Rhetorical Précis - Student Example
4.6B Assignment: A Rhetorical Précis
Rhetorical Précis for Hector St. John de Crevecoeur’s “Letters of an American Farmer”
· The Context: Hector St. John de Crevecoeur; essay; “Letters of an American Farmer”; 1782
(Colonial)
· The Verb: persuade
· The Why: The author wants other Europeans to immigrate to America like he did so that they
can experience success through hard work rather than being bound by social rank
· The How: Juxtaposition and Rhetorical Questions
Thesis Template Chart
Mediu Active Text’s Claim Specific Rhetorical
m Verb Purpose Choices
essay seeks to Europeans need to persuade other -Rhetorical
persuad to immigrate to Europeans to Questions
e America to immigrate to
experience a America
new type of
independence -Juxtaposition
that is not
dictated by
social rank and
economic
status.
· Thesis: In Hector St. John de Crevecoeur’s 1782 essay, “Letters of an American Farmer,” the
writer seeks to persuade Europeans to immigrate to America by relying upon rhetorical
questions and juxtaposition which contrast his readers’ current measure of success based on
social rank with the early-American model of achievement based on hard work.
Analysis and Evaluation
In Hector St. John de Crevecoeur’s 1782 essay, “Letters of an American
Farmer,” the writer seeks to persuade Europeans to immigrate to America by
relying upon rhetorical questions and juxtaposition which contrast his readers’
current measure of success based on social rank with the early-American model of
achievement based on hard work. The “farmer” begins with a series of rhetorical
questions. He asks fellow Europeans and Englishmen to consider their status as
“countrymen” in their homeland, pointing out that they feel no connection to their
country as they “starve” because their “fields [produce for them] no harvest,” and
they are “met with nothing but the frowns of the rich.” De Crevecoeur’s negative
diction such as “starve” and “frowns of the riches” establish the contrast that
follows as he begins to discuss the opportunities available to the American farmer.
In the New World, a farmer feels connected as a vested citizen, and his labors
provide enough food for his family. Crevecoeur argues that the American is a “new
man, who acts upon new principles.” The new man is able to “entertain new ideas
and form new opinions” and his work is “rewarded by ample subsistence.” Thus,
according to de Crevecoeur, an immigrant’s destiny rests on a different value
system—one that is not connected to his social status. His message and rhetorical
choices must have been powerful persuaders to his readers who would have clearly
been able to recognize the difference between their current impoverished and
frowned upon state and the rewarding, “honorable” status that their friend says
awaits them in the New World.
Text Citation: St. John de Crevecoeur, Hector. “Letters from an American Farmer (1782); from ‘Letter III: What Is an
American.’” The Renewable Anthology of Early American Literature,
[Link]
1782-from-letter-iii-what-is-an-american/.
