This Precis Writing – BCR CA Foundation Study Material is designed strictly as per the latest syllabus and exam pattern.
Precis Writing – BCR CA Foundation Study Material
Question 1.
Read the passage given below and draft a precis with a suitable title.
There is a common tendency among the people in management to view the results of our efforts in terms of statistical reports, graphs, and overall trends without adequate study of the real changes and improvements that take place in the individuals on the payroll. Management, however, attains its objective by increasing the knowledge, adding to the skills, changing the habits, and influencing the attributes of people. The real measure of the effectiveness of leadership at all levels is what is actually happening to the individuals directly responsible for that leadership – what changes are really taking place in the relationships of the supervisor and the supervised.
The most vital spot in management is the point of contact between worker and boss. More attention should be paid to making this contact constructive and productive at all levels of management, than to any other activity. Constructive conditions prevail in an organization when mutual confidence and respect exist between the supervisor and the supervised. This usually results from a conviction on the part of an individual that the boss is genuinely interested in him, that he is giving him every possible opportunity to develop to his higher potential in character, personality, and productiveness, and that he is providing every practical assistance toward that end. Management should get its job done by increasing the personal growth and output, ie., the productivity of the individual worker. When satisfactory results are being realized, both the boss and the worker benefit. Each achieves greater work satisfaction and should receive recognition through commensurate rewards.
Thus the vital spot in management exists between the healthy and productive relations that are fostered between the top management, the departmental officers, and between each officer and other members of the staff and among foremen, supervisors, and respective workers. Incentives and training facilities are to be provided and opportunities are to be created for workers to develop initiative, drive, and ambition, which will certainly put the undertaking on road to enduring prosperity. This is the kind of management that guides the future. (352 words).
(a) Choice of title:
‘The Importance of a Creative Relationship between the Management and the Employees in an Undertaking’ seems to be the suitable title.
(b) Precis
The Importance of a Creative Relationship between the Management and the Employees in an Undertaking. The management of an undertaking usually assesses its efforts to improve a lot of the employees in terms of quantitative changes capable of concrete representation.
Efficient management, however, aims at qualitative improvement-multiplication of knowledge, development of skills, improvement in working habits – to increase the working capacity of the employees and to promote their relations with the management. A healthy and creative boss-subordinate relationship fostered in an atmosphere of mutual confidence and respect is of paramount importance in management. An employee, satisfied that his boss is genuinely interested in his welfare and will readily allow him opportunities and assistance to develop, will surely work to the satisfaction of the management. The promotion of congenial relationships at all levels of the staff is the key to the prosperity of an undertaking.
Question 2.
Read the passage given below and prepare a precis with a suitable title.
In all modern economies, money plays a crucial role as a tool of motivation. It is recognized to have the ability to satisfy several types of needs and wants of people; the basic creature comforts pertaining to food, clothing, and shelter; the psychological needs for safety and security as also the need for status, prestige, and esteem. All these needs have both quantitative and qualitative implications. People not only seek to have more of the same thing, but they also aspire to have a better quality of things such as an independent house instead of an apartment, exclusive club membership, and so forth. As more and more things are monetized, money is in a position to buy several types of tangible and intangible satisfactions. In a way, for a large majority of people, the need for money almost replaces several other needs with the result that money earning becomes an obsession and mission for them.
Yet it is physically impossible for a well-educated, intellectual, or brave man to make money the chief object of his thoughts; just as it is for him to make his dinner the principal object of them. All healthy people like their dinners, but their dinner is not the main objective of their lives. So also, all healthy-minded people like making money-ought to like it, and enjoy the sensation of getting it; but the main object of their life is not money-it is something better than money. A real soldier, for instance, mainly wishes to do his fighting well. He is glad of his pay-very properly so, and justifies complaints when he is not given it. Still, his main notion of life is to win battles, not to be paid for winning them. The same is true of doctors. They like fees no doubt, ought to like them; yet if they are brave and well-educated, the entire object of their lives is not fees.
They, on the whole, desire to cure the sick; and if they are good doctors, and the choice was fairly put to them, they would rather cure their patient, and lose the fee than kill him and get it. And so with all other brave and rightly trained men; their work is first, their fee second-very important no doubt, but still second. However, in every nation, there are vast numbers of people who are ill-educated, cowardly, and more or less stupid. And with these people, just as certainly the fee is first and the work second; as with brave people the work is first and the fee second.
