The Art of Precision Writing

Are you languishing in your language?

‘Precis writing’ is a tough skill to master. In effect, you summarise an article or essay into its key components. To do so requires critical thinking skills in analysis, convergent thinking, and synthesis. To encapsulate such thinking is to possess crystallised thinking, and applying your linguistic/language ability into a readable format.

How can you approach such skills?

Do Write Regularly

With the social media platform, write your thoughts on your postings on Facebook, Twitter, and blogs. Share your comments, instead of clicking on ‘Like’. Write with/on any media: prose, poetry, reviews, recommendations, comparisons, and feedback.

Create Useful Lists

Summarise with a list. Use PowerPoint bullets. However, write with at least three words. My favourite exercise is to create a Top-10 list. That is why bestsellers tend to use numbers between 5-9 principles. For example, 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, The Eighth Habit, The Power of 3, and the 22 Immutable Laws of Marketing.

Formulate Your Opinions

What did you like? What did you dislike? Opinions are theories and they reflect our thinking at one stage in our life. Film reviews are the best. Write about your experience at a hotel through their Feedback page. Twitter challenges us to compose our thoughts, all within the 140-character, framework. Edit, by replacing, eliminating, words and phrases. Avoid shorthand that enhances confusions and wrong assumptions. Generation X may not understand enough of Generation-Y/Millennials’ language of brevity.

Review What You Wrote

Looking back, on reflecting, you can appreciate the wisdom of your hindsight, or the naivety of youth. There can be much to glean from previous thinking, and assess how far we have progressed. Use your vocabulary to your advantage and exactness.