WEEK 2 PRECIS DP: Writing a Rhetorical Precis Assignment

Writing a Rhetorical Précis as an Annotated Bibliography

Prior to the five-sentence paragraph base, you must include the following source information conventions:

Last Name, First Name, Book, Publisher City: Publisher, Date.

Last Name, First Name, Article, Periodical, Volume, Number, Date.

Webpages must include the date it was accessed on.

Note variations of these standards when combined, and consult LRC reference sheet.

1. Sentence one provides:

a) the name of the author, the genre (essay, novel, etc.), and the title of the work with the publication date (in parenthesis), a concise appropriate verb (claims, argues, exams), followed by;

b) a “that” phrase in which the thesis of the work is stated (either paraphrased or quoted).

In [_______________________________]’s [_____________], [_______________________________]

                             author’s full name                                      kind of source                                      title of source

[(___________)],  [_____________]  [_____________] that [__________________________________].

    publication date          author’s last name       verb like “argues”                                    thesis of the work

2. Sentence two provides an explanation of how the author goes about supporting his/her thesis or main idea.  Remember that brevity is important – you will not restate the details from the work, but explain the rhetorical method used by the writer to develop these supports.

By [_______________________________]ing [_____________________________________________]

                                         verb                                                   how the author supports the thesis and what kind of evidence is used

 [_______________________________]  [_________________________________________________].

                   pronoun or author’s last name                                  what the author is able to accomplish in the source

3. Sentence three states the purpose of the piece (which may reflect the thesis, but should also include the writer’s motives – why the author is writing this piece?).  This is accomplished with an “in order to” phrase.

The author’s (His or Her) purpose it to  [___________________________________________________]

                                                                                                            author’s purpose

in order to  [_________________________________________________________________________].

                                                                                            author’s goal or motivation

4. Sentence four explains the author’s intended audience and how the author positions the ideas or thesis with that audience.

 [___________________] positions himself as [_____________________________________________]

           author’s last name                                                                               how the author positions himself/herself

and wants to reach  [__________________________________________________________________].

                                                                                                  audience for the source

5. Sentence five depicts how the source is relevant or applicable to your developing ideas.

 [__________________________________________________________________________________].

                                                            how the work is relevant or applicable to your own ideas

6. Following the above five-sentence base, your annotated bibliography must also include additional sentences that incorporate a discussion on:

Text to Self:    Something in the Text that applies or changes you (Self)

Text to World: Something in the Text that applies or changes the greater community or society (World)

Text to Text:   Something in the Text that applies or relates to another text or precedent idea (Text)

7. In addition to the written component above (1 through 6), after the annotated bibliography (ann bib) you must also include:

Visualization:  A visual image, collage, or descriptive component that conveys an aspect of both the text and your ideas.