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    Precis Writing: Lecture No: 14

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    Muhammad Zain
    The document provides instructions for writing a precis, which is a short summary of a longer passage that retains the essential ideas and facts in one-third the length. A precis should be written in the writer's own words without directly copying from the original. It must include all key thoughts and ideas from the passage in a coherent manner while removing unnecessary details. The techniques for writing a precis involve carefully reading the passage multiple times to understand the main theme and important details, selecting the essential elements to include, writing draft summaries, and revising to improve clarity, cohesion, and conciseness. A good precis follows the logical order of ideas from the original passage while removing opinions and reporting speech indirectly.

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    Precis Writing: Lecture No: 14

    Uploaded by

    Muhammad Zain
    84 views4 pages
    The document provides instructions for writing a precis, which is a short summary of a longer passage that retains the essential ideas and facts in one-third the length. A precis should be written in the writer's own words without directly copying from the original. It must include all key thoughts and ideas from the passage in a coherent manner while removing unnecessary details. The techniques for writing a precis involve carefully reading the passage multiple times to understand the main theme and important details, selecting the essential elements to include, writing draft summaries, and revising to improve clarity, cohesion, and conciseness. A good precis follows the logical order of ideas from the original passage while removing opinions and reporting speech indirectly.

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    Lecture-14

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    The document provides instructions for writing a precis, which is a short summary of a longer passage that retains the essential ideas and facts in one-third the length. A precis should be written in the writer's own words without directly copying from the original. It must include all key thoughts and ideas from the passage in a coherent manner while removing unnecessary details. The techniques for writing a precis involve carefully reading the passage multiple times to understand the main theme and important details, selecting the essential elements to include, writing draft summaries, and revising to improve clarity, cohesion, and conciseness. A good precis follows the logical order of ideas from the original passage while removing opinions and reporting speech indirectly.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as DOC, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as doc, pdf, or txt
    84 views4 pages

    Precis Writing: Lecture No: 14

    Uploaded by

    Muhammad Zain
    The document provides instructions for writing a precis, which is a short summary of a longer passage that retains the essential ideas and facts in one-third the length. A precis should be written in the writer's own words without directly copying from the original. It must include all key thoughts and ideas from the passage in a coherent manner while removing unnecessary details. The techniques for writing a precis involve carefully reading the passage multiple times to understand the main theme and important details, selecting the essential elements to include, writing draft summaries, and revising to improve clarity, cohesion, and conciseness. A good precis follows the logical order of ideas from the original passage while removing opinions and reporting speech indirectly.

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    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as DOC, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
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    of 4

    Course Title: Composition and Communication Skills

    Course Code: ENG-301

    Course Credits: 3(3-0) Theory: 3 Lab: 0 Total: 03

    Program: BSc. (Hons) Agriculture Sciences

    Department: Humanities & Linguistics

    Instructor: Prof: Mubashar Ali

    _____________________________________________________________________________________

    LECTURE NO: 14 Precis Writing

    PRECIS WRITING

    Writing a precis means making an intelligent summary of a long passage. To write a precis
    one should have a clear understanding of the passage: only then well one be able to include all
    the essential points and tips and tricks of essay examples in the precis.

    Some general considerations:

    Learn with shortening in your words, text of written work useful writing tips, essential thoughts,
    ideas or fact on how to write a precis writing format withpreciswritingexamples.wordpress.com.

    It is generally accepted that a precis should be a third of the passage given. If the
    original passage has 300 words, the precis should not be more than 110 words in length.

     A precis should be in the language of the precis-writer. The original passage is not to
    be reduced in length by just removing unimportant or unnecessary sentences and by
    reproducing the rest as the precis. It should be a brief gist or summary of the passage
    expressed in the writer’s own words.

     A precis should be full i.e. it should contain all the essential thoughts, ideas or fact in the
    original passage. It should not contain repetitions or observations that are not relevant to
    the main theme of the original.
     A precis is always written in Reported Speech. The passage given may be a speech
    made by a person inDirect Speech, but the precis is to be in Reported Speech and in the
    Third Person and in the Past tense.

    Techniques of Precis – Writing


    There three kinds of work to be done in producing a clear and successful precis. They are
    (1) Reading, (2) Writing and (3) Revision.
    Reading
    Read the passage carefully
    If one reading is not enough to give you a general idea of its meaning, then read it a second time.
    As you read, find out the subject or the theme of the passage and what is said about the subject.
    It will be a good thing if you find out the lead or the topic sentence. The lead sentence will help
    you to see the subject clearly. It will also help you to think of a title for the precis example.
    Further reading may be necessary at this stage to make sure that the details of the passage are
    also understood. Read the passage more slowly this time, even sentence by sentence, and make
    sure that everything in the passage is understood. If this is not done, it is likely that you will miss
    something important, especially if it is expressed by a short phrase or a single word.
    Now comes the process of selection. The writer of the precis writing passages has to decide what
    facts or ideas in the passage are essential and what are of secondary or no importance. Taking the
    main ideas of the passages as your point of reference, it should not be too difficult to write out
    the important points in the original in a corner of your writing work sheet.
    Writing
    You should first prepare a draft of the precis, keeping in mind, the need to reduce he original to
    one-third its length. The main thoughts expressed in the passage, the ideas it contains, the
    opinions presented and the conclusion arrived at should figure in the rough draft. Unimportant
    things like the names of people and places and dates should not figure in it.
    It may so happen that your first draft is too long or that it sounds rather jerky. Shorten it if
    necessary and write out a careful second draft during college preparation. Sometimes you may
    need to work out three or even four drafts, but with reasonable care and concentration, you
    should normally succeed in producing a good precis writing by the second draft.
    Remember that a precis or essay is a connected whole and that it should read smoothly and
    continuously, Get more advice and tips for more study tips for online education sites.
    Revisions
    When you have made your second (or final) draft, carefully revise it before writing out the fair
    copy. Look for many mistakes or slips in grammar or spelling and correct them. Don’t forge to
    give your precis a title for precis writing examples.
    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 d speech.
    Must not contain an y details not found in the original.
    Do's in a precis:
    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.

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