Avoiding Personal Opinions and Redundancy in Précis WritingAvoiding Personal Opinions and Redundancy in Précis Writing

A précis must faithfully reflect the original author's intent without injecting the examiner's or candidate's personal beliefs, biases, or value judgments.

• Elimination of First and Second Person Pronouns: Avoid words like 'I', 'Me', 'We', 'Us', 'You', and 'My'. The entire précis must be written strictly in the third person (He, She, It, They, One, The author, The passage).
• Banning Evaluative and Critical Commentary: Never use phrases like 'In my opinion', 'It is unfortunate that', 'The author brilliantly argues', or 'I strongly feel'. Present only the facts and core arguments stated in the source text.
• Faithful Representation over Agreement: Even if the candidate strongly disagrees with the thesis presented in the passage, the précis must accurately capture the author's viewpoint without refuting or validating it personally.
• Exclusion of External Knowledge and Extrapolation: Do not add outside facts, contemporary updates, or personal experiences to enrich the précis. The scope of information is strictly limited to the four corners of the given passage.

Redundancy occurs when words express something already conveyed, wasting precious word count in the mandatory one-third limit.

• Striking Out Pleonasms: Remove redundant adjective-noun pairings such as 'completely eliminate' (eliminate suffices), 'true facts' (facts are inherently true), or 'future plans' (plans are always for the future).
• Eliminating Wordy Prepositional Phrases: Convert bulky phrases into single-word equivalents, such as 'at this point in time' to 'now', 'in the event that' to 'if', and 'with regard to' to 'regarding' or 'about'.
• Removing Doublets and Amplifications: Writers often use paired synonyms for emphasis (e.g., 'null and void', 'each and every'). In a précis, retain only one term to maintain maximum conciseness.
• Trimming Introductory Fluff and Filler Openings: Phrases like 'It is interesting to note that', 'It is important to point out that', and 'As we all know' add zero semantic value and must be deleted instantly during drafting.

A cardinal rule in Allahabad High Court and UPPSC descriptive examinations is compressing the source text to exactly or approximately 33% (one-third) of its original word count.

• Accurate Word Counting Protocol: Count every single word in the source passage accurately. If the passage contains 300 words, the target length for the précis must strictly fall between 95 and 105 words.
• Penalty for Excessive Length or Extreme Brevity: Exceeding the limit (e.g., writing 150 words for a 300-word text) or under-compressing (writing 50 words, missing core details) leads to severe negative marking by examiners.
• Drafting via the Compression Ratio Formula: Formula: Target Words = Total Source Words / 3. Allocate 60% time for reading and rough drafting, and 40% time for word-count adjustment and final polishing.

A suitable title encapsulates the central theme in 3 to 6 words, while logical connectivity ensures smooth transitions between condensed ideas.

• Characteristics of an Effective Title: The title must be brief, thematic, and directly reflective of the core subject. Avoid interrogative titles or complete sentences; noun phrases work best (e.g., 'Impact of Judicial Activism').
• Preserving Chronological and Cause-Effect Flow: Do not scramble the sequence of events. If the original text moves from historical background to contemporary challenge and future solution, the précis must follow the exact same logical arc.
• Using Transition Markers Sparingly: Employ concise conjunctions and transitions ('Consequently', 'Furthermore', 'However', 'Therefore') to link sentences seamlessly without increasing unnecessary word bulk.