From The Rock's "People's Elbow," to Sublime's signature "sudden crescendoing raspiness," moves are seen all around us everyday. The appendix found in They Say, I Say, written by Gerald Graff, Cathy Birkenstein, Russell Durst, lists common 'moves' that can be seen in all types of writing. But, what exactly is a 'move', and what does it mean to use one in a writing context?
Let's start with a general definition. According to Merriam-Webster, a move has multiple definitions, but the one that is most relevant to us is this: "a step taken especially to gain an objective." Though this is pretty vague, it is showing just how limitless moves can be. A move is a tool or strategy that a writer uses in order to introduce their viewpoint, persuade the reader, emphasize an idea, and much more.
For example, Kerry Dirk displays his moves in his piece Navigating Genres. Often found in NG is the move "Explaining Quotations." The phrase "in other words" appears multiple times throughout. Dirk would introduce a quote (usually a wordy block quote) and then follow it by stating "In other words, ____ is saying that (etc., etc.)." This is exemplified on page 254, where after including a block quote, Dirk stated, "In other words, Miller is saying that all genres matter because they shape our everyday lives." The purpose of this move is to take a quote that was maybe not the easiest to comprehend, and extract the main idea from it, which he usually condenses into one concise, and straightforward sentence. This helps the audience better understand the meaning of the quote, as well as its relevance to the author.
The phrase "in other words" is also seen in Alex Reid's essay titled Why Blog? Searching For Writing on the Web. However, Reid is employing a different move, Adding Metacommentary, to be specific. Reid is discussing the concept of how long it would take to become a 'writing expert'. He explains that "(...) 1000 hours of writing over four years, one would reach expertise (10,000 hours) in 36 more years" (302). Though both Reid and Dirk are using the same three words, they are doing so in slightly different ways. While Dirk was trying to shed light on a quote from another writer, Reid is attempting to further clarify his own writing. He is taking a factual statement delineating how long it would take for one to become a 'writing expert', and putting it into context by explaining its relevance to his argument: "In other words, not even writing intensive courses are likely to ask students to commit the kind of time to their assigned writing that would be necessary to work towards expertise (...)" (302).
Dirk employs another move in his work: Signaling Who is Saying What. For example, he includes the words, “Devitt argues that (...)” to not only offer a source that will substantiate his claims, but to also incorporate strong, emphatic language, creating a persuasive tone that the reader will pick up on.
The move Introducing Standard Views is seen in Peter Elbow’s piece “Teaching Two Kinds of Thinking by Teaching Writing.” He claims that “You might also argue that intuitive thinking is better enhanced by silent musing” (59). By saying this, he is asserting that this is a view that many people share, but he goes to offer his reasons of why he disagrees with that statement: “But such attempts at nonlinguistic processing often merely postpone thinking instead of actually enriching it” (59).
Capturing authorial action is a move that is used by many authors and seen in a variety of text. In "So What? Who Cares?", the writer introduced a quote from a source and went on to explain what it meant, as well as its significance. They point out that "By referring to these scientists, Grady implicitly acknowledges that her text is part of a larger conversation and shows who besides herself has an interest in what she says" (94). This move works because the reader feels like they're getting an insight into what the source is thinking, and thus they gain a better comprehension of what the source means.
Aside from the already listed moves in They Say, I Say, I found some additional moves that have appeared in our class readings. Oftentimes, the writers of these academic essays take into account that their audience is mostly young college or high school students. Because of this, the writers of these pieces will try to make references to pop culture and other mainstream things that they know young people will be familiar with. I call this move the 'hip' speaker. This move is used by Laura Bolin Carroll throughout her essay Backpacks vs. Briefcases: Steps toward Rhetorical Analysis. She begins with a scenario about college professors, roommates dates, etc., all things that her audience can relate to, and she ties it in with the information she is presenting about writing. Later in her essay she also mentions Facebook, the president, Whole Foods as well, because she knows that her readers will be more interested (and will better understand) her points if she can write in a way that is 'cool' and relatable.
There is something about a numbered list that makes information or suggestions more manageable for a reader to digest. The move easy as 1-2-3 is seen in Dirk’s Navigating Genres (260), as well as in Reid’s Why Blog? (308, 312). When ideas are broken down into steps, it makes it seem like a much more feasible task for the reader.
Going off of the previous point, splitting up a piece of writing into sections is an effective way of making the whole reading process easier for the audience. Janet Boyd does this in Murder! (Rhetorically Speaking), which is broken up by concepts: I’d like to call this move give me a break, because that is the exact purpose it is serving for the reader.
In Navigating Genres, Dirk states, " Let's consider a genre with which you are surely familiar: the thesis statement. Stop for a moment and consider what this means to you" (256). I call this move the brief intermission. Plays and musicals will often include intermissions to give the audience a break, and also a chance to process what they've just watched. This move serves the same purpose, as it lets the reader take a second to themselves to start up an internal dialogue to process what they're reading.
In Backpacks vs. Briefcases, Laura Carroll incorporates what I like to call one-sentence zingers. As the name suggests, these are usually short, one sentence phrases, that help the reader make sense of a topic. Take this quote that she included from rhetorician Kenneth Burke: “wherever there is persuasion, there is rhetoric. And wherever there is ‘meaning’ there is ‘persuasion’” (47). The way this sentence is structured makes it almost sound like a classic saying; it’s explaining a concept to the reader in a way that is simple, concise, and memorable
