Tips & Tricks to Ace your Precis Writing

Precis writing is not a new form of writing. It is introduced to students right when they are in their school. However, as students grow, they evolve their ways of doing precis writing and requirements change. Precis writing at the university level is more mature and professional than at the school level. But many of you who have never done precise writing at school or University level may not know about this form of writing. Precis Writing is a technique of writing which implies making an efficient summary of a long text or a passage. Although it may seem very simple to summarise a paragraph, precis writing is not about writing each point the same as the para. In writing, the focus is on writing the key points of the paragraph so that a long paragraph can be effectively summarised in a few words. There are various tips and tricks that can be taken for ensuring that precise writing is excellently done.

1. Precis writing is an art, and it should be properly managed. Not everyone can precis writing well and there is a need to practice a lot so that you can manage precise writing in the best way. For instance, if the paragraph given is 300 words, then the precise writing should be done in a maximum of 110 words. So, you cannot write a story when you are summarising the paragraph. As you have just 110 words for a para of 300 words, so you must learn to write only important points. However, you should not focus on removing non-essential points from the original paragraph and do precis writing. Instead, focus on noting down the important points of the para and writing them in your own words.
2. Precis should comprise important points from the passage. There should not be any repetition. The original para may or may not be in direct speech, but precis should be in reported speech only. The precis should be written in the third tense.
3. Precis should have the main idea of the paragraph. It is not important one needs to include only facts and points to make the precis engaging. Instead, focus on ensuring that the precis you have written can give the idea of the paragraph you are summarising.
4. Although precis writing should be done in your own words, you should introduce nothing new. You end up including new things when you are writing in your own words. This is a big NO-NO for precise writing. There should be no new thing introduced in the precise so that it should give a simple idea of the paragraph.
5. You ensure your precis is a coherent account of what you are summarising. You should focus on using simple language and ensure that there is no confusion. You should not focus on advanced language which is not understandable to the readers. You should ensure that you use as simple language as possible.
6. Precis writing should start with a clear title. You cannot use the same title as the original paragraph as there should be a proper paragraph with a suitable title. The title should be short and should show what is written in the precis clearly.

These are some tips, and tricks that should be considered when doing precis writing. You can ace precis writing by considering these points. If you know any tips which can help students to ace their precis writing, then do share them with us.