The Mind and the Formation of Knowledge

You must do this assignment based on one of the chapters from the Course Packet.

The ideas in what follows are adopted from R. Douglas Geivett’s

2.3- On Writing and Grading Précis (Talbot Philosophy Resource Book pp. 37-40): August 2015.

Douglas defines a précis as a concise and evaluation-free exposition of the most significant elements of some substantial and worthy piece of writing.

• General guidelines:
• Begin your précis with a clear and detailed statement of the author’s thesis with an accurate description of every aspect of the thesis.
• Proceed to an explanation of the author’s line of argument.
• Show how the author hopes to persuade the reader.
• Do not list a bunch of steps. Your précis needs to have a good logical flow as in any academic essay.
• Every word counts, so make the maximum effort to include important things.
• No room for repetition and ambiguity.
• Say what you want to say most directly and concisely.
• Don’t write anything you don’t understand. Don’t use bombastic and technical terminologies to impress your professor. Rather use direct language/understandable words in putting together this precis.
• Know that précis is strictly expositional. So avoid any evaluation of your own in any shape or form. For example, avoid terms such as ‘the author seeks to demonstrate such and such’, or ‘the author shows such and such’, or ‘I agree, disagree’.
  • Be bold in your exposition. Avoid words that indicate your lack of confidence in what you say. For example avoid words such as, ‘seems’, appears’, etc.
  • Do not include illustrations, discussions of thought experiments, rhetorical questions/discussions, recapitulations/repetitions, and various sorts of filter material that the author uses to expand his/her discussion.
  • Remember that the précis is an essay. So follow every rule that applies to good essay writing.
  • The word limit has to be strictly followed. You cannot write even one extra word. You need to use exactly 1000 words. You need to indicate that at the end of your précis.
  • Now it is time to write the précis: what to do?
  • Read the essay carefully over and over again until you familiarize yourself with the content of the essay.
  • Master the essay. Use a dictionary to learn new vocabulary and other references for any technical terms that you don’t know.
    • As you read, take notes. Turn your notes into an outline which can then be turned into a detailed outline.
    • Preparing a good outline will save you time and helps you to write a coherent essay.
    • Make sure that you use your own words in writing the précis.
      • The final paragraph of your precis has to be devoted to critique or defend a certain aspect of the article you've read. This does not have to be an elaborated discussion. Just pick an issue that allows you to say something interesting in one paragraph. Make sure to defend your claim.