Building bridges between bridges TSIS 101-14

This chapter is good. It has five sections. I think it’s too long.

This is exactly the kind of sentence disconnection Graff and Birkenstein are attempting to teach against. Not only are the sentences themselves disconnected the ideas behind each are far from each other as well. In chapter eight of They Say / I Say, they tackle the issue of “connecting the parts” of sentences and writing as a whole. Throughout the chapter they insist upon the importance of connecting your work and suggest, “that you converse not only with others in your writing, but with yourself: that you establish clear relations between one statement and the next by connecting those statements together” (103). They continue with the importance of transitions, pointing words, key terms and phrases, and repeating with difference when it comes to making your writing as clear and effective as it should be. On the whole, Graff and Birkenstein not only successfully highlight the necessity of paying attention to such detail, but in support, offer a surplus of tools and techniques to effectively assist in the process.

Upon reading this chapter I’ve realized that with every chapter of TSIS I read what Graff and Birkenstein have to say ends up having a direct effect on how I write. Especially when I write for these blogs I find myself intently focused on utilizing the tools taught in each specific chapter. In this case, after reading about the importance of connecting sentence and thought, I’m paying extra attention to make sure my ideas do not go off into tangents (as they often tend to do). In other words (as I humbly use another transition term), even as I write this sentence I am trying to figure the best way to reflect what I’ve already mentioned about my newfound need to connect my sentences. This particular chapter and others have raised my awareness, making me a more critical reader of my own work. Though it makes for a more tedious amount of work on my part, I think Graff and Birkenstein would be proud to know that the kind of book they have written was far from in vain. Though at first I wondered, “Why teach stuff that is so obvious?” I now understand that sometimes the obvious is most often overlooked, or in my case, often neglected. Therefore, in conclusion, and to sum things up, I think, as a writer, I am in a better place. Sorry, I couldn’t resist.