Precis Writing PDF

PRECIS WRITING What is a Precis ? A precise is like a miniature portrait of the passage: it retains the absolute essential points accompanied with the mood and tone of the author of the passage. The one aspect one must be careful about is that one should not add one’s subjective interpretation or co...

PRECIS WRITING What is a Precis ? A precise is like a miniature portrait of the passage: it retains the absolute essential points accompanied with the mood and tone of the author of the passage. The one aspect one must be careful about is that one should not add one’s subjective interpretation or comments to the précis and should try to retain the original author’s voice and opinions. As far as the writing style is concerned, one must ensure that one write clear and effective sentences (no rambling) and one’s diction is flawless. Ultimately, it the coherence of the views that you presented in the précis that matter, and this can be achieved by making sure that one is precise and to the point in one’s approach. Unnecessarily long sentences or rambling thoughts are not required in précis writing, and one should make sure that one sifts from one point to another in a smooth matter. At the end of the day, the précis should make sense and be logical in its presentation. While keeping the above in mind, you need to keep in mind what a precis is not. The following are some of things that should not be a part of or a reflection of the precis: simply a summary of a passage. simply an abstract of a passage. an outline of a passage. a mere selection of a few important sentences from a passage. a collection of disconnected facts and statements. Features of a Good Precis A good Precis: ▪ is marked by clarity, brevity and precision. ▪ is not just lifting of the sentences from the original. It should be written in the precis writer's own words. ▪ is a miniature version of the original passage. ▪ must have a logical order and be well-knit and well connected. ▪ must have coherence; must use linking devices such as so, therefore, and, because further etc. and must follow the ▪ order of ideas of the original. ▪ must have a title. ▪ is written in reported speech. ▪ must not contain any details not found in the original. 1 Do's in a précis: ▪ Start your précis by highlighting the main idea of the passage and you should create contextual environment where you can place the necessary points. Once the main idea is established in the précis, you can present the methods, points, facts etc. used by the author of the passage. ▪ Compress and clarify a lengthy passage, article, or book, while retaining important concepts, key words, and important data. ▪ Remove what is superfluous and retain the core essence of the work. ▪ Always remember that mentions about history/writing about history should be advisably done in the past tense. ▪ State the purpose of the research or piece of writing (why was it important to conduct this research or write on this topic?) Don'ts in a précis: ▪ Do not express your own opinion, wish, remark or criticism. ▪ Do not insert any question in your précis. Its significance, if essential, may be expressed by a statement. ▪ Do not use abbreviations or contractions. ▪ Do not be jerky. This suggests that most probably, you have not understood the sense of the passage properly. Precis in the making When one is writing a précis, one should take care of a few essential points. The first thing is that one needs to convey the general idea of the argument with absolute clarity. The second thing that you need to do is to make sure that all the important points of the original passage are included in the precis. Lastly, make sure that the language of the précis is clear, crisp and concise, and follows the rule for correct diction. The following rules are general guidelines you should follow while writing a précis: Closely read the passage, and identify the central idea of the passage. It is vital to identify the general idea of the passage and incorporate it in one’s précis. Look-out for the total number of words. If the number is not provided, quickly calculate the number using approximations. 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. Highlight the most important points in the passage, and make notes. Leave out all non- essential information from the précis. 2  Provide an apt heading to your précis. Note making is an essential task for writing précis. You should try to arrange the points in most logical order, and ensure the order of thought is the same as the original. The three grammatical rules you need to follow while writing a précis are: write it in third person, indirect form and appropriate past tense. It is advisable to provide designations of officials rather than names and titles. In case the official designation is not provided, you can use the personal name. kindly be consistent with the pattern you adopt. Make sure you review your rough draft, remove the chinks and ensure that you have made no language related errors. Before writing your précis, make sure you have a glance over the original to make sure you have not missed anything. Finally, a wise policy would be a count the words of your precis and put them down in a bracket at the end. 3 Sample Passage 1: There is an enemy beneath our feet - an enemy more deadly for his complete impartiality. He recognizes no national boundaries, no political parties. Everyone in the world is threatened by him. The enemy is the earth itself. When an earthquake strikes, the world trembles. The power of a quake is greater than anything man himself can produce. But today scientists are directing a great deal of their effort into finding some way of combating earthquakes, and it is possible that at some time in the near future mankind will have discovered a means of protecting itself from earthquakes. An earthquake strikes without warning. When it does, its power is immense. If it strikes a modern city, the damage it causes is as great as if it has struck a primitive village. Gas mains burst, explosions are caused and fires are started. Underground railways are wrecked. Buildings collapse, bridges fall, dams burst, and gaping crevices appear in busy streets. If the quake strikes at sea, huge tidal waves sweep inland. If it strikes in mountain regions, avalanches roar down into the valley. Consider the terrifying statistics from the past 1755: Lisbon, capital of Portugal - the city destroyed entirely and 450 killed. 