Précis and Presentation

Discussion Leader Guidelines

Each student is expected to help to lead a class discussion on one of the assigned readings. This includes both drawing up a précis of the article, orally presenting a brief critical evaluation of that material, and preparing questions relevant to article for class discussion.

The Précis:

1. Your précis is to consist of a reconstruction of the author’s argument(s) in your own words. We are looking not only for the author’s conclusions and the premises offered in support of those conclusions, but also for the justifications offered to support these premises.

2. Your reconstruction will require that you make explicit relevant premises– even if the author has not! It may also require that you organize the points differently than the author for greater clarity.

3. Your précis should demonstrate that you can understand, extract, and layout the steps of someone else’s argument. This will require that you boil the article down to just the bones of the arguments within it and be able to communicate these points in your own words.

4. Remember, the précis is not an evaluation of the author’s position. Rather, it is an abstract or brief of that position – a clear and concise summation of the author’s position.

5. Ideally, your précis is able to stand on its own. That is, based solely upon your précis someone unfamiliar with the class or subject matter should be able to grasp the author’s conclusions, her reasoning to that conclusion, any relevant assumptions made by the author, premises from which she started, etc.

6. Students are expected to make and distribute copies of their précis to all members of the class.

7. The précis is limited to a single typed page.

8. Précis grading guide:

a. Clarity, precision, & completeness are the essential elements of a good précis.

b. Following all of the steps above is a necessary condition for doing well on this assignment.

The Presentation

1. The goal of the oral presentation is two-fold:

a. Critical evaluation of the assigned material; and

b. Drawing the members of the class into a substantive discussion of that material.

2. The presenters ought to provide a brief summary of the text. This includes stating and explaining the thesis or central point that the author is trying to defend, explain, or justify as well as explaining how that thesis is defended.

3. Following the overview, discussion leaders should spend a few minutes focused on the key points and most challenging ideas in the assigned text. This includes finding ways to further explain, interpret, analyze, and assess the ideas and arguments so as to deepen understanding, provide criticism, and provoke discussion. Finally, the group ought to mention potential problems they see in the author’s reasoning.

4. The majority of the class period should be filled by class-wide discussion of the material led by the discussion leaders.

5. Note to presenters: Remember that your audience, while not experts in the assigned material has been assigned that material to read for class. You ought not assume complete ignorance on the part of your audience.