Answer
Work Before Money
In contemporary economies and societies, money is important for satisfying several needs, physiological and psychological, and also helps to improve the quality of life. Money can buy both tangible and intangible satisfactions. Money can be an obsession and chief mission for many people. Yet money is not the main goal for well-educated, intelligent, or brave men; but something nobler is the ideal. A good soldier, though glad to get his pay when due, aims at victory in war, not monetary rewards. Similarly, doctors need money, but success in their profession comes before fees. Likewise for other good men; their work comes first, money afterward. But universally there are unworthy people who have the opposite view.
Question 3.
Read the passage:
Write summary:
Anything printed and bound in a book size can be called a book, but the quality or mind distinguishes the value of it. What is a book? This is’ how Anatole France describes it: “A series of little printed signs essentially only that. It is for the reader to supply himself the forms and colors and sentiments to which these signs correspond, it will depend on him whether the book be dull or brilliant, hot with passion or cold as ice. Or if you prefer to put it otherwise each word in a book is a magic finger that sets a fibre of our brain vibrating like a hard string and so evokes a note from the sounding board of our soul No matter how skillful, how inspired the artist’s hand, the sound it makes depends on the quality of the strings within ourselves”
Until recently books were the preserve of a small section the upper classes. Some, even today, make it a point to call themselves intellectuals. It would be a pity if books were meant only for intellectuals and not for housewives, farmers, factory workers, artisans and, so on.
In India there are first-generation learners, whose parents might have been illiterate. This poses special challenges to our authors and to those who are entrusted with the task of disseminating knowledge. We need much more research in the use of language and the development of techniques by which know ledge can be transferred to these people without transmission loss. Publishers should initiate campaigns to persuade people that a good book makes a beautiful present and that reading a good book can be the most relaxing as well as absorbing of pastimes. We should aim at books of quality no less than at quantitative expansion in production and sale. Unless one is constantly exposed to the best, one cannot develop a taste for the good.
Answer:
Any content printed and bound can be defined as a book, but the quality or mind defines its value. As per Antole France, reader can transform the content of the book into something that is either dull or enthralling, or cold or soul-stirring, by using power of his imaginative brain. Upto recent time, books were regarded as reserved for upper urban class. However efforts must be made to spread the reach of books to a wider audience. This necessitates efforts on the part of authors to research in use of language and development of techniques for effective transmission of knowledge. Publishers should also campaign to popularise books as gifts and engaging pastime. Quantitative as well as qualitative expansion in production & sale of books, must be aimed for.
Question 4.
Write a precis and give appropriate title to the passage given below:
Teaching is the noblest of professions. A teacher has a scared duty to perform. It is he on whom rests the responsibility of moulding the character of young children. Apart from developing their intellect, he can inculcate in them qualities of good citizenship, remaining neat and clean, talking decently and sitting properly. These virtues are not easy to be imbibed. Only he who himself leads a life of simplicity, purity and rigid discipline cam successfully cultivate these habits in his pupils.
Besides a teacher always remain young. He may grow old in age, but not in spite. Perpetual contact with budding youths keeps him happy and cheerful These are moments when domestic worries weigh heavily on his mind, but the delightful company of innocent children makes him overcome his transient moods of despair.
Answer:
Teaching – A noble profession
Teaching is an honourable profession wherein the teacher is entrusted with responsibility of shaping the character of children, developing their intelligence and instilling virtues & etiquette in them. Fulfilling this responsibility requires selfless dedication on part of teacher. Further a teacher remains youthful on account of the perpetual company of the young minds. The delightful company of children keeps a teacher happy & cheerful.
Question 5.
Write a precis and give appropriate title to the passage given below:
Trees give shade for the benefit of others, and while they themselves stand in the sun and endure the scorching heat, they produce the fruit of which others profit. The character of good men is like that of trees. What is the use of this perishable body if no use is made of it for the benefit of mankind? Sandalwood, the more it is rubbed, the more scent does it yield. Sugarcane, the more it is peeled and cut up into pieces, the more juice does it produce. The men who are noble at heart do not lose their qualities even in losing their lives. What matters whether men praise them or not? What difference does it make whether they die at this moment or whether lives are prolonged? Happen what may, those who tread in the right path will not set foot in any other. Life itself is unprofitable to a man who does not live for others. To live for the mere sake of living one’s life is to live the life of dogs and crows. Those who lay down their lives for the sake of others will assuredly dwell forever in a world of bliss.
