Engaging in another opinion when it comes to writing is important because it shows that you understand and respect other sides of the story and recognize that there are other ways of thinking about the topic. One example is stated by Graff and Birkenstein when discussing that writing involves more than just fact. “if your argument doesn’t identify the “they say” that you are responding to, it probably won’t make sense”. What the authors are stating here is that you write a paper without discussing what you are writing against, then your paper won’t make sense. There is no baseline information without the opposing part of the paper. Another reason for engaging in others opinions in academic writing is because it shows a level of sophistication and intelligence to be able to compare your thesis with those that contradict. This allows you to not just state what is fact, but also compare it to something which contradicts it and explain why the contradiction is incorrect in the context you are using.