Precis Writing (New Addition)

You have told a friend the whole plot of a three-hour Bollywood film while the train went from Dadar to Bandra, and you did not mention the songs. That is a precis: you kept the story, dropped the decoration, and finished before your station. Lawyers live on the same skill: they read headnotes that shrink long judgments, and juniors reduce thick files to a one-page note for a senior. So the question this topic answers is simple: how do you cut a passage to a third of its size, in your own words, without losing a single idea that matters?

In two minutes

A precis is a condensed version of a longer passage that keeps its central idea and essential supporting points, in your own words, at roughly one-third of the original length, written as one connected paragraph under a suitable title.

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