Dear Aspirant,
Do you fear writing a Précis for the given passage in your Exam? If yes, these materials are for you. Go through these with a little effort. You’ll find yourself fully skilled in this Section.
Please follow the following to write a good Précis:-
- Don’t start writing the final précis as soon as you come across the passage. Stop being panicky. You have enough time to write a précis; however, do more and more practices on it for time management.
- Read the passage carefully twice and find out what the passage is all about.
- The passage given may comprise more than one paragraph. Keep in mind the gist of that paragraph to be written in the final précis. A gist deals with only important things. But before you write the gist of the paragraph, jot down the important points of each paragraph (If only one, then it’s OK) in the text window of your computer. When your final précis is ready, delete the rough draft or any other memory links that you have jotted down on the computer.
- Assembling the gist of all the paragraphs, make a rough draft of your précis. The rough draft may exceed words; but don’t worry. Keeping the rough draft before your eyes, start writing the final Précis focusing on only those points which keep more importance.
- You’re expected to write a précis in 1/3 words of the original passage or paragraph in your own words. However, the word limit of your final Précis may exceed 8-10 words or fall behind by 8-10 words.
- Finally, give your précis a suitable title.
You’ll get marks on the basis of the following qualities of your précis:-
Completeness
It means, a good précis must contain all the essential contents of the given passage.
Clarity
Until and unless you’ve grasped the holistic sense of the given passage, you will not be able to write a good précis. Clarity in your expressions comes about if you use your own words. If you are satisfied with what you have written, it means your précis is marks-fetching. Clarity in expression depends on the following things:
- Good command over vocabulary (One word substitutions, Figures of Speech, Idioms and Phrases)
- Good command over Sentence Structures (Practice on Synthesis and Analysis of Sentences will suffice)
- Sound understanding power.
- Conciseness
It refers to maintaining brevity. Please, don’t patch up things, which means only to picking up some certain points and discarding the rest. Please, bear in mind that a good précis is an organic whole.
| SI | Mode of Evaluation | Maximum Marks (40) | Marks Obtained |
| 1. | For Suitable Title | 5 | XX |
| 2. | Economy of Words | 7 | XX |
| 3. | Gist/Essence in your own words | 28 | XX |
| XX/40 |
