Sometimes less is more.
While they are edifiers, essays can be as expressive and creative as narratives. New journalists like Hunter S. Thompson and Thomas Wolfe took what would have been dull news stories and turned them into counterculture classics. Truman Capote took a Kansas murder and revolutionized how crime novels worked. Mary Roach and Stephen Dubner add vivid imagery and figurative language to factual, data-driven articles.
Yet not all essays require flourish; in fact, some essays should just get straight to the point. This is where a specific essay called a precis shines. A precis is an essay stripped of everything but the essential argument. The reason? A precis should be a ridiculously quick read--it should take two or three minutes to read aloud. Preces are used mostly in two areas: debate and education. As debate focuses on timed responses, the precis format is able to boil down a lot of research into a brief argument that is quick to hear. Academia also uses preces when students need to create a deep analysis in a brief amount of time -- almost every standardized writing test, from PARCC to AP tests to the ACT and SAT, recommends using the precis format. Both debates and academic tests provide the author with a clear prompt to answer, which allows so much content to be easily cut.
So what is the precis format? Here are the big rules:
Yet not all essays require flourish; in fact, some essays should just get straight to the point. This is where a specific essay called a precis shines. A precis is an essay stripped of everything but the essential argument. The reason? A precis should be a ridiculously quick read--it should take two or three minutes to read aloud. Preces are used mostly in two areas: debate and education. As debate focuses on timed responses, the precis format is able to boil down a lot of research into a brief argument that is quick to hear. Academia also uses preces when students need to create a deep analysis in a brief amount of time -- almost every standardized writing test, from PARCC to AP tests to the ACT and SAT, recommends using the precis format. Both debates and academic tests provide the author with a clear prompt to answer, which allows so much content to be easily cut.
So what is the precis format? Here are the big rules:
No creative title
Creating titles is one of the most difficult parts of writing. A good title is the last thing developed by an author and should relate to images, ideas, or figurative tropes in the essay. Yet preces must be done quickly and one doesn't have enough time to craft an interesting title. Leave titles off completely unless specifically instructed to do so (and even in this case, the title is often the name of the text or the prompt).
Introduction: A naked thesis
Introductions ease a reader into a topic with an anecdote of frontloading of a situation before addressing the argument. As preces are developed in response to a prompt, introductions are totally unnecessary. There's no need to know the situation, just the author's stance on the prompt -- which is the thesis. As the main point of the essay, the thesis is still vital and should be developed in the usual way. However, the thesis should remain a single sentence at the beginning with no introduction whatsoever.
Body paragraphs: Rule of two or three
The logic of strong claim-detailed data-reasonable warrant should also remain in the essay. Yet while a normal essay can have longer and elaborate essays, preces need to get straight to the point. This leads to the rule of two or three. First, there should be only two or three body paragraphs to support the thesis. Next, each paragraph should have either two or three pieces of evidence for each claim -- no more or less. Finally, to keep sentences from being too long and to keep the author from slipping into run-ons, each sentence in the body paragraphs should only have two or three clauses.
Conclusion: Nope
A conclusion summarizes the main points and broadens the essay to beyond the topic to the greater world. This is completely unneeded for a precis. There should be no trace of a concluding paragraph, concluding statement, or even concluding transitions like in summary or all in all.
...but keep in mind, it's still a formal essay
Even in a precis format, some things don't change. Remember that even in a precis, the author should:
- Use proper in-text citation when giving direct quotations in the body paragraphs and (where appropriate) including any needed text citations at the end (though the "Works Cited" title is always left off).
- Follow the conventions of proper rhetoric and avoid fallacy.
- Use an objective tone and avoid using both first person (I, me) and second person (you) perspective.
- Follow the principles of good diction and syntax--in fact, the ACT and SAT both evaluate the style of their preces along the lines of tone, diction, and syntax. Even with imagery and figurative language stripped away, a precis still needs style.
- Use parallelism: ironically, parallel structures are more important for meaning in essays of fewer words than those that are longer, so using parallel construction is highly recommended.
- Include transitions: while you want to cut any wordiness, conjunctive adverbs are still vital to connect ideas together in a cohesive way
- Adhere to proper grammatical conventions (duh)