A critical précis is one of the academic writing assignment that your instructor will ask you to work on. Unfortunately, it can be hard to write if you don’t know what it is and what steps to take. That’s why in this guide you’ll learn how to write a critical précis fast and score good grades.
By the end of this written lesson, you should have learned:
- What a précis is
- The characteristics of a good précis
- The structure of a précis
- The step-by-step guide to write the précis from start to finish and
Let’s get started.
What is a Précis?
In academic writing, a critical précis is an assignment that requires you to summarize a text, its ideas, and arguments in 400 to 1,200 words.
A précis is NOT an essay and you shouldn’t treat it as one.
The goal here isn’t to tell but to give a clear summary of an original. Instead, you must to provide an author’s information in a condensed format so that your target audience can learn and understand the significance of an author’s thesis.
A good summary should be short and direct to the point. In addition to being concise, it should present a logical summary of the passage while maintaining only the essential ideals in that specific passage.
After reading your précis, your audience should get a clear idea on the meaning of a piece of written work even before or without reading the abstract.
Writing a summary isn’t about picking words from the piece of text and putting them together in a random sequence that makes logical sense.
You have to write a summary in your own words without losing the initial meaning of the text under evaluation. However, you are welcome to use some quotes from the source whenever appropriate.
Characteristics of a Good Critical Précis
You want to make the first best impression with your précis so that you can score high grades.
Your professor should look at the paper and nod in agreement because your work meets the attributes of a good précis. If anything, your summary should:
- Length: A précis should be a quarter of its original length except in the case where your instructor states otherwise.
- Format: You have to follow the standard format when writing the condensed version of an original work. You have to mention the thesis, indicate the methods used, state results, and have a conclusion.
- Correct: Your précis should be factual, meaning the figures, dates, and statistics should be accurate. It also helps to check your work for spelling, punctuation, and grammar.
- Clarity: In a few words, tell a reader what an author intended to communicate. Avoid an ambiguous language and use simple words, phrases, and sentences instead.
- Coherence: There should be a logical flow of information and a good connection of the ideas from the original text. Your readers should see the connection and not lose an interest in reading.
- Objective: Your construction of information should be candid. In other words, your summary should be free of personal opinion and focus on the work of the author in question instead.
- Concise: Go straight to the point. Make sure you provide the most important detail without omitting facts.
Why Do Students Write Critical Précis?
Professors ask students to write critical précis to assess whether they understand the meaning of an original text enough to explain its value in a condensed format.
It comes down to critical thinking and how good you’re at summarizing information so that only the most crucial information is in the document that you submit for review.
In addition to improving your writing skills and enhancing your critical thinking, writing the précis give you an opportunity to learn something new that you wouldn’t otherwise.
How to Write a Comprehensive Thesis
Now that you know what a well-written précis must include, it should not be difficult to work on this type of an academic assignment.
To write a good précis that your professor will like:
- Read the original text carefully and thoroughly
- Identify the central theme of an author’s argument and the evidence they provide to support their claim
- Look at what’s new in their work, including the appeals that they’ve used
- Examine how they author has conveyed the meaning of their work and restate their thesis
- Write a maximum of two sentences of each section of the original work, making sure you use your own words for the description
- Read the original piece of work again and compare is with your summary
What’s the Structure of a Critical Précis?
The structure of a critical précis is the same as that of a normal essay. You will need to have an introduction, body, and conclusion.
Introduction
In a précis, an introduction should be one sentence. What to write include an author’s name, the title of their work, date of their publication written in brackets, power verbs, and the thesis statement.
Body
The number of paragraphs in the body section will depend on the length of the original work.
Each paragraph should be a unique explanation of its own, one that condenses a section of an original piece.
Make sure you include evidence, ideas, and purpose exactly as presented by the author.
Refrain from interpreting the author’s arguments in your own point of view. Remember, this isn’t argumentative writing.
Your goal is to analyze the stand of the author on the issue they’re trying to present and then leave it at that.
Conclusion
The concluding paragraph of the précis should be short and direct to the point.
Don’t introduce a new idea in this section. State the main one instead.
Summarize your work well, making the section as interesting to read as possible.
Refrain from adding personal statement or making subjective comments about the original piece. Doing so will ensure you end up with a comprehensive critical precis that’s easy and interesting to read.