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Precis writing rules format
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| Precis Writing |
Precis writing implies re-stating the main ideas in a given passage in a shortened form.
If the passage contains about three hundred words, the precis should be made in about a hundred words.
But merely reducing the length of a passage to I one-third of its length will not make a good precis.
The main ideas or points in the given passage have to be co-ordinated and presented in a new passage in the precis maker's own language.
Hence while writing a precis, multiple mental faculties are on test.
- The ability to understand an unseen passage
- The ability to judge which of the ideas are basic and which are relatively less important to the passage, and
- The ability to re-state the main idea in a compressed form are tested in precis writing.
It is not easy for a student of average merit to write a satisfactory precis of a standard passage. Yet, by practice you can certainly improve the quality and tone of your precis.
precis writing practice
The first step in attempting a precis is comprehension. Ask yourself what the total meaning of the passage is before writing the precis.
It is only when you have a clear idea of the meaning of the passage that you have the competence to re-state its meaning in a shortened form.
Therefore give your full attention to read the passage and try to find out what the passage is about. The first reading may not be adequate to give you a clear idea of the passage.
Read the passage again and again till you get the total meaning out of it, it is not essential that you should be able to know the meaning of all the words given in the passage.
What is required of you is to get an over-all idea of the passage, which you can get even without knowing all the words.
An attempt to write a precis of a passage without an idea of what the passage is about will be simply wasting time.
After you have grasped the main ideas contained in the passage, arrange them in a sequence in your mind.
Eliminate all the inessential ideas because now you have to reduce the passage to one-third of its length.
At this stage it will be it will be better to avoid the temptation of consulting the passage frequently. You will not be able frame good sentences of your own if you are all along conscious of the structure of sentences in the given passage,
The first draft may not be very rewarding. In the second draft try to improve the sentence structures.
If your passage has maintained an original sequence reflecting the main ideas of the given passage, you have done your job satisfactorily.
Though the length of your passage is a very important factor which is taken into consideration while grading your precis, only required length will not entitle your precis to a good grading.
You may use five to ten words more than the required number. To go beyond that is of course risky.
While making the second draft (or the third draft if the second is not satisfactory) get rid of the inexact expressions and substitute them by better ones.
Add a suitable title to your precis writing at the top of the passage if you are sure the title reflects the theme of the passage.
precis writing examples samples with answers
precis writing examples - I
write a precis of the following passage in about 100 words :
The natives of Africa have always found it difficult to protect their cattle from lions, although a strong healthy lion usually prefers to hunt wild animals and to keep well away from the homes of men.
But at times when wild animals are scarce and the lions are hungry, they may attack domestic cattle, and old lions who can no longer capture wild animals may take to eating domestic cattle, which are easier to kill.
The Africans shut their cattle up at night in enclosures surrounded by very high fences of thorn branches.
Hungry lions will sometimes steal up to these enclosures at night, and may climb over the fences and attack the cattle; or sometimes they prowl round roaring so loudly that the terrified cattle will themselves break down the fence in their fear and run off into the open savannah.
If they do this, the lions can follow them and kill them easily. Sometimes a lion, if it is very hungry, will even seize an animal in broad daylight and carry it off in full view of its owner.
A lion that has grown used to coming near the villages in search of cattle may lose its natural fear of men. And, if it is desperately hungry, it may attack and kill one of the villagers.
When it finds that a child or an unarmed man is an easy prey, it may develop a teste for human flesh, and then it will lie in wait for natives almost every night. Such a lion, is called a 'man- eater'.
It may become a real terror to the whole district. Occasionally a lioness who has learned to like the flesh of men may also teach all her cubs to kill men.
ANSWER
Title: Habits of African Lions.
A healthy African lion usually avoids coming near human habitations.
It hunts wild animals of the forest until these are scarce, Forced by hunger, at night it jumps over the fence to kill domestic animals confined in enclosures.
It does not hesitate to carry off a domestic animal in broad day light. By familiarity with men it loses fear for them and attacks a villager when extremely hungry.
Once it gets the teste of human flesh, it lies in wait at night to kill men. A man eater lion often creates a reign of terror in a whole district.
precis writing examples - II
Precis writing example Advantages of mass production
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| Mass Production |
The price of any article depends chiefly upon the cost of labour and raw materials, though there are other expenses such as those of advertising and transport.
Mass production has reduce the cost of labour to a minimum. As new methods are invented and new manufacturing process developed, output increases more and more.
The aim of every manufacture is to reduce costs and increase output. Most of the articles of everyday use are mass-produced.
The buttons on your coat, your shoe laces, pens, pencils and exercise books are all good and cheap because they are mass-produced.
Cigarettes, to which most men and many women are willing slaves are manufactured and sold by the million.
Tobacco and paper are put into one part of a machine and endless cigarettes emerge at another.
The long rolls of paper-covered tobacco are cut up into the right lengths and a moving belt carries them away.
Another machine counts the cigarettes and packs them into boxes.
Form the time the tobacco is put into the machine until the buyer opens the box, no hand touches the cigarettes.
Another example of mass production is the morning newspaper.
To see huge printing presses turning out and folding tens of thousands of newspapers, all exactly the same and all faultless, is an experience which can never be forgotten.
The printing press is one of man's cleverest inventions. The great machine seems almost alive.
It does everything to the newspaper except write the original copy. It is thus the great newspaper is brought within the reach of the poorest of men.
Precis writing sample answer
Title:- Advantages of mass production
Mass production helps to bring down the price of goods by reducing the cost of labour.
The buttons on our coat, our shoe laces, pens, pencils, exercise books as well as cigarettes as available good and cheap because they are produced in a large scale.
In producing cigarettes only feeding the machine with tobacco and paper is done by human agency.
Cutting down to uniform size, counting, packing in boxes etc., are done by machines.
In the production of newspapers the printing press does everything including turning out and folding. Only it cannot write what is to be printed.
