Precis of "The Rhetorical Precis" by Margaret K. Woodworth

In Margaret K. Woodworth's essay "The Rhetorical Précis" (1988) she claims writing a rhetorical précis helps students’ better understand written and spoken words no matter what the subject is and that it can help in any class even if it is not asked to do it helps the student with the class.  Woodworth supports her thesis by explaining the rhetorical précis form, the teaching strategies, how it can be applied in class to get the students to learn it, how to apply in other courses and then assessments of what students think about using it. She also uses the actual assessments from her students to back up her claim. Woodworth’s purpose is to have students learn how to do a rhetorical précis and apply in every class, “The rhetorical précis form is a highly structured four-sentence paragraph. . . Once students have mastered the form, they are heartily encouraged to create other, less rigid forms to accommodate the information,” in order to better understand the written and spoken word. The audience for this essay are college professors since Woodworth says it is for college students and how it helps them in all their courses once they have mastered the form but college students can also be the audience since this does help them and the essay says how to use and practice writing a rhetorical précis.