Carolyn Graham
Professor L. Brooks
RWS100 67
5 September 2013
Rhetorical Precis “This is Water”
David Foster Wallace, speaker at Kenyon graduation, in the commencement speech, “This is Water,” asserts that the liberal Arts Degree that they are earning allows them to exercise control over how and what you think. Foster Wallace supports his assertion by telling his own experiences as an expert. The author’s purpose is to inform the graduates that academic education makes you over-analyze things in order to get the to realize that life is about the choices you make to see things certain ways. The author writes uses a blunt tone for the graduates of Kenyon College.
Carolyn Graham 
Hello, Carolyn!
Overall, you did a good job. There are a few things that I want to point out to you, so you can keep them in mind as you work on your precis for Diamond’s talk. First, be careful of pronoun agreement. In your first sentence, you write, ” the liberal Arts Degree that [THEY] are earning allows [THEM] to exercise control over how and what [YOU] think.” Now, they would be some very talented graduates if they were able to control what I think. 🙂 You could have said something like ” the liberal Arts Degree that the students have earned allows them to exercise control over how and what they think.” Next, in the second sentence, you indicate that Wallace is an expert. True, but you forgot to mention his credentials in the first sentence. Yes, he is the speaker, but to give him some ethos to give advice as an expert, you need to indicate some of his other achievements: award-winning novelist, author of Infinite Jest, etc. Make sense? Also, Wallace did use anecdotal evidence to support his argument, but he also used a problem/solution structure and specific word choice to connect to his audience. Keep these kinds of details in mind as you work on the next precis. You need to be precise and thorough. It will really help you as you work on your essay.
Like I said, you did a good job. I especially appreciate that you followed the four-sentence structure of the rhetorical precis. Well done.
See you on Tuesday.