In conjunction with the first reading "Entering the Conversation,"" Graff and Birkenstein demonstrate in detail how to make a perfect summary of what other people said in order to make your own argumentative writing. The authors highlight two summarizing styles; one solely based on a writer's points of view and the others merely mention what the original writers instead of putting his or her own voice in the summary. To write a really good summary, a writer must play a "believing game ", which suspends his own belief for a time and put him in the shoes of someone else. Otherwise, a writer might produce a summary with his own unfair presumption instead of what really expressed in the original author's view.
To support this idea, the authors assert examples about the article "Don't Blame the Eater " by David Zinczenko and "Letter from Birmingham Jail " by Martin Lurther King. Within two examples, it is necessary for a writer to read or listen carefully to what the others said in order to capture the correct points of view before making his or her own claim. .
On the other hand, it means a writer must know how to speak his own voice while still being true to the summarizing text. When we read a good summary of Zinczenko's article, a writer not only mentioned about law suit against fast food companies causing children's obesity as mentioned in the original text, but also called for parents' responsibility, which is his/her own opinion. .
In my opinion, the second important rule the authors mentioned is not to make a list when summarizing. A talk which presented points were connected by list of conjunction "first,"" "then," " "in addition," and" "also,"" failed to focus the most crucial point of the talk and quickly drew attention of audience away.
A writer tends to use bland formulas such as "he talks about,"" "she says,"" or "they believe,"" since they are functional enough. However, they might not express what the others have said precisely.