How to write a Précis for CSS Examination?| General guidelines and Rules of Précis writing with example|

What you are going to learn in this post? YouTube-Video Lecture

Prerequisites of Précis Writing

Before attempting Précis writing I assume that you have a basic knowledge of English grammar. If you are weak in English then a better idea is that you should take a basic grammar course because your write up should be free from grammatical errors. A basic writing skill is necessary for writing a good Précis.

You don’t need high profile difficult vocabulary words for précis. But you have to write Précis in your own words , so basic vocabulary is necessary for Précis writing.

When you have sufficient vocabulary, you would be able to say any idea in a few words… I recommend that you should practice comprehension exercises before preparing for précis writing. It will expand your understanding ability.

Word Précis is from a French origin which means precise or brief. So Précis is actually a concise summary of a given text.

While writing a Précis consider yourself in a situation that the reader doesn’t have time to go through the original passage. And with just reading a précis, a reader must know all the essential ideas given in an original text. So your words are a bridge to understand the passage.

Think that the other person’s understanding is based on you. And make yourself responsible so that the next person must understand the theme of a passage and all the essential points related to that theme…

Your understanding and your language skill, both are tested in Précis writing exercises. You have to keep all the essential points that are relevant to the main subject.

Précis writing is an art that has a practical significance. This skill has a widespread importance in all kinds of jobs, whether it’s a government job or a private job.

General Guidelines and Rules of Précis Writing

You must be well aware of these rules while attempting a Précis question.

Unless it is mentioned, it is an established fact that length should be reduced to one third of the original. For example if you have 645 words then divide it with 3 and now for the précis you have 215 words.

Don't get too sensitive for it, + - 10 words is a flexibility that is acceptable. If your deviation remains between + - 5 words then it is ideal but up to ten words is acceptable...

The tense of the original passage should remain unchanged. Exceptions are there in very rare circumstances but don’t get confused with that…Those examples are from the literary writings. Just remember this rule.

Don’t use high profile vocabulary words. Use simple and easy words…

You can’t write your personal opinion in a précis, that’s one thing. Another thing is that your own knowledge or information about that passage should not affect the ideas given in a passage. Don’t add anything extra..

The ideas taken from the original passage must be presented in a way that there should be connectivity between sentences…so it feels like a continuous paragraph. A logical flow should be there…

If numerical facts are important they can be written in their verbal equivalents like 50% of the population can be written like “Half of the population…”

And for example if the fact is not given in percentage, it is given in other absolute terms like 4000000 acres of agricultural land is checked for diseases… By reading a passage you will understand that if a writer is giving a sense of a large area then you can write it like “A large area of agricultural land.’..” Normally the facts are given to strengthen the argument so you must convey the meaning of that particular point…

Poetical and literature oriented figures of speech and flowery language must disappear from your précis.

Maintain the same tone as given in the passage. If a passage is from literature work and the whole of the passage has poetic expression then such type of passages should be treated with care.

We normally refrain from flowery language and figurative expression but if the original passage is in poetical expression, we should maintain the tone of the passage and shouldn’t make it too dull for the readers.

There isn’t any hard and fast rule but it’s recommended to maintain the sequence of ideas as given in the original passage…But you can conceptually relate ideas and change sequence for a better understanding.

Process of Précis Writing

Keeping these rules in mind now let’s go through the stages of précis writing.

READING AND INKING STAGE

It’s recommended that you should read the passage twice. Third reading is actually a verification of your previous understanding. So that you should not make  preliminary judgments. A good understanding is a must for précis writing.

During your second read you have to start marking important points. All the essential ideas must be marked.

Reading stage is very important and crucial to your performance.
– The writing stage is based on what you have conceived about a passage and you must understand a theme of a passage- a central idea behind a passage.

-You have to identify a topic sentence. A topic sentence is a sentence that provides you with the central theme of the passage. There is no hard and fast rule but they are generally found in the end or in the beginning. So one or two sentences could be very important inside a given text.

-But sometimes there is no topic sentence and in this scenario after reading the whole text you get the understanding of what it is all about.

While reading you must ask yourself-

– What is the subject of a passage?
– What matter is discussed about that subject?
– What is the purpose of the passage?
– Is there any learning or message inside?
– What is the central theme of a passage?

 Actually in this way your mind will find the answers and you will better understand the given text.

     Reading stage is a test of your understanding of which information should be retained in a final contracted version. You must be able to identify the important points that are relevant to the main theme of the passage.

Be creative when you start inking your passage

 Many students are just familiar with underline when they have to highlight any idea.

– I want you to be a little creative with your inking- For example;- if you are confused about a particular point then put a question mark over it.❔

– Encircle your keyword or tick your keyword if you think that it’s the main subject of the passage.✅

– Lock your ideas inside inverted commas-“”

– Separate same idea sentences with the slash or brackets-/   []

– If any idea seem to be an important, then you can put an arrow sign over that word or a phrase↝↜↘⇓↷

– Normally I put arrow signs over action verbs to identify what’s happening.

– If a couple of sentences talk about the same thing then you can put a semicircle in the margin of your passage so those sentences could easily be identified.

