Rhetorical Pr

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Rhetorical Précis Writing

• Or, how to analyze the content (the WHAT),
• and the delivery (the HOW)
• of a unit of spoken or written discourse

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What is a précis?

• It is a HIGHLY structured
• four-sentence
• It blends summary and analysis
• Each sentence REQUIRES specific information
• Writers (you) include quotations from the
  original text to convey the authors style and
  tone
• It concludes with a bibliographic reference (MLA)

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Why write a précis?

• To foster precision in both reading and writing
• To force a writer to employ a variety of sentence
  patterns
• To help a writer develop a discerning eye for
  connotative shades of meaning

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Take a look at the format

• Follow along on your
• copy of the handout

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Sentence 1 includes

• Name of author
• Optional a phrase describing the author
• The genre and title of the work
• Date of work in parentheses
• A rhetorically accurate verb
• A THAT clause containing the major assertion
  (i.e. the thesis of the work)

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Said another way . . .

• Identifies the essays author and title
• Provides the articles date in ( )
• Uses some form of the very says (such as claims,
  asserts, suggests, argues)
• Followed up by the word THAT and then the essays
  thesis in your own words or directly quoted

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What does it look like?

• EXAMPLE
• In The Ugly Truth about Beauty (1998), Dave
  Barry argues that women generally do not think
  of the looks in the same way that men do (4).

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Sentence 2 includes

• An explanation of how the author develops and/or
  support the thesis
• Usually this explanation is in chronological order

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Said another way

• Conveys the authors support for the thesis
• How DID the author develop the essay?
• The trick? To convey a good sense of the breadth
  of the authors support/examples
• Usually in chronological order

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What does it look like?

• Barry illuminates this discrepancy by
  juxtaposing mens perceptions of their looks
  (average-looking) with womens (not good
  enough), by contrasting female role models
  (Barbie, Cindy Crawford) with male role models
  (He-Man, Buzz-Off), and by comparing mens
  interests (the Super Bowl, lawn care) with
  womens.

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Sentence 3 includes

• A statement of the authors apparent purpose
• followed by an in order phrase

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Said another way

• Analyzes the authors purpose using an in order
  to statement

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What does it look like?

• He exaggerates and stereotypes these differences
  in order to prevent women from so eagerly
  accepting societys expectation of them to this
  end, Barry claims that men who want women to
  look Cindy Crawford are idiots (10), implying
  that women who adhere to the Crawford standard
  are fools as well.

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Sentence 4 includes

• A description of the intended audience
• Plus a description of the relationship the author
  establishes with the audience

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Said another way

• Describes the essays target audience
• Characterizes the authors relationship with that
  audience
• OR describes the essays tone

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What does it look like?

• Barry ostensibly addresses men in this essay
  because he opens and closes the essay directly
  addressing men (as in If youre a man ) and
  offering to give them advice in a mockingly
  conspiratorial fashion however, by using humor
  to poke fun at both men and womens perceptions
  of themselves, Barry makes his essay palatable to
  women as well, hoping to convince them to stop
  obsessively thinking they need to look like
  Barbie (8).

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Consider this
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And now lets talk about persuasive writing

• Coming soon to a classroom near you
• The GHSGT!