PREFACE: Demystifying Academic Conversation 

INTRODUCTION: Entering the Conversation

PART 1. “THEY SAY” 
1. “THEY SAY”: Starting with What Others Are Saying 
2. “HER POINT IS": The Art of Summarizing 
3. “AS HE HIMSELF PUTS IT”: The Art of Quoting 

PART 2. “I SAY” 
4. “YES / NO / OK, BUT”: Three Ways to Respond 
5. “AND YET”: Distinguishing What You Say from What They Say 
6. “SKEPTICS MAY OBJECT”: Planting a Naysayer in Your Text 
7. NEW “IN MY EXPERIENCE”: Using Personal Stories to Energize Your Argument

8. “SO WHAT? WHO CARES?”: Saying Why It Matters 

PART 3. TYING IT ALL TOGETHER 
9. “AS A RESULT”: Connecting the Parts   
10. “YOU MEAN I CAN JUST SAY IT THAT WAY?”: Academic Writing Doesn’t Mean Setting Aside Your Own Voice 
11. “BUT DON’T GET ME WRONG”: The Art of Metacommentary 
12. “WHAT I REALLY WANT TO SAY”: Revising Substantially  

PART 4. IN SPECIFIC ACADEMIC CONTEXTS 
13. “I TAKE YOUR POINT”: Entering Class Discussions 
14. WHAT’S MOTIVATING THIS WRITER?: Reading for the Conversation 
15. “BUT AS SEVERAL SOURCES SUGGEST”: Research as Conversation 
16. “ON CLOSER EXAMINATION”: Entering Conversations about Literature 
17. “THE DATA SUGGEST”: Writing in the Sciences 
18. “ANALYZE THIS”: Writing in the Social Sciences 

19. NEW “HELP ME UNDERSTAND…”: When Your “They Say” is a Bot

READINGS (7)  

GERALD GRAFF, Hidden Intellectualism    

NEW YAEL LENGA, Disability in Higher Education: Building Access and Building Futures    
MICHELLE ALEXANDER, The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness    
KELLY CORYELL, All Words Matter: The Manipulation behind “All Lives Matter”     
NEW JOE GARCIA, Left Behind: Internet Access for People Behind Bars     
NEW KENNETH GOLDSMITH, Go Ahead, Waste Time on the Internet     
MICHAEL LITTMAN, “Rise of the Machines” Is Not a Likely Future

NEW APPENDIX CITING WHAT “THEY SAY” 

INDEX OF TEMPLATES 

PREFACE: Demystifying Academic Conversation 

INTRODUCTION: Entering the Conversation 

PART 1. “THEY SAY” 
1. “THEY SAY”: Starting with What Others Are Saying 
2. “HER POINT IS": The Art of Summarizing 
3. “AS HE HIMSELF PUTS IT”: The Art of Quoting 

PART 2. “I SAY” 
4. “YES / NO / OK, BUT”: Three Ways to Respond 
5. “AND YET”: Distinguishing What You Say from What They Say 
6. “SKEPTICS MAY OBJECT”: Planting a Naysayer in Your Text 
7. NEW “IN MY EXPERIENCE”: Using Personal Stories to Energize Your Argument  
8. “SO WHAT? WHO CARES?”: Saying Why It Matters 

PART 3. TYING IT ALL TOGETHER 
9. “AS A RESULT”: Connecting the Parts   
10. “YOU MEAN I CAN JUST SAY IT THAT WAY?”: Academic Writing Doesn’t Mean Setting Aside Your Own Voice 
11. “BUT DON’T GET ME WRONG”: The Art of Metacommentary 
12. “WHAT I REALLY WANT TO SAY”: Revising Substantially  

PART 4. IN SPECIFIC ACADEMIC CONTEXTS 

13. “I TAKE YOUR POINT”: Entering Class Discussions 
14. WHAT’S MOTIVATING THIS WRITER?: Reading for the Conversation 
15. “BUT AS SEVERAL SOURCES SUGGEST”: Research as Conversation 
16. “ON CLOSER EXAMINATION”: Entering Conversations about Literature 
17. “THE DATA SUGGEST”: Writing in the Sciences 
18. “ANALYZE THIS”: Writing in the Social Sciences 

19. NEW “HELP ME UNDERSTAND…”: When Your “They Say” is a Bot

READINGS (50)

NEW 20. WHO GETS TO DECIDE WHAT FREEDOM IS?     
NEW NESRINE MALIK, The Myth of the Free Speech Crisis     
NEW KATHA POLLITT, The Left Needs Free Speech    
NEW ERIC HOLDER, Our Unfinished March     
NEW ARTHI SIVENDRA, American Democracy: One Person, One Vote?

