1. Frederick Douglass “Learning to Read and Write”
Rhetorical Précis Breakdown

2. Purpose of a Rhetorical Précis
A rhetorical précis demonstrates your understanding of a reading.
The task of the writer is to find just the right words and descriptions within a given structure to demonstrate his/her understanding of the passage.
An Effective Précis:
Is structured
Is accurate
Demonstrates sophisticated language

3. Content of Your Précis Here are the Detractors (Score Reducers):
Generalizations and cliché’s
Evident in all sentences
Over-simplifying what is complex
Misspelling the author’s name
There’s no excuse
Referring to the author’s first name
You are not that close to the author
Cheerleading
Overly optimistic
Don’t always see the brighter side of things. You are given a specific task to do.

4. Nothing will detract more from your ideas than errors in:
GRAMMAR
SPELLING
SENTENCE STRUCTURE
PHRASING

5. Sentence by sentence, what was effective and ineffective?
With sentence one, most students identified the author and passage well.
With sentence two, almost all students traced Douglass’s support in chronological order.
With sentence three, successful students used the sentence frame effectively, while the less successful used the frame incorrectly or missed the point of this sentence.
With sentence four, many students focused on tone and audience.

6. A Note About Describing TONE
Informative
Argumentative
Analytical
Descriptive
These are modes, methods, and ways of writing, not tones.
Tone – the author’s attitude toward a subject

7. A Note About Audience
Why would ex-slaves not be the audience for Douglass’s work?

8. Frederick Douglass “Learning to Read and Write”
Multiple Choice Quiz

9. Test-Taking Strategies
Write in the margins
Write quick notes to record the main idea of each paragraph
Connect – What do all the paragraphs have in common? You now know the main idea of the entire passage.
Read questions.
Label each question as a Main Idea (you have to know the main idea to answer these questions) or Detail (asks about the meaning of specific words, phrases, sentences, or paragraphs) question
Use the process of elimination to narrow your choices (0 - 20%, %, %, %)

10. Rhetorical Précis
Where do we go from here?

11. What did you communicate about your analytical skills?
If you scored a 14 or higher
Structure (that clause, in order to)
Accurate (enough) analysis of author’s content and style
If you scored below 14
Did not stick to structure
Ineffective sentence two
Not specific when describing author’s support
Misread of Douglass’s message
Incorrectly identified tone

12. The Plan Moving Forward
Those whose scored a 14 or higher
Continue to use insight to critically think about the reading
Work on identifying the specific rhetorical strategy (appeal, device, figurative language, syntax) used in each piece of support
Integrate that into sentence two
Those whose scored below 14
Have to do everything on the left, and
Succumb to the structure
Determine the main idea of the passage, accurately
Fix your spelling, grammar, sentence structure, phrasing
Stop speaking generally (clichés) and use specific details from the passage to explain

13. AP Language Success
Determining your success in this class, ask yourself
Can I read effectively?
Can I communicate my message effectively?
How insightful am I?
How well do I complete assignments? With care? Last minute?
How often do I read? How often do I look up the definitions of words I do not know?

14. Next Quiz Thursday, March 5, 2014 New passage
Multiple choice questions and rhetorical précis