Critical précis

A critical précis is an expository style of writing, analogous in structure to an essay but which contains a summary of another piece of text. In essence, the entire content summarizes all the main ideas, arguments and abstractions within the text into a shorter passage a fraction of its original length, in order to provide insight into the original author's thesis. The writer of the précis is careful to avoid copying any direct wording from the original text in order to avoid academic plagiarism, except in short passage quotations where necessary.

The précis is a common assignment in the humanities and liberal arts streams in higher education. Typical lengths are less than 500 to 1500 words.

The majority of higher education students find the précis to be a useful analytical format and tool (citation needed). Its use also extends to interdisciplinary formats, and is sometimes also identified as a rhetorical précis.

The précis is written from an impartial third-person point of view, although personal analysis of a text can also be considered précis format. The analysis of ideas is usually in chronological order.

The opening paragraph follows a certain structure: ...the author...

These words exemplify the use of rhetorically accurate verbs.

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