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.
You summarize the chapter well. Good job.