How to Write a Good Precis

Preics-writing is an art,and hence it is to be care fully learnt. There are several stages in the writing of a precis and these stages are given below and the time which should be given to each stage is also mentioned –

1.       Reading the passage : Read the passage carefully and find out its idea (subject – matter). It is important to understand the original passage completely and one should not reproduc parts of it in the precis.

2.       Finding a suitable title : Title is a part of the precis, so you must supply a title to the precis, even if it is not asked for. Formulate your heading (title) indicating in the main theme. The heading generally sums up briefly the main subject of the passage.

3.       Underline the important ideas : Read the passage for the second time very carefully and underline the important ideas to be include d in the fair precis. The underline portion should not generally exceed one-fourth of the original passage.

4.       Write the important point : Write doun underline points in your own words in an order. Avoid writing out the language of the original passage.

5.       Writing the first (rough) draft of the precis : From your underline points make a continuous and logical summary of the original passage. The order of the ideas in the original passage should not be changed in the precis. The arrangement should be such as would make your precis read like a connected and logical whole. Try to include in itall the important ideas and exclude all the unimportant or irrelevant ones. No comment, no praise or blame is to be added from your side.

6.       Writing the fair copy (precis) : Before writing the fair copy you should compare your draft (rough) precis with the original passage and see that you have correctly rendered the meaning of the original in one-third of the original. You should also see that your precis is intelligible to a reader who has not seen the original and the grammar and punctuation are correct.

Now write out a fair copy of your precis in a clean handwriting, perfixing the title chosen. Append at the foot of the precis the number of words it contains.

The words in the title are not to be counted.

While making a precis don’t do the following things:

(a)    Don’t copy complete sentences from the given passage. Also try to avoid using the same pharses and expression as given in the passage.

(b)   Don’t use the direct form of narration. If the passage is a speech in direct form use the third person and indirect form.

(c)    Don’t begain with such words as ‘the writer says.’

(d)   Don’t divide you summary in paragraphs even though the given passage has more then one paragraph.

(e)   Be attentive about the length of thr summary prescribed by the examiner or competitor. Don’t exceed or fall short of the perscribed limit by more of less then five words.

(f)     If some question or summerising is asked, don’t give the summary of the whole passage. Find out percisely what the question asks; supply only that much, neither more nor less.

(g)    Don’t use abbreviations or symbols.

(h)   Don’t give examples the meaning.

In precis writing condensation or compression is very important. There is a tendency in writers and speakers both to use more words then are absolutely necessary. They do so to make their clear. So it is possible for us to reduce the number of words. Sometimes it is possible to condense a phrase or even a clause into fewer number of words.`