Precis writing tips - Useful Aids in Summarizing

A useful aid in summarizing is the method of substitution. Study the following examples:

Write indivisible for cannot be divided
Write invisible for cannot be seen
Write people for men and women
Write extempore for speaking without preparation
Write simultaneously for at the same time

In many cases a phrase or a clause can be replaced by an adjective or adverb. For instance, the sentence ‘The old woman accepted the gift with a heart full of gratitude’ can be summarized as ‘The old woman accepted the gift gratefully or thankfully.’

There are no hard and fast rules regarding the length of the summary. Ideally it should be one-third of the length of the given passage.

Read the given passage carefully. Find out what the passage is all about. Try to find a word or a phrase or a short sentence that will sum up the subject matter of the passage. This should be the heading or title. If the given passage is a story, you may choose the name of the protagonist or an incident in the story as the heading. If the given passage is an essay or a paragraph, you may use some apt proverb or quotation as the heading. Begin all the important words in a heading with capital letters.

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