Page 193 - New Grammar with a Smile 8

7 Précis Writing

A précis is a short summary of a passage. A précis should cover only the important
points and be as short as possible. It is usually one-third of the passage, or 60 words.
A précis should have a title and a justification.

General approach to writing a précis:
1. To write an effective précis, read the passage several times for a full
understanding.

2. Jot down the most important points of the passage.

3. You should not use the exact words from the passage. The précis should be in
your own words and should be in indirect speech.
4. A précis is usually of 60 words. So, while practising to write a précis, make a grid
with 5 columns and 13 rows. Write ‘Rough Précis’ above the grid. Each line and
column has to be numbered accordingly.

5. Fill up the grid with words. Each box should have one word and one punctuation,
if required.
6. Remember that every article and preposition is a word.

7. While completing the ‘Rough Précis’ grid, you might exceed to 65 or 68.
8. Read through the ‘Rough Précis’ and see if you can replace some superfluous
words with precise and important words. All the corrections must be done in the
‘Rough Précis’.

9. Now, copy the corrected précis as a passage.

Now, study how to write a précis.

The Passage

One of our most difficult problems is what we call discipline and it is really very
complex. You see, society feels that it must control or discipline the citizen, shape his
mind according to certain religious, social, moral and economic patterns.

Now, is discipline necessary at all? Please listen carefully. Don’t immediately say
YES or NO. Most of us feel, especially while we are young, that there should be no
discipline, that we should be allowed to do whatever we like and we think that is

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