ART OF CONDENSATION

The Art of Condensation is a process to make any piece of writing precise by omitting
unnecessary elements. This art of condensation in creative writing is synonymous with
prcis writing.
Prcis
Etymologically French
atin French Precis
Praecidere Precise
To cut short to say something precisely
According to Collins Dictionary!
"To make a prcis of a given passage is to e#tract its main
points and e#press them clearly$.
According to Oxfords Dictionary:
"A concise or abridged statement% a summary% or abstract.$
&n fact a prcis or the Art of Condensation is 'ust a straight forward statement of the bare(
facts without any unnecessary trimming. That means it must be able to )stand alone* and
make a complete sense.
Characteristics of Art of Condensation
+e should remember , Cs as characteristics of Art of Condensation.
-. Completeness .. Compactness
/. Conciseness 0. Clarity
,. Coherence
1 Co!"leteness: The prcis must have the essential contents of the original passage
without omitting any important fact.
# Co!"actness: All the ideas we produced from the original document should form
compactness. The words and sentences should convey a sense of unity with each other.
$ Conciseness: 1revity is the essence of prcis. &t is achieved by avoiding repetitions
and omitting ornamental phrases etc. but brevity should not be achieved at the cost of
clarity. There should be economy of words but not of ideas.
% Clarity: The prcis should have clarity of e#pressions. This can be achieved by getting
rid of redundancy. &t should be in the language which could be understood by everyone.
& Coherence: The main theme should run through the sentences like the string of a
necklace. All the sentences and ideas in a prcis should follow one after other in an
unbreakable chain. They should follow a natural order of development. 2ne sentence
should suggest the ne#t and so on. Above all the prcis should not look like a collection
of dis'ointed sentences% but a well connected one.
STE'S OF 'R(CIS )RITIN*
-. Identify the Reader and '+r"ose of 'r,cis: 3etermine how formal the prcis
could be. 4e5uired details should be included.
.. Read the Original Doc+!ent: A thorough and slow reading of paragraph is
re5uired.
/. -nderline the .ey Idea and Conce"ts: 6nderline the main points.
0. )rite a S+ita/le0 Ex"lanatory0 Title: it should sums up the passage.
,. )rite a Note Fro! S+!!ary: &t*s better to sum up the paragraph in points.
2mit irrelevant information.
7. )rite the 'r,cis: Frame summari8ed points into coherent sentences.
9. Re1ie2 and Edit: compare with original document.
'R(CIS FOR3ATION
Title
'oints: -.
..
/.
0.
'r,cis:
4oca/+lary: -. +ord! :eaning .. +ord! :eaning /. +ord! :eaning