1) What 2) How 3) Why? 4) To Whom? Sentence 2: explains how the author develops his/her thesis

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1 Précis Writing: Simple Rhetorical Précis Rhetorical Précis: highly structured four sentence paragraph that records the essential aspects of a text or argument. Each of the four sentences requires specific information. 1) What 2) How 3) Why? 4) To Whom? Sentence 1: includes work s title and author, genre, and a rhetorically active verb (argues. Suggests ) Sentence 2: explains how the author develops his/her thesis Sentence 3: describe in one sentence the author s apparent purpose in order to show in order to point out Sentence 4: describes the likely intended audience and/or the relationship the author establishes with his/her audience. Discuss tone WHAT (GENRE) (news/magazine/jour nal article) Book review, editorial, firsthand report, personal or biographical essay, biography, research report HOW (rhetorical verb) analyzes /analysis argues/ argument asserts/assertion discusses/discussion focuses on/ focuses explains/ explaination HOW (by) Why (in order to) To WHOM Comparing /contrasting Retelling, explaining, illustrating, defending, demonstrating, defining, describing, listing, arguing, showing, justifying, relating, reporting, noting, emphasizing, pointing out, highlighting the fact that Argue, call attention to, define, deny, show, point out, prove, suggest, inform, persuade, disclose, report, convince Formal, impersonal, causal, informal Humorous, emotional, friendly, reasoned, logical, exaggerated.

2 SENTENCE 1 In a single coherent sentence give the following: 1) Name of the author, title of the work, source and data (in parentheses) 2) A rhetorically accurate verb such as asserts, argues, refutes, proves, or explains. 3) A that clause containing the major claim (thesis statement) of the work THE WHAT SENTENCE 2 In a single coherent sentence give an explanation of how the writer develops and supports the major claim (thesis statement) THE HOW SENTENCE 3 In a single coherent sentence give a statement of the author s purpose, followed by an in order to phrase. THE WHY SENTENCE 4 In a single coherent sentence give a description of the intended audience and /or the relationship the author establishes with the audience. TO OR FOR WHOM

3 Sentence 1 1 Bell Hooks, in her essay, Women Who Write Too Much, from Remembered Rapture (1999), suggests that all dissident writers, particularly black female writers, face enormous time pressures, for if they are not prodigious, they are never noticed by mainstream publishers. Sentence 2 She supports her position first by describing her early writing experiences that taught her not to be afraid of the writing process ; second by explaining her motives for writing, including political activism ; and lastly by affirming her argument, stressing that people must strategically schedule their writing and make much of that time. Sentence 3 Her twopronged purpose is to respond to critics and to encourage minority writers to develop their own voice. Sentence 4 Although at times her writing seems almost didactic, Hooks ultimately establishes a companionable relationship with her audience of both critics and women who seek to improve the effectiveness of their own writing. All Together Bell Hooks, in her essay, Women Who Write Too Much, from Remembered Rapture (1999), suggests that all dissident writers, particularly black female writers, face enormous time pressures, for if they are not prodigious, they are never noticed by mainstream publishers. She supports her position first by describing her early writing experiences that taught her not to be afraid of the writing process ; second by explaining her motives for writing, including political activism ; and lastly by affirming her argument, stressing that people must strategically schedule their writing and make much of that time. Her two- pronged purpose is to respond to critics and to encourage minority writers to develop their own voice. Although at times her writing seems almost didactic, Hooks ultimately establishes a companionable relationship with her audience of both critics and women who seek to improve the effectiveness of their own writing. 1 Sources: Center for Teaching and Learning. The Rhetorical Précis. University of Texas at Austin. Web. March 2012 & Ellerhoff, Jean D. Writing the Rhetorical Précis. Central Academy. Web. March 2012

