Bonus 11

Précis

S ee Webster’s New World Student Writing Handbook, Fifth Edition, Chapter 33, Pré-
cis, for details about the characteristics of a good précis, the process for writing
one—including prewriting, writing, and revising—and an additional model for the
workplace. Each sample includes the original passage from which the précis was
written and is followed by an analysis.
On this Web page, you will find the following additional samples with their respec-
tive analyses:
Sample Précis for English
Sample Précis for Social Sciences
Sample Précis for Science
Sample Technical Précis

The sample précis for workplace writing appears in Chapter 33, Précis.

Sample Précis for English

A student writing a research paper for an English class has chosen to write about
automobile-induced air pollution. She has found a passage in Autos and Air Pollu-
tion, a brochure published by the United States Environmental Protection Agency.
The original passage appears, followed by her précis. Once you have studied both,
read the analysis that follows.

Original Passage
The use of leaded gasoline in vehicles designed for unleaded gasoline can increase tailpipe
emissions 200 to 800 percent, EPA has determined. More than 1 million tons of hydrocarbons
and 12 million tons of carbon monoxide were spewed from the tailpipes of cars with defective
emission control systems during fiscal year 1983.

Studies show that most people who engage in fuel switching do so to save money—about
7 cents a gallon. However, these people are victims of faulty economics, according to
Joe Cannon, EPA’s assistant administrator for Air and Radiation. “In the long run, the use of

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 leaded gas in the car will more quickly foul the spark plugs, wear out the exhaust system,
degrade the oil, and foul the oxygen sensor in new cars, in addition to ruining the catalytic
converter,” he said.

Cannon estimates that people who substitute leaded for unleaded gasoline will end up paying
12 cents a gallon in extra maintenance and repairs.

Précis
Using leaded instead of unleaded gasoline contributes to a 200 to 800 percent increase in air-
polluting emissions. According to Joe Cannon, EPA assistant administrator for Air and Radia-
tion, while consumers save about 7 cents a gallon at the pumps, they ultimately pay 12 cents
a gallon more to repair the resulting damage to the car’s ignition, exhaust, and lubricating
systems.

ANALYSIS OF THE SAMPLE PRÉCIS FOR ENGLISH

The preceding précis follows the general guidelines for content, organization, and
structure. Note the following specifics:
• The précis reduces the original passage of approximately 160 words to
exactly 60.
• Six sentences in the original passage become two in the précis.
• The choice of material included in the précis is determined by the general
purpose of the research paper in which it is to be included. For instance, the
information about the amount of pollutants emitted into the atmosphere as
a result of defective emission-control systems is omitted, because the writer
plans to deal only with problems resulting from the use of leaded gasoline.
• The choice of vocabulary is consistent with the original, especially as the
original lacks technical terms needing simplification.
• The main ideas appear in the same order as in the original.
• EPA administrator Cannon is included to enhance the authenticity of the
7-cent/12-cent comparison; however, the writer chooses not to use his exact
words. The summary of his comments is accurate and makes the same point
more concisely.

Thus, a précis achieves its purpose and reduces a significant passage to a manage-
able size for use in a paper.

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 Sample Précis for Social Sciences
To explain government regulations and their effect on business, one student needed
a concise definition of the Clean Air Act. He found an explanation in a brochure pub-
lished by the United States Environmental Protection Agency and decided to summa-
rize it in his paper. The original passage, its précis, and an analysis of the précis follow.

Original Passage
The Clean Air Act of 1970, amended in 1977 and 1981, is one of the basic laws under which
EPA operates. Its purpose is “to protect and enhance the quality of the nation’s air resources
so as to promote the public health and welfare and the productive capacity of its population.”
In order to do that, Congress authorized a national research and development program to
prevent and control air pollution. The act also provided for EPA to assist state and local govern-
ments in the development and execution of their air quality programs.

The Clear Air Act required EPA to set national primary and secondary ambient air quality stan-
dards for certain air pollutants. The law also required emission standards for mobile sources
of air pollution (vehicles), and for new stationary sources such as smokestacks. In addition, the
act called for regulation of hazardous air pollutants for which no ambient air quality standard is
applicable.

Another section of the law was designed to protect air quality in national parks, wilderness areas,
monuments, seashores, and other areas of special national or regional natural, recreational, sce-
nic, or historic value, and to prevent significant deterioration of air quality in those areas.

Précis
The Clean Air Act, designed to protect air quality, provides a means for studying and build-
ing a program to solve air-pollution problems. The program decides when pollutants become
problems by establishing and applying standard levels permissible for various emissions, from
moving and stationary sources. The act also addresses clean air standards in protected natural
areas such as wildernesses and seashores.

ANALYSIS OF THE SAMPLE PRÉCIS FOR SOCIAL

SCIENCES
The précis achieves the goals set for a good summary. Note these specific characteristics:
• An original of almost 200 words is reduced to about 60 in the précis.
• Eight sentences in the original are reduced to three.

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 • Every major idea is included.
• The précis maintains the same organization as the original.
• Sentence structure and vocabulary are appropriate for the audience.

Sample Précis for Science

In an ecology class, one student researched insect control, seeking a means of con-
trolling insect damage without upsetting nature’s balance. She found useful informa-
tion in the booklet, Teaching Soil and Water Conservation, published by the United
States Department of Agriculture. Her précis and an analysis of it follow. [For further
comparison, see Sample Outline for a Summary in Chapter 31, Outlines, for sample
notes taken from the following passage. Compare the notes with the précis that follows.]

