# Forgotten events - learning from books - précis writing



## Earl of Ormonde (Sep 5, 2008)

Some of the arts of the older generation (i.e. those of us born before the 1990s) are becoming less and less common. This is mostly due to the acceptance by all age groups of the internet as the gospel truth on all subjects and the easy accessibility of so much information that can simply be cut & pasted without too much analysis. And of course the way the personal computer has become a necessary evil.

However, the fact remains that most of the knowledge accumulated by mankind to this point has either been lost forever or is still only available in books or still only being passed on by word of mouth.

Back to those lost arts, one of them is the art of writing a good précis or abstract of a book, a report, story, a news text that you have read, using your own words, opinions and, where necessary, analysis and assessment.

Another is the reading, learning and absorbing of knowledge from books, which the brain absorbs much better than it does from the rapid and impatient flitting from page to page and site to site on the internet (a book on this subject came out last year). And the third which I want to also address is the art of writing for writing's sake, the topic being only secondary to the penmanship.

Now this morning I took a huge old book from a shelf to browse thorugh (BTW, that's something else you can't do no the internet, browse) while having a cup of tea.
It's an A3 hard bound volume of orignal copies of The Illustrated London News from 1 April 1916 to 24 June 1916. So plenty about the war. Fantastic photos, fantastic writing as well. And many evocative adverts for all sorts of products, from wristwatches to soap to rubber heels to medical patches.

However, what struck me as I turned one page was the fact that I'd never heard of this event now staring me in the face. I had no idea about it. So here is my précis of this unknown or forgotten event, which is new knowledge for me, simply from leafing through a book:

*The Panama-Pacific International Exposition at San Francisco*
_The article opens with a large sepia photo of the Palace of Fine Arts, which was believed to be "too fine to be destroyed" and was proposed for preservation_. _The view held then, was that so many buildings for exhibitions were so grand and well built that it was a shame to destroy them once exhibitons ended, and this was never more true than for the beautiful Palace of Fine Arts in the great exhibtion in SF held to celebrate the opening of the Panama Canal. Apparently the World's Fair that year had eclipsed all previous fairs in size, magnificence, and also, if the tone of the rapporteur is anything to go by, cost. Who also felt that destroying the Roman styled Palace of Fine Arts would be vandalism of the most German type! Remember it is 1915. The Exhibition was opened on 20 February 1915, at a signal from President Wilson who pressed a button in the White House. Oddly, the article adds Washington after White House feeling perhaps or maybe even knowing that most Londoners in 1919 didn't know where the White House was situated. Neither Great Britain nor Germany were represented at the Fair._

Now, for those of you who want to write a précis on some other Forgotten event, here are the simple rules we'll stick to:

1. You found out about it in a book recently
2. Do not inlcude internet links or photos
3. Use your own words
4. Avoid verbosity

In other words, think of this thread as an opportunity for old style précis writing simply for the pleasure of writing and based on learning from books.


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