1970: Peru: 50,000 killed. In 1968 an earthquake struck Alaska. As this is a relatively unpopulated part, only a few people were killed. But it is likely that this was one of the most powerful quakes ever to have hit the world. Geologists estimate that during the tremors, the whole of the state moved over 80 feet farther west into the Pacific Ocean. Imagine the power of something that can move an entire subcontinent! This is the problem that the scientists face. They are dealing with forces so immense that man cannot hope to resist them. All that can be done is to try to pinpoint just where the earthquake will strike and work from there. At least some precautionary measures can then be taken to save lives and some of the property. (330 Words) Based on the above paragraph, we-arrive at the following theme sentences for the four paragraphs: Earthquake - the deadly enemy of mankind. Damage caused by an earthquake in general. Damage caused by an earthquake-in particular, What can the scientists do? The above four theme sentences can be developed into the following outline: Earthquake - the deadly enemy of mankind. ▪ Earthquake strikes all without a distinction of national boundary or political affiliation. ▪ The power of a quake is greater than that of a man-made weapon of destruction. ▪ Scientists are trying to find out means to combat earthquakes; they will find some way to protect themselves from earthquakes. Damage caused by an earthquake in general: ▪ Strikes without warning. ▪ Modern city when struck reduced to a primitive village. Damage caused by an earthquake in particular. ▪ Quake strikes plains, seas and mountains causing all round destruction. ▪ In 1755, Lisbon destroyed, 450 killed. ▪ In 1970, Peru struck, 50,000 killed. What can the scientists do? 4  ▪In 1968, Alaska hit, subcontinent moved 80 feet into the Pacific Ocean. ▪ Scientists cannot resist the powerful earthquake. ▪ They can predict the place of origin of the quake so that precaution can be taken to save man & property. Based on the above outline, we can make the following rough draft: Earthquake- The Great Destroyer Earthquake is the deadly enemy of mankind. Earthquake strikes all without a distinction of nationality or political affiliation. The power of a quake is greater than that of any man-made weapon of destruction. An earthquake strikes mankind without a warning. A modern city when struck is reduced to a rubble. A quake strikes plains, seas and mountains causing all round destruction. The quake struck Lisbon in 1755 killing 450; Peru in 1970 killing 50,000; Alaska in 1968 moving it 80 feet into the Pacific Ocean. Scientists are trying to find out means to combat earthquakes and they are able to predict at least where the earthquake will hit so that precaution can be taken to save man and property from destruction. As the number of words in the rough draft is more than required, we shall have to reduce it further without reducing the ideas. The final draft would look as follows: TITLE: Earthquake - The Great Destroyer Earthquake is the mankind's deadly enemy. Earthquake strikes all without a distinction of nationality or political affiliation. The power of a quake is greater than that of any man-made weapon of destruction. An earthquake strikes mankind without a warning. A modern city when struck is reduced -to a nibble. A quake strikes plains, seas and mountains causing all round destruction. The quake struck Lisbon in 1755 killing 450; Peru in 1970 killing 50,000; Alaska in 1968 moving it 80 feet into the Pacific Ocean. Scientists are trying to find out means to combat earthquakes, to predict the origin of the quake so that precaution can be taken to save man and property from destruction. (115 words) 5 Sample Passage 2: Almost every organism has the tendency to react to certain stimuli for survival. This reaction to each and every situation has an evolutionary basis of adaptation. The study of human emotions dates back to the 19th century and psychologists have discovered many reasons for every emotion, yet these are just theories. The arousal of emotions and their assumed structures is said to occur due to repeated encounters with a situation followed by the adaptation of the encounter. Human emotions have been linked to adaptively regulate emotion-gathering mechanisms. The emotion of fear which is associated with ancient parts of the brain has presumably evolved among our pre-mammal ancestors while the emotion of a mother’s love called the ‘filial emotion’ has seen to evolve among early mammals. Various emotions work as manipulative strategies that favour survival. Feigning emotions by an accused person may help him be saved from the punishment. An exaggerated display of anger is also associated with manipulating or threatening someone. Despite there being several emotions for various events, ironically the most interesting emotion is the emotion of disgust. Disgust is aroused when the body senses a danger to the immunity or the physiology of the human. The disgusted memory is associated with alerting the brain of a potentially dangerous substance. A few studies have shown that the encoding triggered in adaptive memory for problems is stronger than any other behaviour. This makes us instantly have a disgusted expression at the sight of something that makes us uncomfortable or uneasy. These expressions are also closely linked to self-protective communication. Precis summary TITLE: Human Evolution and Emotions The emotions that humans express and react to stimuli in the environment have an evolutionary basis. Emotions are assumed to be a result of repeated encounters with a certain event. According to evolution, emotions like fear, love, feigning, anger, and disgust are results of consistent reactions in particular situations. Some expressions are often built up or adapted as a form of self-protection. 