Three original passages for precis practice, each with working notes and a one-third model precis
Three more passages for timed precis practice, following the rules and step method in precis writing. The worked examples in precis writing serve as your first set; these are the second. For each, draft your own precis to about one-third the length, give it a title and state the word count, then compare with the model. Cover the model precis and write yours first.
There is a habit of mind that judges work by its size. A grand project, a sweeping reform, a dramatic operation, these seem worthy of effort, while the small recurring task, the form filled correctly, the register kept up to date, the routine check carried out yet again, seems beneath serious attention. This judgement is natural but mistaken, and in disciplined services it can be dangerous. The reliability of a large system rests almost entirely on the faithful performance of small tasks by people who will never be thanked for them.
Consider how failures actually happen. A bridge does not usually collapse because of a single dramatic error; it fails because a routine inspection was skipped, a minor crack was not recorded, a small repair was postponed. A security breach is rarely the work of a brilliant adversary alone; more often a sentry was inattentive, a gate was left unchecked, a procedure that seemed pointless was quietly abandoned. The small task is the place where safety is either preserved or lost, precisely because it is small enough to be neglected without anyone noticing until it is too late.
The person who does the dull task well, every time, when no one is watching and no praise is coming, possesses a quality more valuable than brilliance. It is the quality on which others can build, because it makes the system predictable. Brilliance is admired, but reliability is trusted, and trust is what a service runs on. To take the small task seriously is therefore not a sign of a small mind. It is the foundation of every large achievement that depends on more than one person.
Title: Why Small Tasks Matter
People tend to judge work by its scale, valuing grand projects and neglecting small, repetitive duties, but in disciplined services this attitude is dangerous, since large systems depend on the faithful performance of minor tasks by people who go unthanked. Major failures, from collapsing bridges to security breaches, usually arise not from dramatic errors but from neglected small tasks, because these are easy to skip unnoticed until too late. Doing dull work reliably, even unobserved and unpraised, is more valuable than brilliance, for it makes a system predictable and trusted, and so underpins every large collective achievement. (96 words)
It is comforting to believe that a good law can fix a social problem, and tempting, when a problem appears, to demand a new statute against it. Law is indeed a powerful instrument: it sets standards, deters wrongdoing and gives the wronged a remedy. But law has limits that its enthusiasts forget. A statute can forbid an act, yet it cannot by itself supply the will to obey, the capacity to enforce, or the change in attitude that alone makes obedience natural rather than grudging.
Consider a law against a deep-rooted social practice. The practice may be driven by custom, poverty or belief that no penalty easily reaches. People may comply in public and continue in private, or the law may simply sleep, unenforced because those meant to enforce it share the very attitudes it condemns. A law that runs too far ahead of social opinion can even provoke a backlash that strengthens the practice it was meant to end. The statute is not useless in such cases, but it is only one tool among several.
The wiser view treats law as a partner to other forces, not a substitute for them. Education changes the attitudes that make a law obeyed willingly; administration supplies the capacity to enforce it; economic change removes the pressures that drive the forbidden act. A law works best when it crowns a change that society is already making, lending the force of the state to a direction in which opinion is already moving. Where it stands alone, against the grain, it remains words on paper.
Title: The Limits of Law
People often assume a new law can solve any social problem. Law is powerful, setting standards, deterring wrongdoing and providing remedies, but it cannot by itself create the will to obey, the means to enforce, or the shift in attitude that makes obedience willing. A law against a deep custom may be evaded, left unenforced, or provoke backlash, so it is only one tool. It works best alongside education, administration and economic change, completing a shift society is already making; standing alone against opinion, it remains mere words. (86 words)
When several agencies share responsibility for a single task, such as the security of a city or the management of a disaster, their success depends less on the strength of each than on the quality of the cooperation between them. This is rarely recognised in advance. Each agency tends to guard its own information, its own turf and its own credit, treating the others as rivals for resources and recognition rather than as partners in a common purpose. The result is a familiar pattern of failure in which every agency performed its own part adequately and the whole still came apart at the seams.
The harm of such distrust is mostly invisible until a crisis reveals it. Information that one agency holds does not reach the other that needs it; warnings are not passed on, or are passed on too late or in a form the recipient cannot use; duplicated effort wastes scarce resources while real gaps go unattended because each assumed the other was covering them. After the event, an inquiry usually finds that no single failure caused the disaster. It was the space between the agencies, the seams where responsibility was unclear and trust was absent, that let the threat slip through.
Building cooperation is therefore not a soft extra but a core requirement of joint security. It calls for shared information systems, clear protocols on who does what, joint training that builds personal familiarity before a crisis, and a culture that rewards the sharing of credit rather than the hoarding of it. The agencies that practise together in calm times are the ones that hold together when the pressure comes.
Title: Cooperation Between Agencies
When several agencies share one task, such as a city's security or disaster management, success depends more on cooperation between them than on each one's strength. Yet agencies often guard their information, turf and credit, treating others as rivals, so failures occur in which each did its part but the whole collapsed. The damage stays hidden until a crisis exposes it through unshared information, late warnings, duplicated effort and neglected gaps; inquiries blame the seams between agencies, not any single fault. Cooperation, built through shared systems, clear protocols and joint training, is therefore essential. (91 words)
Set a clock. Aim to read, plan and write each precis in about ten minutes, leaving time for a word count. Then take any passage from comprehension practice set 3 or comprehension practice set 4 and reduce it to one-third, checking that no essential point was lost and no opinion of yours crept in.