ENG 760: Seminar in Rhetoric
Rhetoric and Aesthetics of Electronic Media
Spring 1999

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What is a Précis?

A précis is written to reflect the structure of a text's argument. It is not a set of notes on a text's content.

Your précis should be no more than a page long, and should be broken down into four sections:

  1. A statement about the text's focus. What is the main issue the text addresses? Write a few concise sentences that represent the focus. In the case of Gorgias' "Encomium of Helen," your first section might read:

    "The explicit aim of this text is to defend the reputation of Helen, but it also provides a commentary on the nature of language and a performative, self-referential demonstration of the Sophists' use of language to persuade an audience."

    Don't editorialize here; try for an objective representation of the principal function(s) of the text.

  2. A statement of the text's logic and goal.

    Typical verbs for indicating a text's logic are compare, contrast, link causally, causes, follows from.

    Example:

    "By staging a defense of Helen which turns on Helen's powerlessness in the face of the forces compelling her to accompany Paris to Troy, Gorgias establishes a causal link between the persuasive power of speech (rhetoric) and human psychology and behavior."

  3. This statement introduces a chart with headings encompassing the text's data in two parallel columns of notes (usually with page references to the reading). Organize the text's information under the headings to show how the text correlates different classes of data. Try for three or four examples.

    Typical categories of information are

    Example:

    characteristics of the soul

    not fully self-determined;
    subject to Fate, the gods, necessity, stronger forces (§ 6)

    can be affected by representations
    as well as by actual phenomena (§ 9)
     

    has neither complete memory nor
    prescience (§ 11)

    		characteristics of speech

    "a powerful lord" (§ 8);
    like witchcraft (§ 10);
    comparable to the power of drugs (§ 14)

    "the agency of words" can represent
    phenomena, such as the suffering of
    others (§ 9)

    capable of dissimulation (§ 11)

  4. A brief paragraph indicating the implications of the information pattern you have discerned in the text. Analyze the covert statement(s) made by the text through its information pattern. In setting up the text in this way, what has the author asserted, hidden, brushed aside? Ask yourself what the text good for. What are the applications of its argument(s) for your own intellectual activities (teaching, literary analysis, writing, visual art, etc.)?

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In-Class Report Based on a Précis

Choose one of the texts for which you want to prepare a précis and expand your précis slightly to include the following information: Written Component
Please submit a written version (at least one page) of your class presentation. I expect complete sentences and developed paragraphs, not a set of notes. One paragraph should address the background information listed above; your other paragraphs should correspond to the sections of the précis. You don't need to include all the correlated data in your columns; just choose particularly strong examples and provide a clear statement of how the correlation operations.

This text will serve as the basis of your oral presentation.

In Class
Your presentations should be limited to around seven (7) minutes. If you are more comfortable reading your written text, write it so that your listeners will be able to follow your points easily. It's also fine to "talk through" your presentation, using your text as a guide. Presenters take on the responsibility of leading class discussion on the text they have presented and should be prepared to field (and encourage) questions and comments from the class.

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In-Class Presentation Based on a Project Proposal

In the second half of the semester, we will begin hearing from each member of the class about what he or she plans to work on for the term paper. These presentations will be based on an expanded abstract of the planned paper. This abstract will be submitted to me.

Written Component
Prepare an abstract of your proposed paper following the model I offer here. This is a somewhat expanded abstract that includes a fairly detailed breakdown of the argument, citations where appropriate, and a bibliography of work you plan to consult.

Use whatever academic style (MLA, APA) you choose, but be consistent.

In Class
Please limit your presentations to ten (10) minutes. We will allow additional time for questions and discussion. Again, you can either read your abstract (with the provisions about clarity stated above) or take a more conversational approach.

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Term Paper

All seminar participants will complete a term paper of twenty (20) pages (or equivalent--electronic documents must amount to at least twenty pages of standard printed text). You are free to choose your topic, but all of you should consult with me early in the planning stages. You may focus on any aspect of the materials we are treating in the seminar. While many of you are likely to want to deal with electronic media, you are not required to do so. You must, however, give evidence of careful research, i.e., citations in the text and a bibliography of current work in the appropriate field(s). Use whatever academic style you like, but be consistent with it.

I expect thorough, professional work. Your goal is to produce an essay that could be submitted to a journal.

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