 learners to the second part of the video on the unit, Pressure Writing. I am Chanika Roy from Krishnakandha Handicke State Open University. In this video, we shall attempt to write a prophecy of an unseen passage. You are already aware that Pressure Writing is a form of summarizing and you are also aware of the various techniques of Pressure Writing. Apart from this, you are familiar with the importance of Pressure Writing in our day-to-day life. For example, Pressure Writing is a good exercise not only in our not only to improve our reading skill but also to improve our writing skill. So, in Pressure Writing, there are certain things which we have to keep in mind. For example, the length of the prophecy which has to be one third of the original passage as well as we are to avoid commenting or passing any remark while writing a prophecy. Now, let us move ahead to the various guidelines that we must keep in mind while writing a prophecy. So, let us now proceed to the discussion. Some of the guidelines for writing a prophecy are as follows. Read the passage in question carefully. You have to read it several times so as to grasp the subject matter of the passage. In fact, you can try and question yourself in order to make yourself more clear about the main theme of the passage. You can also mark on the passage the point at which you will start the prophecy and the point where you will end it. While reading the prophecy, you have to note down the main points of the passage. The notes should be very brief. Then you have to try to express in your own words what is said on each of the main points. You may rearrange the ideas in your own way but care should be taken so that your final copy does not seem to be series of disjointed sentences. Another important point you have to remember is that your prophecy reads as a continuous paragraph. A prophecy is usually written in the indirect speech as a rule. It is necessary to avoid exclamations, interrogations etc. It is also necessary to use the pronouns carefully. Another important point is you have to avoid being repetitive and also omit illustrations and examples which are not necessary. The prophecy needs to be in simple, correct grammatical English. Passages which contain advice should be written in the first or third person. Even if the passage itself is in the second person, for example obey your elders. So we can write it in this form like we must or we should obey our elders. Then another important guideline is with regard to the length of the prophecy. If the original passage is in the first person then the prophecy should be in the third person either giving the name of the author wherever it is available or using terms such as the author, the speaker, the narrator etc. Look at this line. I wander lonely as a cloud. Here we can rephrase it. The point was wondering about alone. So as I have already mentioned that you should keep in mind the length of the prophecy which has to be one third of the original passage. And finally you have to give a suitable title to your prophecy which sums up the subject matter. Now let us look at the sample passage provided here. Trees give shade for the benefit of others and while they themselves stand in the sun and endure the scorching heat, they produce the fruits by which others profit. The character of good man is like that of trees. What is the use of this perishable body if no use of it is made for the benefit of mankind? Sandalwood, the more it is peeled and cut into pieces, the more juice does it produce. The man who are noble at heart do not lose these qualities even in losing their lives. What matters is whether man praise them or not. What difference does it make whether riches abide with them or not? What does it signify whether they die at the moment or whether their lives are prolonged? 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 cows. Those who live down their lives for the sake of others will assuredly do well forever in the world of plagues. So this passage contains 184 words. So now the next thing that we have to do is take down the main points. So the main points that has been expected from the passage are trees give shade for the benefit of others. Character of good man is like that of trees, benefit of mankind, men who are noble at heart, life unprofitable to a man who does not live for others. Mere sake of living one's life is to live the life of dogs and cows. You can see trees give shade for the benefit of others. Okay then to live for the mere sake of living one's life is to live the life of dogs and cows. So you are to take note of the main points that are in the passage and then you have to reformulate your sentence without changing the information that is implied in the passage. So here the precy that we have written for the above paragraph or for the above passage is men are like trees. Trees stand the sun and give shade and fruit. Similarly a man who is noble works for the benefit of mankind. Whatever be his lifespan or his financial position he will find his life to be more meaningful when he lives for others. To live for the sake of living is to lead the lives of dogs and cows. So this particular precy you can see this particular precy contains 63 words. So it is almost one third of the passage of the original passage that is this passage which contains 184 words. So now let us look at another sample passage. So here I have highlighted with the main points that we have extracted from the passage beforehand. So let us read the passage. Speech is a great blessing but it can also be a great curse for why it helps us to make our intentions clear and desires known to our fellows. It can also if we use it carelessly make our attitude completely misunderstood. A slip of the tongue the use of an unusual word or of an ambiguous word and so on may create an enemy where we had hoped to win a friend. Again different classes of people use different vocabularies and the ordinary speech of an educated man strike an uneducated listener as showing pride. Unleasingly we may use a word which bears a significant which bears a different meaning to our listener from what is done to man of our class. Thus speech is not a gift to use lightly without thought but one which demands careful handling only a fool will express himself alike to all kinds and conditions of man. So now let us look at the main points that speech is a great blessing use it carelessly attitude completely misunderstood a slip of the tongue unusual word ambiguous word create an enemy careful handling and so on. So here we have given the title of our precious speech a great blessing. Speech is a valuable gift but if we are to make ourselves understood we must use it carefully since we may distort our meaning not only by the careless use of words but by ignoring the fact that words do not always mean the same thing to different people. So here don't you find the title very apt because the paragraph or the passage is all about how speech is a great blessing and how we have to use it carefully so that it is not misunderstood or it does not become ambiguous to others it can be understood by others in a clear and precise way. So we have to be very careful with our choice of words. So we can see that both the sample passages that we have discussed have a significant heading you can see here it is speech a great blessing it is a very apt title likewise we can see in sample passage one leading a meaningful life where we discussed about how we have to lead a meaningful life by helping others or we can live a meaningful life by helping others then we can see that the sentences have been arranged logically and in a concise manner. For example look at the phrase we have written here that it is logical in the sense that one sentence follows the other and we can see how it it has as a whole it has contributed to the meaning of the phrase speech is a valuable gift but if we are to make ourselves understood we must use it carefully since we may distort our meaning not only by the careless use of words but by ignoring the fact that words do not always mean the same thing to different people. So you can see how nicely this is an example of a good phrase because here there is logical connection between the sentences there is an apt title to suit the passage the mood of the passage or what the passage contains the message okay that has been reflected in the passage has been very nicely captured by the title of the phrase. So remember to give an apt title to your phrase so you can see that there is no repetition in the sentences that we have written in our precy we have not copied any sentence or phrase from the original passage so you have seen that there is no repetition in the precy that is there is no words or no phrases from the original passage have been copied in our precy and then you have also noticed that our precy is one-third in length of the original passage. Dear learners you must have noted the guidelines that have to be noted while writing a precy.