Before reading the chapter “But Don’t Get Me Wrong” I was not familiar with the term metacommentary. Yet, upon discovering its definition, telling the readers exactly how to interpret what you are saying, I realized I practice metacommentary all the time. I found it interesting that metacommentary can make your writing more complex and can help you find and address counterarguments to your claims. The texts explains that no matter how clear the author writes their claims, there is always the possibility that the reader will misinterpret it in some way. Thus, Graff and Birkenstein state, “…we need metacommentary to keep misinterpretations and other communication misfires at bay” (156). Another part of this chapter I found interesting was the idea that metacommentary can be very powerful when its found in places like titles and subtitles. The authors write that having strong titles and subtitles that capture the main idea of your argument can be really captivating and helpful to the reader. Now that I have a greater awareness of metacommentary and its abilities, I feel like I can implement it into my writing more effectively and increase the persuasiveness and comprehension of my claims and arguments.
Before reading this chapter of “They Say, I Say”, I had no idea what metacommentary was. After reading past the first paragraph, I realized that I tend to include metacommentary in many of my papers. This idea is something that is super important, especially while writing. If you do not explain what your writing means, even if it makes the most obvious points, there is a chance that readers out there may not understand it. When writers clarify what their points are and elaborate further with examples, they avoid misinterpretations and allows readers to follow a clear line of reasoning. In my last paper that I wrote, I originally forgot to include metacommentary and it made my essay feel meaningless. Once I reread and found that I did not explain my thinking, I realized that I needed to add how I felt. Doing this also allowed me to make my argument stronger and added depth, as well as length. This links back to the idea of the book, “They Say, I Say” and how important it is to add how you as a writer are essential to making a point. Graff and Birkenstein used a piece of Neil Postman’s writing, and it truly provided a great example of different types of metacommentary. I also realized by reading this chapter that something as simple as the title is considered metacommentary, since it introduces what your paper is about. Overall, metacommentary can be utilized for many things and can be essential for writers to provide more information and a clear argument, as well as a counterargument.
Before reading this chapter, I did not know what the term metacommentary was. After reading this chapter, it helped me realize how to help and guide the reader in understanding what I mean with my paper, and how to interpret specific points. As well as what I am arguing in my essay and what I aim to convey through it. I realized with reading this chapter that I tend to use metacommentary in my paragraphs without even realizing it. I found it helpful to learn more about it, especially what it is, since this can help make my writing more complex overall, as well as making sure the reader retains what I wanted them to. I realized that this chapter is overall a very valuable source to help refine my work because it helps show how such small adjustments in language can actually have a very big impact on the overall clarify and persuasion of an essay.
It’s important and helpful to use metacommentary to help expand ideas and also generate more text. The text comments on it helping overcome writing blocks, which is when a writer struggles to start or continue writing, often feeling stuck, overwhelmed, or unable to come up with ideas. It can happen for many reasons, like fear of failure, perfectionism, lack of inspiration, or feeling unsure about what to say. It’s a common experience, but there are strategies to overcome it. It also helps with length requirements. (p 154.. 3rd of chapter) Many students like myself struggle to extend their papers beyond a few pages, feeling i have exhausted my points.
What’s interesting about this passage is that it highlights the unpredictability of communication, even in well-crafted writing. Misunderstandings can happen, not always because of poor writing but from the readers’ opinions and bias.
A curious thing about the text is that it uses the phrase “stage managing” to illustrate how writings will manage how thie claims will be received in a critical way. Its to be said that the most persuasive writing doubles back and comments on its own claims.
It’s insightful to use specific phrases, metacommentary, such as “Ultimately, then, my goal is to demonstrate that…..”, “This is not to say___, but rather_____”, and “just as important…” are all great ideas. I’m grateful that the text gives so many great templates for writing and i will be sure to use them in the future.
Something that I found helpful was on page 154 it said to think of your essay as a blend of two different essays, one being what you’re saying and one being how you want the audience to interpret it. This was helpful because I wasn’t really understanding how to integrate metacommentary into my work, but this explanation helped me figure out where it should go, and also that this is something that I kind of already do. IN addition, the explanation of metacommentary also reminded me of a counterargument in the way that it anticipates what the reader might disagree with and refutes it, but in a more concise way. My initial reaction to the use of meta commentary was a little skeptical. I felt that readers should be able to form their own opinions, and ushering them to a point seems patronizing and immoral in a way. However, after reading this chapter I understand that metacommentary is not trying to force someone to believe what the reader wants them to believe. The goal of using meta commentary is to make sure the reader isn’t losing the meaning or reasoning behind what the author is trying to convey. All arguments need commentary, as it helps with comprehension for the reader. No matter how good of a writer someone may be, all of the complex ideas that they put into their writing mean nothing if the reader cannot pick them out. This is where metacommentary comes into clarify things, and also help the writer stay on track with their ideas and not go on tangents. Furthermore, seeing the example of metacommentary was very enlightening because it showed me that this is something that I have been using in my own work, as well as reading in many other works, for my whole life. Additionally, I believe that if I knew the nuances of using meta commentary while revising my essay for project 2, I think that would’ve been very beneficial while I was revising my work because my sentences were too wordy and I was rambling.
