descriptive sentences, conversation — all must go. The précis of a story is therefore much shorter, in relation to its original, than the abstract of a description, or of a passage packed full of thoughts and ideas. This is particularly true of longer narratives, and of the detailed stories of accident and crime such as newspapers print. Often these may be reduced in a précis to a tenth or even a twentieth of their original form. Pages 34-43 contain a number of anecdotes suitable for summarizing in ten or twelve minutes.

G

You all know the famous story of Jack and the Beanstalk." In Mr. P. W. Coussens's collection of folk-stories this legend is told in fourteen pages, or about five thousand words. Here is a précis of the story in 150 words.

Précis

Once upon a time a boy named Jack was sent by his mother to sell a cow. He soon met a butcher to whom he sold the animal for a few colored beans. His mother was very angry, and threw them away. Now one of the beans fell in the garden, took root, and grew so rapidly in one night that in the morning the top reached into the heavens. Jack climbed up the vine, and came to an extensive country. After various adventures a fairy met him and directed him to the house of a giant, from whom he acquired great wealth. Several times he returned, and the last time he was pursued by the giant. Jack scrambled down the vine, and as the monster attempted to follow, he seized his hatchet and cut away the bean-stalk, whereupon the giant fell and was killed. Jack and his mother lived afterward in comfort.

Webster's New International Dictionary

PRÉCIS OF A POEM

An abstract of a poem is in no essential respects different from an abstract of a passage of prose. As a rule, the process is more difficult. Poetic diction, figures of speech, and inverted

sentences sometimes obscure the thought. Teachers of précis writing have usually found it a good practice to let pupils translate the poem, as it were, into simple prose, before they begin to write a summary. Otherwise most students, until they have become experienced précis writers, will hold too closely to the language of the poet, and develop a stilted reproduction rather than a concise, simple statement in words of their own. Here, as elsewhere in précis study, coöperative class work, done orally with the instructor, is the best foundation for the successful making of abstracts.

Poems and poetical selections for summarizing may be found on pages 119-148.

H

At the beginning of an English period one morning in January a senior class was asked to open The Golden Treasury of Songs and Lyrics at this poem:

DEATH THE LEVELER

The glories of our blood and state
Are shadows, not substantial things;

There is no armour against fate;

Death lays his icy hand on kings:
Sceptre and Crown

Must tumble down,

And in the dust be equal made

With the poor crooked scythe and spade.

Some men with swords may reap the field,
And plant fresh laurels where they kill:
But their strong nerves at last must yield;
They tame but one another still:
Early or late

They stoop to fate,

And must give up their murmuring breath
When they, pale captives, creep to death.

The garlands wither on your brow;
Then boast no more your mighty deeds;
Upon Death's purple altar now

See where the victor-victim bleeds:
Your heads must come

To the cold tomb;

Only the actions of the just

Smell sweet, and blossom in their dust.

-JAMES SHIRLEY

Here are two of the best summaries, which were written in ten minutes. Which do you think is the more satisfactory? In what ways could they both be improved?

-

- the strong, the weak, the

Précis 1 ·Death triumphs over all men noble, and the humble. Even glorious deeds of war count for nought. Virtue, and virtue alone, lasts through eternity.

(29 words)

Précis 2 Death comes to everyone, humble peasants and kings alike. Even heroes of the battlefield must yield at last, captives to Fate. So, too, the fame of mighty deeds fades away in time. Only actions that are noble and just live on through the ages and never die. (48 words)

PRÉCIS OF THE SONNET

No form of poetry offers more interesting problems in précis writing than the sonnet. In itself it is compact and closely knit together. It is a unit in thought and expression - a single emotion or a single clear-cut picture. In arrangement it is orderly, and bound within certain conventional rules. If it is a sonnet of the Shakespearean type, built up of three stanzas of four lines each, with a couplet at the end, the précis will naturally fall into three or four sentences, following the plan of the original. If it is divided into octave and sestet, the sonnet may often be condensed into two sentences, one for each division. More often still, a single well-constructed sen

tence may suffice for the whole poem. Because of their peculiar adaptability to précis writing, a number of famous sonnets are printed together on pages 137-148 of this volume.

I

The sonnet which follows is by John Keats. Read it carefully, and then examine the two summaries which were written by high-school seniors in twelve minutes. Do you agree with the class that the shorter is the superior précis? Point out some of the excellent points in each.

THE HUMAN SEASONS

Four Seasons fill the measure of the year;
There are four seasons in the mind of man:
He has his lusty Spring, when fancy clear
Takes in all beauty with an easy span:
He has his Summer, when luxuriously
Spring's honeyed cud of youthful thought he loves
To ruminate, and by such dreaming high
Is nearest unto heaven: quiet coves
His soul has in its Autumn, when his wings
He furleth close; contented so to look
On mists in idleness - to let fair things
Pass by unheeded as a threshold brook.
He has his Winter too of pale misfeature,
Or else he would forego his mortal nature.

Précis 1 The mind of man has four seasons, even as the year has. In youth he has his happy Spring, with its fancies and thoughts of beauty. Then comes his Summer of daydreaming, when he is happiest of all. Autumn follows, his season of repose and quiet. Then his Winter comes, reminding him that he is mortal and that the end is near. (63 words)

Précis 2

Man's life, too, has four seasons: his Spring of beautiful fancies; his Summer of thoughtful dreaming; his Autumn of idle contentment; his Winter of cold oblivion.

(27 words)

PARAGRAPH-STUDY

It is in the last two years of high-school English that teachers find their pupils ready for a somewhat intensive study of paragraph construction. Such a study fits in admirably with practice in précis writing. Each supplements and helps the other. Especially does the close examination of a passage, to separate its central thought from unimportant details, assist young students to appreciate paragraph development from topic sentences. The writing of a clear, concise, well-arranged précis is also excellent training in paragraph composition.

Many of the selections in this book may therefore serve a twofold purpose: (1) they may be used as material for précis work; (2) they may be studied as model paragraphs of various forms of prose.

Following are some of the more common types of paragraphs, with references to selections in this volume that may be used as models for study and imitation.

I.

2.

Narrative paragraphs (Selections 1-13)

Climax in narration; holding point of story until end of paragraph (3, 5, 6, 7, 12)

3. Paragraphs of conversation (5, 7, 8, 9)

4. Descriptive paragraphs (73-85)

5. Descriptions of persons (76, 77, 78, 81)

6. Description by enumeration of specific detail; accumulation of descriptive terms (73, 74, 81, 83, 84, 85, 89)

7. Description by effect upon others; description by suggestion (13, 33, 79)

8. Paragraphs of exposition, or explanation (14-72 and 86-103) 9. Orderly arrangement in exposition; clearness in explanatory paragraphs (16, 20, 58, 66)

10. Topic sentence at opening of paragraphs (16, 18, 21, 22, 23, 26, 35, 40, 44, 49, 53, 56, 57, 62, 65, 69, 70, 75, 88, 91, 92, 95) II. Topic sentence within paragraphs (33, 34, 36, 38, 41, 61, 67, 96)

12. Topic sentence at end of paragraphs (28, 45, 71, 93, 99)