In the “The Art of Summarizing” section of “They Say/I Say”: The Moves that Matter in Academic Writing, Gerald Graff and Cathy Birkenstein argue the importance of properly summarizing another writer’s point in your writing. They claim that in a good summary of another’s work, you should try to be even in your describing their points and connecting them to your own. This is a very important aspect of a good summary, and one that I think is glanced over a bit in high school writing. However, the authors also emphasize the importance of not overreaching their focus into the summary of the other’s work. They say, “A good summary, in other words, has a focus or spin that allows the summary to fit with your own agenda while still being true to the text you are summarizing” (p.34). If you over reach your ideas into the summary and do not remain true to the author’s text, then your summary will be biased and its credibility compromised. This is an important thing to keep in mind when summarizing, because your points should build off of what the others say, not influence their ideas.
The authors also emphasize not swaying too far in the opposite direction of this trend and not including your own point of view in the summary. They describe this common mistake as a “list summary”, claiming that this mistake is one that readers find most boring. They say, “If you’ve ever heard a talk in which the points were connected only by words like “and then,” “also,” and “in addition, you know how such lists can put listeners to sleep—as shown in the figure above” (pg. 35-36). I think everyone can agree that they have read, or even written, a piece of writing with a list summary, and found it super boring. While its important to summarize thoroughly, doing so does not mean you can’t include your own thoughts. In fact, it is your own point of view that rounds out and finishes off the summary, and causes the reader to understand why you included the other piece of writing at all. The authors do a good job emphasizing the importance of balancing summarizing and integrating your point of view when summarizing another’s work.
