Do My Essay- Précis Defending Slavery Assignment Paper
Defending Slavery
Précis worth +5 Points.
Below are three samples of a Précis. First, read through the instructions and make note of the elements contained in a
Précis. This assignment is part of your final paper but it does NOT constitute your introductory paragraph. Again, this is
NOT your introductory paragraph. After you complete it, then post it appropriately in CANVAS by the due date.
The Précis Format
a) In a single coherent sentence give the following:
-name of the author, title of the work, date in parenthesis;
-a rhetorically accurate verb (such as “assert,” “argue,” “deny,” “refute,”
“prove,” disprove,” “explain,” etc.);
-a that clause containing the major claim (thesis statement) of the work.
b) In a single coherent sentence give an explanation of how the author develops and supports the major claim
(thesis statement).
c) In a single coherent sentence give a statement of the author’s purpose, followed by an “in order” phrase.
d) In a single coherent sentence give a description of the intended audience and/or the relationship the author
establishes with the audience.
Toni Morrison, in her essay Disturbing Nurses and the Kindness of Sharks, 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.
In her article Who Cares if Johnny Can’t Read? (1997), Larissa MacFarquhar asserts that Americans are reading
more than ever despite claims to the contrary and that it is time to reconsider why we value reading so much,
especially certain kinds of “high culture” reading. MacFarquhar supports her claims about American reading habits
with facts and statistics that compare past and present reading practices, and she challenges common assumptions
by raising questions about reading’s instrisic value. Her purpose is to dispel certain myths about reading in order to
raise new and more important questions about the value of reading and other media in our culture. She seems to
have a young, hip, somewhat irreverent audience in mind because her tone is sarcastic, and she suggests that the
ideas she opposes are old-fashioned positions.
Charles S. Peirce’s article, The Fixation of Belief (1877), asserts that humans have psychological and social
mechanisms designed to protect and cement (or “fix”) our beliefs. Peirce backs this claim up with descriptions of
four methods of fixing belief, pointing out the effectiveness and potential weaknesses of each method. Peirce’s
purpose is to point out the ways that people commonly establish their belief systems in order to jolt the awareness
of the reader into considering how their own belief system may the product of such methods and to consider what
Peirce calls “the method of science” as a progressive alternative to the other three. Given the technical language
used in the article, Peirce is writing to an well-educated audience with some knowledge of philosophy and history
and a willingness to other ways of thinking.