MICHELLE ALEXANDER, The New Jim Crow      
NEW JOHN PFAFF, A Response to the ‘Standard Story’ about US Incarceration Rates     
NEW LUTICHA DOUCETTE, If You’re in a Wheelchair, Segregation Lives     
NEW CARISSA VÉLIZ, If AI Is Predicting Your Future, Are You Still Free?     
NEW MARTIN DEMPSEY, 90 Seconds Together     

21. HOW IS TECHNOLOGY CHANGING US?      
KENNETH GOLDSMITH, Go Ahead: Waste Time on the Internet 
NEW CHRISTINE ROSEN, Keep Them Offline     
NICHOLAS CARR, How Smartphones Hijack Our Minds     
JUSTIN VINH, Social Media: The Screen, the Brain, and Human Nature     
NEW JOE GARCIA, Left Behind: Internet Access for People Behind Bars     
NEW ANNA ROMINA GUEVARRA, Here Come the Robot Nurses  NEW LANA SWARTZ, In Praise of the Dollar Bill     
CAROLE CADWALLADR, Google, Democracy, and the Truth about Internet Search 

22. WHY CARE ABOUT THE PLANET?     
NEW EMMA BARNES, The Fast and the Fashionable: How Your Closet Contributes to a Global Crisis    
BEN ADLER, Banning Plastic Bags Is Great for the World, Right? Not So Fast     
NEW AYANA ELIZABETH JOHNSON, What I Know About the Ocean     
NEW DAVID WALLACE-WELLS, from The Uninhabitable Earth      
ALICE CHEN AND VIVEK MURTHY, Should We Be More Optimistic about Fighting Climate Change?     
NEW MATT RIDLEY, Going Nuclear    

SANDIS EDWARD WAIALAE WIGHTMAN, Mauna Kea: The Fight to Preserve Culture     
NEW DINA GILIO-WHITAKER, Environmental Justice Is Only the Beginning  

23. WHAT’S COLLEGE FOR?     
NEW CARINE M. FEYTEN, The Boys Are Doing Just Fine     
NEW RICHARD V. REEVES, No, the Boys Are Not Doing Just Fine     
NEW YAEL LENGA, Disability in Higher Education: Building Access and Building Futures    
SYLVIA MATHEWS BURWELL, Generation Stress: The Mental Health Crisis on Campus    
NEW MIKE ROSE, Community College: The Great Equalizer?     
ANNA CLARK, Why We Need to Keep the “Community” in Community College     
GERALD GRAFF, Hidden Intellectualism     
CHARLES FAIN LEHMAN, The Student Loan Trap: When Debt Delays Life     
NEW ANNA GIFTY OPOKU-AGYEMAN AND FENABA ADDO, Student Loan Forgiveness Critics Are Wrong about Who Benefits and Why     

24. HOW CAN WE BRIDGE THE DIFFERENCES THAT DIVIDE US?     
SEAN BLANDA, The “Other Side” Is Not Dumb     
NEW YASCHA MOUNK, The Everyday Patriotism of Diverse Democracies     
NEW DAVID BROOKS, The Triumph of the Ukrainian Ideal     SUKETU MEHTA, Jobs, Crime, and Culture: The Threats That Aren’t     
DAVID FRUM, How Much Immigration Is Too Much? The Wrong Debate     
NEW ANDRE M. PERRY, Addressing Poverty Can Heal an Increasingly Divided Country     
KELLY CORYELL, All Words Matter: The Manipulation behind “All Lives Matter”     
NEW PAOLA RAMOS, Finding Latinx      
NEW BRYAN BETANCUR, It’s Time to Drop “Latinx”    

NEW APPENDIX CITING WHAT “THEY SAY” 

INDEX OF TEMPLATES 

INDEX OF AUTHORS AND TITLES