A Progressive Course on Precis Writing By F E Robsen

Description

A Progressive Course on Precis Writing By F E Robsen . PART I is intended for beginners only, i.e. to give elementary practice in the condensation of simple narratives. Pupils who have had previous practice in precis writing should be allowed to pass on at once to Part II. Some teachers, again, may consider that the reproduction of English passages, such, for instance, as those in Mr. Banks’s Graduated Passages for Reproduction (Oxford University Press), is a sufficient preparation for dealing with official correspondence and will prefer to dispense with Part I and to let even beginners in precis writing start with the shorter exercises of Part II. Part II, which occupies the bulk of the book, contains for the most part official correspondence, minutes of evidence.

The exercises are so arranged as to present a gradual increase in difficulty. Some of the earlier exercises in this Part consist of single letters, which it is hoped will be useful to those who omit Part I altogether, if not to others. The Rules given in the Introduction refer mainly to the exercises in Part II, but some of them are applicable to Part I, and reference is there occasionally made to them in footnotes. The length of the exercises in this book is not, except at the end of Part II, excessive for the ordinary length of a school period, viz. three-quarters of an hour to an hour. This will probably be convenient even for pupils who are preparing for an examination in which as much as two or three hours are allowed.