"They Say / I Say": The Moves that Matter in Persuasive Writing by Gerald Graff and Cathy Birkenstein

This book presents a solid introduction to college writing. I think it does an excellent job explaining one of the most important parts of an academic paper--engagement with a larger, critical conversation. Also, the authors take most of their examples from three essays included in the back, and this move really makes the examples more clear. The questions and prompts at the end of each chapter are also great. I do question, however, the wisdom of all its templates. I definitely agree with the argument that sometimes we are blocked from writing because we just don't know quite how we want to say what we're thinking about. I think the questions and approaches the templates suggest are generally good ones. Still, I think asking students to write from templates works against my style of teaching. If I use parts of this book in my writing classes, I will present the templates as guidelines or models, rather than as fill-in-the-blanks.