Theory
Explain it in two lines
A friend missed yesterday's two-hour lecture and asks what it was about. You do NOT replay two hours. You say: "Basically, normalization removes duplicate data by splitting tables, and there are three main normal forms."
Two hours → two lines, nothing essential lost. You already condense daily.
This topic turns that instinct into a scored, teachable writing skill: the précis.
Theory
Sugarcane to jaggery
Boil sugarcane juice and the water leaves; the sweetness stays and concentrates into jaggery. Condensation boils a passage: examples, repetitions and decorative phrases evaporate, and what remains is smaller, denser and holds ALL the original meaning. If sweetness is lost, you burned it; if water remains, you stopped early.
Theory
What it is, and the 4C quality test
Condensation is expressing a passage's essential ideas in far fewer words. Its forms: précis, summary, abstract, synopsis.
A good condensed passage passes four Cs:
- Complete: every important idea survived
- Concise: no word is wasted
- Clear: simple, direct language
- Coherent: it reads as one flowing paragraph, not a list of fragments
Standard target: one-third of the original length.
Quiz
A 300-word passage must be condensed. Your friend's version is 95 words but drops one of the author's three main arguments. Which C failed?
- Concise
- Clear
- Complete
- Coherent
Show the answer
Complete
Length is on target and the writing may flow, but a MAIN idea died in the boiling: completeness failed, and it is the costliest failure because a précis exists precisely to preserve all core ideas. Cutting examples is the job; cutting arguments is the crime.
Theory
The six steps
1. Read the passage fully, just for the general idea
2. Mark the main points and key terms on a second pass
3. Strike out examples, illustrations, repetitions, quotations and decorative language
4. Outline the surviving ideas in logical order
5. Write in your own words, one flowing paragraph, usually indirect speech
6. Compare with the original: any main idea missing? over length?
The deletion step is where the skill lives: what to remove is a judgement call, trained by practice.
Think first
Condense this 43-word passage to roughly one-third in your head:
"Exercise benefits students enormously. For example, morning jogging improves blood flow. Games like badminton and football build stamina. Yoga, practised for centuries in India, increases flexibility. In short, students who exercise regularly stay healthier, focus better in class, and handle exam stress more calmly."
Show the answer
Something like: "Regular exercise keeps students healthier, more focused and calmer under exam stress." (13 words)
What evaporated: the examples (jogging, badminton, yoga) and the decoration ("practised for centuries"). What survived: the single main claim with its three benefits. Notice the last sentence of the original WAS nearly the summary; passages often hide their own précis near the end.
Theory
Language rules while writing
- Prefer one general term over lists: "sports" instead of "badminton, football and cricket"
- Combine related ideas into single sentences
- No quotations, no dialogue, no rhetorical flourishes
- Your own words, not stitched-together sentences from the original
- It must read as an independent paragraph: someone who never saw the original should understand it fully
Quiz
Which change is a legitimate condensation move?
- Replacing "mangoes, apples, bananas and grapes" with "various fruits"
- Dropping the author's conclusion to save words
- Copying the best three sentences verbatim
- Adding your own opinion to strengthen the argument
Show the answer
Replacing "mangoes, apples, bananas and grapes" with "various fruits"
Generalising a list is exactly how précis writing compresses: many similar details become one term. Dropping conclusions kills completeness, verbatim copying is not condensation (and scores poorly), and adding YOUR ideas breaks the contract: a précis contains only the author's meaning, shorter.
Formula
Why this skill pays twice
In exams, précis questions are formula-scored: one-third length, 4 Cs, own words, and now you have the formula. In life, condensation IS note-making, revision sheets, email TL;DRs and report abstracts. Every lecture you compress into half a page of notes is this exact art, practised.
Watch out
The two boiling accidents
Under-boiling: keeping examples and repetition, ending at half length instead of one-third. Over-boiling: cutting actual arguments until the summary misrepresents the author. And the silent third accident: sneaking in your own opinions. The précis is the author's meaning in your words, never your meaning in fewer words.
Summary
Key takeaways
- Condensation compresses a passage to about one-third while keeping all essential ideas.
- Quality test: Complete, Concise, Clear, Coherent.
- Steps: read, mark, strike out (examples, repetition, decoration), outline, write in own words, compare.
- Generalise lists, combine ideas, exclude quotes and your own opinions.
- Memory hook: boil away the water, keep the sweetness.