After reading and contemplating this passage I have found myself agreeing and disagreeing with the ideas displayed by the authors of this book. I believe that, when writing academic pieces, people and especially students follow the structural guidelines without considering the need for counter-intuitive and argumentative statements. They have been taught over and over how to write a five paragraph essay with a thesis statement and supporting evidence but they aren't aware that they are, in a way, holding a conversation with someone. As stated in the last paragraph on page 3, “It (academic writing) is deeply engaged in some way with other people's views.” I consider social relevancy and placing outside sources in papers very beneficial to comprehending having “conversations” within papers and incorporating others opinions. For when writers use these tools they become aware of just how influential utilizing others opinions can be on the quality of papers.
However, I don't think that the ideas of the other person to which writers are “responding” to should be very prevalent in their papers. In my opinion the idea that the writers are “replying” to should be mentioned twice, maybe three times, in the writer's paper. I believe Martin Luther King Jr.'s “Letter From Birmingham Jail” is too structural and summarizes his critic’s words too often. Although some may believe that this makes his letter have a strong voice, I think that his words get lost in his critics articulations.
All in all, I believe that writers should be more aware of the “conversation(s)” in their papers, but I don't think that they should make too much of a deal out of it, to the point where is overwhelms the paper and blocks out the writer's voice.
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