Article Precis
Xena Donovan
Apart from a regular precis, there is also another form of this assignment called a rhetorical precis. The essence of this task is the same. However, it is usually much shorter and, thus, harder to write. A rhetorical precis also requires you to sum up core ideas from the original piece, but it has an additional focus on the delivery of the information in the piece. Thus, a rhetorical precis blends a summary and a brief analysis of how the author has conveyed his/her ideas.
1. Conciseness. Unless your professor provides another word count, a precis should be about th the size of the original piece. It has to be concise and straight to the point; thus, you should avoid repetition, wordy expressions, wateriness, and unnecessary details.
2. Objectivity. A precis implies providing an objective construal of the essential information given in the original piece, without including your personal opinions.
3. Coherency. You must provide information in a logical sequence.
4. Clarity. A precis should be easy to read and understand. The main goal of this work is to make the reader understand the original piece and the ideas the author conveyed in it, without the reader even having to read it. Thus, use simple structure and language.
5. Correctness. A precis should deliver accurate details, figures, facts, dates, and should have proper grammar, punctuation, and spelling.
Step 1: Pick the article, work, or story you will write a precis on
Unless you were assigned to write your precis on some specific material, you will have to choose the original piece yourself. In this case, be sure to choose an article or work that is publicly available in its full length, so that you can read the whole thing.
Step 4: Make an outline
Based on your notes, list all of the key details and arguments you found. This will help you see if you have everything important covered. Then, make a clear and well-structured outline for your precis. To make an outline, feel free to use a precis template given under the steps section of this article.
Following the steps mentioned above, you should be able to handle writing a precis with ease. To give you an even better understanding of how the finished piece should look, here is a precis sample template:
In the works cited page you will only have to cite the original source according to the chosen format and the type of the source. If it is an article, like in our example, the citation will look like this:
Writing a precis can be challenging. They require attention and precision, as well as solid writing skills and the ability to grasp the core ideas of the original piece. However, with the help of our detailed guide, we hope that you will be able to handle such a task with ease.
is an expert in nursing and healthcare, with a strong background in history, law, and literature. Holding advanced degrees in nursing and public health, his analytical approach and comprehensive knowledge help students navigate complex topics. On EssayPro blog, Adam provides insightful articles on everything from historical analysis to the intricacies of healthcare policies. In his downtime, he enjoys historical documentaries and volunteering at local clinics.
An important component of writing is reading and summarizing the literature. This exercise helps the author situate his/her work within the broader set of related works. I maintain a systematic process of reading and writing article summaries, but I normally do so in the form of long-form memoranda. Earlier this year, I had a conversation earlier in the year with my friend Dr. Theresa MacPhail, we discussed the precis (what many call, the rhetorical precis), a brief and systematic summary of journal articles. We talked about how they differ from a memo.
But it then occurred to me that I have pretty much never experimented with writing simple rhetorical precis. I did a bit of research on different formats for the rhetorical precis and found this particular model(from this website) very useful.
Most websites I checked use a similar format, like this one and this one. I plan to test this model for a week with the new literature I need to review and see how it works. I can see this model being useful for a busy professor who asks his/her research assistant for rhetorical precis from a set of articles, and then upon reading them, chooses a specific sub-set for memo-ing. This process enables the researcher to be strategic about what he/she chooses to read more in-depth. Also, having a full set of rhetorical precis available may help the researcher decide whether they have reached concept saturation. I also suppose you could dump all your rhetorical precis in an Excel concept worksheet (modifying the columns, obviously!)
In addition to these strategies, we firmly believe that one of the best ways to understand a book, article, essay, blog post, etc. is to write a summary of it. Specifically, we recommend that you use your reading to generate a rhetorical prcis.
In this sentence, provide a very condensed outline of how the author develops, structures, and supports the argument. What kind of evidence does the article draw upon? How is the case built? Perhaps by comparing and contrasting, illustrating, defining, or providing context? Perhaps the text starts out with a narrative and then moves into a description of several research studies? This sentence should account for all the most important moves made across this piece.
Evaluating a text requires you to use your analysis to consider and critique the strengths and weaknesses of that piece of writing. Look back at the argument and audience and ask yourself some of these questions:
Reflection provides you with space to analyze a text in light of your experiences, perspectives, and ideas. In this kind of writing, you get to talk about yourself. In a way, a reflective analysis is kind of like a comparative analysis where the second text is you. Look back at that rhetorical prcis and ask yourself questions like these, or other questions that connect what you know and have experienced with the text you have read:
In order to analyze a text, you need to understand key elements of it. Closely reading that text and summarizing it through a rhetorical prcis can help you understand it better. In large part, the quality of your analysis will be dependent on the quality of your comprehension. So, give yourself the time you need to read carefully, think deeply, and analyze effectively.
The goal of this assignment is to summarize an article presenting research on any aspect of mass communication content, use, or effects. You should concentrate on identifying the main points and conclusions of the research article and surmising the implications of the results obtained.
Direct quotes from the article are not appropriate in this assignment; your goal is to summarize rather than to extract specific phrases. Attach a photocopy of the article to your prcis. Papers should be expository or argumentative in nature and should be regarded as exercises in scholarly writing for an audience at your own level of research sophistication. Do not write in a breezy conversational style that would characterize a personal narrative.
Links on this guide may go to external web sites not connected with Randolph Community College. Their inclusion is not an endorsement by Randolph Community College and the College is not responsible for the accuracy of their content or the security of their site.
When writing a summary, the goal is to compose a concise and objective overview of the original article. The summary should focus only on the article's main ideas and important details that support those ideas.
A prcis of an article is an abridged,condensed version of the original article. The goal of a prcisis to quite literally 're-present' the article in a shortenedform. Hence, a prcis does not evaluate, provide interpretation,nor add any material to the article.
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A prcis is a brief summary of the argument of an academic article. The word prcis is French and means "specific," "precise," or even "accurate." Often times a prcis will be no more than 150-200 words, and in my classes, 200 is the maximum you can submit and receive credit.
Before writing a prcis, you need to carefully read the academic article. Annotating the article is highly recommended. If you are unfamiliar with any words, you should use the internet to look them up. Often times academic articles are challenging; don't give up!
As you annotate, you should pay especially close attention to the author's thesis. Typically you will find the thesis statement in the first few pages of an article, but you need to read the entire article very carefully to make sure that the author does not include any important argumentation near the end of the paper.
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