Tips to Master Reading Comprehension & Précis Writing

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Reading Comprehension

Reading Comprehension is one of the most important questions (in Pakistani Educational System) if one is taking a linguistics exam in which one has to read a passage and answer the questions asked relevant to that passage. Comprehension means to extract the hidden information. We have been doing this all our lives; read a lesson and answer the question asked at the end of the lesson.
I'll cover some important step one must follow to master reading comprehension and, of course, excel in the examination.

Step 1:-

Skim through the passage multiple times in order to get a gist of it and get to know its main idea. This step is often called earmarking. Earmarking is done to find the thesis sentence of the paragraph. Skimming makes you aware of which information is where in the paragraph. Make sure you underline important phrases / words.

Step 2:-

After you've read the piece of text and marked some important information, you are now able to answer the questions. Read the questions carefully and recall the main idea which you had got from Step 1 The question asked can be of following four types:

1. Specific Point Questions
2. Main Idea
3. Inference or  Indirect Questions
4. Words' Meanings

Specific point questions are those which you can answer by just copying some part of the passage. The main idea of the passage can also be asked which is not a big deal if you've done Step 1 with a lot of care. Inference questions are the most important ones. Inference questions are those which you have to answer by understanding the indirect meaning of the text (which comprehension really is all about) and answer in your own words.

Step 3:-

Now, you know the passage well and have read the questions, you can now search for the answers from the passage. This step is called scanning. In scanning, the information gathered in Step 1 enables you to answer the questions.

I've discussed Step 1 in other 2 steps also, this makes it clear how important is to read and understand the paragraph before moving on.

Quick Tip:
      After enough practice, you can perform Step 2 in the beginning and then perform Step 1 and Step 3 together. This would save a lot of time.

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Précis Writing

Précis writing, like comprehension, is very important when it comes to showing one's writing skills. Précis means to write the main idea of something in one's own words by concizing the original text. Précis writing has no steps to follow, instead it has some tips one should always remember while writing a précis:

• Read the passage carefully and count the number of words or make a wild guess
• The précis should not be more than one-third of the original text
• Facts, figures, and dates are supporting the main text, so they can be omitted
• Repeating ideas must be excluded
• Always write the writer's point of view 
• Never try to merge your own ideas into the original theme
• Try to use one-word substitutions as much as possible
• Adverbs should be used instead of long explanations

Quick Tip:
      Beginners can divide the original text into as many parts as they like and then precise each part one by one. Summing these parts` précis will get the job done!

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