Blog Response 2: They Say, I Say ch. 1-3

In the first chapter of They Say, I Say, the point the writers are trying to get across is that in order for one to present information on a given topic, they must also give back ground information on the topic, opposing views, and other important information in order to keep the reader engaged. I find that this advice is quite sound. It the past while writing essays and speeches I have found that if you only include what you have to say about a topic and exclude other important info, the reader becomes disengaged very quickly. They also provided templates which I have seen before, and a few that I haven't. I appreciated that the writers provided examples of what is correct and what is something that needed to be improved upon.

Chapter 2 was more focused on the art of summarizing which connects back to giving all of the information about a topic when you present an argument about it. The main goal a writer has when delivering a summary of another work is to play what writer theorist Peter Elbow calls the "believing game." Basically this means to give a summary without personal input, causing the reader to believe that the summary is so unbiased that you believe what was said yourself. I find this "believing game" to be a very helpful way of viewing how to write a summary. Often when I am reading summaries that my friends have written for class I feel that what they said wasn't exactly a summary, but more of a response.

Lastly, the third chapter discussed quoting correctly. It spoke of when to quote, how to quote, and why we quote in the first place. I feel that this chapter was extremely helpful to me, because often I place a quote in my writing because I know my teacher will look favorably upon it, not because it was actually needed. This chapter gave me templates and ideas about when and how to use a quote that I believe I can actually implement in my own writing.