Précis writing

‘Brevity is the soul of wit’……Shakespeare

Introduction:
The word précis comes from the French language, and it means ‘summary’. Hence précis writing means the
art of summarizing. It is one of the most useful skills you should acquire for your work both as a student and as a professional.
Précis writing involves summarizing a document to extract the maximum amount of information, then conveying that to a
reader in minimum words. Roughly speaking, it means an “abstract” or a “gist” of a longer passage or document

Definition:
“A précis is a clear, compact logical summary of a passage. It preserves only the essential or important
ideas of original passage.”

Qualities of a good précis:

A good précis shows the writing skills of a person. It must have the following qualities.

1. Clarity:

Clarity means getting your message across so that the receiver can understand what the writer is trying to
convey. There should not be any ambiguity in your writing.

2. Correctness:
Mistakes in your writing always irritate the examiner. Of course, mistakes are never intentional; even
so there is no excuse for them. We may consider the mistakes under following headings:
 Misspelled words
 Mistakes in figures and dates
 Mistakes in punctuation
 Mistakes of grammar and structure
3. Objectivity:
Objectivity means the ability to present or view facts uncolored by feelings, opinions and personal bias.
While writing a précis , you should adopt an objective approach.
4. Coherence:
Coherence means the logical and clear interconnection of ideas in a written piece of work. A good précis
should be coherent.
5. Completeness:

Another striking feature of a good précis is completeness. A précis should be complete in all respects.
Completeness means that the writer should include all the important facts in a précis.

6. Conciseness:
Conciseness is a desirable quality of a good précis. Conciseness means to write all that needs to be
written, no more! To achieve conciseness notice the following suggestions:
 Omit unnecessary details
 Eliminate wordy expressions
 Include only relevant material
 Avoid unnecessary repetition
Rules:

A well written précis should be a serviceable substitute for the original work. The goal of a précis is to preserve the core
essence of the work in a manner that is both clear and concise. While writing the précis, do follow the below given rules to
make it an effective piece of work.

a. Read Carefully:
First read the passage twice or thrice carefully to summarize it. This will understand you the main theme of the
passage.
b. Underlining:
Underline and mark the original ideas and essential points from original text.
c. Outline:
With the help of underline ideas, draw the outline of your précis.
d. Omission:
Omit all unnecessary information or long phrases which could be replaced by one word. All adjectives and adverbs
can also be omitted in order to make a good précis.

e. Don’t Omit:
While making the précis the writer should never omit ideas and important points which are essential to describe.
f. Size:
Keep in mind all along that the length of précis should be one-third of the original passage.
g. Indirect speech:
A précis should be written in indirect speech. If there is direct speech in the passage, do change it into indirect speech
Example:
“author stated ‘if there is one thing voldemort cannot understand, it is love….”
 Rowling used her story to show that even talented people need friendship and love to overcome evil
h. Tense and person
It should be written in third person and past tense. In case of universal truth present tense should be used.
i. Own words
Write précis in your own words. Also abstain from borrowing words from the original passage.
j. Objective approach
Do adopt an objective approach; do not add your personal ideas to a précis. Put all important points and ideas in a
logical order.
k. One paragraph
There could be more than one paragraph in the original text. While making précis try to write all ideas in one
paragraph.
l. Rough Draft
After omitting all the unnecessary ideas, prepare a rough draft to finalize it.
m. Final Draft
Having read the rough draft and rectifying the mistakes therein, write the final précis.
 Comprehension
Comprehension means:

(a) The process or power of understanding.

(b) An exercise for testing students’ understand of a passage of a text.

What is comprehension?

It is an exercise in reading any material and then initiating a process of gauging and explaining your understanding of that in
simple words. It is a delicate and attention warranting process whereby an interaction between the reader and the writer. It is
an effort to understand the contents of the matter discussed proverbially speaking, by looking towards the trees without
missing forest. The main purpose of comprehension is an economical understanding of the reading material and the ability to
expound the understanding acquired in simple words.

Why comprehension is important?

Comprehension is important for developing clarity in understanding the usage of words, ideas, arguments, tone and structure
of the reading material.

While giving answers of the questions, take care of following things:

 Read the passage many time so you can understand the meaning of the passage.
 Read every question carefully to understand its meaning.
 Number those lines in which answers are present.
 Answer the questions in your own words.
 Answer the questions in the tense in which questions have been asked.
 The sentence of answer should be complete in all senses.
 Answers should be written in indirect speech.
For example:
Where was he going?
To college.
He was going to college
Why did you go there?
Because I wanted to see him.
I went there because I wanted to see him.
What should be the ideal length of answer?
There is no one stop solution when it comes to deciding about the ideal length of an answer. A qualified advice entails
that the answer ought to be comprehensive yet succinct so that no details are left over. It is advisable to avoid
repetition and clutter. A direct approach should always be adopted.

How to suggest a Title or Heading?

A title is in fact, the essence of passage in few words. Choosing the correct title shows that you have fully understood
the theme of the passage. Two or three titles may come in your mind. Analyze them and choose the best title. A good
title should have the following qualities:
1. It should cover the maximum possible meaning of the passage.
2. It should be neither too general, nor too specific.
3. It should not be a full sentence; it may. However, one word two words or as many as possible.

That’s all thank you