书写技巧

　　一、从简：复合句从句简化

　　从简是指复合句从句简化（clause reduction）。复合句其间有一些重复、空洞的元素。剔除他们，节省空间，精简句子就是复合句从句简化。我知道说起语法很无趣，但是，这种语法现象在地道的英文写作中频率颇高。我认为熟练运用这个工具是英文写作登堂入室的标志之一。以下是《时代周刊》一篇封面文章的节选。作者Michael Schuman是一名“老笔杆子”，其文笔相对更注重表现力。

　　二、标点：活用分号，冒号，破折号和连字符

　　标点指的是活用分号（semi-colon），冒号（colon），破折号（em-dash）和连字符（hyphen）。通篇几乎只用逗号和句号也是一种“中国味”。我认为这是由于我们的非专业英语教育不太重视英文这四种标点的使用，比如说高考中就很少考查这些知识点。相反，母语作者在文章中会更多地使用到这四种标点。

　　a.分号：隐形胶水

　　Richard C. Wydick在他的法律英文写作经典Plain English for Lawyers中谈到了分号，他描述道：“一些律师对于分号的态度就像是对野蘑菇：有些非常美味，但是有些却是致命的；因为没法分辨两者的区别，那就干脆统统避开。”Wydick自己的观点是分号没有那么危险，并且十分有用。其一，分号可以用来连接两个关系紧密的分句，这种做法的最大好处是可以增添写作的多样性，并且避免使用太多and之类连接词所带来的断断续续感（choppy sentences），同时也精简了用字。这就是为什么我给分号起了个隐形胶水的绰号。

　　　　b.冒号：洗耳恭听

　　冒号表明其后引用的内容是前边内容的列举、总结或阐述。每当放一个冒号，就像提醒读者：我要开始解释了。冒号用作列举则可省去include/including，并在视觉上创造一个更醒目的标志。而冒号更有价值的用法是引导对前文的总结（summary）、阐述（elaboration）或者是例证（illustration）。以下的例子也来源于“Plain English for Lawyers”：

　　c. 破折号：无声的强调

　　三、副词巧：状态副词以取代副词短语

　　“副词巧”指的是多多利用状态副词以取代状态副词短语。换句话说就是将一个词组的意思浓缩到一个副词上。

　　试比较陈老师提供的几个句组：

　　活泼可爱。值得多多学习。以下是一些比较容易忘记在写作里使用的状态副词。

　　四、单一的工具，只能解决单一的问题

　　就像在一个只有锤子的人眼里，所有问题都是钉子。如果你的英文写作技法有限，表达方式往往也会重复单调，我认为这是“中国味”英文单调无趣的一个重要原因。以上的三宝，从简、标点、副词巧，希望能为你的写作工具箱加上几种工具，把你的作品雕琢的更加细致、凝练。但另一方面，这三宝只是写作的工具，而不是写作的原则，这也是为什么我们会看到作者视情况采取不同的选择。希望我们驾驭英文能够像驾驭跑车，收放自如，风驰电掣，享受到Sheer Writing Pleasure。

　　书写误区

　　1.不能使用第一人称。例如I、me、mine、my这些词，只有文中出现，就是扣分。如果是针对一个大的群体时，可以用we/our，例如：our humans 我们人类。不过如果只是指你和你朋友我们，那样的话不行。

　　2.一定不能有私人用语，比如 stuff 东西，这种说法感觉太私人。

　　3.要用肯定的语句，不能含糊不清。例：she is like friendly towards him. 她好像对他很友好。 句子中有“好像”这个意思就不行。

　　4.每一个段落结构都要完整，包括开头句topic sentence（一个话题），然后支撑句 support sentence，  结合句 linking sentence，总结局 conclusion

　　5.每段中都需要有和主题对应的题目，不能跑题 。

　　6.不能出现缩写词，例如只能写can not，不能写can’t。

　　写作格式

　　essay 由 introduction， body， conclusion， reference四部分组成，全文统一用times new roman字体，小四，1.5倍行距 。

　　essay是理论性较强的论文，通常情况下，一定用第3人称，禁止出现第一，二人称字样，并注意语言措辞，多用些副词。

　　参考范文。

　　Introduction

　　Nowadays a great majority of teachers argue that students are more and more diverse and it is quite hard for them to know clearly about all the details of each and every one of their students. Fortunately, students’ sharing their own personal story with the teacher can, to a great extent, help the teacher better understand the students so that the teacher can give what students want and provide necessary suggestions for them in time. In this way, there is no doubt that students can in the meantime have a pleasant study journey under the proper guidance of the teacher, resulting in students’ better performance both for life and for study. Personally speaking, I am quite willing to share with you my personal story, hoping that you can know more about me and if possible I can make friends with you when the class is over. Therefore this memorandum explains some of my basic information, the most typical and crucial of which lies in my academic and professional aspirations as will be elaborated in the following.

