The Art of Effective Précis.

What is précis?

To précis a piece of writing means to summarise the content.  In other words to reduce the word count of the original piece whilst effectively retaining the main points of the content, preserving the meaning and the feel of the original piece.  When I was at school in the 1960’s this formed a major part of the GCE (General Certificate of Education) English Language syllabus.  In the final examination the précis section accounted for about 20% of the final marks.  Sadly, this skill does not seem to be taught in UK schools these days.  Perhaps someone could enlighten me as to whether or not this is the case in the US?

Is the art of précis important?

Very much so: this is an important tool in your language armoury.  If you are in a job where you are dealing with written reports and documents or indeed writing copy for whatever purpose, you will regret not having honed this skill.

What skills do I need to précis well?

1. You must be able to fully comprehend what is being said in the original document.
2. A good précis must be easy to read. You should write in a clear and brisk style.
3. You must be able to sort the wheat from the chaff in the original piece.  Pick out the pertinent and most important points and dispense with any padding.  Look for the key words that make the most important points in a piece and include them in the précis.
4. You should develop the skill that will enable you to condense and dismember sentences effectively; a good vocabulary is essential to enable you to do this.
5. A very sound knowledge of the mechanics of written English.  Good grammar, sound sentence construction and correct punctuation must always be your goal.
6. As always, read and re-read your précis to spot and correct any errors.

A simple illustration.

Item 1 above could be re-written as below.

1. Full comprehension of the documents content is essential.

This reduces the sentence from the original 16 words to nine, but retains the sense and meaning.

Good précis is an art and you must practice to become fast and efficient.  Find a short article in a newspaper or magazine and attempt to reduce it to the lowest number of words possible whilst preserving the meaning and flow.