Graff, Gerald and Birkenstein, Cathy - They Say -The Moves that Matter in Academic Writing - Book Report/Review Example

People do not look at the broader perspectives of the author’s ideas and perspectives but summarize them to suit one’s own narrow views. Indeed, I am also guilty of that! I totally agree that lack of knowledge and deeper understanding of the summary is the main culprit. According to the authors, students must be open-minded to accept other people’s different ideas or views. To do so, one needs to play ‘make-believe’ game and summarize the ideas per se, irrespective of the fact whether one actually believes it or not.

A summary is somebody else’s ideas which the person uses to not only support his/her point but also to explain as to how it actually does so. Thus, a person needs to prepare a background to introduce the summary and then validate one’s point by explaining how other people’s ideas support or refute his own thesis. The authors’ suggestions for good summary are really good and need to be used to justify not only the individual’s claim but also to put forward the unbiased views of the author as such.