Answer:
Altruism – the eternal bliss
Good men are like trees, who toil for the benefit of others. Just as trees endure the heat but give shade & produce fruit for the benefit of others, good men who are noble at heart do not lose their virtues even if they give up their lives. Their struggles further enhance their qualities. They are not affected by appreciation or the span of life. By living for others, they dwell in eternal bliss.
Question 6.
Write a precis and give appropriate title to the ‘passage given below:
India has witnessed great expansion of educational opportunities since the attainment of independence. However, the disabled children have not yet benefited in any substantial manner from the growth in educational facilities.
Education of handicapped children, ultimately become more dependent and non-productive. It is therefore believed that scarce national resources should not be wasted on them. Further, it has been our misconceived notion that the education of handicapped children requires highly specialized people and as such, it must essentially be very costly. Maybe, precisely for these wrong notions we have not been able to involve clinical and educational specialization programmers of training and education exclusively ‘meant’ for handicapped children.
It is encouraging to note that the new National Policy on Education has recommended the placement of such children in Regular schools so as to provide them integrated education along with normal students. Integrated education will take care of the different needs of various categories arid types of disabled children. The objective is to place the disabled children in ordinary schools for imparting education in the help of special teachers, aids and other resources. For fulfilling this objective an array, of the necessary infrastructure by way of training of teachers, provision of equipment and book etc. are some of the basic pre-requisition. Hopefully, the parents and their handicapped children will be greatly relieved when the latter are transferred to regular schools.
Answer:
Despite the growth in educational facilities in India, post-independence, disabled children have received limited benefits. Misplaced beliefs & wrong notions like expenditure on education of handicapped children is wasteful or that their education requires highly specialized people and hence is costly – have limited their educational opportunities. However new National Policy on Education recommends the provisioning of integrated education of handicapped children along with normal children in ordinary schools, by providing the necessary infrastructure to schools & training to teachers. This will result in relief to handicapped children and their parents.
Question 7.
Write Summary :
A good business letter is one that gets results. The best way to get results is to develop a letter that in its appearance, style and content, conveys information efficiently. To perform this function, a business letter should be concise, clear and courteous. The business letter must be concise, don’t waste words. Little introduction or preliminary chat is necessary. Get to the point, make the point, and leave it. It is safe to assume that your letter is being read by a very busy person with all kinds of papers to deal with. Re-read and revise your message until the words and sentences you have used are precise. This takes time, but is a necessary part of a good business letter. A short business letter that makes its point quickly has much more impact on a reader than a long-winded, rambling exercise in creative writing. This does not mean that there is no place for style and even, on occasion, humour in the business letter. While it conveys a message in its contents, the letter also provides the reader with an impression of you, its author, the medium is part of the message.
The business letter must be clear. You should have a very firm idea of what you want to say, and you should let the reader know it. Use the structure of the letter the paragraphs, topic sentences, introduction and conclusion- to guide the reader point by point from your thesis, through your reasoning, to your conclusion. Paragraphs often, to break up the page and to lend an air of organization to the letter. Use an accepted business letter format. Re-read what you have written from the point of view of someone who is seeing it for the first time, and be sure that all explanations are adequate, all information provided (including reference numbers, dates and other identification).
A clear message, clearly delivered, is the essence of business communication. The business letter must be courteous. Sarcasm and insults are ineffective and can often work against you. If you are sure you are right, point that out as politely as possible, explain why you are right, and outline what the reader is expected to do about it. Another form of courtesy is taking care in your writing and typing of a business letters. Grammatical and spelling errors (even if you call them typing errors) tell a reader that you don’t think enough of him or can lower the reader’s opinion of your personality faster than anything you say, no matter how idiotic. There are excuses for ignorance; there are no excuses for sloppiness. The business letter is your custom-made representative. It speaks for you and is a permanent record of your message. It can pay big dividends on the time you invest in giving it a concise message, a clear structure, and a courteous tone.
