Précis: What is it?

1. Précis: What is it? The précis is summarizing that insists on exact reproduction of the logic, organization, and emphasis of an original. The French word précis literally means a "cut down version." A précis is a useful tool when dealing with lengthy passages. It can be used to summarize research materials, but the greatest value of précis writing is the demand it makes on the writer to write comprehensively and thoughtfully. If an essay is written formally, then the language in a précis is formal. If the movie is a horror, the précis will be written using similar language. A myth précis will have similar mood, language and style.

2. Guidelines for Writing a Precis • 1. Read the article or passage quickly and thoroughly to grasp the complete idea of the writer. • 2 Reread the passage, underlining and selecting the most important points and striking out all examples, anecdotes, extra words, and frills when you write your first draft. Is there a key sentence that states the writer's main point? A topic sentence may summarize a whole paragraph for you. • 3. Preserve the logical continuity of the original. Make your précis clear, concise and orderly. • 4. Read your first draft. Does it include all the important ideas of the original? Have you omitted unnecessary or repetitious details? • 5. Reduce your version to one third or one fourth of the original making sure to eliminate all unnecessary words and adjectives. • 6. Your final version should give all the essential information in such a way that the reader can use it without referring to the original.

3. Example of Précis from Essay • Sheridan Baker, in his essay "Attitudes" (1966), asserts that writers' attitudes toward their subjects, their audiences, and themselves determine to a large extent the quality of their prose. Baker supports this assertion by showing examples of how inappropriate attitudes can make writing unclear, pompous, or boring, concluding that a good writer "will be respectful toward his audience, considerate toward his readers, and somehow amiable toward human failings" (58). His purpose is to make his readers aware of the dangers of negative attitudes in order to help them become better writers. He establishes an informal relationship with his audience of college students who are interested in learning to write "with conviction" (55).

4. Woodworth's example follows her pattern exactly. The first sentence identifies the author (Baker), the genre (essay), the title and date, and uses an active verb (asserts) and the relative pronoun that to explain what exactly Baker asserts. The second sentence explains the first by offering chronological examples from Baker's essay, while the third sentence suggests the author's purpose and why (in order to) he has set out that purpose (or seems to have set out that purpose -- not all essays are explicit about this information and readers have to put the pieces together). The final sentence identifies the primary audience of the essay (college students) and suggests how this audience is brought into/connected to the essay's purpose.

5. Original • For a hundred yeas and more the monarchy in France had been absolute and popular. It was beginning now to lose both power and prestige. A sinister symptom of what was to follow appeared when the higher ranks of society began to lose their respect for the sovereign. It started when Louis XV selected as his principal mistress a member of the middle class, it continued when he chose her successor from the streets. When the feud between Madame Du Barry and the Duke de Choiseul ended in the dismissal of the Minister, the road to Chanteloup, his country house, was crowded with carriages, while familiar faces were absent from the court at Versailles. For the first time in French history the followers of fashion flocked to do honor to a fallen favorite. People wondered at the time, but hardly understood the profound significance of the event. The king was no longer the leader of society. Kings and presidents, prime ministers and dictators, provide at all times a target for the criticism of philosophers, satirists, and reformers. Such criticism they can usually afford to neglect, but when the time-servers, the sycophants, and the courtiers begin to disregard them, then should the strongest of them tremble on their thrones. (208 words)

6. Precis of Previous Writing • For more than a hundred years the monarchy in France had been absolute and popular. But Louis XV lost the respect of the upper ranks of society by choosing his mistresses from lower classes. When the feud of the Duke de Choiseul with Madame Du Barry resulted in the Minister's dismissal, the court turned its attention to him, away from the king. The king, no longer the leader of society, could well tremble for his throne. (76 words)

7. YOUR TURN! Using the myth book, read “An Introduction to Greek and Roman Mythology” and write a précis.