Original Passage
The food habits of birds make them especially valuable to agriculture. Because birds have higher
body temperatures, more rapid digestion, and greater energy than most other animals, they
require more food. Nestling birds make extremely rapid growth, requiring huge amounts of food.

They usually consume as much or more than their own weight in soft-bodied insects every day.

Young robins have been observed to gain eight times their original weight the first eight days of
their life.

Insect-eating birds must fill their stomachs five to six times daily because they digest their food
so fast and because of the large amount of indigestible material in insects.

One young robin, weighing three ounces, consumed 165 cutworms weighing 51⁄2 ounces in
one day. If a 10-pound baby ate at the same rate, he would eat 181⁄3 pounds of food in a day.

Of course, birds cannot control insects completely, but they are of great value. By using soil-
and water-conserving practices, farmers and ranchers could probably double the population of
helpful birds. Field and farmstead windbreaks, living fences, shrub buffers, grass waterways,
and farm ponds are only a few of the many land-use practices useful in attracting and increas-
ing beneficial forms of wildlife.

Précis
Because of their rapid metabolism, birds daily eat more than their own weight. Because insects
are not fully digestible, insect-eating birds may eat nearly twice their weight in these pests.
Residents can double the numbers of insect-eaters by providing coniferous trees, dense and
thorny shrubs, and ponds to attract them to an area.

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 ANALYSIS OF THE SAMPLE PRÉCIS FOR SCIENCE
The précis achieves the purpose of a summary. By condensing the long original pas-
sage to a manageable paragraph, the writer prepares to incorporate the information
directly into her report. Note these specifics:
• The original passage is reduced from over 200 words to 53 words.
• Eleven sentences are reduced to three.
• The supporting details of the original, explaining specifics about nestlings
and young robins, do not appear. While the details are interesting, they are
unnecessary to convey main ideas.
• Scientific references not mentioned in the original appear in the précis. For
instance, windbreaks becomes coniferous trees; and living fences and shrub
buffers become dense and thorny shrubs. The student recognized windbreaks
and living fences as such.
• The précis is developed with the ultimate goal of supporting the main idea in
the paper. This goal helps determine which ideas go into a précis, and thus
reflects editorial judgment. The materials still mirror the content and emphasis
of the original. Nothing is distorted, or taken out of context, to meet the goals
of the proposed paper.

Sample Technical Précis

A student studying food preservation chose to investigate the history of canning. She
remembered her great-grandmother’s tales of working over a woodstove all day, only
to have the food spoil three days later. The student wondered what went wrong. The
following material is summarized in a précis that follows.

Original Passage
Not until the nineteenth century did canning become a part of food preservation. Until then,
foods were dried, salted, or smoked. In 1795, during the Napoleonic Wars, the French govern-
ment offered a reward to the first person who could preserve food satisfactory for military use.
In 1809, M. Nicholas Appert won the 12,000 francs and earned recognition as the father of
canning. Although he used glass bottles, sealed with cork and processed in a hot-water bath,
he did not know why his process worked. Ultimately, Louis Pasteur determined why improperly
processed foods spoil. Microorganisms found in the air, and on all objects, cause spoilage
as soon as they come in contact with food. Only proper sterilization, found Pasteur, could kill
these microorganisms.

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 Prior to 1850, the only sterilization method known to farm women called for canning—first in
tin cans and later in glass jars, both of which had a groove around the top, into which a tin lid
fit. Hot food, placed in hot cans or jars and topped with a hot lid, was sealed with hot sealing
wax—a hard red wax, quite unlike today’s paraffin. When dry, the brittle wax seal was broken
only by pelting the wax with a blunt object, usually a knife handle. In 1858, John L. Mason
invented a glass jar that could receive a screw-on zinc lid sealed by a rubber gasket. For the
first time, home canning became easy, economical, and popular. By 1903, Alexander H. Kerr
perfected the two-piece lid, a snap lid and a ring, still in use nearly 90 years later. Home can-
ning literally snapped forth a new option for homemakers.

Précis
M. Nicholas Appert first canned food in 1809 in cork-sealed glass bottles processed in a hot-
water bath. Pasteur’s discovery that sterilization killed microorganisms and kept food from
spoiling explained Appert’s success. As a result, women learned to can successfully in tin and
glass, using a hard wax to seal the hot food. Then, in 1858, John L. Mason sealed glass jars
with a screw-on lid and rubber gasket. Finally, in 1903, Alexander Kerr developed the two-piece
lid still in use.

ANALYSIS OF THE SAMPLE TECHNICAL PRÉCIS

The preceding passage exhibits the general characteristics of a good précis:
• The original has been reduced by two-thirds.
• Virtually no supportive details are included.
• Transitions show relationships between ideas: as a result, then, finally.
• Every major idea, represented by a paragraph in the original passage, is included.
• Key words such as processed, hot-water bath, sterilization, microorganisms, hard
wax, screw-on lid, rubber gasket, and two-piece lid are included accurately.
• The writer conceals any personal prejudice.
• The writing is concise, bare of supportive or illustrative material.
• The writer avoids plagiarism.
• Sentences read well, and the paragraph flows well as the result of internal
transition.

Using similar techniques will enable you to develop successful précis for your own
work.

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