Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Solved Precis PDF
Solved Precis PDF
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.
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
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.
Thus, a précis achieves its purpose and reduces a significant passage to a manage-
able size for use in a paper.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Using similar techniques will enable you to develop successful précis for your own
work.