Professor Tim Randell uses metacognitive writing assignments to help students engage in self-awareness, reflection, and critical thinking during their writing process.

One form of metacognitive writing that he teaches is rhetorical précis, a four-sentence framework that identifies the following elements:

• The author’s major assertion
• How the author supports their major assertion
• The author’s purpose
• The target audience and the relationship that the author establishes with it

These slides provided by Professor Randell contain a detailed template for rhetorical précis along with examples. Rhetorical précis can ultimately help students understand rhetorical texts, serve as a tool to prepare them for discussion or debate, and help them “reflect on the rhetorical context and their own purpose in the writing situation.”