– Link the idea of one sentence with another sentence with the extended arrow.

– If you think that the keyword would help you in creating your title then you can put a triangle beside it-ㅿ 

  And You can also use these signs in combination. Unlock your creativity…

Let’s understand the above points with the help of an example! Detailed Inking process is explained in a video lecture. Go to YOUTUBE.

     This is a little bit of a difficult passage. If you do practice on a difficult one, the examples given in grammar books would seem much easier to you…

In this stage we are also linking ideas but that linking is happening inside our brain and we are just inking it. So this is a proper way of understanding the whole passage.

WRITING AND LINKING STAGE

When you completely understand the passage you enter into the writing stage… Create your first rough draft. A good understanding builds a strong foundation to write your précis.

• We have to create sentences on essential points. But at the writing stage you must understand how to express your ideas concisely. With a few words you must deliver your concept.

• And I’ll explain this point in detail. Now let’s see the technical underpinnings of the writing stage.

How can you concise your ideas?

There are two ways we contract and concise our passage:

Omitting the non-essential points

 If the sentences have the same meaning you can omit it. Examples, illustrations, quotations and any extended explanation that deviates from the main subject have to disappear.

 Modify sentences

When we have to keep the idea but express it in fewer words we can modify sentences. We retain the meaning but reduce the words by modifying sentences.

How can you do it?

Check if you can convert the phrases into single words which is called one word substitution.

Let’s understand these points with the help of an example.

You can convert the phrases or even the whole sentences into just a single word which can deliver the meaning of that sentence.

Example: She didn’t want to accept their offer. But she accepted it to end the conflict.

Solution: She unwillingly accepted their offer to end the conflict.

In this précis example the meaning of the first sentence is conveyed with the word “unwillingly”

Read this example:

Alia loved her workplace environment. She had a good salary and associated benefits. She enjoys  working with that company. But now she is moving abroad and she has to quit her job.

Solution: Although Alia is satisfied with her job, yet she has to quit it because of  moving abroad. 

In this example two opposite ideas are there. And with the help of a sentence connector we can join these opposite ideas into a single sentence.

Why not take an example from a passage we used in the reading stage.     

   We are taking first three sentences-

New Public Management ideologies are spreading all over the world and developing nations are coerced to adopt a new mode of governance. International organizations pressurized developing countries to embrace structural adjustment programs as a precondition for getting financial assistance. Like many other countries Pakistan under the prescription of IMF liberalize the trade policies, downsize the public sector and privatize the state enterprises. 

✅“spreading all over the world” —-wide-spreading

✅“precondition for getting financial assistance from IMF” —-IMF loan

The above two phrases are converted into one word or two words.

Solution précis:

In the above single sentence all the ideas are retained.

Our solution has all the important ideas: 

1. We talked about developing countries 
2. NPM ideologies are wide-spreading
3. They are imposed on Pakistan as a precondition for getting financial assistance from international organizations like the IMF.

So this is a proper way of doing précis.

After completing your first draft count your words and if needed modify your sentences to achieve  your desired target of words.

     Think about the title of a passage. And think in how many ways you can express your title. Sometimes  our mind satisfies too early so always give yourself room for thinking. Maybe you will get a better idea after your initial idea…Improve your title if required. 

Sometimes you have to think of an appropriate word but sometimes the passage itself provides you the title from the topic or key sentence.

What should be the title for the given passage (reading stage) above?

The passage is about NPM and Pakistan, so the appropriate title is

New Public Management in Pakistan

Qualities of a good Title

• Your title should reflect your theme
• It should conceptually cover the whole given text
• It should not be a single word or a complete full sentence
• Ideally your title should be a small phrase

There are some ways you can think about your title. Our first priority is to create a small phrase.

Sometimes a passage is difficult to express in a small phrase and you feel like there must be other ways to suggest a title.

For example if a given text is about historical development of strategic human resource management field

Then you can use a colon to suggest the title, for example-

SHRM: Evolution of the field

Another way of suggesting the title is creating the question.

You can also choose to write a title in a question form.

Sometimes question is a best way to express all the ideas of a given text, 

For example- 

If a passage is about suggestions on improving education system.

Then you can write a title like

How to revamp the education system?

SUBLIMATION STAGE

Now all the work has been done and you are satisfied with your work. Write your final version on a next page which should be without any mistakes and any grammatical errors…

Start like the way you start a paragraph-with an indent.

Write words of your précis and write a title of a précis.

Qualities of a Good Précis

So these are the qualities of a good précis

Clearness-All essential points, 

Coherence-logical flow, 

Brevity-omit and modify

• Coherence –is a logical flow from one sentence to another.

Your ideas shouldn’t feel like they are disconnected with each otherCoherence is automatically created when you know a conceptual link between sentences and sometimes we use the sentence connectors like

• So
• Concludingly
• Thus
• Therefore
• Besides

If there is a contrast or comparison we can use

• Although, Yet
• However
• Despite this 
• Even though

Don’t excessively use them. Use it when it is required…

So this is an art of précis writing in One Frame

A good précis must have these three qualities and you must know how to achieve them.

Your writing is based on how you 

Omodify a given text which means –omit and modify.