Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Rhetorical Precis
Rhetorical Precis
Julio Hernandez
Mrs. Wei
AP Lang. & Comp.
14 August 2018
Summer Assignment: Rhetorical Précis
1. Charles M. Blow:
a. Charles Blow, a columnist for the New York Times, in his article “President
Dumb and Dumber” (2018), asserts that the penchant to insult someone can
ultimately reflect the character of the person or show a particular bias or natural
inclination towards some type of gender or racial group. Mr. Blow demonstrates
this by giving examples of insults from the President Donald Trump towards
black people like, “‘Lebron James was just interviewed by the dumbest man on
Mike!’” (Blow) and stating that, “On Thursday … Trump repeated the sobriquet
he has assigned to California Representative Maxine Waters, calling her, ‘Very
reveal the kind of person Donald Trump is, but also to show how insulting others
can easily reveal the kind of person one is in order to potentially have the reader
readers world wide who would like to read his article and establishes a very
informal, but very informative relationship with his audience.
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Gun” (2018) argues that we (as the people) must oversee the problem of gun
control and gun violence as it should be, which is arguably, a lethal crisis. Mr.
gun control, but in a nonconventional, nonpractical way, like when President
Donald Trump wanted “to arm a fifth of all teachers” (Blow) which would
potentially “put 718,000 guns in our schools and could put hundreds of millions
the data together, in consultation with law enforcement … to reduce gun
violence” (Blow). Mr. Blow’s purpose in this article is to try to open the eyes of
society to the dangers of gun violence in order for the people to create options and
solutions to put a cap on gun violence and to treat this subject like it should be
treated. The author’s intended audience are the readers world wide who would
like to read his article and establishes a very informal, but very informative
relationship with his audience, but at the same time, criticizing society (in
general) for not taking this subject seriously.
c. Charles Blow, a columnist for the New York Times, in his article “This Is a Man
Problem” (2017) argues that because of the sexually harrasment probles that are
happening, women should feel not oppressed, but empowered to speak up for
their sexually integrity and for men (whom are causing the problem in the first
place) to calm down and help out the women who are experiencing these
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situations. Mr. Blow achieves this by setting the parameters straight, stating that
sex) and stating that people cannot use these types of words interchangeably (for
a substitute for another word) and stating that women “are not responsible for
men’s bad behavior. The idea that horny men can’t control themselves is a lie!”
(Blow), making some criticism towards the men who believe this otherwise. The
certain men make that hither women in order to empower women (and of course,
supporting men, respectively) to take charge of their integrity and potentially have
this situation crumble in the future. The author’s intended audience are the readers
who feel oppressed in some way by men and he makes clear that he wants to
leave an empowering effect to have women stand up for their freedom.
2. David Brooks
a. David Brooks, a columnist for the New York Times, in his article “Fred Rogers
and the Loveliness of the Little Good” discusses about how a little kindness and
love can go a long way and really impact society in a very inexplicable way,
whilst using Mr. Fred Rogers, a kids TV actor and Presbyterian minister. In Mr.
Brooks article, he discusses about several instances where Mr. Rogers finds
himself needing to explain various situations that are currently happening to the
little ones, but in the most kind and vulnerable way (like children are), like when
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“black kids were being thrown out of swimming pools, Rogers and a black
character bathed their feet together in a tub. After Bobby Kennedy was killed,
Rogers gently explained what an assassination [is]” (Brooks) and how the
audiences of his shows are touch by “Rogers’s radical kindness at a time when
public kindness is scarce. It’s as if the pressure of living in a time such as ours
kindness” that Mr. Rogers showed towards the despised and shunned people and
kids of the society back then and even to all of us in the society of today in order
to perhaps install more human kindness and compassion in all of us, especially
with the now arousing problems we are currently facing with racial, sexual, and
promote kindness and Mr. Brooks possibly wants a deep effect on his readers to
have them do something about the problems of today by taking Mr. Fred Rogers
as a role model and example.
b. David Brooks, a columnist for the New York Times, in his article “The Fourth
Great Awakening” (2018) claims that human morality has been replaced by heroic
behavior in the everyday human life, when in the past, the reverse is true. Mr.
