Chapter 2 and 3

The first paragraph I read made me a little aggravated because the author is obviously contradicting her own statement. The author wants you to learn summarizing but uses big words that aren't needed. Is this some way of giving us a chance to summarize her own chapter on how to summarize? I also find it interesting that she finds summarizing an art or if she is just being sarcastic. She could be using the word very loosely for all I know. I wasn't sure I understood her point because in one paragraph she says that some people are self conscious about giving their own opinions and later she says that your opinion shouldn't be in the summary. I do agree though when she says that list summaries are pointless and boring. You should be at least a little bit creative when putting someones words as your own. The author points out that "a good summary, in other words, has a focus or spin that allows the summary to fit with with your overall agenda while still being true to the text your summarizing." (Birkenstein 31-32) She pretty much summed up what a summary is and what it is supposed to do. It is valuable to go on in detail about what is right and what is wrong but she spoke all the basics needed in that very sentence. The last paragraph was my favorite by far about how in college you don't just summarize you put your own opinion and protest for good measure. The templates were added to the usefulness of the chapter. Even though she sums up her own chapter with one sentence in the middle of the chapter she added more than what was necessary and puts how to summarize something in perspective. A long and annoying read but useful none the less.

In the third chapter the author comes out with the purpose of it and even adds some humor to lighten up the mood. I think it's interesting that quotes don't always mean what people assume others to think it means. If someone quoted another for an essay they should explain what the quote means so the reader is on the right track on what your trying to say. Another useful thing is to find quotes that are relevant to your writing. Not just picking random quotes for the heck of it. Something that we talked about in class is how to introduce quotes in a sentence and not leave them "hanging" as the author likes to put it. We need to learn to introduce the quote and explain the meaning and how it connects to the essay we are writing. More templates are introduced to help accomplish this feat and to push the reader to pursue what the author intitles. Another thing she does is gives examples and explains them to the reader to engage them into the disscusion. I enjoyed this chapter much more than the other one and felt that it really captured the interest of the reader and made opportunites for them to practice.