They Say / I Say: The Moves That Matter in Academic Writing

As defined by scholar Vershawn Ashanti Young in Other People’s English, “code-meshing” is the blending or mixing of multiple languages or dialects, especially in classrooms and other institutional settings. In They Say/I Say, this term appears in Chapter 9, which encourages writers to write in styles that feel authentic to themselves and the ideas they wish to express. Code-meshing validates languages and dialects that are often seen as “lesser” than Standard Written English, such as AAVE. By arguing for code-meshing, Graff and Birkenstein argue that everybody’s way of speaking English is valid within the classroom setting.

Formal/informal mixing describes a style of academic writing that meshes traditional scholarly language and tonality with more conversational and creative writing forms of address. Formal/Informal mixing allows writers to write to rigorous academic standards without adopting the stodgy dialect of academic speech and writing.

When a writer “frames” something (such as an argument, a quote, or a concept), they are surrounding that thing with relevant, contextualizing information. This helps to clarify the framed topic’s significance and its finer points. Quotations that are not appropriately framed are thus “dangling quotations.”