I think bottom line; the first takeaway I had from the chapter was what metacommentary was. I had never heard the term before, but after reading it I had come to realize that I use metacommentary practically every day in my life. I found the comedic drawing on page 153 to be a lighthearted way of explaining what metacommentary is. The section “Use Metacommentary to Clarify and Elaborate” I found to be important to this chapter as it provides the why. Why this is an important tool to incorporate into your writing and how it can be used to help your readers grasp what you really mean. Furthermore, I found the templates provided on page 157 to be extremely helpful. In my time writing, I think that using metacommentary, specifically the formulas the authors provide would increase what I have to say about certain topics, provide more complex thoughts, and further my overall argument. I found that the section titled “Titles as Metacommentary” was interesting as they claimed that it is in the titles that provide the best place for metacommentary and using metacommentary provides for sharper and more interesting titles. On page 160 and 161 the authors provided two pages full templates based on introducing metacommentary. I found these to be extremely helpful as they provided 6 templates based off of varying reasons. I feel as though having these templates on hand will help my overall paper as I will know how to properly use metacommentary based on the current situation. On the following pages, they included a plethora of exercises for readers to complete. I took the chance to complete two of these and found them to be extremely helpful. This provided me with beneficial practice of working with metacommentary and had provided me with the confidence that I can include metacommentary in my writing and have it work for the overall piece.
I’ve only heard the actual of term metacommentary a few times before now, even though we use it so often. I feel like I subconsciously do it nearly every day now that I think about it. I liked the part at the beginning where it said that metacommentary is how and how not to think about the situation you are describing. Sometimes people can be hard to read during a conversation so having descriptors of what isn’t going on is a good addition. Following that up is the picture of the guy joined at the hip: making your main arguments followed up by the ideas that flow around them. There’s been plenty of times on papers where the brunt of the information just flies off the pen with no end in sight. No time for side commentary or squabble to talk about a random event that may have occurred. Sometimes those papers can be 15-20 pages long just chalk full of good data, and other times maybe 8 or 9 pages of filler talk gets put in, completely irrelevant to the topic. I’ve used so many of the examples given on pages 137-140 in other assignments. In other words…In conclusion of…Having just argued that….Consider for example…. I haven’t realized all these fall under the metacommentary category.
I found it interesting that metacommentary is even used. I never thought of it as being anything useful or even having a name. Usually, I resort to it when I have nothing else to say and I’m trying to drag on for as long as I can without sounding like I’m writing about a whole bunch of nothing or being repetitive. It is good to know that it’s an actual writing technique used as a sort of explaining or narrating. It is really just a great way to expand your thoughts and lengthen your writing while still holding onto or adding to the quality. They also brought up an interesting point that no matter how well-written your writing is there will always be someone who misinterprets it or is confused by it, as the one doing the writing you become so engulfed in it that It all makes sense to you and the thought may never occur that people reading it aren’t inside your head and they have no clue what your thinking and may not have any background on what you are writing about. I never thought about it this way, I always thought the only person who would read my writing is whoever I’m writing it for like a professor. Who probably already has all of that background knowledge, when in reality anyone could end up reading my writing and even my professor who assigned the writing to me may not know all of the ins and outs of what I’m writing.
It is crucial to add metacommentary to your work to keep your readers on track and for clarity in your writing. Before reading this section, I had never heard of the term metacommentary before but now I understand why it is so important to add it to your work. The use of metacommentary allows you to clarify your work in a way that keeps the reader tuned into your writing. I never knew that this was a thing but thinking back on my previous writing works I realized I have been doing this in a lot of my different essays. The illustrations on page 153 helped me understand this term a lot better than I had thought I had understood it. I liked it when they talked about how writers sometimes struggle with getting enough volume in their essays. I found this to be a very real problem I have because so many times I have used up all the possible information that I know so early into the draft that eventually the essay just stops. Not because I do not understand the work but because I can’t add anything to it because the information has all been used up. The examples given to use to use I think are very helpful but also are very well known starters to paragraphs. The examples do not really give us any new things we did not know prior but instead show us how to use these very common terms to beef up the essay.
