An Introduction to Writing the Precis
As serious academic writers, you will have to read and remember large amounts of prose (and poetry) along with scientific and social-studies articles as well. In many of your college courses, you are probably able to memorize facts and key statements with relative ease, but in English courses and others which also require close, critical reading, you are asked to go a step further, i.e., to present the informing argument of, let's say, an article and to reproduce the logical development of the argument in as cogent a form as possible in your own words. In order to demonstrate that you have assimilated the central argument and proof of another scholar's critical interpretation, you must be able to summarize and even compose a precis of an argument.
A summary or a precis is NOT a personal interpretation of a work or an expression of your opinion of the idea; it is, rather, an exact replica in miniature of the work, often reduced to one-quarter to one-fifth of its size, in which you express the complete argument!
What actually happens when you write a precis? First, you must understand the complete work so that you can abstract the central argument and express it cogently and completely. Next, you must develop the argument exactly as the writer has presented it AND reduce the work by 755-80% of its size. Of course, this is possible when you consider exactly how you "learn" to read the work.
The key word here is assimilation. When you read the material, it is probable that you will understand only those parts which have associations within your own experience (intellectual, emotional, physical, etc..
How you actually go about writing a precis depends largely on your ability to restate the writer's central ideas after you have assimilated them in your own mind.
Here are the rules of the game:
1. Read the article many times most carefully.
2. Write a precis of the article in which you state the entire argument
and present the logical progression (the development) of the argument.
3. Reduce the article to one-fifth to one-quarter of its original length
and omit nothing from the essential argument. This is, in reality,
the key to the whole enterprise!
4. Type the precis and begin with your abstraction of the central, inform-
ing idea of the article. Having understood and written the central idea,
present the essential argument in as cogent manner as possible.
(Clue: Once you have assimilated the article through the illustrations
and examples the writer uses to make his/her abstract ideas concrete,
you do not have to include these in your precis!)
5. Here is a central rule:
Do not copy a single sentence from the article! You may use
key words and phrases only when you are expressing ideas which are
technically precise or when you feel comfortable using the writer's
own words, i.e., you understand exactly he or she means, and there
is really no better way to express the concept.
Finally, in order to complete this assignment, you will have to read the work most carefully, ask questions about the work repeatedly, and reach into your own experiences so that you can shape most cogently the writer's concepts!
This assignment is not easy! When you have completed it well, you will never, never forget the argument, the examples, and the development of the article. More than likely you will also be learning that, when you write research papers and other critical papers, you ability to write the precis is central to the basics of analysis, synthesis, comparison, and other key, higher order thinking skills absolutely required for your success in college and in the profession or career you have chosen when you graduate.
http://lonestar.texas.net/~mseifert/precis1302.html
Regards
Surmount