How To Write A Precis

The prospect of having to write a precis or as it's otherwise called, a summary, can make grown men cry. I mean, where do you begin? Well, here's a short-cut in five easy stages, and your starting point is your paragraphs. The first rule of thumb about a paragraph is fresh thought: fresh paragraph.

And try and keep your paragraphs to four or five sentences at the most. In business writing, that should be enough. The second rule of thumb about paragraphs, and it's a bit counter-intuitive, is start with a key sentence.

Start with the main sentence that carries the main point of that paragraph and it's probably going to be the conclusion of that paragraph. It sounds odd; it's not what we learned at school, but it's the way that business writing works. So you start with your key point, and you then expand upon it.

You don't build up to your conclusion. When you've written your document, let's say it's a one-pager, five paragraphs long, just check to see that your paragraphs are in a logical order, that you're taking the reader along with you in the right way. And this is where the trick comes in.

You then take the first sentence of each paragraph, and you string them together like a necklace. What you should now have is one short paragraph which sums up your entire document. What you then do is to refine it.

Cut out any unnecessary words or phrases, link things together, and shorten it to maybe one or perhaps two sentences. And there's your precis: hey presto! And with no tears. So just to recap, here are those five easy stages.

For every fresh thought, start a fresh paragraph. Start every paragraph with your key sentence or conclusion. Make sure your paragraphs are in the right order.

Fish out the first sentence of every paragraph. String them together, edit, and you have a precis. In this brief tutorial, an expert in business writing boils the creation of a precis, or summary, to five easy to follow steps.