Précis Writing
A Précis means a brief summary of a given passage. Business executives, politicians and VIPs who have little time to spare to go through long reports depend upon their secretaries to make a précis of such things.
Some guidelines for writing a précis:
1. Read the passage rapidly to find out
a. What the passage is about
b. What its tone is
c. What type of writing it is
2. Find a title for the passage.
The title should be brief. Every word in the title, except prepositions and conjunctions, should begin with a Capital Letter.
3. Read the passage again slowly and try to understand the main idea. The irrelevant ideas should be omitted.
4. Cut out repetitions, examples, quotations, metaphors, similes etc.
5. The précis should be written in the third person.
6. Don’t add your comments or criticism.
7. Make a rough sketch of your précis.
8. Revise and rewrite the passage.
9. Check up the length of your précis.
Exercise – 1
1. Make a précis of the following passage:
A fuel is a material that is burned in order to get heat and light and also to generate power. The process of burning or combustion is a chemical reaction. A material combines with oxygen from the air and gives off energy. The energy is released in the form of heat and light. Fuels can be classified as solid, liquid or gaseous or they can be classified according to their origin, ⎯ natural, chemical or metal based.
Wood was one of the first fuels used by man and was his most important one for many centuries. It was the easiest to get and the cheapest. But during the sixteenth century, the wood started to become scarce in Europe, and coal began to replace it.
Coal itself is made of the remains of the ancient trees and plants that grew in swampy jungles in warm, moist climates hundreds of millions of years ago. These trees and plants fell into the swamp waters, Bacteria changed some parts of the wood into gases that escaped, leaving behind a black mixture, mostly carbon. In the course time the pressure from mud and sand above squeezed out most of the liquid, leaving behind a pasty mass that slowly hardened into coal.
Peat is the youngest of all coals. The vegetation from which it came was buried a shorter time than that of other coals. It has the least value of all solid fuels. Lignite, also called brown coal, is a little older than peat and has more heating value. Bituminous coal has the highest heating value of all solid fuels. Anthracite is the hardest of all coals and the oldest in nature.
Title: Coal – A Fuel
Main points:
1. A Fuel is a material that is burned to get heat, light and to generate power.
2. Fuels can be classified as solid, liquid or gaseous.
3. Fuels can be classified according to their origin natural, chemical or metal based.
4. Wood was one of the first fuels, it was easy to get and cheap.
5. Coal is made of the remains of trees that grew in swampy jungles hundreds of millions of years ago.
Précis:
Coal – A Fuel
A fuel is a material that is burned to get heat, light and to generate power. Fuels can be classified as solid, liquid or gaseous. Fuels can be classified according to their origin, natural, chemical or metal based. Wood was one of the first fuels, it was easy to get and it was cheap coal is made of the remains of the trees that grew in swampy jungles hundreds of millions of years ago.
Exercise – 2
2. Make a précis of the following passage:
Very few persons have the misfortune of reading their own obituary in a newspaper. It happened with Alfred Nobel, the inventor of dynamite. In 1888, when Alfred’s brother died, a French newspaper, under the mistaken belief that Alfred had died, published an obituary. In this obituary, the newspaper described him as a man who had made it possible to kill more people more quickly than anyone else who had ever lived. Alfred Nobel was horrified by what he read.
It was not entirely correct that the invention of dynamite had brought only death and destruction. In fact, it had served humanity in a far larger way by its age in the construction industry.
Alfred Nobel realized, at that moment, that this was not how he wanted to be remembered. Soon after, he established the Nobel Trust with an endowment annually to those who had done outstanding worked in physics, chemistry, medicine, literature and in espousing peace.
A hundred years later the Nobel Prize remains the most prestigious award in the world. A sixth prize, for economics, was recently instituted.
Title: Alfred Nobel’s Misfortune
Main Points:
1. Alfred Nobel’s obituary appeared in Newspaper instead of his brother’s.
2. Alfred Nobel felt it unfortunate.
3. He was described as the man who killed many people.
4. The invention of dynamite not only brought destruction but also saved humanity.
5. Nobel established Nobel Trust with a million dollars.
6. He declared five prizes for physics, chemistry, medicine, literature, peace and economics.
Précis
Alfred Nobel’s Misfortune
Sir Alfred Nobel had the misfortune of reading his own obituary in a newspaper, which was published by mistake when his brother died. He was described as a destroyer of human beings. Nobel was shocked and established Nobel trust with a noble mission. He believed that dynamite was invented to serve humanity. Initially, five prizes were given to physics, chemistry, medicine, literature and peace.
Exercise – 3
3. Make a précis of the following passage.
Do you ever worry about memory? Perhaps you go into a room and forget what you came for, go blanks on names, mislay things? Or there may be something on the tip of your tongue, but you can’t get it off. Don’t worry you are perfectly normal. It is the nature of the mind to forget and the nature of the man to worry about forgetfulness.
Human beings have a prodigious memory. In a few cubic centimeters the train stores more information that can be stored in a large computer. Today neurologists, psychologists, biologists are studying the different aspects of memory.
There are two types of memory. Short-term memory lasts only seconds. Long-term memory is stored probably for life.
Title: Memory
Main points:
1. Forgetfulness is quite natural for human beings.
2. We have an excellent memory.
3. The brain can store a lot of information.
4. There are two types of memory: short-term and long-term.
Précis
Memory
Forgetfulness is quite natural for human beings. In fact, human beings have an excellent memory. A brain can store a lot of information in a little space. There are two types of memory. They are a short-term memory and long-term memory.
Exercise – 4
5. Make a précis of following passage:
Sleep is as important to a healthy lifestyle as eating properly and exercising. On an average, a healthy adult requires just over eight hours of sleep at night. Yet, polls show that increasing numbers of people are suffering from sleep disorders or significant sleep loss (6½ hours or less of sleep a night). A study shows that 29% of Indians went to sleep only after midnight and 61% slept for seven hours or less.
Sleep is crucial for maintaining your health. Without it, you increase your susceptibility to a wide range of health problems, including heart disease, stroke, diabetes, obesity and depression. Not sleeping enough can affect the immune system. The immune system works best when you are asleep. That is when natural killer cells help in protecting the body against viruses, bacteria and even cancer. The killer cells do not work properly when there is sleep deprivation
Title: Important of sleep
Main points:
1. Sleep is very important for health.
2. Statistics indicate sleep disorders of some people in India
3. Sleeplessness causes health problems, which include heart disease, diabetes, obesity and depression.
4. It affects the immune system.
5. Killer cells do not work properly when there is sleep deprivation.
Précis:
Importance of Sleep
Sleep is very important for good health. Everyone must sleep for required hours. Sleeplessness causes many health problems, which include heart stroke, diabetes, obesity, and depression. It also affects the human immune system. Sleep deprivation leads to non-functioning of killer cells.
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