In this Chapter of They Say I Say, the use of summarizing is explored, and different methods of effectively and ineffectively summarizing other people’s ideas are looked into in detail. The section begins by emphasizing the necessity to balance the ideas of others with your own ideas in argumentative papers. Too little summary and their ideas won’t be explained in enough depth, and too much summary can suppress the ideas of the writer and make the reading mundane and choppy for the reader. The section then goes into detail on how to properly represent the ideas of others. It does this by having the writer put themselves in the perspective of the opinion they disagree with, so they can properly represent their ideas without adding personal bias to other’s opinions. This is very important because being able to argue against the actual ideas of others, rather than your own misinterpretation of them, makes your opinion so much stronger. I’ve seen an abundance of misrepresentation of other’s opinions on the news, especially with politicians, and it is infuriating to watch them talk in circles rather than address the actual ideas of their opponents. At the end of the section, a number of ways to introduce other people’s ideas are given as substitutes to the bland methods typically used. I found this very useful because it employs the tone and emotions of the writer, rather than just stating their opinions. This helps to clarify to the reader what the opinion of the external source is, which strengthens your argument. Overall, the methods of summarizing given in this chapter are very useful, and I have used them in the past with great success. As a side note, I liked how they mentioned Jon Stewart and The Daily Show, as I thoroughly enjoyed watching him tear apart the ideas of those he disagreed with using satire.
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