I like how metacommentary is a way to expand on your text and help drive your point home without having to add new ideas. It allows your to expand your text further without the stress of adding in new ideas. It almost feels like it is allowing you to add in your deeper personal meanings as a way to connect to the reader, almost as though you are speaking to the reader.
I like the template: My point is not ____ but _____. As though you are already assuming that the reader will misinterpret the text. And this allows you to and misinterpretations and skewing of words. I also like the template: Having just argued that ____, I want to now complicate the point by _____. They Say I Say explains it as a road map, leading your readers to where you want them to go which I like.
The goal of metacommentary is to directly show the readers the main point of the essay as to not get lost and confused in what your main point is. A way you can do this is by using your essay title to point out your main point. Which I find interesting but it also makes sense as to how important your essay title can be as an aid to the main part of your essay.
I had never heard the term metacommentary before reading this section, but now that I understand how crucial it is to good, strong writing, I see the significance of having metacommentary as a guidebook for readers on how to interpret what meaning to take from the author’s argument or descriptions. It is not just a question of what is said but how the words are put together regarding audience presentation. This method avoids misunderstanding and maintains the reader’s interest by indicating how to read a given point. The most surprising thing to me is that metacommentary is not necessarily introducing new information but it’s introducing context. It made me realize that even when we feel we have said all we can say within an essay, there’s always room to expand outwards by re-considering what we’ve said and indicating to the reader where we’re coming from more explicitly. I also enjoyed how much the text reaffirmed that metacommentary can be used to predict objections, justify why a point is significant, or demonstrate how differing ideas mesh together. These strategies can cause an essay to sound fuller and more thoughtful. Rather than simply occupying space, metacommentary strengthens the voice of the writer and ensures the message comes across in the way it’s intended.
I didn’t know what “metacommentary” was until I read this chapter, but now I’m starting to understand how important it is for making your overall writing stronger. It’s there to help readers understand what you’re really trying to say. It’s not just about what you say, but how you say it, so the reader doesn’t get confused. What surprised me the most is that metacommentary doesn’t actually add new information, it just gives more context to whatever you already have. It made me realize that even when I think I’ve said everything I need to there can be a better way to add more. I also realized I tend to do this when I ran out of ideas in my writing but still got a whole part left in my essay.
12 thoughts on “JOURNAL # 24”
Before reading the chapter “But Don’t Get Me Wrong” I was not familiar with the term metacommentary. Yet, upon discovering its definition, telling the readers exactly how to interpret what you are saying, I realized I practice metacommentary all the time. I found it interesting that metacommentary can make your writing more complex and can help you find and address counterarguments to your claims. The texts explains that no matter how clear the author writes their claims, there is always the possibility that the reader will misinterpret it in some way. Thus, Graff and Birkenstein state, “…we need metacommentary to keep misinterpretations and other communication misfires at bay” (156). Another part of this chapter I found interesting was the idea that metacommentary can be very powerful when its found in places like titles and subtitles. The authors write that having strong titles and subtitles that capture the main idea of your argument can be really captivating and helpful to the reader. Now that I have a greater awareness of metacommentary and its abilities, I feel like I can implement it into my writing more effectively and increase the persuasiveness and comprehension of my claims and arguments.
Before reading this chapter of “They Say, I Say”, I had no idea what metacommentary was. After reading past the first paragraph, I realized that I tend to include metacommentary in many of my papers. This idea is something that is super important, especially while writing. If you do not explain what your writing means, even if it makes the most obvious points, there is a chance that readers out there may not understand it. When writers clarify what their points are and elaborate further with examples, they avoid misinterpretations and allows readers to follow a clear line of reasoning. In my last paper that I wrote, I originally forgot to include metacommentary and it made my essay feel meaningless. Once I reread and found that I did not explain my thinking, I realized that I needed to add how I felt. Doing this also allowed me to make my argument stronger and added depth, as well as length. This links back to the idea of the book, “They Say, I Say” and how important it is to add how you as a writer are essential to making a point. Graff and Birkenstein used a piece of Neil Postman’s writing, and it truly provided a great example of different types of metacommentary. I also realized by reading this chapter that something as simple as the title is considered metacommentary, since it introduces what your paper is about. Overall, metacommentary can be utilized for many things and can be essential for writers to provide more information and a clear argument, as well as a counterargument.
