HANDOUT: Worksheet for Constructing a Precis.
1) Write down / type out the full citation in proper bibliographic format. A sample is: Bennett, Judith M. Ale, Beer, and Brewsters in England: Women’s work in a Changing World, 1300-1600. Oxford University Press, 1996, 14-36.
2) Let’s look at some clues before you dive in reading. What is the chapter title? What do you expect the chapter to cover?
3) Another set of clues. Are there subheadings dividing the text, or are there small blank spaces separating sections of the text? If so, write down the subheadings (with page numbers) or just the page numbers where there is a break on a sheet of paper. In the book, mark them and/or the blank spaces in whatever form makes sense to you—a sticky note, a marginal arrow or star, etc.
4) Now start reading, but look through the FIRST SECTION only—the text before the space or first subheading. This is often where the author gives you an overview. You are looking for certain specific things (not all of these may be in every introduction):
a. A clue about what kind of reading this is. Is it change over time (usually a contrast between two time periods)? If so, what are the periods being contrasted? Does the author summarize what the change will be, and why it happened? Is it to contrast two ideas, places, procedures? If so, what is being contrasted? Is the purpose to show the effects of a situation? Is the purpose to show how a situation or set of ideas functioned?
i. Write down what you think the purpose of the chapter is. Then write down two words that you think sum up the reading: for example, evidence /meaning, 1300/1600, noble / peasant, etc.
b. A clue about what locations, dates, and subjects will be covered in the chapter. Write down what you think these are (just make a list). For example, “married noble women, England, fifteenth century, power”.
c. A clue about what kinds of topics (i.e. how the subject will be discussed in the chapter). Make a list. For example, who brewed, drank, and sold ale in 1350; who brewed and why it was mostly women; other people who wanted to brew; the importance of brewing for English women in 1350.
d. A clue to what the author’s overall argument is—what all the evidence in the chapter will show. Does the author state it? If so, what is it, and on what page did you find it? If not, can you find phrases that might indicate WHY the author is presenting the evidence in the chapter—what the point is?
5) Now look at the last major division of the chapter. Often authors re-state their thesis and sum up their points here. Check what you read against the lists you made in step four. Is the author making the same point as her argument that you identified above? If not, why is it different? Is it more detailed and specific, or is it something entirely different? If the latter, go back and re-read the introduction. Did you miss something that the author wrote in the introduction, or did the author add an idea that wasn't present in the introduction?
6) Skim through the various divisions in the text that you marked in step one. Don't read them carefully just look at the first paragraph. What is each section going to be about? Write the main topic in the margin of your book or on your post-it note, and list it here. Do these topics correspond to the list you made in Step Two? Now read carefully. What is the major point of each of the subsections?
7) Review your statement of the thesis.
8) Review your implications. Do NOT restate the thesis here. Instead, this section is for your observations ONLY.
SAMPLE ARTICLE ANALYSIS: Judith Bennett, Chapter Two: "When Women Brewed."
Focus: Women's participation in commercial brewing was most extensive in the late fourteenth century - it was the primary form of income for some families (14). However, Bennett argues that although brewing as an occupation was accessible to women, it remained a "low-status, low-skilled, poorly remunerated trade" (15). Although brewing allowed some women to support themselves, it did not provide the compensation or status afforded to trades associated with men. In this chapter, Bennett focuses on brewers in the period before 1350 in order to establish a baseline of women's experience in brewing that can be used to assess their later experiences.
Evidence -- 1300 / Main idea -- 1300Commercial / Ale primary drink in 1300, all ages (17); / "In the early fourteenth century ...
Brewing / brewing something that could be done at home / commercial brewing... a widely practiced
by anyone for home consumption; some sold / and relatively unspecialized trade. Vast
rarely, but esp. in country commercial brewing / amounts of ale were produced and
a major form of income for almost '/z
, / consumed, but production was ubiquitous,
households (19),. Occasional brewers-now / small scale. intermittent, and
and then: by-industrial or regular brewers / irregular ..... Before the Black Death,
19}--main sources of ale. Not commercial / commercial brewing was a marginally
because not brewing reliably all the time. / profitable trade that attracted little
Price low, and regulation steep enough that / investment. little technological innovation,
profiting from brewing a amble (24). / and little entrepreneurial interest." (24)
Gender and the / Women dominated brewing (24). Hard to / Brewing a largely female activity in the
Division of Labor / tell-work took place within household, not / fourteenth century. Bennett makes claim
separate workplace (25). However. both law / (does not yet explain why) that after the
and actual court cases predominately about / Black Death of 1348 (England) more men
women, so likely women the major brewers / became brewers (26)
(24)
Prosopography of / Most brewsters married (27), but brewing / "For rural and urban women in the
Brewers / offered single women important resource- / fourteenth century. brewing was a
(Prosopography = a study / one way to patch together a living (28). / widespread skill and resource; some women
that identifies and relates a / Brewing not dependent on family needs or / were more likely than others to seek steady
group of persons or / reproductive duties, though it could be (29) / income from the trade. But the trade was not
characters within a particular / Most commonly I )women brewed in middle / restricted in any sense to women of
historical or literary context; / years of married life (29), 2) women brewed / particular circumstances" (33).