4 PRECIS WRITING Analytical / Summary Précis Precis (praysee) writing is a basic and very useful skill. It is variously referred to as abbreviation, subtraction, abstract, summary, and condensation. the pruning away of all that is unessential Definition: a précis is a brief, original summary of the important ideas given in a long selection. Its aim is to give the general effect created by the original selection. It is a concise and lucid summary that culls out all unnecessary details (including illustrations, amplifications, and embellishments) in favor of reproducing the logic, development, organization and emphasis of the original. Précis seeks to articulate an author s thoughts by extracting the maximum amount of information and carefully conveying it in a minimum number of words. Purpose: précis writing aims at intelligent and clear, accurate writing. It is a skill of both analysis and genesis that critically questions every thought included and excluded, each word used to express those thoughts, and the proportions and arrangement of those thoughts both in the original and in the précis. In its exaction it mercilessly reveals an author s wordiness and looseness or thinness of thought and construction. When applied rhetorically it strengthens our sense of proportion and emphasis, and our sensitivity to word meanings and an author s viewpoint. In Other Words: writing, especially rhetorical (argument) is like a really prettily wrapped package with bright and glossy paper, big and metallic handtied bow, and a fancy tag on heavy vellum printed with a neat calligraphy. Of course, what we are really interested in is what lies inside that package so to carry forward out metaphor writing a précis is like unwrapping that brilliantly gorgeous package. The goal is to get at the core (what lies inside the pretty paper and inside the underlying box) The précis is like the actual, physical thing inside the package. A Précis Does The Following: 1) Understand the essential facts or dominating idea of the passage 2) Express what the passage tends to show 3) WITH AS FEW SENTENCES AS POSSIBLE capture the essentials 4) Summarizes only what the author says (DO NOT COMMENT OR EDITORIALIZE) 5) As far as possible, use your own words 6) The précis offers a precise summary of the original in as few words as possible a. (précis is to haiku as the original is to epic) A Précis is, at most, a quarter of the ordinal s length often much shorter, as in a foursentence paragraph

5 HOW AND WHY OF PRECIS WRITING 1) READ: read the piece you are summarizing very carefully have a pencil or highlighter in one hand while reading. a. With that marking instrument you already have in hand, mark the important words, phrases, and sentences which contain essential thoughts and facts 2) Paraphrase: a restatement of a difficult passage (you have already marked the important words and, since the words are both important and potentially difficult or heavy you have also looked up definitions and chosen the best definition based on content and context. a. Paraphrase: is a restatement of the passage in simplified language including only details essential to understand the meaning b. In Other Words: rewrite the passage in language you would actually use in lunchtable conversation / explain the meaning and message of the passage in words you and your friends would actually use in spoken English. 3) Cull It Down: a précis presents the information in the passage and the information in your paraphrase in as few words as possible a. The Point: BREVITY! GETTING TO THE POINT WITHOUT WASTING WORDS!! EXPRESS THIS AUTHOR S WHOLE POINT IN AS FEW WORDS AS POSSIBLE. b. THE TRICK: pick out the essential points of the passage you re interested in the thing inside the very prettily wrapped up package and only the thing inside. Again, belaboring the pretty present metaphor the important bit is what s inside the regular, cardboard box and only what is inside. 4) It is necessary to say as much as possible in as few words as possible a word may substitute for a phrase, a phrase for a clause. 5) Remember the use of the colon and semicolon, dashes and hyphens we Anglophones have these wonderfully elastic punctuation marks which allow us to stretch sentences to our needs and purposes. USE THEM! (BUT USE THEM PROPERLY linguistic abuse is still abuse) 6) A précis should be written in reported or indirect speech. This means a précis will be in the third person and in the past tense.

6 METHOD REMEMBER THE OBJECT: brief and clear summary (of what you have carefully read and annotated). No words, phrases, clauses or sentences should be wasted meaning: every piece of language must pull its own weight. Each word, phrase, clause and sentence must serve the purpose of the summary. First Reading: read every word slowly and carefully until you clearly understand the sense of the passage. Look up all unfamiliar words and allusions and references. Identify the dominating idea, essential thought Is this idea essential: if the idea were omitted would the passage change? If the idea were removed would the passage still make sense? Identify the dominating idea if you can omit this idea from the passage and the passage still makes sense then it is not a dominating idea. Second Reading: mark the important facts and ideas. You are differentiating between what is essential and what is not. Generally, you will omit examples, illustrations, conversations, and repetitions. Reread what you have marked to see if you have plucked out the main idea. Writing The Précis: 1) Put away the original text and write a summary of what you remember 2) Return to the text and compare your summary with the main ideas you have underlined a. Did you keep the logical order? b. Did you emphasize the dominate thought? c. Did you omit any necessary facts? d. Can you get the main idea of the original text from your summary? 3) When writing a précis, remember you are condensing the main, dominating idea of the text/passage into its bare essentials while using as few words as possible. PRESIC TEST: let someone who has not read the text you are summarizing read your précis and see if that person understands the gist from your précis

7 THINGS TO REMEMBER This is a bare essentials summary You are communicating the main point Concision and Precision Matters What Précis is For..? Summary of an argument For your own research reports Understanding