Before reading this chapter, I did not know what the term metacommentary was. After reading this chapter, it helped me realize how to help and guide the reader in understanding what I mean with my paper, and how to interpret specific points. As well as what I am arguing in my essay and what I aim to convey through it. I realized with reading this chapter that I tend to use metacommentary in my paragraphs without even realizing it. I found it helpful to learn more about it, especially what it is, since this can help make my writing more complex overall, as well as making sure the reader retains what I wanted them to. I realized that this chapter is overall a very valuable source to help refine my work because it helps show how such small adjustments in language can actually have a very big impact on the overall clarify and persuasion of an essay.
It’s important and helpful to use metacommentary to help expand ideas and also generate more text. The text comments on it helping overcome writing blocks, which is when a writer struggles to start or continue writing, often feeling stuck, overwhelmed, or unable to come up with ideas. It can happen for many reasons, like fear of failure, perfectionism, lack of inspiration, or feeling unsure about what to say. It’s a common experience, but there are strategies to overcome it. It also helps with length requirements. (p 154.. 3rd of chapter) Many students like myself struggle to extend their papers beyond a few pages, feeling i have exhausted my points.
What’s interesting about this passage is that it highlights the unpredictability of communication, even in well-crafted writing. Misunderstandings can happen, not always because of poor writing but from the readers’ opinions and bias.
A curious thing about the text is that it uses the phrase “stage managing” to illustrate how writings will manage how thie claims will be received in a critical way. Its to be said that the most persuasive writing doubles back and comments on its own claims.
It’s insightful to use specific phrases, metacommentary, such as “Ultimately, then, my goal is to demonstrate that…..”, “This is not to say___, but rather_____”, and “just as important…” are all great ideas. I’m grateful that the text gives so many great templates for writing and i will be sure to use them in the future.
Something that I found helpful was on page 154 it said to think of your essay as a blend of two different essays, one being what you’re saying and one being how you want the audience to interpret it. This was helpful because I wasn’t really understanding how to integrate metacommentary into my work, but this explanation helped me figure out where it should go, and also that this is something that I kind of already do. IN addition, the explanation of metacommentary also reminded me of a counterargument in the way that it anticipates what the reader might disagree with and refutes it, but in a more concise way. My initial reaction to the use of meta commentary was a little skeptical. I felt that readers should be able to form their own opinions, and ushering them to a point seems patronizing and immoral in a way. However, after reading this chapter I understand that metacommentary is not trying to force someone to believe what the reader wants them to believe. The goal of using meta commentary is to make sure the reader isn’t losing the meaning or reasoning behind what the author is trying to convey. All arguments need commentary, as it helps with comprehension for the reader. No matter how good of a writer someone may be, all of the complex ideas that they put into their writing mean nothing if the reader cannot pick them out. This is where metacommentary comes into clarify things, and also help the writer stay on track with their ideas and not go on tangents. Furthermore, seeing the example of metacommentary was very enlightening because it showed me that this is something that I have been using in my own work, as well as reading in many other works, for my whole life. Additionally, I believe that if I knew the nuances of using meta commentary while revising my essay for project 2, I think that would’ve been very beneficial while I was revising my work because my sentences were too wordy and I was rambling.
I think bottom line; the first takeaway I had from the chapter was what metacommentary was. I had never heard the term before, but after reading it I had come to realize that I use metacommentary practically every day in my life. I found the comedic drawing on page 153 to be a lighthearted way of explaining what metacommentary is. The section “Use Metacommentary to Clarify and Elaborate” I found to be important to this chapter as it provides the why. Why this is an important tool to incorporate into your writing and how it can be used to help your readers grasp what you really mean. Furthermore, I found the templates provided on page 157 to be extremely helpful. In my time writing, I think that using metacommentary, specifically the formulas the authors provide would increase what I have to say about certain topics, provide more complex thoughts, and further my overall argument. I found that the section titled “Titles as Metacommentary” was interesting as they claimed that it is in the titles that provide the best place for metacommentary and using metacommentary provides for sharper and more interesting titles. On page 160 and 161 the authors provided two pages full templates based on introducing metacommentary. I found these to be extremely helpful as they provided 6 templates based off of varying reasons. I feel as though having these templates on hand will help my overall paper as I will know how to properly use metacommentary based on the current situation. On the following pages, they included a plethora of exercises for readers to complete. I took the chance to complete two of these and found them to be extremely helpful. This provided me with beneficial practice of working with metacommentary and had provided me with the confidence that I can include metacommentary in my writing and have it work for the overall piece.
