PB2B: Moves Like ...An Author?

The idea of “moves” is an interesting one. It covers such a broad topic of life that it makes an exact definition difficult to come up with. I choose to think of moves as someone’s decisions, either once or repeatedly, that have an effect on how something is presented and/or received. Every writer has their own preferred moves; one writer may prefer commas over dashes to insert a thought. You may prefer to use italics to show emphasis while someone else may prefer to change up the font of the word they wish to emphasize. Our readings over the past few weeks contain a plethora of moves to dissect and contort for our own uses.

They Say, I Say provides us with examples of specific moves that are common amongst writers. Looking over these moves, I recognized a few that I think are very common in writing, at least for me, so I decided to search for examples of them in our course text. I looked for not only phrases and expressions, but also introductions and transitions.

• Capturing Authorial Action contains commonly used moves for expressing another’s ideas or opinions. I found an example of one template in Dirk’s Navigating Genres when he begins a paragraph with “I further acknowledge…”(19) This type of move is authorial action because the author is presenting an idea that they agree with and believe to be relevant and necessary for their audience to know. Another Authorial Action template was used in Reading Like A Writer when Bunn stated that one Professor Moran “urges us to read like writers…”(84)
•  Introducing Quotations is a common place to use generic templates to ease into the quotation. Dirk uses one such template to quote Professor Reiff on teaching composition. The template used in this instance is “X writes” on page 19. This move is safely neutral in arguments because it neither shows agreement of condemnation of an author’s words and opinions, just simply states that they wrote something.
• Introducing Objections Informally is a subtle way to acknowledge possible problems with your argument. Elbow uses this move in Teaching Two Kinds of Thinking by Teaching Writing when he says “But does freewriting or uncensored, generative writing really enhance creative first-order thinking?”(33) Elbow’s use of this objection at the beginning of a paragraph is a move that allows him to cut down opposition to his argument while proving his point even further.
• Commonly Used Transitions are useful to know as they provide you with the ability to move smoothly from one topic or idea onto the next. There are many types of transitions and the one that I found an example of was a concession in Dirk’s Navigating Genres. Concessions are another useful way to acknowledge counter arguments or to acknowledge something that may be slightly odd or unusual, which is how Dirk uses a concession in his paper. “I further acknowledged that it is quite rare that teachers of writing get to write so directly to students in such an informal manner.” (19) This move was used at the beginning of a paragraph, which is in fact a mighty fine place to transition topics.

While searching for some common moves from the index of templates, I couldn’t help but notice a few common moves that were not acknowledged in the index. Some of these moves were so common that I observed them in more than one article. Please don’t mind my names, I promise to try to not make them too corny.

• The Tour Guide: Some authors like to tell you what exactly they’re thinking and how it will affect you through the paper. “Johnathan and I are here to serve as your guides – to lead you through the process of becoming a more effective communicator.” (Spaces, 8) Spaces for Writing is not the only place that I noticed the author telling their audience what the purpose of the paper was. Dirk also used it in his paper “My purposes are…”(18) This move tells the reader exactly what they are supposed to be getting out of the article that they are reading.
• The Philosopher: Authors, it appears, enjoy asking questions to focus your reading and understanding of what they are trying to tell you. Nearly every assigned reading we have had has multiple guiding questions, generally towards the end of their paper to get you to think objectively about writing. Bunn is a very obvious example – He teaches you the questions to ask yourself so you may read like a writer and then applies them to his own paper.
• The Blockhead: Not too many authors do this one, probably because it tends to not leave room for your own analysis. I consider the blockhead to be when an author, Bunn in this case, uses 9 block quotes in 14 pages of writing. This move provides your paper with a lot of evidence, but can be seen as just fluff if much of your evidence is repetitious.
• Notice Me!: I noticed (please don’t hate me) that when an author want to ensure you are paying attention to and thinking about a specific idea they may say “Notice that…”(54) or “Notice how…”(74) as both Birkenstein & Graff and Boyd used in Saying Why it Matters and Murder! Rhetorically – respectively.