Merriam-Webster Online, / when husbands didn’t need their labor (30)
http://www.m-w.com/cai- / and 3) neither the wealthiest or poorest tended
bin/dictionary?book=Diction / to brew-was middling-family activity (31).
ary&va=prosopography&x=
0&y=0) / often long-term residents, although a few more
mobile (32).
Brewing Offered / Required skill, but skill widely known and / "Commercial brewing might have been
opportunities t0 / taught informally. Every woman could do / limited in important ways, but it also offered
this. Not valued as workers, made only / significant opportunities ... [although] it was
women / modest profits (33). Still, good for women: / was less formal, less organized, and less
1) could expand into more profitable work- / professionalized" than a man's job (37).
sale to nobility or markets/fairs, for example / Brewing was an important resource...''
(33). 2) Suited needs of wives. enhanced / providing supplementary income while
standing-nature of their lives, economy, and / married and sole support for some widows
nature of ale (soured quickly) meant lots of / & their dependents. and allowed for the
opportunity for local women (34). 3) / accumulation of capital goods. (37)
Contrasted with women's other economic
options (35) and opened up other roles, esp.
legal (36).
Implications: This chapter sets the stage for Bennett's overall argument by giving up a picture of women's involvement in brewing to work with. One thing that stands out is the unsystematic nature of ale production that clearly contributed to its low status. For ale production to professionalise, both the nature of production and a more stable product (i.e the problem of ale going sour before transport) would have to change.
How to Read Academic Articles and Book Chapters
Academic articles are always trying to prove some point. Unless they are very badly written they, will not give you statement after statement without trying to relate those statements to a central idea or set of ideas. Your job is to figure out 1) what that idea is and 2) how the author proposes to support that point. Reading these articles should take you no more than two hours each, at most and most you should be able to go through in an hour or less. If you find yourself taking longer than three hours for an article, come talk to me SOONER rather than later.
Of course, articles aren't always straightforward, the way newspaper articles are. Even the simplest can require that before proving point A that one must understand Thing B. How to sort all that out? Well, you wouldn't drive from Douglasville to Rome on back roads without a map, would you? You'd miss your turns and get really lost and frustrated. Same with an article. Only you can't buy a map-you have to make one. Once you see where the author is going, it is easier to understand how and why each paragraph and piece of evidence is there.
How do you make a map of an article? You should never just start at the beginning and try to plough your way through. Instead, skim it and do a rough outline of it:
1) Read the beginning-the first page or two-until you come to something that looks like a thesis,
2) Then read the end-the last few pages, looking for a summary. Are they the same? Is one a fuller statement than the other? If they aren't the same, did you find the right thesis, or has the author flip-flopped?
3) Then pre-view the article, looking for main points. Your goal is to divide the article into rough topics. Skim the first and last sentence of each paragraph, and divide the article into chunks. Write these down in the margin of the paper or your notes---pages 3-7, talking about definitions. Pages 8-10, talking about causes (these are examples-don't map these onto a real article!), etc.
4) Pay attention to words like thus, therefore, as a result, in consequence, because of, etc. These are signals that there is a small summary of the preceding paragraphs!
5) When you're done, you should have an outline: Opening thesis, sections A, B, C, and D, and closing thesis or summary.
6) Only then do you start reading in earnest. Always remember to stop and ask yourself: how does this paragraph relate to the main point of the article?
If you find yourself overwhelmed in words or ideas, go back to your outline. How does the paragraph you read fit into the overall theme of that subsection of the article? What about to the main argument? You may find, especially at the beginning, that as you read carefully you will revise your outline of the article, or that you didn't correctly identify the thesis. Keep working! You will get MUCH better with practice-but practice is what it takes.
A note on vocabulary: If you are struggling with words, first try to figure out words from context. Often the next sentence or two will make a meaning clear. If you still have trouble, or are looking up more than a word per page (a non-foreign word, that is!), consider purchasing a vocabulary book from your local bookstore and working through it. Get one that concentrates on Greek and Latin roots-if you know those, you can often figure out a word even if you don't know the meaning.