Rhetorical Precis II

1. Rhetorical Precis II Writing one of these takes practice. Here is our elevated round two.

2. When you see a pizza delivery person, what do you think?

3. Is she working for gas money?

4. Or is she struggling to support three kids and pay the rent?

5. Is he saving for a ski trip with his buddies?

6. Or is he trying to make enough money to pay medical expenses for his dying wife?

7. Is the delivery person driving a fun company car?

8. Or must he use his own car--leaving his wife to catch the bus home from her job?

9. Thousands of unemployed wait in lines for buses to a job fair. Not all of them will find the job of their dreams--Some of them will become "the pizza dude."

10. Rhetorical Precis: Step #1 Observing the Author’s Work • Listen to audio version of Sarah Adam's essay; follow along with your copy of the essay.

11. Rhetorical Precis: Step #1 Observing the Author’s Work • First lets notice the publishinginformation. This will help use understand the audience later on. FromThis I Believe Essay Series* as heard on NPR* Published on the NPR {This I Believe Website} by Sarah Adams “Be Cool to the Pizza Dude”

12. Rhetorical Precis: Step #1 Observing the Author’s Work • Look over your copy of the essay, identifying (and highlighting)what you think are Adam's salient* points. Especially notice elements of the RP.

13. Rhetorical Precis: Step #1 Observing the Author’s Work “Be Cool to the Pizza Dude” Part 1 If I have one operating philosophy* about life it is this: “Be cool to the pizza delivery dude; it’s good luck.” Four principles guide the pizza dude philosophy. Principle 1: Coolness to the pizza delivery dude is a practice in humility*and forgiveness. I let him cut me off in traffic, let him safely hit the exit ramp from the left lane, let him forget to use his blinker without extending any of my digits out the window or towards my horn because there should be one moment in my harried life when a car may encroach*or cut off or pass and I let it go. Sometimes when I have become so certain of my ownership of my lane, daring anyone to challenge me, the pizza dude speeds by me in his rusted Chevette. His pizza light atop his car glowing like a beacon*reminds me to check myself as I flow through the world. After all, the dude is delivering pizza to young and old, families and singletons, gays and straights, blacks, whites and browns, rich and poor, vegetarians and meat lovers alike. As he journeys, I give safe passage, practice restraint, show courtesy, and contain my anger. Principle 2: Coolness to the pizza delivery dude is a practice in empathy. Let’s face it: We’ve all taken jobs just to have a job because some money is better than none. I’ve held an assortment of these jobs and was grateful for the paycheck that meant I didn’t have to share my Cheerios with my cats. In the big pizza wheel of life, sometimes you’re the hot bubbly cheese and sometimes you’re the burnt crust.*It’s good to remember the fickle*spinning of that wheel.

14. Rhetorical Precis: Step #1 Observing the Author’s Work “Be Cool to the Pizza Dude” Part 2 Principle 3: Coolness to the pizza delivery dude is a practice in honor and it reminds me to honor honest work. Let me tell you something about these dudes: They never took over a company and, as CEO, artificially inflated the value of the stock and cashed out their own shares, bringing the company to the brink of bankruptcy, resulting in 20,000 people losing their jobs while the CEO builds a home the size of a luxury hotel. Rather, the dudes sleep the sleep of the just. Principle 4: Coolness to the pizza delivery dude is a practice in equality. My measurement as a human being, my worth, is the pride I take in performing my job — any job — and the respect with which I treat others. I am the equal of the world not because of the car I drive, the size of the TV I own, the weight I can bench press, or the calculus equations I can solve. I am the equal to all I meet because of the kindness in my heart. And it all starts here — with the pizza delivery dude. Tip him well, friends and brethren, for that which you bestow freely and willingly will bring you all the happy luck that a grateful universe knows how to return. Sarah Adams has held a number of jobs in her life, including telemarketer, factory worker, hotel clerk and flower shop cashier, but she has never delivered pizzas. Born in Connecticut and raised in Wisconsin, Adams now lives in Washington where she is an English Professor at Olympic Community College.

15. Step #2Yourverison. Consider this step like a test, since you will have a test just like this later. Type your precis here…you can delete the lines if you want to Rhetorical Précis Sentence Starters Sentence One (What?) ________________________________ in the ___________________________, _________________________, (Author) (A) (Title) ______________________________________ that ________________________________________________ (B) __________________________________________________________________________________________ Sentence Two (How?) ______________________________ supports his/her ___________________ by ________________________ (Author’s Last Name) (B)(C) __________________________________________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________________________________________ Sentence Three (Why?) The author’s purpose is to _________________________________________________________________________________________ (D) ________________________________ in order to / so that ________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________________________ Sentence Four (To Whom?) The author writes in a __________________________tone for ________________________________________ (E) (audience)

16. Pause • How well do you think you did writing your Precis? What steps/sentences/concepts do you still struggle with? If Ms. Reed had to grade you now, what do you think you would earn?

17. Rhetorical Precis: Step #3 Observing a Model • Using your précis model as a guide, mark the passage to identify the specific elements of the précis, such as author's name and rhetorically accurate verbs that introduce the claim/thesis, etc.

18. Rhetorical Precis: Step #3 Observing a Model Sarah Adams in “Be Cool To The Pizza Dude” (2005) asserts that one should be cool to the pizza dude. Adams supports this claim with four points, the first is that being cool to the pizza dude encourages humility and forgiveness, the she states that it is a “practice in empathy,” then she says that honoring the pizza dude in turn forces us to honor honest work, and finally that kindness to the pizza dude makes us participate in equality. Her purpose in this essay is to show and explain the benefits of being cool to the pizza dude in order to encourage the listener to be more empathetic to the world as a whole; the pizza dude is a stand in for everyone. Her audience is listeners to NPR, who are highly educated, but need to be reminded to be more empathetic; they will find her humorous metaphor of the pizza dude entertaining.

19. Pause • How well did you judge your precis? Were you right about difficult areas? What did you have to change in your precis?

20. Step #4corrections • Type your corrected precis here.