Précis writing for beginners

GUY N. POCOCK, M.A.
Royal Naval College, Dartmouth Late Head of the History and English Department, Military Side, Cheltenham College
BLACKIE AND SON LIMITED 50 OLD BAILEY LONDON GLASGOW AND BOMBAY


The object of this little book is to teach précis writing from the very start. It has been found from experience that the average boy who in the Lower Fifth Form starts making précis of Government Blue Books and Collected Correspondence, will flounder about for a whole term without understanding what he is really expected to do.
The following exercises are progressive and the rules of strict précis writing are learnt one by one. The exercises are really very simple parodies of Government Reports, &c., such as a boy will have to deal with in the higher forms and the Army Examinations. They are arranged in groups, e.g. Reports , Correspondence , Trials , Ships’ Logs , and so forth. After working through the series a boy should be perfectly competent to tackle the real thing.
Incidentally, there is no better training than précis writing for concentration of thought and expression.
G. N. P.
Royal Naval College, Dartmouth. April, 1917.