PRECIS WRITING

     

                PRECIS WRITING

The Definition & Derivation: Precis from the Old French and literally meaning “cut short”, is a concise summary of an article or other work. The precis, then, explains the main point, logical support, and structure of the original work but in greatly condensed form. The precis is objective, unlike a critical analysis, which evaluates the argument and use of evidence within an article. Thus, the precis does not offer evaluations about a text, nor does it include personal reaction to a text.

Precis writing involves summarising a document to extract the maximum amount of information, then conveying this information to a reader in minimum words.

Definition: A precis is a clear, compact logical summary of a passage. It preserves only the essential or important ideas of the original.

ACCORDING TO OXFORD DICTIONARY : “It is a short version of a speech or a piece of writing that gives the main points of ideas.”

ACCORDING TO CAMBRIDGE DICTIONARY : “Prices is a short form of the text which briefly gives only the important parts.”

QUALITIES OF A GOOD PRECIS :

• Clarity : Clarity means getting your message across so that the receiver can understand what the writer is trying to convey. The ideas should be clear and understandable. There should not be any ambiguity in your writing. Use simple language and simple structure to achieve clarity.

• Correctness : At the time of writing or composing a precis the writer must ensure that the facts and figures are correct. Structure of sentences and spellings of words must be correct.

• Objectivity : Objectivity means the ability to present or view facts uncoloured by feelings, opinions and personal bias. While making a precis, the writer should adopt an objective approach. He should not give and add his personal opinion and ideas in a precis. A precis should be purely a summary of the original text without any addition.

• Coherence : Coherence means the logical and clear interconnection of ideas in a written piece of work. A good precis should be coherent. The ideas which are presented in a precis must have a logical connection and they all should be interrelated to keep interest of the readers.

• Completeness : A precis should be complete in all respects. Completeness means that the writer should include all the important facts in a precis. To make it short he should not omit the important ideas. This mistake on the part of the writer will spoil the importance and meaning of the precis.

• Conciseness : Conciseness means to say all that needs to be said and no more. The writer should write what is necessary and avoid writing unnecessary details. A concise piece of work conveys the message in the fewest possible words. To achieve conciseness, notice the following suggestions:

                       Omitting unnecessary details.
                       Eliminate wordy expressions.
                       Include only relevant material.
                       Avoid unnecessary repetition.

RULES OF MAKING A PRECIS

A well written precis should be a serviceable substitute for the original work. The goal of a precis is to preserve the core essence of the work in a manner that is both clear and concise. While writing a precis, the writer should follow the below given rules to make it an effective piece of work.

• Read Carefully : First read the passage twice or thrice carefully to summarise it. This will enable you to understand the main theme of the passage.

• Underlining : Underline and mark the important ideas and essential points from the original text.

• Outline : With the help of underlined ideas, draw the outline of your precis.

• Omission : Omit all the unnecessary information or the long phrases which could be replaced by one word. All the adjectives and the adverbs can also be omitted in order to make a good precis.

• Don’t Omit : While making a precis, the writer should never omit the important points and ideas which are essential to be described.

• Size : Keep the fact in your mind that the length of the precis should be the one third of the original passage.

• Indirect Speech : A precis should be written in indirect speech. If there is direct speech in the passage, it should be changed into indirect speech.

• Tense and Person : It should be written in the third person and past tense. In the case of universal truth the present tense should be used.

• Own Words : A precis should be written in your own words and the writer should abstain from borrowing words from the original passage.

• Precis of a Dialogue : The precis of a dialogue or conversation should always be expressed in form of narrative.

• Objective Approach : A precis writer should adopt an objective approach. He should not add his personal ideas to a precis. Put all the important points and ideas in a logical order.

• One Paragraph : There could be two or more paragraphs in the original text. While making the precis, try to write all the ideas in one paragraph.

• Rough Draft : After omitting all the unnecessary ideas, the writer should prepare a rough draft to finalize it.

• Final Draft : Having read the rough draft and pointed out some mistakes which may be found in the rough draft, the writer can prepare the final draft.

How should a writer begin to write a precis?

  --------------- : The process : ----------------Cogitation :-

Step: 1: Read (অন্তত 2 or 3 বার ) at least 2 /3 times and annotate/mark the article or other text : যতক্ষন না আপনার কাছে একদম স্বচ্ছ ধারনা( Clear Idea ) তৈরী হচ্ছে।

Step: 2 : Try to : Reflect on the author's purpose.

