Writer’s “moves” are used differently for every writer, but all for the same purpose.  The purpose of a move is to use your own decisions of writing to persuade the audience.  In the article “So What? Who Cares?” Birkenstein and Graff explain the importance of arguments using their own moves.  Similarly, in the article “Finding Evidence,” Lunsford describes how to find and use evidence effectively in one’s essay and why it is important.  Both writers use their own moves to attempt to get their opinions across.  Examining both articles, I believe Lunsford does a more professional and better job at picking effective moves because of his persuasive and applicable examples, serious tone, and useful guidelines. . 

            Birkenstein and Graff begin “So What? Who Cares?” with a casual and friendly tone that seems to be inviting.  This tone and style is continuous throughout the essay as they go on into using certain moves.  One move I discovered they used was using one specific, big example to help them uncover their argument.  They referenced Denise Grady’s article in the New York Times.  They did a good job at explaining the moves and arguments Grady used, but the only problem is they only used Grady’s article.  I believe Birkenstein and Graff would have been more effective if they had used more than this one source.  Another move I recognized was the addition of several questions asked at the end of paragraphs.   This was used quite a few times, reason being to get the reader thinking about what they are reading and maybe apply it their lives for a moment.  This was an effective move in order to get the audience thinking, but was a little bit over used.  An interesting move used by the authors was a lot of italicized words to emphasize the importance of the word or sentence.  This was used quite a bit throughout the article. Something I thought was interesting was the thesis statement was in the second paragraph.  I thought the authors did a nice job catching the reader’s attention in the very short first paragraph, and then beginning the real argument in the second. Finally, the last move I noticed was provided templates for establishing claims and a few exercises.  I think this move connects the reader to the article and allows them to test their own abilities and help them put what they read into context.

            In the second article, “Finding Evidence,” by Lunsford, I believe is more effective and used better moves than  “So What? Who Cares?” because it has a more academic tone, and uses better moves and sources. Contrary to the first article’s playful tone, this articles tone and style comes across as more sophisticated and educational.  Its purpose is to help you be more persuasive with the right evidence and facts, and I believe it does a great job explaining how to do that.  In the beginning of the article, many questions are listed that you should ask yourself while writing.  I think this move is more effective than the first articles questions at the end of paragraphs because the reader can continually ask themselves these questions throughout reading the rest of the article.  Another move I noticed was the author used was the use of specific examples of where do get recent, up-to-date evidence to use in one’s paper.  This was a more effective move because it showed exactly what resources are available and how to get them.  A short bold topic sentence was used for the introduction of each topic.  This move was extremely effective because it didn’t ramble on or make anything too complicated.  It consisted of a few key words that made it very clear what the next paragraph was going to be about.  Different than the first article, cartoons and images were used to help the reader better understand and also make the article more interesting.  I thought this was an interesting idea because the article itself was more educational than the first, but also had several cartoons throughout it.  Lastly, at the end of the article was a list of guidelines to help the reader gather their own evidence by surveying.  Overall, I thing “Finding Evidence” used better moves and was more helpful and persuasive because of its applicable examples, educational tone, and useful guidelines. 

            Moves are everywhere.  People use moves everyday, even if they don’t know it.  Moves can be tendencies that writers develop in making their arguments.  When moves are used correctly, they can make a good argument a great one.