Brooks first articulates two different cities, Athens (myth) and Jerusalem
(parable), and then he goes on to describe the difference between them saying,
“Athens think of Achilles stands for the competitive virtues … Jerusalem
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goes on to describe how today’s society is “surrounded by myth. As parablebased
it celebrates, has rushed in to fill the space” (Brooks), signifying that we (as the
people) prefer to follow the footsteps of heroes like those in film, books, or plays
future. Mr. Brooks purpose in this article articulates the difference between the
two different lifestyles that people lived and live in in order to have people
informed on which path individuals want to venture on. The author’s intended
audience is virtually anyone who reads this article and he leaves a very curious
impact of the reader by stating the differences and then reviews how people are
living today as some sort of criticism, but with conviction of analysis rather than
with strong commentary against those who are living their lives like a myth.
c. David Brooks, a columnist for the New York Times, in his article “The Gaza
Violence: How Extremism Corrupts” (2018) argues that, while many groups of
people view an incident (like the fight between Israel and Palestine this past
month) through a oneeyed view point lense and only address one aspect of the
was Mr. Brooks does in his article). To achieve this, Mr. Brooks argues that this
problem of extremism show be view on both sides of the table, like how “the
the displacement of 700,000 Palestinians” (Brooks) forcing the Palestinians to
retreat from a territory that should be in majority theirs and Mr. Brooks is even
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from the responsibility for their choices” (Brooks) because the major cause of all
the violence does come from them (the Palestinians). Mr. Brooks main purpose
for this article is to have the reader informed on what is really happened between
this technique. The author’s intended audience is virtually anyone who reads this
article and the type of relationship the author establishes with the reader is really
direct, but mutual at the same time.
3. Maureen B. Dowd
a. Maureen Dowd, a columnist for the New York Times, in her article “Dinklage and
between Ms. Dowd and Peter Dinklage, a world renowned actor best known for
has some varies questions for Mr. Dinklage, like about his personal life (“I wanted
to know how he feels about being the first dwarf heartthrob” (Dowd)), some
political questions about President Donald Trump (“I point out that Tyrion and
big crossover episode’” (Dowd)), and even some questions about how his career
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him” (Dowd)). Ms. Dowd’s purpose for this article is actually simply to entertain
the reader with her interview with Peter Dinklage in order for the reader to get a
little insight on Peter Dinklage’s life. The author’s intended audience is any
person who would like to be entertained by this interview and she establishes a
very relax “as a matter of fact” kindof mood with the reader about Mr. Dinklage.
b. Maureen Dowd, a columnist for the New York Times, in her article “Hooray for
men who are very oppressive and even sexist. Ms. Dowd first starts by giving a
little history of Hollywood, how “[t]his is a town built on selling sex, beauty and
youth” (Dowd), the men being the dominant people of the film industry and she
starts advocating for women, saying that these women are only used in the
Hollywood film industry as men WANT, not need, as “men felt no qualms
undressing in front of female executives, asking job applicants to take off their
tops and bringing in pea shooters to aim at the cleavage of female producers”
(Dowd). Ms. Dowd’s purpose is to demonstrate the kind of treatment men are
giving women in order to have women stand up for themselves against sexually
harrasement or unfair treatment because of their sex. Ms. Dowd’s primary
audience are these women, along with other readers world wide and she
establishes a very well rounded relationship with the reader.
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Friedkin from the film,“The Exorcist”. Ms. Dowd first asks an icebreaker
with Mr. Friedkin responding a “boy, a Lutheran who grew up to be an engineer at
NASA, underwent an exorcism, first with a priest from Georgetown University
and then with priests in St. Louis” (Dowd), then going on to ask if Mr. Friedkin
who had never seen an exorcism, also talked the priest into letting him film the
exorcism of an Italian architect named Christina with whom he had done the
ancient ritual many times” (Dowd). The purpose of this article is to give some
information about Mr. William Friedkin’s career and how he made his
prizewinning film in order to entertain the reader and even give them a little
insight on what Mr. Friedkin is doing currently. The author targets any person
who is reading this article and she establishes a “as a matter of fact” kindof mood
in her piece as she listens to Mr. Friedkin about his experiences as a director.
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Works Cited
Brooks, David. “Fred Rogers and the Loveliness of the Little Good.” New York Times 5 July
2018: A21. Print.
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Works Cited
1. Blow, Charles M. “America Is the Gun.” New York Times 25 February 2018: A19. Print.
2. Blow, Charles M. “President Dumb and Dumber.” New York Times 5 August 2018: A19.
3. Blow, Charles M. “This Is a Man Problem.” New York Times 19 November 2017: A23.
Print.
4. Brooks, David. “Fred Rogers and the Loveliness of the Little Good.” New York Times 5
July 2018: A21. Print.
5. Brooks, David. “The Fourth Great Awakening.” New York Times 21 June 2018: A25.
Print.
6. Brooks, David. “The Gaza Violence: How Extremism Corrupts.” New York Times 17 May
2018: A27. Print.
7. Dowd, Maureen B. “Dinklage and Dragons: Will Tyrion Win the ‘Game of Thrones’?”
New York Times 9 April 2016: SR1. Print.
8. Dowd, Maureen B. “Hooray for Harveyless Hollywood!” New York Times 3 March
2018: SR3. Print.
9. Dowd, Maureen B. “We Need an Exorcist!” New York Times 14 April 2018: SR11. Print.
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