Bhavyana Chikkala
English 101
Professor Name
03/12/2022
A Tribute to Wayne Booth!
“They Say /I Say” is a best-selling composition book that is in use at 1500 schools. It
identifies the major rhetorical moves in academic writing, paving paths for students to how to
better frame their arguments in the larger context of what others have said (Graff and
Birkenstein). It does so with proper templates that allow one to understand how the said
arguments can be framed. An important piece of this book – Wayne Booth. Wayne Clayson
Booth was an American literary critic and writer who wrote some of the most influential and
sought after works of his time. His 1961 classic “The Rhetoric of Fiction” was a book that
changed the way literary criticism was perceived and grew on the world stage becoming a
standard point of reference for progressive discussions of fiction work and how authors make
novels accessible to the readers (uchicago). He, in layman terms can be expressed as the Father
of fictional writing of this generation. With such gravitas to his work and relevancy, he serves as
the president of the Modern Language Association. This writing puts forth an understanding of
how Wayne Booth laid some of the works for the book “They say / I say”.
The main preface of the book comes from the idea that good writing is essentially having
the ability to converse well, being able to summarize others (they say) and setup your argument
(I say) using that understanding. It demystifies the works of academic writings, providing a space
where the modern-day students can better learn “the moves that matter” in language. The main
argument of the book is the idea that a good writer setups and stems their argument from those
already said and established points of information. “intellectual writing is almost always
composed in response to others’ texts.” ('they say / I say') This is statement that was used in the
book, and it calls rhetorical theorists like Wayne Booth and Kenneth Burky to memory because
much of these ideas and statements echo their ideas. In an essay about Booth’s crisis of faith, he
defines his approach to writing as more than just a study of persuasion. He affirms that it is
means to connect those who seem stuck in oppositional ideologies. Booth rhetorology asks one
to use rhetoric to truly listen to one’s opponent and try find ways to communicate on common
ground. “Though rhetorology shares many features with other "dialogical" efforts, what it
perhaps most resembles is political diplomacy. But unlike skillful diplomats, rhetorologists do
not just try to discover the rival basic commitments and then "bargain." Nor do they just tolerate,
in a spirit of benign relativism. Instead, they search together for true grounds then labor to decide
how those grounds dictate a change of mind about more superficial beliefs. Any genuine
rhetorologist entering any fray is committed to the possibility of conversion to the "enemy"
camp.” (UofWaterloo) These are the words of Wayne Booth himself explaining that writers are
only good enough or only capable of performing well if they master the art of understanding the
opposition or other’s POV. Doesn’t this theory sound familiar, well yes, because the theories and
means of writing expressed in, they say all stem from this theory. These dedication of ideas are
also showcased in the preface of the book itself. His credibility arises from the great works of his
that set the standard for modern academic writing.
Works Cited
“The Essential Wayne Booth.” University of Chicago Press, 1 July 2006,
https://press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/chicago/E/bo3770832.html.
Graff, Gerald, and Cathy Birkenstein. “‘They Say / I Say’: The Moves That Matter in Academic
Writing.” Amazon, W.W. Norton, 2021, https://www.amazon.com/They-Say-Matter-
Academic-Writing/dp/1469028611.
“'They Say / I Say'.” Home Page, https://wwnorton.com/books/9780393538700.
“What Is Rhetorology?” Wayne Booth's Rhetorology, 29 May 2016, https://uwaterloo.ca/wayne-
booths-rhetorology/about.
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