Rhetorical Précis – description and examples
In order to help us quickly and effectively describe the argument an author is making in a text,
we can use a method of description called the rhetorical précis. Developed by Margaret
Woodworth, 1 this method is designed to highlight key elements of the rhetorical situation and
help students with reading comprehension and treatment of source materials in their writing.
This précis is a highly structured four-sentence paragraph that records the essential rhetorical
elements in any spoken or written discourse. The précis includes the name of the
speaker/writer(s), the context or situation in which the text is delivered, the major assertion, the
mode of development for or support of the main idea, the stated and/or apparent purpose of the
text, and the relationship between the speaker/writer(s) and the audience. The following is a
breakdown of the information you should include in each one of the four sentences.
Name of the author, a phrase describing the author, the type and title of the work, the date (in
parenthesis), a rhetorically accurate verb (such as “assert,” “argue,” “suggest,” “imply,” “claim,”
“question,” etc.) that describes what the author is doing in the text, and a THAT clause in which
you state the major assertion (argument statement) of the author’s text.
1. An explanation of how the author develops and/or supports the argument—the rhetorical
structure of the text (for instance, comparing and contrasting, narrating, illustrating,
defining, etc.). Your explanation is usually presented in the same chronological order
that the items of support are presented in the work.
2. A statement of the author’s apparent purpose, followed by an IN ORDER TO phrase in
which you explain what the author wants the audience to do or feel as a result of reading
the work.
3. A description of the intended audience and/or the relationship the author establishes with
the author.
Rhetorical Précis Frame
1. (Author’s credentials), (author’s first and last name) in his/her (type of text), (title of
text), published in (publishing info) addresses the topic of (topic of text) and argues
that (argument).
1. He/she supports this claim by___________, then___________, then_____________,
and finally____________.
1. 3. (Author’s last name)’s purpose is to (author’s purpose in writing) in order to (change
in reader/society the author wants to achieve).
2. 4. He/she adopts a(n) __________ tone for his/her audience, the readers of
(publication) and others interested in the topic of______________. 


Consider the following text and write the precis: In a sharp escalation of rhetoric over the migrant crisis, Mayor Eric Adams claimed in stark terms that New York City was being destroyed by an influx of 110,000 migrants from the southern border and said that he did not see a way to fix the issue.

“Let me tell you something New Yorkers, never in my life have I had a problem that I did not see an ending to — I don’t see an ending to this,” the mayor said on Wednesday night in his opening remarks at a town hall-style gathering in Manhattan. “This issue will destroy New York City.”

Mr. Adams, a Democrat in his second year in office, has clashed with leading members of his party as New York City has struggled to provide housing and services to the migrants. For months, Mr. Adams has criticized President Biden and Gov. Kathy Hochul for failing to help the city handle the asylum seekers and pleaded for additional funding and expedited work permits.

But the mayor’s comments on Wednesday were his most ominous yet. He pointed to new projections that the city’s budget gap could grow to nearly $12 billion — the same amount that city officials estimate that the migrants could cost the city over three years.

“Every community in this city is going to be impacted,” Mr. Adams said at the meeting. “We have a $12 billion deficit that we’re going to have to cut — every service in this city is going to be impacted. All of us.”

The surge of migrants crossing the southern border has overwhelmed the city, with nearly 60,000 occupying beds in traditional city shelters and in more than 200 emergency sites. As New York City students returned to school on Thursday, city officials said that about 20,000 migrant children were expected to join them. The financial and logistical burden has caused the mayor to repeatedly press Mr. Biden for help this summer, saying last week that the city’s requests were still mostly “unaddressed” and calling for a federal emergency and a national “decompression strategy at the border.”

Mr. Adams repeated the critique on Wednesday.

“We’re getting no support on this national crisis,” he said.

Republican leaders, some of whom have sent buses of migrants to New York, have increasingly used the mayor’s criticism of Mr. Biden as a talking point ahead of the 2024 presidential election. On Tuesday, Kevin McCarthy, the speaker of the House, quoted Mr. Adams in a statement that argued that the “Biden Border Crisis is hurting the country.”

Editors’ Picks

36 Hours in Burlington, Vt.

Two New Yorkers Hiked Up to the Hudson Valley With $700,000. Which House Was the Right Fit?

Why I Love Doing Homework (Even If My Kids Hate It)
“Mayor Adams is right,” Mr. McCarthy said. “New York City deserves better.”

Mike Pence, the Republican former vice president, said earlier this week that he wanted to give a “hat tip to the mayor of New York, who’s been willing to call out President Joe Biden and his administration for their absolute failure to secure the southern border.”

Fabien Levy, Mr. Adams’s deputy mayor for communications, responded by criticizing “Trump Republicans” for failing to pass immigration reform in Congress.

The mayor’s remarks on Wednesday provided more ammunition to Republicans, including Representative Nick LaLota of New York who applauded Mr. Adams on X, the website formerly known as Twitter, “for being truthful” about the crisis, urging him to “repeal NYC’s sanctuary policies.”

But it also raised the ire of immigrant advocacy groups and some Democrats who have called the mayor’s rhetoric toward migrants racist, and a dramatic departure for a city where Ellis Island served as a gateway to America for decades.

Shahana Hanif, a chair of the New York City Council’s progressive caucus, said that the mayor’s “xenophobic rhetoric is reprehensible and just wrong.” The Legal Aid Society and the Coalition for the Homeless said that his comments “villainize people who fled unimaginable situations in their home countries” and that he sounded like “fringe politicians on the far-right of the political spectrum.”

New York City has a mandate that it must provide shelter to anyone who needs it — a policy that has presented an enormous challenge for Mr. Adams, who has tried to weaken the mandate through legal and strategic measures. At the same time, he has sought to appear welcoming to migrants while also raising alarm about the financial impact of hosting them.

Anne Williams-Isom, the city’s deputy mayor for health and human services, said at a news briefing on Wednesday that the right-to-shelter provision was a major reason migrants were choosing to come to the city.

“Before, the right to shelter and what’s going on in New York City was like our little secret,” she said. “Now the whole globe knows that if you go to New York City, we’re going to do what we always do. We have a big heart. We have compassion. We’re going to take care of people.”

But Murad Awawdeh, executive director of the New York Immigration Coalition, said that the mayor’s comments were dangerous and could lead to violence against immigrants.

“What we’ve seen with the rhetoric he’s using is that it’s activating people in a negative way against their new neighbors,” he said. “The mayor should know better. The contributions of the immigrant community here have been seismic.”

In recent weeks, the mayor has tried to heighten awareness of the current and looming impact of the crisis, holding rallies to call for work permits and coordinating social media campaigns.

Some opponents have held protests outside shelters and at the mayor’s Upper East Side residence at Gracie Mansion, leading to the arrest of Curtis Sliwa, the 2021 Republican mayoral candidate.

The setting for the mayor’s comments — the Upper West Side, a wealthy neighborhood in Manhattan whose residents largely did not vote for him in the 2021 mayoral primary election — seemed deliberately chosen.

Mr. Adams said the neighborhood was home to some of the most highly educated people in the city and asked what they had done to help solve the migrant crisis.

“As you ask me a question about migrants, tell me what role you played,” he said. “How many of you organized to stop what they’re doing to us?”

Then he made one last dark warning before opening the floor to questions from the crowd: “The city we knew, we’re about to lose.”