Step: 3 : Consider the kinds of evidence the author uses.

Step: 4 : Restate the author's thesis in your own words.

Step: 5 : Write a one or two sentence summary of each section or subdivision of the article.

Step: 6 : Reread the article to compare it with your summary notes.

Write Up : -

Begin writing, using your paraphrase of the thesis and your one or two sentence summary statements.

1)Precis is the Expression of the Original in CONDENSED TERMS : a SHORTER re-STATEMENT of the ORIGINAL. and It Should be ONE-THIRD of the ORIGINAL.

2) The Purning of the Original would not spare Anything but the bare Essential. Metaphors, Similes, Hyperbole, Conceits, Epigrams must have to be Left Out. Precis would re-produce all the Principal Contents of the Original.

3) Naturally, Precis would faithfully reproduce all the PRINCIPAL CONTENTS of the ORIGINAL.

4) PRECIS-WRITER'S OWN WORDS : A Precis should stand on its Own. Naturally, a Precis-Writer will have to rely on his Own Words rather than the use Terms from the Original Passage.

5) ORDERLY CONDENSATION : Precis Expected to be an Independent Piece of writing in Which the SEQUENCE of Ideas or Arguments lead to the Conclusion or the Central Idea.Care should be taken to Preserve the TONE of the ORIGINAL PASSAGE.

Cover Up :-

Review your precis to confirm that you have explained the main point of the article, identified the supporting evidence that the writer uses, and have used the same logical structure as the text.

Concretization :-

Finally, check for clarity, coherence, and correctness.

    ----------------: STRUCTURE :------------------

TITLE: 

মূল Passage/Comprehension/Excerpt - এর একটি উপযুক্ত শিরোনাম / TITLE /HEADING/ TAG LINE/CATCH UP অবশ্যই দিত হবে - যার সাথে বিষয়বস্তুর সাযুজ্য অবশ্যই থাকে । (Fielden says : " TITLE SHALL BE,IN EFFECT, A PRECIS OF THE PRECIES.)" 

 অবশ্যই 5-6 শব্দের মধ্যে সীমাবদ্ধ রাখতে একান্ত চেষ্টা করবেন।  A PRECIS TITLE NEITHER CONTAINS A VERB NOR FORMS A QUESTION.

Introduction:

Some writers offer a hook; explain the author's broad topic; and then restate the author's thesis, while others may open with a restatement of the author's thesis and then explain the broader framework of the subject.

Body Paragraphs:

Generally, each body paragraph should explain a separate section of the text and should provide the evidence (though in greatly condensed form) that the writer has used to support that section. If used, quotations should be brief, should be correctly introduced or incorporated, and should be correctly attributed.

Conclusion:

The conclusion should re-state the main idea of the text and reiterate the main support. Remember to avoid any personal statements about the text.

                     FUNDAMENTAL(S):

Care:1 :

Don't mingle or confound PRECIS with SUBSTANCE.

Care:2:

Precis is rightly the very Squeezed ( একান্ত নির্যাস ) part of the Passage.

It is the Nectarine part ( অমৃত )if the Whole Passage.

এবং পুরো অনুচ্ছেদ ( Excerpt) থেকে শুধুমাত্র নির্যাস টুকু তুলে আনতে হবে।

Care:3:

বারবার পড়ার পর বিশষ গুরুত্বপূর্ন শব্দ গুলোকে চিহ্নিত করূন। এই শব্দগুলোর সঙ্গে পূর্বাপর শব্দগুলোর সঙ্গে কি সম্পর্ক আছে সেসব খুঁজুন। এবং এগুলোকে চিহ্নিত (Marked/Numbered) করে রাখুন।

Care:4:

এরকম শব্দগুলোকে একত্রিত করলে একটা ভাব সমন্বয় খুঁজে পাবেন ।

Care:5:

সবসময় লেখক কি বোঝাতে চেয়েছেন এটা হয়তো ধরতে পারা যায়না ।

তখন ই পূর্বাপর শব্দগুলোর (Context ) মধ্যেকার সম্পর্কটাকে আত্ত্বস্ত করে নিয়ে একটা ভাব-সমন্বয় ( Concretization ) তৈরী করে নিতে হবে।

