Here’s How to Write a Précis When You Need To

Sometimes professors (or bosses) request that you write a précis on some book or journal article. When I first started graduate school, I wasn’t sure how to write a précis. By the time I left, I found this style of summary paper to be an incredibly helpful tool for studying for comps and preparing for seminar classes. Below you will find step-by-step instructions for writing a successful précis for class (or work).

Steps to Write a Précis

1. Read your reference material carefully. While reading you’ll want to note the main argument and any supporting information. You may need to read the article or book multiple times. When you’ve finished your close read, you should be able to summarize what you read without leaving out any part of the argument.
2. State the main argument of the article or book that you read.
3. Lay out the supporting premises. A premise is a statement in support of the main argument. For example in the argument, “All men are mortal. Socrates is a Man. Therefore, Socrates is mortal,” the statements “all men are mortal” and “Socrates is a Man” are both premises.
4. Define any key terms or phrases.
5. If the article or book is scientific or discusses experimentation or survey data results, discuss the research methodology the author uses.
6. Spell results out clearly for the reader.
7. Indicate why this particular body of research is important or impactful.

Should You Include Your Own Opinions of the Work?

A précis, strictly speaking, will not include your own opinions about the work. Instead, it is succinctly summarizing the work, the research that went into the work, the conclusions of the work, and why the work is important. It is an outstanding tool for studying because the process of creating it ensures that you won’t soon forget what you read. It also makes it easy, when conducting large research projects, to locate what book had just that argument you’re looking to cite.

For information involving writing a précis for fictional works, you may want to view the article, “How to Write a Précis” on Jason Bowman’s blog.