A Precis (a French word, pronounced as presee) is a summary, and precis-writing is summarising, or giving the substance or main ideas of a passage in brief and intelligible form.
"A precis is a succint digest of the essential facts contained in any piece of printed, written, or spoken matter."—Lydall.
[Summary "rightly suggests the idea of much heavier stuff, a fuller and ampler version, than the word precis, which presupposes the utmost precision.... reducing the thoughts ard ideas to the barest essentials."]
A precis is an abstract or a summary, but it means much more. A summary is a fuller and ampler version of any written or spoken matter. But a precis reduces thoughts and ideas to the barest essentials and expresses them with the utmost precision in the fewest possible words. There is a second point of difference with a summary. In a summary a matter is reproduced in a condensed form. But in a precis it is not enough to write concisely or to pick out the main facts of a manuscript or a document. The facts are to be arranged in their logical order in a continuous narrative. A precis must help the reader in gathering quickly and easily the meaning without any reference to the original. The third point of difference is that "every precis must have a heading," (Lydall). It is to be given at the top of the precis. It will tell the reader at a glance what is the subject of the narrative. A precis resembles a summary, substance, gist, or main ideas or paraphrase in some respects, but it differs from them all in essential points and in its scope and purpose.
Passages are of three kinds -
(a) Descriptive, describing places, scenes or objects.
(b) Narrative, narrating stories or events.
(c) Reflective, containing reflections on some virtues or vices, or on abstract things (like Death, Kindness of God)
NOTE: Earthquake, flood, etc., as general terms make descriptive writings;
but when a particular earthquake or flood, etc. is referred to, it is a narrative writing.
