
Hannah that inaccurate portrayals of the
diversity within the gay and lesbian
community are troubling, a point that needs
emphasizing because many people still
believe that minority communities are
backward and intolerant when it comes to
their own LBGT members. To portray white
communities as “enlightened” and accepting
and minority communities as oblivious at
best and bigoted at worst perpetuates old,
ugly racial stereotypes.
Practice With Agreeing
• Option 1
– If one of the sources you will cite in your Essay #1 about
diversity says something that you agree with, and you have that
source available to you tonight, use one of the templates from
p. 62 or 64 of They Say, I Say to make a quote sandwich and
explain your disagreement. (A bit of advice: start your quote
sandwich with a bit of lead-up/context for the argument.)
• Option 2
– If you do not have any of your sources from your essay with you
tonight, find a quote or an idea that you agree with from any of
the essays we have read so far in the class and make your quote
sandwich about the idea you choose. You should still use a
template from They Say, I Say p. 62 or 64.
Example Agree and Disagree at Once
• In the article “Pop Culture: An Overview,” the
author explains the difference between “high
culture” and pop culture, saying, “Items of high
culture often require extensive experience,
training, or reflection to be appreciated”
(Delaney). Delaney is right that high culture is
often associated with the elite, but he seems
on much more dubious ground when he claims
Template from page
that it is lack of “extensive” experience and
65 of TSIS.
training that keep the lower classes from
appreciating high culture. I have seen many
students encounter poems that would be
Further explanation
considered “high culture” for the first time, and
of point on which I
their appreciation of those works is often as
disagree.
deep and keenly felt as students who have the
benefit of more extensive training and prior
knowledge. So, it would seem that it is a lack
of access and exposure that is the problem.
Introduces article,
quotes point to be
discussed, gives
credit to author
using in-text
citation.
Practice Agreeing and Disagreeing
• Option 1
– If one of the sources you will cite in your Essay #1 about
diversity says something that you agree with parts of, but
disagree with other parts, and you have that source available to
you tonight, use one of the templates from p. 65-66 of They Say,
I Say to make a quote sandwich and explain your disagreement.
(A bit of advice: start your quote sandwich with a bit of leadup/context for the argument.)
• Option 2
– If you do not have any of your sources from your essay with you
tonight, find a quote or an idea that you are of two minds about
from any of the essays we have read so far in the class and make
your quote sandwich about the idea you choose. You should still
use a template from They Say, I Say p. 65-66.