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🇵🇰 CSS English Precis and Composition · flashcards
CSS English Precis and Composition Precis Writing Flashcards
51 question-and-answer cards covering Precis Writing as it is examined in CSS English Precis and Composition. 24 of them are printed below, taken from across the deck — no signup, no paywall on the preview.
24 sample cards from the Precis Writing deck
Sampled from the end of the deck, so these are different cards from the ones shown on the syllabus page.
Why must repeated ideas be condensed in a precis?
Authors often repeat or rephrase points for emphasis; a precis records each idea only once to maintain brevity and avoid wasting the limited word count.
Give an example of replacing a wordy phrase with a single word in precis writing.
'In spite of the fact that' becomes 'although'; 'at this point in time' becomes 'now'; 'a large number of' becomes 'many'.
What is the technique of 'replacing phrases with single words' used for?
To compress lengthy expressions into precise single words, helping reduce the passage to one-third length while preserving meaning.
Replace the phrase 'due to the fact that' with a single word.
'Because' (or 'since').
Replace the phrase 'in the event that' with a single word.
'If'.
Replace the phrase 'one who studies the stars' with a single word.
'Astronomer'.
Replace the phrase 'a person who cannot read or write' with a single word.
'Illiterate'.
In which person and tense is a precis typically written?
In the third person, and usually in the past tense (reported speech), regardless of how the original was written.
Why is a precis written in reported (indirect) speech?
Because the precis-writer reports the author's ideas rather than reproducing direct quotations; this maintains objectivity and the third-person perspective.
If the original passage is in the first person ('I believe...'), how is it expressed in the precis?
It is converted to the third person, e.g., 'The author believes...' or 'The writer argues...', using reported speech.
Convert this direct speech to reported speech for a precis: He said, 'I am working hard.'
He said that he was working hard.
When converting direct to indirect speech, how do present-tense verbs generally change?
They shift back one tense: present simple becomes past simple, present continuous becomes past continuous, and present perfect becomes past perfect.
In reported speech, how do the words 'now', 'today', and 'here' typically change?
'Now' becomes 'then', 'today' becomes 'that day', and 'here' becomes 'there'.
In reported speech, how does 'tomorrow' change?
'Tomorrow' becomes 'the next day' (or 'the following day').
In reported speech, how do the pronouns 'I' and 'we' typically change?
'I' becomes 'he' or 'she', and 'we' becomes 'they', according to the third-person perspective of the precis.
List the main steps in the process of writing a precis.
1) Read the passage multiple times for full comprehension; 2) Identify the central theme and main ideas; 3) Underline key points and discard details/repetition; 4) Note the target one-third length; 5) Draft in your own words, third person, reported speech; 6) Revise for clarity, coherence, and length; 7) Give an appropriate title.
Should a precis contain direct quotations from the original passage?
No. A precis avoids direct quotations and reproduces ideas in the writer's own words using indirect (reported) speech.
Can a precis be longer or contain more ideas than the original passage?
No. A precis must always be shorter (about one-third) and can never add new ideas, information, or interpretations beyond the original.
What role does a topic sentence play in identifying main ideas for a precis?
A topic sentence states the central point of its paragraph, so identifying it helps the writer extract the main idea while discarding the surrounding supporting details.
Why must a precis be self-contained and intelligible on its own?
A reader who has not seen the original should still understand the full gist from the precis alone, so it must clearly convey all essential ideas in coherent form.
How does conciseness differ from incompleteness in a precis?
Conciseness means expressing all essential ideas in the fewest words; incompleteness means omitting essential ideas. A good precis is concise yet complete.
What is the relationship between underlining keywords and achieving the one-third length?
Underlining isolates the essential keywords and main ideas; building the precis only from these (and dropping unmarked details) naturally compresses the text toward one-third length.
Why is accuracy considered a vital quality of a precis?
Because a precis must faithfully represent the author's meaning; any distortion, misinterpretation, or omission of a main idea makes the precis inaccurate and defeats its purpose.
Summarize the difference between a precis and a paraphrase.
A paraphrase restates a passage in different words at roughly the same length, while a precis both restates and drastically condenses it to about one-third, keeping only the main ideas.
What this deck covers
The Precis Writing deck follows the CSS English Precis and Composition Precis Writing syllabus — 5 chapters and 20 topics — so questions land on material that is genuinely examinable rather than trivia around it. That works out to roughly 10.2 cards per chapter.
Answers are written to be recallable, not just readable — averaging about 120 characters, which is long enough to carry the reasoning and short enough to say out loud.
A deck like this earns its keep on the second and third pass. Read the syllabus first so you know the shape of the subject, then use the cards to find the specific facts that have not stuck.
Precis Writing flashcards FAQ
How many Precis Writing flashcards are in this CSS English Precis and Composition deck?
51 cards. This page previews 24 of them, sampled evenly across the deck so you can judge the difficulty before installing anything.
Are these CSS English Precis and Composition flashcards free?
Yes. The preview here is free to read with no signup, and the full 51-card deck is free inside the Examius app.
What do the Precis Writing cards cover?
They follow the CSS English Precis and Composition Precis Writing syllabus — 5 chapters and 20 topics — so the questions track what is actually examinable.
How should I use these flashcards?
Read the syllabus first so you know the shape of the subject, then drill the deck. Examius schedules each card with spaced repetition, so cards you keep missing come back sooner and ones you know drift further apart.