>>>Even the one that he makes sound the most ludicrous ("IRB required pens, be we were only allowed to use pencils") can be rephrased as:
It looked like you were giving an alternate phrasing of the IRB's actual argument, not a separate one that also argues in favor of disallowing pencils (as well as the pens they had no problem with).
It looked like you were giving an alternate phrasing of the IRB's actual argument, not a separate one that also argues in favor of disallowing pencils (as well as the pens they had no problem with).