{"id":936,"date":"2016-03-01T12:17:42","date_gmt":"2016-03-01T17:17:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/writing.rhetprof.net\/ed2201\/?page_id=936"},"modified":"2016-03-01T12:18:33","modified_gmt":"2016-03-01T17:18:33","slug":"precis","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/writing.rhetprof.net\/ed2201\/precis\/","title":{"rendered":"Rhetorical Pr\u00e9cis (Annotation)"},"content":{"rendered":"

In 1988,\u00a0Margaret Woodworth\u00a0<\/a>reported on a reading\/writing method that demonstrated significant success with her students at various levels, particularly in their reading comprehension and preparation for using source materials in their own academic writing. That method, which\u00a0Woodworth<\/a>\u00a0calls “the rhetorical pr\u00e9cis,” will be a central part of our writing this semester as we seek to know more about topics for our major projects. I reprint the basic outline here from Woodworth’s article:<\/p>\n

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Sentence 1:
\n<\/strong>Name of author, [optional: a phrase describing the author], the genre and title of the work, date in parentheses (additional publishing information in parentheses or note), a rhetorically accurate verb (such as “assert,” “argue,” “suggest,” “imply,” “claim,” etc.), and a THAT clause containing the major assertion (thesis statement) of the work.<\/p>\n

Sentence 2:
\n<\/strong>An explanation of how the author develops and\/or supports the thesis usually in chronological order.<\/p>\n

Sentence 3:
\n<\/strong>A statement of the author\u2019s apparent purpose, followed by an “in order” phrase.<\/p>\n

Sentence 4:
\n<\/strong>A description of the intended audience and\/or the relationship the author establishes with the audience. (54)<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Woodworth<\/a>\u00a0included this example, as well, in her article:<\/p>\n

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Sheridan Baker, in his essay “Attitudes” (1966), asserts that writers’ attitudes toward their subjects, their audiences, and themselves determine to a large extent the quality of their prose. Baker supports this assertion by showing examples of how inappropriate attitudes can make writing unclear, pompous, or boring, concluding that a good writer “will be respectful toward his audience, considerate toward his readers, and somehow amiable toward human failings” (58). His purpose is to make his readers aware of the dangers of negative attitudes in order to help them become better writers. He establishes an informal relationship with his audience of college students who are interested in learning to write “with conviction” (55).<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Notice that\u00a0Woodworth’s<\/a>\u00a0example follows her pattern exactly. The first sentence identifies the author (Baker), the genre (essay), the title and date, and uses an active verb (asserts) and the relative pronoun\u00a0that<\/em>\u00a0to explain what exactly Baker asserts. The second sentence explains the first by offering chronological examples from Baker’s essay, while the third sentence suggests the author’s purpose and WHY (in order to) he has set out that purpose (or seems to have set out that purpose — not all essays are explicit about this information and readers have to put the pieces together). The final sentence identifies the primary audience of the essay (college students) and suggests how this audience is brought into\/connected to the essay’s purpose. (For some other examples, click\u00a0here<\/a>.)<\/p>\n

The rhetorical pr\u00e9cis is useful for students to master as they are often asked to read a great deal of information, particularly as juniors, seniors, and graduate students, and are expected to retain what articles, essays, book chapters, and books are about. This method makes for an excellent annotation of such texts, and I encourage you to use it for other classes. Then, reviewing information involves reading a few short paragraphs, rather than trying to skim 20 – 30 page articles the night before tests. Such pr\u00e9cis are also useful as you write longer, researched papers because you may have read so many sources that you’ve forgotten them all; with the pr\u00e9cis, you can organize your thoughts by sources AND because you wrote these (mostly) in your own words, you don’t have to worry about plagiarism.<\/p>\n

For this course, however, you\u00a0will write only the first three (3) sentences from the model above (the audience for scholarly journal articles is pretty much the same across articles\/journals when you’re in a single field). For the fourth (4th) sentence, you will write a reaction to the piece in the following model: “This article\/chapter supports my project by …”<\/strong><\/p>\n

These extension ideas are meant to reflect the sort of writing that you’ll be asked to do in various areas of college, highlighting the sort of writing moves that teachers in most disciplines often expect even when they may not make it clear that they’re looking for a particular format\/genre of response. Although these writings are short, they are quite challenging to do well. The benefit, as\u00a0Woodworth<\/a>\u00a0points out in her article, are the following:<\/p>\n