8 Tips and Tricks for Writing a Strong Précis

How to write the precis of a passage?

A precis is a concise summary of a passage. To create one yourself, follow these steps:

Read Through the Passage Thoroughly:

Carefully read through the original passage, paying close attention to its content, tone, and style. Make sure you comprehend its author’s intention, main ideas, and arguments.

Recognizing the Main idea and key points:

Locate and identify the author’s central argument or point, along with supporting points that form its base for your precis. These will serve as your starting points.

Eliminate Unnecessary Information:

A precis should be concise and direct, eliminating all information that is irrelevant to the main argument or idea being advanced – including details, examples and redundant words.

Write Your Own Summary in Your Own Words:

Write your own summary of the passage using your own words, making sure to stick with its structure and preserve its tone and style.

Accurate Representation of Original Content:

Be certain that the summary accurately represents the original passage. Be sure that its main points and arguments are covered without adding opinions or interpretations not contained within its text.

Maintain the Current Structure:

The precis should faithfully reflect the original passage’s structure, including key points and the author’s logical flow of ideas.

Use an Easy and Concise Writing Style:

Write your precis using direct, clear language that avoids complex sentences and long words.

Writing an effective precis requires careful reading, analysis and summarization skills. Accuracy in representing the original passage while condensing it into an accessible summary should always be maintained.

How can I write an informative paragraph?

A precis paragraph is a short summary of an extended piece of writing such as an article or book chapter. Here’s an easy step-by-step guide on creating one:

Read the original text carefully in order to gain a thorough understanding of its content, tone, and style.

Recognize and analyze the main ideas and key points of a text.

Eliminate any irrelevant details or words.

Create a brief summary in your own words that captures the essence of the original text.

Make sure the summary accurately represents the original text in terms of tone and style.

Use an accessible, straightforward writing style when summarizing.

Keep the length of the precis paragraph to no more than several sentences.

A good precis paragraph should be brief and direct; conveying all of the main ideas and arguments of its original text concisely and succinctly.

Here is an example passage and its precis.

Passage: The global pandemic has had an extraordinary effect on economies, health systems and societies around the globe. Governments were forced to implement lockdowns, travel restrictions and mask mandates in an attempt to stem its spread – leading to job losses, business closures and reduced consumer spending – while health systems have been put through unprecedented strain from increasing medical demands – prompting many countries to implement reforms to make them more resilient for any future pandemics.

Precis:
The COVID-19 pandemic has had significant repercussions worldwide, impacting economies and health systems alike. Lockdowns and travel restrictions have disrupted economies while health systems struggled to keep up with demand; reforms are underway to strengthen health system resilience for future pandemics.