What is Precis Writing?
A summary of a piece of writing or a paragraph is known as a precis. A precis should contain all the essential information and points present in the paragraph. It should also retain the author's mood and tone, as has been used in the passage. Since precise writing is short, hence try to avoid long sentences and do not spin around the same content. Therefore, to follow proper diction and avoid unnecessary flaws. One needs to abide by some strict precis writing rules. Before checking out the rules, let us take a good look at the rules of precis writing.
How to Write Precis?
The first thing to be kept in mind is that the exact idea of the passage needs to be delivered without any ambiguousness. Secondly, all the essential points of the passage should be retained in the precis. Lastly, you need to remember that the writing style should be simple with error-free language and flawless delivery. It should be concise and clear.
Below We Have Listed Some Basic Rules Which One Should Follow While Writing a Precis
Read the passage twice or thrice and try to grasp the general idea of the write-up you need to incorporate into your precis writing.
Try to maintain a word limit and do rough calculations to identify the length of your passage.
Note down the essential points of the passage and leave out the rest.
As you note down the points, do not jumble them up, and maintain the writer's order and tone.
Choose a relatable heading for your precis writing.
Always write in the third person and do not use direct speech. Use appropriate past tense to make it an indirect speech.
Rather than using titles and names, use official designations. Use personal names if official designations are not available at all. Maintain a similar pattern of writing throughout the passage.
Make a rough draft and remove all the grammatical glitches and language errors from your precis.
Try to mention the number of words in the precis writing at the end of the precis within the first brackets.
Characteristics of a Good Precis Writer
Vedantu is the best online learning platform that helps you to be a good precis writer, you can get complete guidance from the expert team of Vedantu where the professional teachers will help you to improve your skills and then you can master precis writing. To be a good precis writer, you'll need the following soft talents.
He or she should be able to comprehend and judge the chapter thoroughly.
He or she must be able to comprehend. The passage's true facts are swiftly revealed.
He or she must have a large vocabulary and understand its meanings.
He or she should be aware of the appropriate use of any word.
At the expense of brevity, he/she should avoid telegraphic language.
Principles of Precis Writing
Below we have mentioned the guidelines on the process of writing a precis with the strict do's and don'ts mentioned clearly.
Precis Writing Do's
Start with the main idea itself, for the readers to quickly grasp the plot of the precis.
Remember that the reader will know what your Precis should contain, hence write in the original flow of the writer. The message of Precis writing should be clear.
To incorporate all the essential points, create a proper environment, and try to include facts, methods, and portions from the original passage.
Identify all the unimportant information in the passage and remove them from your precis.
It is essential to mention the purpose of writing the precis.
Retain the keywords and keep a check on the word count.
Any historical fact should be mentioned in the past tense.
Precis Writing Don'ts
Refrain from writing your own opinions, criticism, and remarks about the passage in the precis.
Never insert any facts taken from the internet. Use only facts given in the passage.
Never ask questions in a precis. In case it is imperative, put it in the form of a sentence.
Use full forms and do not use abbreviations or short forms.
Do not spin around the same content, and the writing flow should not be jerky. It gives out the impression that you are not confident with your content.
Ensure the precis is not too long as it is a summary, and it should be short and crisp.
Solved Examples
1. What Can Be the Maximum Length of a Precis?
Ans: Ideally, a precis is the summary of a passage. Hence, it should be within 100 to 200 words or rather one-fifth or one-sixth of the length of the original passage.
2. What Writing Style Needs to Be Maintained While Writing a Precis?
Ans: The writing style should be formal, with no grammatical errors. It should be to the point. The diction should be clear and not jerky.
Fun Facts
A precis retains the original writer’s thoughts but should be written in your own words.
A precis is coherent, and that’s the reason why it logically connects with the reader.
Precis comes from the French word précis, which means a text or abstract, and precis writing in English means writing a summary of a passage.
Precis should never contain the personal information of the writer. There should be no criticism or remark regarding the original passage in the precis.
FAQs on Do's And Don’ts of Precis Writing
1. What are the different types of precis writing?
Precis are generally of four types—
Precis of Speech: This is the kind of Precis where you retain the original theme but write the summary of the passage in your speech.
Precis of Continuous Matter: Apart from correspondence, every kind of matter falls under continuous matter. It includes reports of evidence, question-answer form, or parliamentary reports. Such Precis does not include the date of the passage.
Precis of Correspondence: Index Precis and Narrative Precis from the two types of Precis correspondence. Index Precis are presented in the form of a table while narrative ones are descriptive.
Telegraphese: This is the telegram style precis that involves the use of the least number of words to maintain the originality of the passage but in your own words.
2. What is the importance of precis writing?
Nowadays, no business person or top executive has the time to read the full article. Hence, it becomes essential for the middle-level managers to convey only the critical points of an article to them and tactically remove all the unimportant information. Here precis writing comes into play. It gives the writer the unique quality of differentiating between the principal and unimportant points. Hence, it is a very unique and vital form of communication and one of the most important writing styles. It prepares a proofreader with careful reading qualities too. In all, it builds communication and understanding skills in the precis writer.
Precise writing is a subject that is asked in not only junior classes but it is also studied by higher grades students and even it is asked in the completion examinations. Students should score marks in precise writing easily therefore they should study the basics of precise writing properly and understand the Dos And Don’ts of Precis Writing.
Candidates can take help from the experts of Vedantu, where the professional team will guide you by giving 100% accurate study material and sample question papers. All you need to do is enrol yourself and get private tuition classes.
3. What are the key points to improve precise writing?
Students can improve their writing skills by studying more and more from grammar books. It can be a textbook or other study material which can be really helpful. Students should be careful while choosing the study material; it should be downloaded from a reliable source and should be error-free. Candidates can excel in precise writing by getting guidance from the professionals of Vedantu. Here are some key points recommended by Vedantu experts to improve your precise writing
The matter should be crisp and clear
You need to complete what you want to say in a few words so word selection should be appropriate.
A precis is more than merely copying and pasting the words from the original paragraph.
It should be written in your own words in a precise manner.
It should be a condensed version of the original paragraph or a summary of it.
Work on grammatical errors.
Know your topic and start precise writing with a clear view.
The title of a summary should be acceptable, and the order of thoughts should be unique.
The information in the precis must correspond to the information in the paragraph.
There are more points explained by experts which you should keep in mind while doing precise writing.
4. What are the rules for writing in precise writing?
In order to write the best precise writing there are certain rules which the students should keep in mind and follow. Here is the list of some rules
The rough draft should be made first
Students should follow the tenses rules, conjunction, preposition, article rule, active and passive rule, adjective rules, etc
Students should check the spellings properly and no spelling error should be there in the para.
Draft the final precise
Students should not include their own views and criticism about the given topic
There should not be a question in the precise
Remove the irrelevant details in the para
Connect with the given theme in your own words
Provide a suitable title in your own words.
5. Where can I get the best guidance to do precise writing?
Students can get the best guidance from the expert team of Vedantu, it is the #1online learning platform that guides you to get the best results. When it comes to precise writing students need to know the basics of writing, therefore you will be needing expert advice, and professional help to correct your mistakes. Vedantu provides you with the best online tuition classes so that you can make a study schedule and get guidance from top-notch teachers.
Students need to know the grammar basics to write precis. Once you excel in it you can score full marks in precise writing and you don't need to learn anything, you just need to understand the pattern and prepare by going through some examples and practice questions.