Month: April 2019

The chapter from “They Say/I Say” that I chose to read was chapter six called “Planting a Naysayer in Your Text”. This chapter touches on how to start your naysayer paragraph, how to introduce a naysayer, and how to answer the objections of your naysayer.  I found this chapter really insightful because I feel the naysayer paragraph is an area of my essay I could work on. Specifically, I wanted to look at my transition from the previous paragraph into my naysayer. The chapter states that sentences about naysayers should be general and not be targeted at any specific person or group. However, if there is a specific view point that is used in your essay, naming a group of people can be beneficial. For example the book uses a couple templates such as, ” Biologists, of course, may want to question whether….” and “Nevertheless, both followers and critics of Malcolm X will probably suggest otherwise and argue that…” So, in my essay I decided to take the first approach since there is no specific group I am targeting with my argument. I changed the claim sentence of my naysayer paragraph from “Some individuals believe that stories of experiences in life do not impact our opinions and behavior. ” to “Skeptics may say that stories which describe experiences in our lives do not have an impact on our current opinions and behavior.” I feel the second sentence is more clear and connects more to my main argument.

The main idea my peer gave me for my paper was to find a place to introduce Beck’s article earlier into my essay and possibly connect it to another article. So my main goal is to read back over Beck’s article and see if there are any quotes or ideas that could connect into one of my earlier paragraphs. I also want to look at the other articles I’ve used and see if Beck can connect to those in some way.  I think my biggest challenge is going to be to connect Beck to the other articles I’ve used. The other articles I’ve used are more science based in their ideas because they deal with neuroscience but I believe that there are ideas that are similar in all three. I could also utilize Beck in my naysayer paragraph as a way to rebuttal the ideas of Strawson. If I am struggling to find a place to put Beck I will either reach out to Professor Emerson for some guidance on how to do so and if there are any strategies I could use that I haven’t tried yet. I could also reach out to some of my peers to see how they incorporated Beck into their essays.

I feel like the term “life story” is a concept I haven’t thought about very often. This is mostly due to the fact that my life is just starting and I don’t really have a story yet. I feel once you’re much older and have accomplished most of what you’ve wanted to in life, then you can have a “life story”.  One quote in Strawson’s article that really stuck out to me was when he quoted Henry Taylor and said, ” an imaginative man is apt to see, in his life, the story of his life; and is thereby led to conduct himself in such a manner as to make a good story of it rather than a good life.” When I read this quote it made me think about how people view their lives. Some individuals see it as an opportunity to do something great in the world in which they would be remembered for doing so. Others focus on their own lives, however small they may seem, and make the most out of what they have and feel content and happy with the choices they have made. If someone focuses too much on their “life story” as a way to be remembered in the world tend to lose sight of what really matters in life. This reminds me of a movie “The Fault In Our Stars” where one of the main characters, Gus, talks about how he wants to be remembered and Hazel advises him against that mindset because he should be content with what he has and live his life to make himself happy and not others happy.  So, I feel that people should focus on what makes them happy and pursue their “life story” as a way to make themselves the happiest they can be and not focus on making everyone else around them happy or looking to live their life in a way everyone will remember them.