Answer:
A business letter that generates desired response is good and effective. Such a letter conveys information efficiently and has the following traits—
- Concise – A good business letter must state the main point precisely after a brief introduction. The author must revise the letter after drafting to ensure brevity since a short & precise business letter creates more impact on readers.
- Clear – The message intended to be given by the author must be expressed with clarity. The letter must be well Structured into topic/ heading, introduction, paragraphs, and conclusion so as to ensure a guided understanding of the reader.
- Courteous – The author must make his point and justify his stance politely Grammatical and spelling errors must be avoided.
Since a business letter is a custom-made representative of the author, it must be crafted with care. The letter provides the reader with an impression of the author. The letter is a part of a permanent record and can be rewarding if time is invested in developing a good & effective business letter.
Question 8.
(ii) Write Summary:
In most sectors of the economy, it is the seller who attempts to attract a potential buyer with various inducements of price, quality arid utility and it is the buyer who makes the decision. Where circumstances permit the buyer no choice because there is effectively only one seller and the product is relatively essential, the government usually asserts monopoly and places the industry under price and other regulations. Neither of these conditions prevails in most of the healthcare industry;
In the healthcare industry, the doctor-patient relationship is the mirror image of the ordinary relationship between producer and consumer. Once an individual is chosen to see a physician and even then there may be real choice-it is the physician who usually makes all significant purchasing decisions whether the patient should. Return “next Wednesday;” whether X-rays are needed, whether drugs should be prescribed, etc. It is a rare and sophisticated patient: who will challenge such professional decisions or raise in advance questions about price, especially when the ailment is regarded as serious.
This is particularly significant in relation to hospital care. The physician must certify the need for hospitalization, determine what procedures will be performed and announce when the patient may be discharged. The patient may be consulted about some of these decisions; but in the main it is the doctor’s judgment that are final. Little wonder then that in the eyes of the hospital it is the physician who is the real “consumer.” As a consequence, the medical staff represents the “power centre” in hospital policy and decision-making, not the administration;
Although usually there are in this situation four identifiable participants the physician, the hospital, the patient, and the payer the physician makes the essential decisions for all of them. The hospital becomes an extension of the physician; the payer generally meets most of the bona fide, a bill generated by the physician/hospital; and for the most part the patient plays a passive role. In routine or minor illnesses, or just plain worries, the patient’s ‘options are, of course, much greater with respect to use and price. In illnesses that are of some significance, however, such choices tend to evaporate or away: DISAPPEAR “my despair evaporated J. F. Wharton”, and it is for these illnesses that the bulk of the healthcare dollar, is spent. We estimate that about 75-80 percent of healthcare expenditures are determined by physicians, not patients; For this reason, economic measures directed at patients or the general public are relatively ineffective.
Answer:
The seller attracts the buyer through his offers and the buyer makes the decision to purchase in most of the industries. In case of monopoly, the government imposes regulations to safeguard the buyer. In the healthcare industry, the conditions are unique since, though the doctor and patient are like producers & consumers but it is the doctor who makes all significant purchasing decisions for the patient. Even in case of hospital care, doctor’s judgment is considered final with respect to hospitalization procedure, duration etc. There are 4 participants in this scenario the doctor, the hospital, the payer and the patient. The doctor makes all the decisions & the hospital acts as his extension. The patient may be consulted at times but majorly remains passive & the payer is responsible for payment of bills. 75-80% of expenses in healthcare industry are determined by doctors that is why economic relief measures directed at patients are ineffective.
PRACTICE QUESTIONS:
Question 1.
Write a precis of the following passage with a suitable title.
Answer:
The forests of the country are a natural asset of immense value. If of an adequate extent, ideally dispersed, scientifically managed and judicially utilized, they can be kept perpetually productive and useful, conferring many benefits, direct and indirect, on the people. Directly, they meet the domestic needs of pole wood, fuel, bamboos and a variety of other products including fodder and grazing for the livestock, which are the indispensable requirements of the population living in close proximity of the forest. Forests also yield a variety of products of commercial and industrial value, such as structural timber, charcoal, raw materials for making paper and newsprint, panel products, bidi leaves, gums, resin, tan stuff, and a number of other economic products.
