Adopted from Gerald Graff and Cathy Birkenstein’s They Say, I Say: The Moves That Matter in Academic Writing.
Disagreeing, with reasons
- I think X is mistaken because she overlooks _____.
- X’s claim that ____ rests upon the questionable assumption that ______.
- I disagree with X’s view that ____ because, as recent research has shown, _____.
- X contradicts himself/can’t have it both ways. On the one hand, he argues ____. But on the other hand, he also says _____.
- By focusing on _____, X overlooks the deeper problem of _____.
- X claims _____, but we don’t need him to tell us that. Anyone familiar with ______ has long known that ______.
Agreeing, with reasons
- I agree that _____ because my experience _____ confirms it.
- X is surely right about _____ because, as she may not be aware, recent studies have shown that _____.
- X’s theory of _____ is extremely useful because it shed insight on the difficult problem of _____.
- I agree that _____, a point that needs emphasizing since so many people believe ____.
- Those unfamiliar with this school of thought may be interested to know that it basically boils down to _______.
Agreeing and disagreeing simultaneously
- Although I agree with X up to a point, I cannot accept his overall conclusion that _____.
- Although I disagree with much that X says, I fully endorse his final conclusion that _____.
- Though I concede that _____, I still insist that ____.
- X is right that ____, but she seems on more dubious ground when she claims that _____.
- While X is probably wrong when she claims that ________, she is right that ______.
- Whereas X provides ample evidence that ____, Y and Z’s research on _____ and ______ convinces me that _______ instead
- I’m of two minds about X’s claims that ____. On the one hand, I agree that ____. On the other hand, I’m not sure if ______.
- My feelings on the issue are mixed. I do support X’s position that ____, but I find Y’s arguments about _____ and Z’s research on ____ to be equally persuasive.
Signaling who is saying what
“I” can be used in well-grounded and well supported arguments just as those that don’t use “I”. Some occasions may warrant avoiding first person (“I”). Overuse of “I” can also result in a monotonous series of “I” statements—“I believe, I think, I argue”. It is a good idea to mix first-person assertions with assertions that signal your position without using “I”.
- X argues ______.
- According to both X and Y, ________.
- Politicians, X argues, should _______.
- Most athletes will tell you that ______.
- My own view, however, is that _________.
- I agree, as X may not realize, that _________.
- X is right that ______.
- The evidence shows that ____.
- X’s assertion that _____does not fit the facts.
- Anyone familiar with _______ should agree that _____
- But _____ are real, and are arguably the most significant factor in _____.
Indicate multiple perspectives—“I” versus “they”
- Point-of-view clues in the text that clearly separates the views of the writer (“I”) from those of source authors (“they”).
- X overlooks what I consider an important point about ____.
- My own view is that what X insists is a ____ is in fact a ______.
- I wholeheartedly endorse what X calls ______.
- These conclusions, which X discusses in ______, add weight to the argument that ______.
Entertaining objections
Notice that the following examples are not attributed to any specific person or group, but to “skeptics,” “readers,” or “many”. This kind of nameless, faceless naysayer is appropriate in some cases.
- Yet some readers may challenge my view that ______. After all, many believe that _______. Indeed, my own argument that _____ seems to ignore ____ and ____.
- Of course, many will probably disagree with this assertion that______.
Naming your naysayers
The bolded words can be interchanged with another specific group.
- Here many feminists would probably object that _____.
- But social Darwinists would certainly taken issue with the argument that _____.
- Biologists, of course, may want to dispute my claim that ____.
- Nevertheless, both followers and critics of Malcolm X will probably suggest otherwise and argue that _______.
To minimize stereotyping…
- Although not all Christians think alike, some of them will probably dispute my claim that ____.
- Non-native English speakers are so diverse in their views that it’s hard to generalize about them, but some are likely to object on the grounds that _____.
Making concessions while still standing your ground
- Although I grant that _____, I still maintain that ____.
- Proponents of X are right to argue that _____. But they exaggerate when they claim that _____.
- While it is true that ______, it does not necessarily follow that _______.
- On the one hand, I agree with X that________. But on the other hand, I still insist that ______.
Indicating who cares
So what and who cares
- Although X may seem of concern to only a small group of ______, it should in fact concern anyone who cares about _______.
- ____ used to think _______. But recently [or within the past few decades], ______ suggests that ________.
- This interpretation challenges the work of those critics who have long assumed that ____.
- These findings challenge the work of earlier researchers, who tended to assume that _____.
- Recent studies like these shed new light on ______, which previous studies had not addressed.
- These findings challenge dieters’ common assumption that _____.
- At first glance, teenagers might say ______. But on closer inspection.
Why your claim matters
- X matters/is important because ______.
- Although X might seem trivial, it is in fact crucial in terms of today’s concern over ___.
- Ultimately, what is at stake here is ____.
- These findings have important consequences for the broader domain of ______.
- My discussion of X is in fact addressing the larger matter of _____.
- These conclusions/This discovery will have significant applications in _____ as well as in _____.
Source: Graff, Gerald and Cathy Birkenstein. They Say, I Say: The Moves That Matter in Academic Writing. New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 2006. Print.