I thought it was interesting how academic writing is considered to be argumentative writing. It is important to engage with other people’s point of view as well as listen to others around is and summarize their views in a way that we can respond our own ideas or opinions. You need to include more than just your opinion on things when arguing a statement. I really liked how they pointed out that traditional five paragraph essays typically leave out the importance of arguing and how we won’t argue unless we are provoked. So if we don’t argue unless someone’s said or done something to provoke us then why wouldn’t we do that on paper as well? It makes complete sense and its something I’ve never actually thought about. We need the views of others in order to support our point of view and argue it. I also found it interesting how they pointed out the “why are you telling me this” component of writing. When writing it is important to impact your reader by doing more than just making logical statements. You have to find of way to enter the conversation by giving the view of others. Basically saying what they say. The way to do this is by summarizing what they have to say then setting it up with what they want to say. If you don’t respond to what others have to say then your argument doesn’t have a point. Therefore it’s meaningless. When you include what they say we give the reader the opportunity to pick a side and agree on things whether that be from both sides or just one. Understanding the opinions of others gives us a reason to argue. If there weren’t critics or people who believed differently then us out there then there would be no point to argue.