Summary and Précis Writing

Précis and Summary Writing
What is précis ?
A Précis is the shortened form of a passage .It is a miniature
replication of the original passage where you restate author’s
ideas concisely in your own words. Précis writing is a process of
condensing a passage to its main points. It expresses the theme of
the passage as briefly as possible. A Précis must briefly cover all
the ideas stated in a passage.
It is useful in grasping the ideas of a passage, extract, chapter or
book.
What is summary?
A brief and concise overview of the whole passage in your own
words is called summary.
Step by step guide to PRÉCIS WRITING
Given below are the step-by-step instructions for making précis of
any given text..
-Read the original document and identify the theme of the text
First skim-read the document to get an overview, then read it again
slowly to identify the main themes and to distinguish the key ideas
and concepts from the unimportant ones.
-Identify the reader and purpose of the précis
If mentioned in the original text, start writing your précis by giving
the name of the author, genre, date of publication and topic of the
original text.
-Underline the key ideas and concepts
Underline the important and major points of the text to distinguish
them from the unimportant ones.
-Write down the key points in your own words
Make a logical order of the points you underlined, write them in
your own words in the form of points. Then develop a passage from
those points into coherent sentences.
- Write down a title that sums up the theme of the passage.
The title or heading is a must in précis which indicates what is to follow.
Hence, it should reflect the central idea of the passage. It can be a word, a
phrase, or even a short sentence. A suitable title must be provided even if
it is not asked for.
- Keep in mind the following things while composing a précis
- Write down all important points in a generalized/compact form.
- Any repetitions and irrelevant details should be avoided.
- No personal comments or additional data should be added.
- Only the third person and indirect speech should be used.
- Write in present tense.
- Try to replace clauses by phrases and phrases by words.
- Make use of one-word substitutions.
- Link various sentences.
- Omit examples, comparisons, contrasts, and minor details.
- The précis should be limited to no more than one-third the length of
the original passage; the number of words must be specified. For
example, If there are total 600 words in passage then your précis
should be of 200 words.
- If original text has paragraphs then restate each paragraph in one-to-
three sentences in your précis. In cases where there are very short
paragraphs, combine them in your restatement.
- Avoid copying original text sentences.
Structuring your précis
1- First sentence
- (If given) Introduce the author, genre, date, and topic in the
first sentence. And all of it should only take you 1 sentence to
precisely introduce the work this way.
- .If the author has written in the first person pronoun using "I"
and "my", you should write in the third person pronoun: "he"
and "his“. For example, "The author says......" or According to
the author..." In case of name of the author is given, the précis
should begin thus: " According to Johnson,....." or According to
Adil....." or Zia expresses the view..........“.
- The genre refers to the type of text, such as article, short story,
novel, play, etc.
- Put the date in parentheses after the title.
- Use a rhetorical verb, such as asserts, explains, argues, refutes,
proves, or disproves, to introduce the author’s argument.
- If none is given then directly start by stating the main idea of
the passage.
2- Second sentence
•Explain how the author supports their argument in the
second sentence. Focus on what logic or argument has been
presented by the author and not on the details of those arguments.
Provide the type of evidence and supports used by the author (not
the exact evidences). Here are some types of evidence you might
find in the text:
•Comparing and contrasting of 2 or more things.
•Providing several small arguments.
•Offering 1 long chain of argument.
•Illustrating a point.
•Creating a narrative.
•Citing research.
•Defining and elaborating on the terms of the thesis.
3- Third sentence
Provide the purpose of the text in the third sentence. The purpose
is what the author is trying to achieve with their text. Purpose is not
directly written in the text, you have to extract it by reading carefully
through the theme of the text and asking yourself that what the author
wants you to think, believe, feel, or do about the topic. Connect these
ideas with the phrase "in order to.”
The purpose is the author’s motive or reason or intention to write the
passage.
4- Forth sentence.
•Describe the intended audience in the fourth
sentence. OR Restate the main idea.
-Identify the intended audience and relate the text with them by
telling what significance it holds for them. Since the author won’t
directly tell you their intended audience, you’ll need to use cues
from the article to determine it. Look for what type of language is
used, the types of references, and the author’s background.
Determine if it's more formal or informal. For example, academic or
professional articles might use a lot of jargon, and they may target
the audience of the same field. However, articles written for the
casual reader might use down-to-earth language and may
thoroughly explain references to other ideas.
-In other cases, just conclude your précis in the last one or two
sentences by summarizing the main idea.
How its different from summary
Précis is generally a type of summary but we have a few things
which distinguish the both.
- A précis has a prerequisite format such as it should be 1/3rd of
the original text and it must have a title. The first sentence must
go on with the name of the author and date of publication (if
given in the original text). On the other hand, summary does
not have such conditions. It just needs to be shorter than the
original text.
- A précis holds a little more detail then summary. The précis
contains every detail, making up at least 1/3 of the word count
in the original, whereas a summary only contains the important
details.

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