Candace Gregory-Abbott, Department of History

Précis Instructions

--Single-spaced, one FULL page of typed text: no more than two pages total.

--Précis are to be written on primary sources. DO NOT write a précis on your textbook readings.

--Simple header: your name, title and author of text being summarized

--First paragraph should be a simple and BRIEF summary of what the text actually says

--Second and third paragraphs (fourth if necessary) should analyze what the text tells us about

the culture it is from.

--Analysis should answer the following questions:

--What genre is the text? Is it law, literature, religious, myth, etc.?

--Who wrote the text and what does the text tell us about him or her personally? Does the

author's personality come through in the text? If it is anonymous, or the author is

unknown, ask yourself if that is deliberate and why.

--Was the text written for a specific purpose? Why?

--What details about the culture can be picked out of the text? What impression of the

culture does the text give you?

--Try to keep your own opinions out of the précis. Write in third person; no first or second

person.

--PROOFREAD! Which means more than just running a spell-check program.