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Precis Writing and Comprehension

Précis writing involves summarizing a document in the fewest possible words while preserving the key ideas and information. It is a useful skill for students and professionals. A good précis is clear, concise, objective, coherent and complete. It omits unnecessary details but does not leave out important facts. When writing a précis, the writer should carefully read the original document, underline essential points, write an outline, and omit extra information to produce a one paragraph summary in the past tense that preserves the core ideas without personal opinions. Following these guidelines helps create an effective précis.

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326 views3 pages

Precis Writing and Comprehension

Précis writing involves summarizing a document in the fewest possible words while preserving the key ideas and information. It is a useful skill for students and professionals. A good précis is clear, concise, objective, coherent and complete. It omits unnecessary details but does not leave out important facts. When writing a précis, the writer should carefully read the original document, underline essential points, write an outline, and omit extra information to produce a one paragraph summary in the past tense that preserves the core ideas without personal opinions. Following these guidelines helps create an effective précis.

Uploaded by

dua fatima
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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PRECIS WRITING AND COMPREHENSION

PRÉCIS WRITING

 The word précis is derived from French that means summary and précis writing means the art of
summarizing. Précis writing is one of the most useful skills you can 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 this information to a reader in minimum
words.

Definition:
A précis is a clear, compact logical summary of a passage. It preserves only the essential or
important ideas of the original.
ACCORDING TO OXFORD DICTIONARY)
“It is a short version of a speech or a piece of writing that gives the main points of ideas.”
 
ACCORDING TO CAMBRIDGE DICTIONARY
 
“précis is a short form of the text which briefly gives only the important parts.”
 
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. It is the basic and essential need of a précis. The ideas should be clear and
understandable. There should not be any ambiguity in your writing. The writer can achieve
clarity by using simple language and simple structure. If your précis is not understandable to the
reader it will lose its importance and meanings for the reader.
2. Correctness
Mistakes in your writings always irritate the reader. Of course mistakes are never intentional;
even so there is no excuse for them. At the time of writing or composing a précis the writer must
ensure that the facts and figures are correct. Structure of sentences and spellings of words
must be correct because a single mistake in structure and spelling may spoil the message. We ma
yconsider the mistakes under the 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 making a précis, the writer should adopt an objective approach. He
should not give and add his personal opinion and ideas in a précis. A précis should be purely a
summary of the original text without any addition.
4. Coherence
Coherence means the logical and clear interconnection of ideas in a written piece of work. Good
précis should be coherent. The ideas which are presented in a précis must have a logical
connection and they all should be interrelated. In short we may say that the ideas should be well
knitted so that the writer may not be confused and lose his interest.
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.
To make it short he should not omit the important ideas. This mistake on the part of the writer
will spoil the importance and meaning of the précis.
6. Conciseness
Conciseness is a desirable quality of a good précis. Conciseness means to say all that needs to be
said and no more. The writer should write what is necessary and avoid writing unnecessary
details. A concise piece of work conveys the message in the fewest possible words. But one point
must be kept in mind that the writer should not omit some basic and essential facts to achieve
conciseness. To achieve conciseness, notice the following suggestions:

 
Omitting unnecessary details

 
Eliminate wordy expressions

 
Include only relevant material

 
Avoid unnecessary repetition
RULES OF MAKING A PRÉCIS
 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 a précis, the writer should follow the below given rules to make it an
effective piece of work.
Read Carefully
 First read the passage twice or thrice carefully to summarize it. This will enable you to
understand the main theme of the passage.
Underlining
 Underline and mark the important ideas and essential points from the original text.
Outline
With the help of underlined ideas, draw the outline of your précis.
Omission
Omit all the unnecessary information or the long phrases which could be replaced by one word.
All the adjectives and the adverbs can also be omitted in order to make a good précis.

 
Don’t Omit
 While making a précis, the writer should never omit the important points and ideas which are
essential to be described.
Size
Keep the fact in your mind that the length of the précis should be the one third of the
original passage.
Indirect Speech
 A précis should be written in indirect speech. If there is direct speech in the passage, it should be
changed into indirect speech.
Tense and Person
 It should be written in the third person and past tense. In the case of universal truth, the present
tense should be used.
 Own Words
 A précis should be written in your own words and the writer should abstain from borrowing
words from the original passage.
Précis of a Dialogue
 The précis of a dialogue or conversation should always be expressed in form of narrative.
Objective Approach
 A précis writer should adopt an objective approach. He should not add his personal ideas to
a précis. Put all the important points and ideas in a logical order.
One Paragraph
 There could be two or more paragraphs in the original text. While making the précis, try to write
all the ideas in one paragraph.
Rough Draft
 After omitting all the unnecessary ideas, the writer should prepare a rough draft to finalize it.
Final Draft
 Having read the rough draft and pointed out some mistakes which may be found in the rough
draft, the writer can prepare the final draft.

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