PRECIS WRITING

 PRECIS - It's now part of English language, basically a French word signifying
summary,substance, abridgement, abstract or condensed statement. Originally it is derived from
latin word Praecisum which means to cut short. The concise Oxford Dictionary explains the
meaning of precise summary,abstract or essence. Thus, precise is a summary which preserves the
organisation and substance of the original.
 Synonyms - Summary, Abstract, Abridgement, Epitome, Synopsis, Outline, Abbreviation
 Word limit - 1/3 of original passage.
 Language -In your own language.
 Collins says,"To makes precise of given passage is to extract its main points and to express them
clearly and in few words as possible."
 Bacon says,"Writing maketh a man exact."

ESSENTIAL FEATURES OF A GOOD PRECIS

 BRAVEITY=A precis should be brief, clear and to the point. It's length should generlly be about one
third of the original passage.It should contain all the important facts and information and nothing
superfluous and irrelevant should be included in it. Illustrations and examples are often omitted.
Synonyms should be used. Reduce compound sentences into simple sentences. Substitute a phrase for
an adverbial clause and do abridgement of phrases.

FAITHFULNESS=Aprecisshouldbeafaithfulreproductionoftheoriginalpassage.Theideacontained
intheoriginalpassageshouldnotbeexpandedorexplained.Personalappreciationorcriticismofthe
ideaisnotrequired.Condeseaphraseoraclause.

COHERENCE=Theprecismustbewellconnectedpieceofprose.Thesentenceshouldbewell
connectedinthoughtandthepreciseshouldappearlikeasingleorganicwhole.Thepreciseshouldbe
intelligibletoaleaderwhohasnotseentheoriginal.

LANGUAGE=Thelanguageandstyleoftheprecisshouldbesimpleandclear.Figurativelanguage
shouldbereducedtoplainandstraightforwardEnglishintheprecise.Apreciswritershouldavoid,as
faraspossible,reducingthelanguageoftheoriginal.Theorderofthevariouspointsintheoriginal
shouldnotordinarilybedisturbed.Theprecisemustbewrittenthroughoutintheindirectspeech.

 COMPLETENESS=theprecismustbecompleteandselfcontained.Itshouldstandbyitselfasaliterary
composition.Oneshouldbeabletounderstandthethemeinfullwithoutanyreferencetotheoriginal.

HOW TO WRITE A PRÉCIS

 Readingthepassageandfindoutit'scentraltheme(Subject-Matter).

 Findingasuitabletitleevenit'snotaskedfor,tosumupbrieflyindicatingmaintheme.
 Underlinetheimportantideaswhilereadingthepassagesecondtimenotmorethan1/4oftheoriginal.

 Writingtheimportantpointsinyourownwordsinanorderandavoidcopyingfromtheoriginal.

 Writeacontinuousandlogicalsummaryoftheoriginalbymakingaroughdraftwithoutchangingthe

orderoftheideas.

 Writingthefaircopyaftercomparingitwithoriginalpassage,inacleanhandwriting,prefixingthetitle

chosen.

THINGSNOTTOBEFOLLOWED

 Don'tcopycompletesentencefromthegivenpassage.Alsotrytoavoidusingthesamephrasesand

expressionsasgiveninthethepassage.

 Don'tusethedirectfromofnarration.Ifthepassageisaspeechindirectformusethethirdpersonand

indirectform.

 Don'tbeginwithsuchwordsas'thewritersays.'

 Don'tdivideyourprécisinparagrapheventhoughthegivenpassagehasmorethanoneparagraph.

 Becarefulaboutyourlengthoftheprécisprescribedbytheexaminer.Don'texceedorfallshortofthe
prescribedlimitbymoreorlessthanfivewords.

 Ifsomequestiononsummarizingasked,don'tgivethesummaryofthewholepassage.Findout

preciselywhatthequestionasks;supplyonlythatmuchneithermorenorless.

 Don'tuseabbreviationsorsymbols.

 Don'tgiveexamplestoexplainmeaning.

DIFFERENCEBETWEENPRECISANDSUMMARY

 SummaryandPrecisaretwotermsthatareuseddifferentlyinrelationtoathesisoraresearchpaper

andanessayorachapter.Thisisthedifferencebetweensummaryandprecis.Ansummaryisashort

formofaresearchpaperinanutshell.Ontheotherhandaprecisisashortformofanessayorachapter

inabookoranactinaplay.Thisisthemaindifferencebetweensummaryandprecis.

 Asummaryistellingthemaineventswhileaprecisistellingeverydetail.Wecanwriteaprecisofthe

2ndsceneofthe1stactoftheplay‘Macbeth’ofShakespeare.Youshouldnotusetheword‘summary’to

meanprecis.Inotherwordsitiswrongtosay‘writeansummaryofthe2ndsceneofthe1stactofthe

playMacbeth’.Itisrighttosay‘writeaprecisofthe2ndsceneofthe1stactoftheplayMacbeth.’Thisis
themaindifferencebetweenthetwowordssummaryandprecis.

 Ansummaryontheotherhandisrequestedtobesubmittedpriortothelongresearchpapertobe

presentedinaseminaroraconference.Thisisnormallyrequestedbytheauthoritiesoftheseminaror

theconferencetopublishtheproceedingsoftheseminarwellinadvanceintheformofabook.

 Atthesametimethepurposeofreadingansummaryistogetaclearideaaboutthesubjectmatterof

theresearchpaperandtheangleinwhichthestudyismadeinthepaper.Ansummaryissaidtoreflect

themindoftheauthoroftheresearchpaper.Aprecisontheotherhandissaidtoreflecttheeventsof

theparticularactofaplayinanutshell.

 WhenuwritedownthewordSummaryonaMSwordandrightclickthemouse,u'llfindthevarious

meaningofSummary.Onesuchmeaningis"Precis".Thetwowordsareveryclosetoeachother.It

somethingliketwosidesofacoin.Theyaresame.

 Summaryisashort-clear-highpointer.Precisisalittledetailedoutversionofsummary.

 Asummaryneednotfollowtheorderoftheoriginalpassagebuttheprecisedoes.
 Asummarymaycontainpointsofrelativeunimportancewhereasprécisdoes.

 Asummaryoracondensedpresentationofthesubstanceofabodyofmaterial.

 Aprecisisalsoasummarybutitisnecessarytogivetheprecisatitleandalsoitshouldalsobe1/3of

thetotalwordsintheoriginalpassage.Thereisnohardandfastrulesinwritingasummary