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PRECIS WRITING

Precis (pray-see, pl. pray-sees) writing is a basic and very useful skill. It has been variously referred to as 'abbreviation', 'subtraction', 'abstract', 'summary', and 'condensation'. The French gave it the name 'precis' — the pruning away of all that is inessential. Meaning of Precis Writing Precis-writing means a brief and clear statement of the important matters of a longer passage. Definition: "A precis is a brief, original summary of the important ideas given in a long selection. Its aim is to give the general effect created by the original selection." It is a concise and lucid summary that forsakes all unnecessary details (including illustrations, amplifications, and embellishments) in favor of reproducing the logic, development, organization and emphasis of the original. Retaining the substance of a fuller statement, it seeks to articulate other author’s thoughts by extracting the maximum amount of information and carefully conveying it in a minimum number of words. The Purpose: Precis writing aims at intelligent reading and clear accurate writing. It is a skill of both analysis and genesis that critically questions every thought included and excluded, each word used to express those thoughts, and the proportions and arrangements of those thoughts — both in the original and in the precis. In its exaction it mercilessly reveals an author's wordiness and looseness or thinness of thought and construction. It should strengthen our style, our sense of proportion and emphasis, and our sensitivity to word meanings and an author's viewpoint Importance of Precis Writing Today, every businessman and top executives are forced to be busy to win in the competition. They have only meager time to spend for reading correspondences, newspapers, magazines, journals, announcement of the government and the like. They require main points of the communication and other items. Hence, a person is requested to read the full passage and present the important matters as in the form of precis. This process involves the precis writing. 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 may consider 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. A 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. 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:

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Omitting unnecessary details Eliminate wordy expressions Include only relevant material Avoid unnecessary repetition RULES FOR WRITING A PRECIS: There are 16 rules for précis writing. CAREFUL READING:

First read the passage through carefully but not too slowly to get the general idea of its meaning. If one reading is not enough to give you this clearly read it over again and yet again. The more you read it the more familiar will it become to you and the clearer will be its subject what is said about that subject. OUTLINE: Underline the important points to be included in your precis. A point is important if it is intimately connected with the main subject and if it is essential for a clear exposition of the theme. Look-out for the total number of words. If the number is not provided, quickly calculate the number using approximations. Find the key sentences. Understanding The Paragraph: In order to understand the passage clearly make sure that you read the passage closely and give it a couple of reads before you start writing the précis. Try to get the idea what the writer trying to convey. UNDERLINING: Underline is “mark the important ideas and essential points from the original text.” Highlight the most important points in the passage and make notes. Leave out all non-essential information from the précis. Omission: Omit all the unnecessary information or long phrases which could be replaced by one word. All the objectives and adverbs can be omitted in order to make a good precis. Don’t Omit: While writing a precis the writer should not omit the important points and ideas which are essential to be described. Length: It is the general practice that the length of precis-writing should be one third of original passage. If so, reader can get full information and do his/her job very effectively. Indirect Speech: The precis-writing is presented in third person point of view. The text of the original passage i» presented in direct speech. Now, it is the duty of the precis-writer that he/she should present in indirect speech.

Own Words: The writing which is written in our own words is known as precis writing. It is free from all those words which are already given in the passage. Avoid Giving Opinions: In precis writing no one is allowed to give or to share any sort of idea or comment related to the material written in any given situation or criteria. Paragraph Form: Your precis should be written in paragraph form but your precis should not exceed from one paragraph. It means that it should be in paragraph form but it should have only one paragraph. Tenses And Person: A precis containing sentences of past tense and the universal truths written in present tense and having usage of third person pronoun then it should be considered as a good precis. No Change In Meaning: It is correct that a precis should be in your own words but be careful that these words do not alter the meaning of the actual material. Art Of Compression: Art of compression is also an important rule that one should follow while writing a precis. It may leads the writer to omit all the unnecessary material from the precis and just focus on to include what is necessary and to the point. Rereading: Reread the passage to make sure that you have all the necessary information about all that which you are going to include in your precis. Observe the emphasis or approach used by author. Conclusion: The conclusion should define the main idea of the text and reiterates the main support. Do not provide any new information and do not forget to avoid any personal statements or views about the passage....