PRECIS WRITING

A  precis pronounced / pray see/ is condensation, in your own words, of  a piece of writing- capturing the essence of its ideas. It is as much an exercise in comprehension as in writing, without understanding the original text thoroughly , you can not hope to distil its contents with any accuracy in a precis.A precis should be about one third the length of the original.What you need to concentrate on is the general drift or message of the text. Omit most of the embroidery- specific examples,details and digressions, and you may have to change the structure drastically, reordering and repacking the ideas .in to a new logical,flowing narrative.
So a precis differs from a summary, which simply abridges the original passage,often using the same wording; and it differs too from a paraphrase, which is simplified rewording of a difficult piece of writing[such as an old poem ] and does not need to be than the original.
The standard procedure for writing a precis should be as follows;

  Start by reading the original passage very carefully,two or three times if necessary,to grasp its message fully,use a dictionary to look up any word you have doubts about.

Note the main points rearranging their order if that serves the cause of a more logical development of ideas.

Write the first draft, use your own words; any direct speech, for instance, you have to redraft as indirect speech.

Revise or edit the text , concentrating on tightening the structure and reducing the number of words.Delete any needless elaborations such as an unhelpful examples or underemployed adjectives, reduce clauses to phrases where possible, and then reduce phrases to words, for example,the flabby sentence;

 When we eventually, reached the mountain,we enjoyed a well deserved lunch with the friends who had accompanied us
     could now read, far more economically,
At the summit,we had a good lunch with our companions.
Here is an example of a precis exercise from Samuel Butler's famous satire Erewhon-
This is what i gathered, that in the country Erewhon if a man falls in to ill health or catches any disorder, or fails bodily in any way before he is seventy years old, he is tried before a jury of his countrymen , and if convicted is held up to public scorn and sentenced more or less severely as the case may be.There are subdivisions  of illness in to crimes and misdemeanours as with offences amongst ourselves- a man being punished very heavily for serious illness,while failure of eyes or hearing in one over sixty five,who has had good health hitherto, is dealt with fine only, or imprisonment in default of payment.But if a man forges a cheque or sets his house on fire, or robs with violence from the person or does any other such things as are criminal in our own country,he is either taken to the hospital and most carefully tended at the public expense,or if he is in good he is in good circumstances, he lets it be known to all his friends that he is suffering from a severe fit of immorality, just as we do when we are ill, and they come and visit him with great solicitude, and inquire with interest how it all came about, what symptoms first showed themselves, and so forth-questions he will answer with perfect unreserve; for bad conduct,though considered no less deplorable than illness with ourselves and as unquestionably indicating something seriously wrong with the individual who misbehaves ,is nevertheless held to be the result either pre-natal or post - natal misfortune.
Here now is an attempt  as a precis of the passage;

If a person falls ill in Erewhon, or becomes bodily incapacitated before turning seventy,he has to undergo a trial by jury as a criminal offender.Serious illness is serious crime,and is punished severely,whereas loss of sight or hearing after sixty five is just a misdemeanour, and results only in a fine. By contrast,any act that we consider a serious crime-forgery,arson,robbery with violence and so on-though indicating something seriously wrong with the perpetrator is regarded  as arising from personal misfortune just before or after birth. Such as an attack of' 'immorality' results in free and devoted hospital care; or for the wealthy , bed -rest at home- the friends of the perpetrator come to visit and sympathise, and he tells them how it happened.
 

ns.

ns.