They provide employment to a large population engaged in their protection, tending, harvesting, and regeneration as also in ancillary occupations processing forest raw material. Indirectly, forests preserve the physical features, check soil runoff, mitigate floods and make the streams flow perennially, all of which directly help agriculture. They also make the climate equable and have definite hygiene and strategic value, and harbor wild life which is of scientific and recreational value.
It is a happy augury that these facts are now being appreciated by the public at large, apparently as a consequence of persistent propaganda by the foresters, who have to manage the forests – mostly owned by the government in the long-term national interest. A spurt was given to the campaign by the government by bringing ‘forests’ under the concurrent list and ordering the no forest of more than ten hectares can be cleared without prior sanction of the Union Government. Efforts are also being made to create extensive forests, outside government forests, so that within 10 years or so from now, they will meet all the domestic needs of the local population and thus relieve the pressure on government forests of heavy felling and uncontrolled grazing so that they could then be developed to cater to the commercial and industrial demand.
Question 2.
Write a precis of the following passage with a suitable title.
Answer:
India is making tremendous progress in every field. Educational, social and economic level of the people is going up. The buying power of the middle class is attracting the big multinational corporations and the consumer goods are being offered to them on installment basis or through bank finances. At least ten new models of the best cars in the world will be available in India very soon. People are almost in a frenzy and are on a buying spree. Our own business houses have found an easy way out. They are collaborating with foreign companies and are offering them 51% equity in joint ventures. In many ways a good thing is happening to India as people can expect at least good quality products or imported consumer goods. But does it augur well for the nation? Since independence, the malady of the Indian economic system has been that it has never cared for the R&D and has never attended to the quality aspect. Despite the best trained technical and managerial personnel, we have only produced second-rate goods to make fast buck. Our best brains got frustrated in the process and emigrated to the developed nations. Our emphasis was never on quality whether goods or manpower. We patronized mediocrity as that was an easier option.
Once again we are resorting to the easier option: important technology and all sorts of things. May be after our first blunder. We do not have any way out except to import modern technology in order to come upto the requisite level and earn a reasonable share of exports. But that can only be a temporary measure. We must lay emphasis on the development of our own technologies suiting to the Indian conditions, at the same time matching the international standards rather excelling them in many areas. For that every industrial house, in collaboration with the best universities and technical institutions must be obliged to contribute a part of its profits to the development of the new technologies. R&D must be an integral part of every business house: it should no merely be a formality like it has been but it must engage the best brains in the area and contribute to the development and improvement of indigenous technologies.
Borrowed technology can never turn India into a tin Asian giant for that it has to adopt the tougher option and show a new path to the world. Japan has done it; why can’t we? Otherwise, our country and people once again would be exploited by the foreign giants and it might become the dumping ground of outdated foreign technologies. India may be a tiger, but in the absence of the proper growth of R & D units in industries, it would continue to sleep. In case we want this tiger to wake up and roar, we must provide adequate funds to our research institutes and give enough incentives to the personnel there so that instead of fleeing this country, they put in their best. At the same time, we must learn to respect their silent but nation-building work.
Question 3.
Write a precis of the following passage with a suitable title.
Answer:
The mistaken belief that democracy means the rule of the majority is exceedingly widespread and it has vitiated a great deal that has been said about the subject. On the one hand, champions of majority rule have seen themselves as champions of democracy: while on the other, critics of majority rule have supposed themselves to be critics of democracy. For example, when communists claim to be democrats they are claiming that the dictatorship of the proletariat which is their goal, is the fulfillment of democracy. Their case is a simple one.
They argue that since the proletariat constitutes a permanent, numerical majority in an industrialized capitalist society the rule of the proletariat is the same thing as democracy. This is an important argument and it cannot be refuted by demonstrating that in all existing communist societies it is the party, not the proletariat, that rules, the crucial point is that if democracy means the rule of a permanent majority and if the proletariat forms such a majority then its rule (if not its dictatorship) is democracy.
The only effective refutation is to be found in showing that democracy is not the rule (let alone the dictatorship) of the majority. Much the same thing has to be said in answer to the critics on the right to those who think that a case can be made against democracy if a case is made against the rule of the majority their argument has almost always been the same, the majority of men are ignorant, democracy means the same, the majority of men are the rule of the majority. Their argument has almost always been the ignorant, democracy means the rule of the majority therefore democracy means the rule of ignorant and the rule of the ignorant is bound to be bad.