I’ve only heard the actual of term metacommentary a few times before now, even though we use it so often. I feel like I subconsciously do it nearly every day now that I think about it. I liked the part at the beginning where it said that metacommentary is how and how not to think about the situation you are describing. Sometimes people can be hard to read during a conversation so having descriptors of what isn’t going on is a good addition. Following that up is the picture of the guy joined at the hip: making your main arguments followed up by the ideas that flow around them. There’s been plenty of times on papers where the brunt of the information just flies off the pen with no end in sight. No time for side commentary or squabble to talk about a random event that may have occurred. Sometimes those papers can be 15-20 pages long just chalk full of good data, and other times maybe 8 or 9 pages of filler talk gets put in, completely irrelevant to the topic. I’ve used so many of the examples given on pages 137-140 in other assignments. In other words…In conclusion of…Having just argued that….Consider for example…. I haven’t realized all these fall under the metacommentary category.
I found it interesting that metacommentary is even used. I never thought of it as being anything useful or even having a name. Usually, I resort to it when I have nothing else to say and I’m trying to drag on for as long as I can without sounding like I’m writing about a whole bunch of nothing or being repetitive. It is good to know that it’s an actual writing technique used as a sort of explaining or narrating. It is really just a great way to expand your thoughts and lengthen your writing while still holding onto or adding to the quality. They also brought up an interesting point that no matter how well-written your writing is there will always be someone who misinterprets it or is confused by it, as the one doing the writing you become so engulfed in it that It all makes sense to you and the thought may never occur that people reading it aren’t inside your head and they have no clue what your thinking and may not have any background on what you are writing about. I never thought about it this way, I always thought the only person who would read my writing is whoever I’m writing it for like a professor. Who probably already has all of that background knowledge, when in reality anyone could end up reading my writing and even my professor who assigned the writing to me may not know all of the ins and outs of what I’m writing.
It is crucial to add metacommentary to your work to keep your readers on track and for clarity in your writing. Before reading this section, I had never heard of the term metacommentary before but now I understand why it is so important to add it to your work. The use of metacommentary allows you to clarify your work in a way that keeps the reader tuned into your writing. I never knew that this was a thing but thinking back on my previous writing works I realized I have been doing this in a lot of my different essays. The illustrations on page 153 helped me understand this term a lot better than I had thought I had understood it. I liked it when they talked about how writers sometimes struggle with getting enough volume in their essays. I found this to be a very real problem I have because so many times I have used up all the possible information that I know so early into the draft that eventually the essay just stops. Not because I do not understand the work but because I can’t add anything to it because the information has all been used up. The examples given to use to use I think are very helpful but also are very well known starters to paragraphs. The examples do not really give us any new things we did not know prior but instead show us how to use these very common terms to beef up the essay.
I like how metacommentary is a way to expand on your text and help drive your point home without having to add new ideas. It allows your to expand your text further without the stress of adding in new ideas. It almost feels like it is allowing you to add in your deeper personal meanings as a way to connect to the reader, almost as though you are speaking to the reader.
I like the template: My point is not ____ but _____. As though you are already assuming that the reader will misinterpret the text. And this allows you to and misinterpretations and skewing of words. I also like the template: Having just argued that ____, I want to now complicate the point by _____. They Say I Say explains it as a road map, leading your readers to where you want them to go which I like.
The goal of metacommentary is to directly show the readers the main point of the essay as to not get lost and confused in what your main point is. A way you can do this is by using your essay title to point out your main point. Which I find interesting but it also makes sense as to how important your essay title can be as an aid to the main part of your essay.
I had never heard the term metacommentary before reading this section, but now that I understand how crucial it is to good, strong writing, I see the significance of having metacommentary as a guidebook for readers on how to interpret what meaning to take from the author’s argument or descriptions. It is not just a question of what is said but how the words are put together regarding audience presentation. This method avoids misunderstanding and maintains the reader’s interest by indicating how to read a given point. The most surprising thing to me is that metacommentary is not necessarily introducing new information but it’s introducing context. It made me realize that even when we feel we have said all we can say within an essay, there’s always room to expand outwards by re-considering what we’ve said and indicating to the reader where we’re coming from more explicitly. I also enjoyed how much the text reaffirmed that metacommentary can be used to predict objections, justify why a point is significant, or demonstrate how differing ideas mesh together. These strategies can cause an essay to sound fuller and more thoughtful. Rather than simply occupying space, metacommentary strengthens the voice of the writer and ensures the message comes across in the way it’s intended.
I didn’t know what “metacommentary” was until I read this chapter, but now I’m starting to understand how important it is for making your overall writing stronger. It’s there to help readers understand what you’re really trying to say. It’s not just about what you say, but how you say it, so the reader doesn’t get confused. What surprised me the most is that metacommentary doesn’t actually add new information, it just gives more context to whatever you already have. It made me realize that even when I think I’ve said everything I need to there can be a better way to add more. I also realized I tend to do this when I ran out of ideas in my writing but still got a whole part left in my essay.