THEY SAY, I SAY

“If it is true, as we claim in this book, that to argue persuasively you need to be in dialogue with others, then summarizing others’ arguments is central to your arsenal of basic moves”

So... You’ve got to be able to summarize.

Summarize: a comprehensive and usually brief abstract, recapitulation, or compendium of previously stated facts or statements.

SOME DON’T BECAUSE

• They don’t want to go back to the text and wrestle with what the author actually says
• Think the reader would be more interested in what they have to say themselves.

OTHERS SUMMARIZE TOO MUCH

• Afraid, it would seem, to put their own thinking out there.

A SUMMARY IS

• True to the text
• Presents the information as the author wishes you to understand it

THIS MEANS!!!!

• that summaries are specific to your interests. If you want to emphasize a particular part of a text, your summary should speak specifically to that part of the text.

SEE... NOCHLAS CARR SUMMARY ON P. 323 PARAGRAPH 24

PUT YOURSELF IN THEIR SHOES!

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• Suspend your own beliefs for a time
• put yourself in the shoes of someone else
• Use phrases like, “They say,” or “Those who hold this opinion” or “the author says”.

THE BELIEVING GAME!

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• Write down a position you don’t hold.
• Then write down a position you do hold.
• Can a friend guess which is which? Ask them!

ON THE OTHER HAND KNOW WHERE YOU ARE GOING!

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• Focus your summary to emphasize what you think is important
• Lead your reader into what you want to show about the text.

Writers who fail to have a direction to their summaries end up writing “list” summaries. These summaries inventory the parts with out putting them together or hinting at a point.

USE Signal verbs that fit the action

• Try to avoid bland formulas like, “She says”.
• Good words for claims include: argue, assert, believe, claim, emphasize, insist, observe, remind us, report, suggest.

VERBS FOR EXPRESSING AGREEMENT

• Acknowledge
• Admire
• Agree
• Endorse
• Extol
• Praise

BERBS FOR QUESTIONING OR DISAGREEING

• Complain
• Complicate
• Contend
• Contradict
• Deny
• Explore the tendency to
• ualify
• uestion
• Fute
• Ject
• Renounce
• Repudiate

BERBS FOR MAKING RECOMMENDATIONS

• Advocate
• Call for
• Demand
• Encourage
• Exhort
• Implore
• Plead
• Recommend
• Urge
• warn

Exercise: Write two summaries of David Zinczenko’s “Don’t Blame the Eater” (pp 462-464). Write the first one for an essay arguing that, contrary to what Zinczenko claims, there are inexpensive and convenient alternatives to fast-food restaurants. Write the second for an essay that questions whether being overweight is a genuine medical problem rather than a problem of cultural stereotypes. Compare your two summaries. Turn them in for a homework grade on Canvas course 098.

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