6 Sample Passage 3 It is physically impossible for a well-educated, intellectual, or brave man to make money the chief object of his thoughts just as it is for him to make his dinner the principal object of them. All healthy people like their dinners, but their dinner is not the main object of their lives. So, all healthy minded people like making money ought to like it and enjoy the sensation of winning it; it is something better than money. A good soldier, for instance, mainly wishes to do his fighting well. He is glad of his pay—very properly so and justly grumbles when you keep him ten years without it—till, his main mission of life is to win battles, not to be paid for winning them. So of clergymen. The clergyman's object is essentially baptized and preach not to be paid for preaching. So of doctors. They like fees no doubt—ought to like them; yet if they are brave and well-educated the entire object to their lives is not fees. They on the whole, desire to cure the sick; and if they are good doctors and the choice were fairly to them, would rather cure their patient and lose their fee than kill him and get it. And so with all the other brave and rightly trained men: their work is first, their fee second—very important always; but still second. The Main Points: 1. Money making is a common attraction in life. 2. But it cannot be the principal aim of well-educated, intellectual brave persons. Precis Summary: Money-making is a common attraction in life. But it cannot be the principal aim of well-educated, cultured and brave man. A brave soldier prizes honour and victory more than his pay. A good clergyman is more interested in the moral welfare of his people than his returns. A doctor (good) values the care of his patient far more than his fees. Thus, with all the well-educated, intellectual persons, their work is first, money next. 7 Sample Passage 4 Home is the young, who known "nothing of the world and who would be forlorn and sad, if thrown upon it. It is providential, shelter of the weak and inexperienced, who have to learn as yet to cope with the temptations which lies outside of it. It is the place of training of those who are not only ignorant, but have no yet learnt how to learn, and who have to be taught by careful individual trail, how to set about profiting by the lessons of teacher. And it is the school of elementary studies—not of advances, for such studies alone can make master minds. Moreover, it is the shrine of our best affections, the bosom of our fondest recollections, at spell upon us after life, a stay for world weary mind and soul; wherever we are, till the end comes. Such are attributes or offices of home, and like to these, in one or other sense or measure, are the attributes and offices of a college in a university. Precis Summary Home shelters the young who are weak and unexperienced and unable to face the temptations in life. It is a centre of their elementary education and a nursery of sweet affections and pleasant memories. Its magic lasts for ever. A weary mind turns to it for rest. Such is the function of a home and in some measure of the university. Sample Passage 5 Teaching is the noblest of professions. A teacher has a scared duty to perform. It is he on whom rests the responsibility of moulding the character of young children. Apart from developing their intellect, he can inculcate in them qualities of good citizenship, remaining neat and clean, talking decently and sitting properly. These virtues are not easy to be imbibed. Only he who himself leads a life of simplicity, purity and rigid discipline can successfully cultivate these habits in his pupils. Besides a teacher always remain young. He may grow old in age, but not in spite. Perpetual contact with budding youths keeps him happy and cheerful. There are moments when domestic worries weigh heavily on his mind, but the delightful company of innocent children makes him overcome his transient moods of despair. Precis Summary Teaching is the noblest profession. A teacher himself leading a simple, pure and disciplined life can mould the character of the young children and make them neat and good-mannered citizens. Besides he remains every young forgetting his own domestic worries in the constant company of the young. 8 Sample Passage 6 English education and English language have done immense goods to India, in spite of their glaring drawbacks. The notions of democracy and self-government are the born of English education. Those who fought and died for mother India's freedom were nursed in the cradle of English thought and culture. The West has made contribution to the East. The history of Europe has fired the hearts of our leaders. Our struggle for freedom has been inspired by the struggles for freedom in England, America and France. If our leaders were ignorant of English and if they had not studied this language, how could they have been inspired by these heroic struggles for freedom in other lands? English, therefore, did us great good in the past and if properly studied will do immense good in future. English is spoken throughout the world. For international contact our commerce and trade, for the development of our practical ideas, for the scientific studies, English-is indispensable "English is very rich in literature," our own literature has been made richer by this foreign language. It will really be a fatal day if we altogether forget Shakespeare, Milton, Keats and Shaw. Precis Summary Notwithstanding its various defects English education has done great good to India. The ideas of democracy and self-government are its gifts. Nursed on English education the Indian leaders were inspired by the Western thought, culture and freedom struggles. They fought for and won their motherland's freedom. Being spoken thought-out the world English is necessary for international contact, trade, commerce and science. English is rich in literature; its master mind cannot be neglected. 9 Sample Passage 7 When we survey our lives and efforts, we soon observe that almost the whole of our actions and desires are bound up with the existence of other human beings. We notice that whole nature resembles that of the social animals. We eat food that others have produced, wear clothes that others have made, live in houses that others have built. The greater part of our knowledge and beliefs has been passed on to us by other people though the medium of a language which others have created. Without language and mental capacities, we would have been poor indeed comparable to higher animals. We have, therefore, to admit that we owe our principal knowledge over the least to the fact of living in human society. The individual if left alone from birth would remain primitive and beast like in his thoughts and feelings to a degree that we can hardly imagine. The individual is what he is and has the significance that he has, not much in virtue of the individuality, but rather as a member of a great human community, which directs his material and spiritual existence from the cradle to grave. Precis Summary Being social animals, human beings have their actions and desires bound up with society. In matter of food, clothes, knowledge and belief they are interdependent. They use language created by others. Without language their mental power would not grow. They are superior to beast, because they live in human society. An individual life left alone from birth would grow utterly beast like. So human society and not individuality guides man's material and spiritual existence. 10