The chapter “entering the conversation”, in They Say I Say provides some valuable insight for an introduction into writing. For inexperienced writers, they can seem like experienced writers by using templates that have been proven to work. These are like math equations or chemistry formulas that a writer can plug their own ideas into to get the desired result. An experienced writer is not only someone who has written a lot, but someone who has also read a lot. They have understood other writer’s techniques and decide which ones they like. That being said, good writing needs more than just other people’s techniques and formulas, it needs other’s ideas. Adding your own perspective on someone else’s evidence is a stronger argument than just talking about what you believe. One’s own personal belief carry little weight without the context of who and what they are responding to, and if that personal belied is exactly what everyone else has said in the past anyway, there is not even a point to sharing it. Choosing a topic in which the “they say” differs from the “I say” can lend itself to the most engaging writing if done properly. This is why disagreeing with someone, while still acknowledging there is valuable, even though it is a rarity in our current culture. Which is why this book recommends the agreeing with an author on one point, while disagreeing on another, so as not to make the reader feel as they must be picking sides.