　　Body

　　I am one that hails from China and the reason why I go abroad for further study is that I really long for an overseas education experience. I always hold that an overseas education experience can shape me into a better one through steeling myself to be able to deal with all kinds of difficulties either small or large. I have to admit that the moment when I put forward the idea of applying for abroad study, my family members all disagree with it in that they are afraid that I can not well take care of myself when I am alone abroad. However my persistence has enabled them to see my desire and they are on my side in the end. Many people may wonder why I firmly insist on studying abroad without taking any regard of my parents’ disapproval and what I really expect in college. To be honest, what I expect the most is not something seemingly great but just to broaden my own horizon and strengthen my accounting knowledge by taking advantage of rich resources in the foreign libraries. Moreover, I would like to make as many friends as possible with people from other countries all over the world so that I am able to experience the cultural difference and can keep in touch with those international friends even after graduation. Also, I believe that more chances to practice my English will make it improve step by step and I can speak English fluently some day.

　　Speaking of my academic disappointments, what is a pity to say is that I have actually done poorly in some of the quizzes either due to my being careless while taking them or my not preparing well enough for them before. Certainly, there are times when there are really difficult problems for me and they are in fact out of my ability, leading to my being unable to solve them. When those occasions turn up, I will become somewhat frustrated in the first beginning while I will quickly adjust myself to figure out ways to help myself out as soon as possible. Thus, I can smoothly tackle those difficult problems in the end. And it is right at the minute when I successfully deal with those difficult problems that I can feel the happiness and relief from within. Or maybe it can be put in another way that the smooth handling of those difficult problems can be regarded as part of my academic achievements. As for other sources of my academic achievements, what I would like to mention is that I have sometimes obtained quite satisfactory outcome in the exams and I am really proud that my efforts can pay off in the due time. By the way, my motto is just “No pains, no gains”, which fits really perfectly in this situation. And when I patiently explain the hard points to other classmates who can not get across to them, I can as well have a sense of making achievements. Furthermore, whenever I find out the way to solve a certain problem or an easier way for that same problem, I can in the meantime taste the sweetness of success.

　　The rationale why I select accounting as my major is that I am born with rather strong mathematical analysis ability, logical thinking ability together with a profound understanding capacity and I always show fervent interest in numerical issues. Besides, accounting is one of the promising professions in China and it seems to be given increasing attention and emphasis by most people. It is said that China is in great urgency of accounting personnel so that I may be given a greater possibility to have my secured post-graduation employment if I step into the accounting field. The most significant one is that I am sensitive to numbers and I am sure that I am competent enough to become a qualified accountant in the future. When it comes to my professional goal, I have made up my determination that I will spare no efforts to become an accountant as my future career, from a junior one and gradually become a senior one through the constant accumulation of experience and the increase of my knowledge about how to become a better accountant. So for the present period, I have to equip myself with necessary knowledge and skills in order that I can deal with the practical conditions with facility in real scenes.

　　In order to put the theory into the practice, I have applied to become an intern in Bank of China in the summer vocation and now I have completed that internship. Detailed speaking, I am responsible for dealing with all kinds of documents for Document Center of BC International Settlement and I have to guarantee the accuracy and completeness of all the documents. So when I am with a document, I will tackle it over and over again so that it can be with no errors. And those documents are with a high frequency of numbers, I have actually made my potential to the full play when working as an intern there. Though this internship lasts just for a short vocation, I have really benefited a lot from within and I have realized many defects of my own. I understand that if I would like to be an accountant in the near future, I have to try my best to correct those bad habits and not to commit the same mistake any more. Talking about myself in five years, I feel like that I have already become an advanced accountant and I can easily deal with any account-related issues. Apart from that, I can in the meanwhile turn to some financial methods for better financing of my own funds by using my major advantages.

　　Conclusion

　　That’s part of my personal story and I bet that you can know me quite well if you have read all about them. If you would like to know more me, I am pretty eager to share with you other matters about myself. Thanks for your time