Dear Students, heartiest Congratulations to all of you for passing SSC CGL Tier-2 successfully. You've done really well, now it is time to focus on the next step, that is, mandatory descriptive test for all the candidates. SSC has introduced a descriptive paper in SSC CGL 2016 Examination for those who qualify the cutoffs of SSC Tier-2 Exam. The descriptive test is another obstacle that you need to cross successfully in order to get final selection. Now Prepare well and get to know the structure of the descriptive exam.
The duration of this paper is 1 hour, Applicants have the choice to appear for this Exam in Hindi Or English Language.It carries a weightage of 100 marks. and questions will be asked from the following sections:
1) Essay Writing
2) Letter Writing
3) Precis Writing
first, we will post all the important tricks and strategy to solve descriptive paper, then we will publish daily questions for practice for all three above mentioned topics.
Descriptive Paper: Précis Writing
Précis Writing means making a holistic/intelligent summary of a long paragraph. Students need to have a clear understanding of the passage to write a précis. Once you have understood the context, only then you can express it in a concise manner yet include all important points and idea. No new idea should be introduced in the precis writing.
Some basic points to keep in mind:
- You need to Learn to shorten your words, Practice to express using few words yet retaining the important idea of the paragraph.
- It is generally accepted that a précis should be a third of the passage given. If the original passage has 300 words, the précis should not be more than 110 words in length.
- Make sure you don't write in your own interpretation, always stick to the author's definition of the paragraph. The idea expressed by the author should not be distorted. A précis should be in the language of the précis-writer. The original passage is not to be reduced in length by just removing unimportant or unnecessary sentences and by reproducing the rest as the précis. It should be a brief gist or summary of the passage expressed in the writer’s own words.
- A précis should be full i.e. it should contain all the essential thoughts, ideas or fact in the original passage. It should not contain repetitions or observations that are not relevant to the main theme of the original.
- A précis is always written in Reported Speech. The passage given may be a speech made by a person in Direct Speech, but the précis is to be in Reported Speech or the Third Person or in the Past tense.
The trick of Précis – Writing
There are three important steps to follow in order to produce a clear and successful precis. They are (1) Reading, (2) Writing and (3) Revision.
1. Reading the passage
Reading of the passage carefully is very important, if you don't understant it in first attempt, read it again. As you read, find out the subject or the theme of the passage and what is said about the subject.
It will be a good thing if you find out the lead or the topic sentence. The lead sentence will help you to see the subject clearly.
It will also help you to think of a title. Now comes the process of selection. The writer of the précis writing passages has to decide what facts or ideas in the passage are essential and what are of secondary or no importance. Taking the main ideas of the passages as your point of reference, it should not be too difficult to write out the important points in the original in a corner of your writing worksheet.
2. Writing the drafts
You should first prepare a draft of the précis, keeping in mind, the need to reduce the original to one-third its length. The main thoughts expressed in the passage, the ideas it contains, the opinions presented and the conclusion arrived at should figure in the rough draft. Unimportant things like the names of people and places and dates should not figure in it.
It may so happen that your first draft is too long or that it sounds rather verbose. Shorten it if necessary and write out a careful second draft. Sometimes you may need to work out three or even four drafts, but with reasonable care and concentration, you should normally succeed in producing good précis writing by the second draft.
3. Revision of the final draft
When you have made your second (or final) draft, carefully revise it before writing out the fair copy. Look for any mistakes or slips in grammar or spelling and correct them. Don’t forget to give your précis a title.
Keep Studying. keep Writing. Keep Practicing. In the next article, we'll discuss letter writing for descriptive test. Stay tuned for more.
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