Summary Comparisons

Kristin Gebel
5/25/07

After rereading my summary and then the summaries of others I found that we were all basically leading to the same point that there needs to be something done about pornography distribution. I read through the summaries of Suzannah Bryan, Sara Tillman and Matt Smith. All three of the summaries had their own twist to them. When discussing a topic such as this it is hard not to have a voice. I think in each paragraph by paragraph summary we all included roughly the same information. Some added a few more facts from the text than others, but for the most part they were quite similar.
When reading through the second half of the summaries I found quite a few differences. Some leaned toward Brownmiller’s side of going to the government and the courts to restrict the distribution. Whereas others included the facts but then gave different ideas than Brownmiller’s.
For example, when Brownmiller included that “hardcore” pornography was represented as rape and torture, one author disagreed and thought that her ideas where being stretched to the limits. These kinds of ideas give the summaries a different spin to how the problem should be solved.
Reading back through my summary I found the second half to be more or less blunt and to the point of what exactly Brownmiller was trying to point out. I realize now after reading a few others’ summaries that I need to include a bit more facts and ideas into my short summary. This will help the readers to get a better idea of the author’s point of view. I think the biggest thing to work on would be to answer the question “why?”. Such things as “why did the author include these details?” or “why does the author feel this way about this topic?”. With these questions answered in my next summary, I think readers will be able to better grasp on the meaning of the entire article that was read.