Writ e a Precis on Randolph B Campbell’s book An empire for slavery,you should try to actively analyze the target text, and a good precis will reflect this involvement by focusing effectively on what’s really important in the argument. Your precis should make the following clear:
the nature of the evidence or reasoning that the author invokes
the key steps in that reasoning
how those steps move the author toward his or her conclusion
A precis should be brief. In fact, one of the challenges of writing a precis is finding ways to write as concisely as possible without oversimplifying the argument you are summarizing.
The purpose of the precis itself is to develop a critical summary and not a critical review. In other words, you’re not giving your opinion of the argument. Sometimes, though, a precis will lead into some sort of further comment on the value and persuasiveness of the authors argument. Depending on the specific assignment you are asked to fulfill, a precis can become the starting point for an evaluation of the original argument or even a counter-argument in response to it.