February 08, 2022
15. PRECIS WRITING AND
SUMMARIZING
The word précis means an abstract,
abridgement or summary; and précis writing means summarizing. To make a précis
of a given passage is to extract its main points and to express them as clearly
and as briefly as possible.
The essential features of a good précis are:
It should be give the main points and the general
impression of the passage summarized.
It should be
read like a continuous piece of prose.
It should be clear. It must present the substance of the original in
clear language
It should be precise and brief. Cutaway all irrelevancies, omit all
digressions and remove all unimportant details.
It should not be sketchy. It should be complete in every way. It
should contain all that is important in the original.
Important
points while making a précis:
Write down in order all the important points of the original
passage, which serves as a framework.
Keeping this framework before you, now try to write your summary.
Write simply, clearly and briefly.
See that the parts of your précis have the same balance and
proportion in relation
to one another,
as do the parts of original.
It will be advisable to present the facts in the same order as they
appear in the original.
If the length of the précis is not prescribed, about one third of
the original is usually expected.
Choose your words carefully. Avoid all unnecessary adjectives
and adverbs. Pay proper attention to
important nouns and verbs
that make your précis short and impressive.
The use of direct speech is to be avoided. The précis is
written in indirect speech, after a verb of saying in the past tense.
Avoid figurative language, omit all metaphors and
similes. Avoid redundancy and ambiguous words.
Precis must be connected
whole.
Some Don’ts
Don’t write your
précis in a very small hand in
order to give impression of conciseness.
Don’t add comments of your own or other irrelevancies. Don’t borrow
phrases and sentences from the original. Don’t emphasize the wrong point.
Don’t exceed or fall short of the prescribed limit by more than five
and six words. Don’t make your précis a series of disjointed sentences.
Don’t be so brief as to become unintelligible. Your précis must be
brief and clear.
Don’t use colloquial expressions, circumlocutions or rhetorical
statements. Don’t write bad English. Avoid mistakes in spelling,
grammar punctuation, idiom and the like.
Don’t use personal construction when summarizin g. Avoid such
phrases as I
think, I
believe, and in my opinion etc.,
Make a précis
of the following paragraph and suggest suitable title:
1.
Speech is
a great blessing, but it can also be
a great cur, for, while it
helps us to make our intentions
and desires known to
our
fellows, it can also, if
we use it carelessly, make
our attitude completely
misund erstood. A slip
of the tongue, these of an unusual word,
or of an
ambiguous word and so on, may create an enemy where we had hoped to
win a friend. Again
different classes of people use
different vocabularies, and the ordinary speech of an educated man ma y strike
an uneducated listener as showing pride;
unwittingly we may use a word, which
bears a different
meaning to our
listeners form what it does to men of our own class. Thus
speech is not a gift to use lightly without
though, but one, which demands careful handling.
Only a fool will express himself alike to all kinds and conditions of men.
2.
Men are not made in the same mould, like a lot to bricks. It would have ill-suited the wants of the world if it had been so. Consequently,
even in the same country, men differ in disposition,
and inclination and manners, and opinion, more probably than they do in
face or
form. And between
the people of different countries
the contract is even more striking. We have then, also, different sentiments,
different sym pathies, different hopes, different ways altogether. It will always
be so. So
long as there
are different minds, there
will be different views on all matters that admit of opinion. So long as there are different
degrees or latitude and longitude, as well
as
differing circumstances there will be different
interests different attachment and different habits. It behoves us, therefore,
to cultivate a generous spirit of forbearance
towards
those, of whatever race, who may think differently and
act differently, from ourselves. Even though we may be convinced
that they are wrong, if we know them to be sincere, we should still bear
with them and give them credit for their sincerity.
This is the virtue of
toleration or
bearing with
others when we may
differ from them, or may not like their ways. Toleration should be shown in all differences of opinion on even the highest
matters of life
and death; and
there it is of more
value than anywhere else. When we cannot agree with one about
a point of science, or philosophy, or faith, we can at least agree to
differ from hi, and there is an end. We must always
remember that we are all likely to
make mistakes and possess weaknesses, and that we ourselves need the same forbearance and sympathy. We are, besides,
all of the same human brotherhood, and should, “like brothers, agree”.
FIGURATIVE LANGUAGE
Figurative language is associated
with literature—and with poetry in a particular. But the fact is, whether we’re
conscious of it or not, we use figures of speech every day in our writing and
conversations.
The Top Figures
1.
Alliteration: Repetition of an initial constant sound. In this way language becomes musical.
Eg: How high
his honor holds his haughty head.
2.
Antithesis: The juxtaposition of contrasting ideas in balanced
phrases.
Eg: God made the country but man
made the town united we stand divided we fall.
3.
Apostrophe: Breaking off
discourse to address some absent person or
thing, some abstract quality, an
inanimate object, or a nonexistent
character.
Eg: Wild west wind, thou
breath of Antumns being.
4.
Euphemism: The
substitution of
an inoffensive term of
one considered offensively explicit.
5.
Hyperbole: An extravagant statement; the use of exaggerated terms
for the
purpose of emphasis or heightened
effect. Here is the smell
of blood still; All perfumes of
Arabia will not sweeten this little hand.
6.
Irony: The
use of
words to
convey the
opposite of
their literal meaning. A statement or situation where the meaning is contradicted by the appearance or presentation of the idea.
Eg: He is an honorable man (in fact he is not)
7.
Epigram: A brief pointed
saying. Eg: the child is the father
of man.
8.
Metaphor: An implied comparison
between two unlike things that actually something
important in common.
Eg: The camel is the ship of the desert.
9.
Metonymy: a figure
of speech in which one word or
phrase is
substituted for another
with which it is closely
associated; also, the rhetorical
strategy of describing something indirectly by
referring to things around it.
Eg: The pe n is mighter than sword.
10.
Onomatopoeia:
The formation or
use of words that imitate the sounds associated with the
objects or action they refer to. The murmurous
haunt of files in summer eves.
11.
Oxymoron: a figure
of speech in
which incongruous or
contradictor y terms appear
side by side.
Eg: James I was the widest fool in Christendom.
12.
Personification:
A figure of speech in which an inanimate object or
abstraction is endowed with human qualities
or abilities.
Eg: Opportunity knocks at the door but once.
13.
Pun:
A play on words, sometimes
on different senses
of the same word and sometimes on the similar sense
or sound of different words.
Eg: An ambassador is a gentleman who lies abroad for the good of his
country.
14.
Simile: A stated comparison (usually formed
with “like”
or” “as”) between two fundamentally dissimilar
things that have certain qualities in common.
Eg: The younger brother is as good as gold.
15.
Synechdoche:
A figure of speech is which a part is used to represent the
whole, the whole for a part, the specific for the general, the general for the
specific, or the material for the thing
made from it.
Eg: Kalidhasa is the shakespeare of India.
BSc Agriculture Lecture PDF Download –
BSc Agriculture All ICAR Books, Study materials, Notes, Paper you can Download is in PDF form. all Semesters of graduation subjects Study Material Notes Chapter Wise available in Over Site agrirahulic.blogspot.com This site is very useful for all the students. to download Free PDF. In this post, you can get all the information related to Bsc agriculture has been provided in full. BSc Agriculture 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th, 6th, 7th, 8th all Semester Pdf you can download on this site.
Feedback: After Reading this eCourse, please give your feedback for improvement of the e-Course contents on this website.
Disclaimer: The information on this website does not warrant or assume any legal liability or responsibility for the accuracy, completeness, or usefulness of the courseware contents.
The contents are provided free for noncommercial purposes such as teaching, training, research, extension, and self-learning.
0 comments:
Post a Comment