1. AcDv B61: Rhetorical Precis and Mind Maps
Bakersfield College
Jessica Wojtysiak
Fall 2016
AcDv B61: Rhetorical Precis and Mind Maps

2. Notetaking/Outlining Alternatives
Different learners have different learning preferences
Note-taking is too often a passive process
You have to figure out what works best for you

3. Also known as a cluster, concept map, web, or tree diagram.
Mind Maps: The Basics
Also known as a cluster, concept map, web, or tree diagram.
Use it to organize your ideas.
Often preferred by visual learners.

4. Making a Mind Map
Identify one unifying concept
Try to think of three or four categories/supporting details.
Sort your ideas into those categories.
Don’t worry about the order of your ideas, neatness, spelling, or grammar.

5. Making a Mind Map

6. Example: “Successful Student Behaviors”
Don’t procrastinate
Attend class regularly
Don’t be afraid to
make mistakes
Turn in
homework
Read directions
Responsibility
Attitude
Stay positive
Get to
school early
Set goals
Successful Student Behaviors
Don’t be late
Stay focused
Study Groups
Ask questions
Receive Help
Study Skills
Go to office hours
To-do lists
Take notes
Time management
Go to tutoring
Attend workshops
Organization
Outlines
Flash cards
Day planner

7. Mind Maps for Readers
Identify the author’s thesis
Identify the key points used as support.
Sort the ideas of the text around the supporting points

8. Potential Mind Map Branches
Author’s major arguments
Author’s personal information
Book publication and award information
Potential counterarguments or problems

9. Fast Food Nation

10. Let’s Practice Using Chapter 1 of The Big Thirst, create a Mind Map.
The Mind Map should have no fewer than 4 primary branches.
Each branch must have a minimum of two additional points.

11. A Four Sentence Analytical Summary
The Rhetorical Precis
A Four Sentence Analytical Summary

12. Different from a Summary
Summary: Brief Representation of What a Text Says
Rhetorical Precis: Brief Representation of What a Text Says and Does
RP: Concerned with How and to Whom

13. Sentence One
Includes the author, the title of work, and the author’s qualifications; an action verb that describes the author’s rhetoric; the author’s thesis.

14. Template
In _________________________, _________________________, (Title) (Author) ________________________, ______________ (Author’s qualifications) (Action Verb: See B) that ___________________________________________. (thesis)

15. Sentence Two
Offers an explanation of how the author develops and supports the thesis.

16. Template
____________________________ supports his/her (Author’s Last Name) _________________ by _______________________________ (Claim, etc.) (Explain the author’s rhetorical strategy) ___________________________________________________.

17. Sentence Three
A statement of the author’s apparent purpose, followed by an “in order to” phrase.

18. Template
The author’s purpose is to ______________________________ ________________________________ in order to / so that ____________________________________.

19. Sentence Four
A description of the intended audience and/or the relationship the author establishes with the audience.

20. Template
The author writes in a ______________________tone for (Adjective) ______________________________________. (Intended Audience)

21. Example
In her essay "Disturbing Nurses and the Kindness of Sharks," Toni Morrison, the Nobel Prize-winning novelist and professor, implies that racism in the United States has affected the craft and process of American novelists. Morrison supports her implication by describing how Ernest Hemingway writes about black characters in his novels and short stories. Her purpose is to make her readers aware of the cruel reality of racism underlying some of the greatest works of American literature in order to help them examine the far-reaching effects racism has not only on those discriminated against but also on those who discriminate. She establishes a formal and highly analytical tone with her audience of racially mixed (but probably mainly white), theoretically sophisticated readers and critical interpreters of American literature

22. Big Thirst Chapter Groups
On Presentation Day, Each Group must turn in:
1 Visual Map of their Chapter
1 Rhetorical Precis (Typed, Turnitin.com)
Each group must also present. The presentation must:
Offer a short (3 minute) presentation summarizing their chapter
identify and define 3 vocabulary words from their chapter.