Precis of How to Read the Bible

You will need to write the Precis on the book “How to Read the Bible for all its worth” Author Gordon D. Fee & Douglas Stuart. This can be downloaded for a fee. I checked it is approx $15.00, I’ll pay for you to access this book.  A “précis” is a particular kind of book summary. Make sure to read “How to Write a Précis” below. Each précis should be 7 to 9 pages of text.  A précis is a concise summary of a text. The following are some guidelines and suggestions for writing a good précis. a. Put yourself in the author’s place. Your job is to describe, not evaluate. This is not a review. Imagine that you are the author and must say the same thing as the book but in far fewer words. (A précis is one form of writing in which originality is not a virtue.

The author’s name should not appear within the précis, since you are speaking for, not about, the author. Likewise, quotation marks never appear in a precis, since by definition the entire content is paraphrase, or indirect quotation. A précis is therefore one genre. A good précis is nevertheless a paraphrase in one’s own words, not a pastiche of quotations. That is, you never write, “the author says . . .” because you are the author’s voice. You write the précis as if you were the actual author, only now writing a much shorter version of the book. c. The précis should be a miniature version of the original. It should therefore have the same structure, though in compressed form. Chapter titles and perhaps section subtitles should be included in the précis .

These aid the reader by summarizing what follows. But if there are too many of titles, they become distracting; use good judgement. d. At each point in the original text ask yourself what the author’s main point is. Then state it briefly and directly, without any elaboration, examples, or supporting arguments. Go directly to the next major point, making clear the transition between them. e. Your precis should be readable and make sense to someone unfamiliar with the original. Aim for a flowing and coherent summary rather than a list of unrelated statements.

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