Care:6:

ভাব-সমন্বয় (Concretization ) : সবসময় অনুচ্ছেদ টা বোঝা সম্ভব নাও হতে পারে।এতে ভয় পাবার একদম কিছুই নেই।

Care: 5:

কে। সামগ্ৰিকভাবে অনুচ্ছেদ।(Paragraph/Excerpt) টির মোটামুটি ভাবার্থ জানলে অথবা ধরতে (Context-before & After) পারলেই হবে।আর এসব তখন ই সম্ভব হবে যদি আপনি উক্ত অংশটি বারবার পড়েন ।

Care:7:

সবসময় সাধারন বাক্য (Simple Sentence ) ব্যবহার করবেন । Precis Writing একটি শিল্পকলা , কিন্ত শিল্পের আড়ম্বরপূর্ণ সমন্বয় সাধন নয়। এখানে পান্ডিত্য দেখানোর কোন জায়গা নেই ।

Care:8:

PRACTICE MAKES A PRECIS-WRITER PERFECT.

Care:9:

এটা চাকরী পরীক্ষা । আর এই Precis Writing এর ক্ষেত্রে নিজস্ব মতামত একদম ই প্রকাশ করতে যাবেন না কোন ভাবেই। মূল আনুচ্ছেদ এ নেই এরকম কোন শব্দ প্রয়োগ করতে যাবেন না।

Care:10:

আলংকারিক, রূপক শব্দ , পুনরঙক্তি ( Repetition) : (SIMILIES, METAPHORS,  HYPORBOLES, EPIGRAMS, CONCEITS) সবসময় বর্জন করে সহজ -সরল শব্দ ব্যবহার অবশ্যই করবেন|

Care:11:

Precis সবসময় নির্দিষ্ট সীমার মধ্যেই রাখার চেষ্টা করবেন।তবে কয়েকটি শব্দের কমবেশীতে কিছু হয়না । শব্দ বা লাইনের যদি কোন নির্দেশ না থাকে তবে Precis -এর শব্দ গুনণ ( Word Counting ) বিষয় বস্তু অনুসারে মূল অনুচ্ছেদ এর এক-তৃতীয়াংশ বা তার থেকে অল্প কম - বেশী।হত পারে ।

অনেকে Article and Preposition কে শব্দ গোনার ক্ষেত্রে (Word Counting ) ধরে থাকেন ।

এটা একটা বিতর্কিত বিষয় । তবে এই প্রসঙ্গে এটা কোন ব্যপার নয়।

Care:13:

লেখাটি যাতে অবশ্যই শ্রুতিমধুর (Good at Sound ) Prose Writing , Clear and Conceptual (সুস্পষ্ট ) and Legible (সহজ বোধ্য ) হয় সেটা অবশ্য ই লক্ষ্য রাখতেই হবে ।

Care:14:

NEVER GET PANICKED: মনে রাখবেন পরীক্ষায় সেই ধরনের PASSAGE ই দেওয়া থাকবে যার PRECIS করা সম্ভব। মাথা ঠান্ডা রেখে নিজের উপর নিজের বিশ্বাস টাকে PRECIS এ রুপান্তর করুন।

IN A NUT SHELL,THE FEATURES OF A GOOD PRECIS ARE :

i. IT MUST BE BRIEF AND CONCISE.

ii. IT SHOULD BE LUCID AND CLEAR.

iii. IT SHOULD BE WRITTEN IN YOUR OWN WORDS AND THE ORDER AND COHERENCE OF IDEAS SHOULD REMAIN THE SAME.

iv. IT SHOULD BE READ AS A CONTINUOUS WHOLE.

v. IT SHOULD CONTAIN ONLY THE ESSENTIAL POINTS.

vi.  IT SHOULD BE WRITTEN IN THE INDIRECT FORM OF SPEECH AND THE ACTIVE VOICE.

vii. IT SHOULD HAVE THE SAME TENSE THROUGHOUT, GENERALLY, 5HE PAST TENSE.

viii. IT SHOULD BE WRITTEN IN THE THIRD PERSON.

ix. ITS LENGTH SHOULD GENERALLY BE ONE-THIRD OF THE ORIGINAL.

x. THE TITLE SHOULD BE THE SUM UP OF THE CENTRAL IDEA OF THE PRECIS.