They Say, I Say, & Together!

O where to begin with writing a summary for "They Say, I Say" book by Gerald Graff and Cathy Birkenstein. The book is put together like a choir practice. First one hears what has been done before, "They Say". During that one creates their own part to accompany, harmonize, or even ignore, "I Say". Then it is sorted in the practice by combining all the parts, "Tying it all together". “They Say” explains how to utilize others works by summarizing and quoting. “I Say” goes in more creative means because here are the new ideas for the next writing and they go like this: respond to the writing (yes, no, ok, but), distinguish between what they say and you say, create a devils advocate for flavor, and make sure there is a clearly stated purpose to read your writing (a.k.a. your thesis). And that was not enough for one to do, they want you to make sure your signature is figuratively on it when you tie it all together. This section goes further by helping one make sure one's opinion is not neglected by incorporating their voice to the paper. And the clincher is to incorporate a metacomentary in ensure your newly found creative opinion is not misunderstood.
Since I am obviously a conversational writer, the part of the book that spoke to me the most was the "metacomentary". I have never heard of this word before, but I think it is key to a good essay. The incorporation of metacommentary establishes exactly what the writer is trying to or not to say in order "to ward off any potential misunderstandings"(128). I think this is great because it also shows that the writer is critically thinking about what they have written and the different angles it may be read. Now, what would happen if people did so in everyday word exchanges? And coming from an artistic visual learner I found the mini comic strips educationally amusing :)
In comparison to the preface and introduction of the book, I now find "They Say, I Say" to be a fascinating book having read it all the way through! Why? Because it puts what is in my head in front of me and that, for me, makes writing easier. Although I was skeptical at first of using templates, they really helped me create my summary this time with out creating a "summary list" faux pas. Although I normally do not list during summaries, with so much information to touch upon I was glad to read that caveat and tried summarized through much a larger and creative lens. In doing so I believe I avoided the dreary summary list. Part of the reason I like the book so much is because it is user friendly. It is well organized itself and is easy to reference. Both are key, in my opinion, to a great reference book. My favorite section of the book is the Index of Templates; simply because it's the meat and potatoes of the book.