Translators can have several duties to fulfil at various institutions such as the United Nations. Let’s have a look at one of them in more detail: précis-writing. You have probably never heard about it, and you are wondering what this French-English mix of a name means.
So, what is précis-writing?
It refers to the task of drafting summary records of meetings, particularly in major institutions. While the practice exists in various organisations, let’s take the example of the United Nations. There, précis-writers draft official records of meetings of the various councils and committees that compose the United Nations, such as the well-known Security Council and the General Assembly, or lesser-known ones like the Special Committee on Decolonization, for example.
During these meetings, many people talk and express their opinions, and these arguments need to be recorded for future reference. The summaries compose the permanent written historical record of all statements, discussions, and outcomes of a meeting, and are compiled in the memory of the institution like verbatim records. However, their use differs as they’re not word-for-word transcripts and only indicate who spoke at the meeting, what was said and what was decided. They allow to keep track of the arguments during a series of meetings on a subject and constitute a source for future discussion. When a new meeting is held on the same topic, these summaries are used as a reference point to know what has already been debated to avoid useless repetition. This saves time for the people invited to the debates, as they often have busy schedules and had to travel to the United Nations offices in New York, Geneva, or Vienna.
Précis summaries can also help conduct research, as it is much easier to read a 300-word summary than to read the complete record of a lengthy meeting to know whether what was said constitutes a useful source of information or not.
How is a summary written?
The précis-writer takes notes during the meetings and summarises everything in a precise and concise way to keep all important information easily accessible. For example, a thousand-word speech will be condensed into 300 words. To do so, they note everything that was said, as well as all complementary elements at the meeting, such as the documents used for digital presentations at the meeting like slideshows, pictures, or even recordings. The contributions to the meeting are reported in indirect speech, the writer doesn’t quote what was said directly and instead starts with the formula “The speaker said” before summarising their comment. The sequence of ideas must remain identical.
All of these summaries are written in the two official languages of the United Nations, English and French. They can then be translated into the other official languages (Arabic, Chinese, Russian, Spanish).
What are the skills of a good précis-writer?
To become one, a translator needs to develop numerous skills. First of all, they must be experts in English and French, and must know a third official language of the United Nations really well. They must be able to draft, translate, and summarise simultaneously, while maintaining very high accuracy and a very good writing style. To know how to best summarise the statement of an expert on a subject, précis-writers themselves must be knowledgeable on the matter. They conduct extensive research and use their judgement to determine what should be condensed, expanded, omitted, or explained. They are up to date on a broad range of topics, covering all issues discussed in the meetings. These include political, social and economic fields, but also more specific ones to the institution, such as peacekeeping, counter-terrorism, as well as specific legal, administrative and technical issues faced by the institution. Thorough fact-checking is also necessary to ensure that no mistakes are left in the final summary, which will be used as a reference point for all future meetings about the subject, meaning that the précis-writer has a big responsibility on their shoulders. All facts and details are checked against the documentation of the concerned institution and all available databases and necessary references are inserted in the final summary.
The goal is to deliver a mistake-free and accurate summary of the meeting, which must be understood equally well by a reader who was present at the meeting as well as a reader who wasn’t. It must be idiomatic, not reproduce the mistakes of the speaker if they made a few and have a consistent style and respect typographic rules.
A précis-writer is also required to harness the use of new technologies, as their use has become more and more widespread. Good IT skills are necessary to use the various tools required to perform their duty. They may for example have to write the summary from recordings as, depending on the complexity and content of the meeting, they may not even be in the room when it is held, so they must be able to organise multiple documents to deliver a good summary.
Do you want to become a précis-writer?
If you think that you have what it takes, the United Nations Organisation runs a competitive examination for recruitment every two to three years. You must have a first-level degree at least, like a bachelor, to take part in the recruitment programme. It’s divided into three steps, and you have to qualify for each step to reach the next one. If you successfully pass all examinations in your main language, you are placed on a roster until a vacancy is available at one of the locations of the United Nations in New York, Geneva, Vienna or Nairobi, and the regional commissions in Addis Ababa, Bangkok, Beirut or Santiago de Chile.
To stack the odds in your favour, train and practise as much as you can! Many resources are available online, so make good use of these to be ready for D-day. And don’t worry, if you aren’t chosen the first time, you can always try again next time!
You will find more information here:
- This page explains the application process: UN Careers
- Here you will find first hand testimonies of people working for the United Nations Organisation: Meet our language staff | Department for General Assembly and Conference Management (un.org)
- The reports at the bottom of the page are examples of précis-writing and provides a lot of useful information for students: MoU network | Department for General Assembly and Conference Management
By Adrian Biskupski, M1 TSM 2022-2023
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