美国资深ESL专家教你怎样提高英文写作（一）

EWIS每次写帖发帖都能学到很多东西，因为如果要为大家提供有用又有趣的信息，EWIS必须不停地寻找不同的话题，而每个话题对于EWIS来说都是一个崭新的学习过程。当然，EWIS的服务是专注于英文的写作，最让我们感兴趣的依旧是如何帮助大家提高英语写作水平。今天EWIS无意中看到一个很不错的英文学习网站：Successful English。这个网站的作者是一位资深的成人ESL（English as a Second Language）教育专家——Warren Ediger，有兴趣的小伙伴们可以去他的网站看看（http://successfulenglish.com/）。

在接下来的几天内，EWIS将为大家翻译Successful English给出的一些英文写作建议，希望对大家有所帮助。

Learning to write – introduction 英文写作的学习——简介

Jazz musician Paul Desmond once said that “Writing is like jazz. It can be learned, but it can’t be taught.” Desmond understood something very important about writing: good writing doesn’t come from direct instruction. And the writers, writing teachers, and language specialists I know agree. If you want to learn where good writing comes from and how to write better, be sure to read all of the Learning to write articles.

爵士乐手保尔-迪斯蒙曾经说过：“写作就像爵士乐，它可以被习得，但不能被教导。”迪斯蒙的话说明了关于写作很重要的一点，那就是：好的写作并不是来自老师直接的指导。我所知道的作家、写作老师和语言专家都同意这一点。如果你想知道好的写作源自哪里以及怎样提高你的写作水平，请你务必要读完我这几篇关于写作学习的文章。

What is writing? 写作是什么？

A few weeks ago, I wrote that reading is making sense of text. When you read, you read to understand the writer’s ideas.

几周前我写道，阅读是对文章的理解。当你阅读的时候，你是要去了解写作者的想法和构思。

When you become the writer, you are responsible to create text that makes sense to your readers. According to one of America’s great writing teachers, your goal “is to get your ideas from your mind into someone else’s mind as clearly, speedily, and economically as possible.”

当你就是那位写作者的时候，你有责任去创造能够让你读者所理解的文字。就像一位伟大的美国写作教师所说的那样，你的目标是“把你的想法从你的脑海里，以一种清晰、迅捷、简便的方法传递到其他人的脑海里。”

Many people think of writing as a language activity when, in fact, it’s more about thinking – having good, clear ideas and organizing them so someone else can easily understand them. Writing helps make your thinking clear. When you write, you discover what you know or don’t know about your subject – in other words, you learn. William Zinsser, another well-known writing teacher, says it like this:

许多人认为写作仅仅是一种语言活动，可实际上，写作更是一种思想的历练——它要求我们将一些好的、清晰的理念组织起来，以便让他人一读即通。写作还能够帮助我们清理思路。当我们写作的时候，我们会了解到自己对一个题目的熟悉程度——也就是说，写作实际上是一个学习的过程。另一位知名的写作教师威廉-辛瑟这样说过：

We write to find out what we know and what we want to say. I thought of how often I had made clear to myself some subject I had previously known nothing about by just putting one sentence after another – by reasoning my way [step by step] to its meaning. I thought of how often writing even the simplest document – a letter, for instance – had clarified my half-formed ideas. Writing and thinking and learning were the same process.

我们通过写作来发掘我们所知道的事和想说的话。当我遇到从没接触过的话题时，我常常是通过将句子一句句写下来之后才慢慢开始了解这个话题——这是个一步步推理的过程。当我写下即便如字母般简单的东西的时候，我那些不完整的想法都能够变得清晰起来。写作、思考和学习其实是同一过程。

Starting at the very beginning 从头开始

Almost every week someone sends me an e-mail to tell me they’re having trouble writing and to ask for help. When they do, the most common problem is simply this – not enough English.

几乎每个星期都有人给我发电子邮件跟我抱怨他们不知道要怎么写作，然后问我有什么解决方法。我发现他们最主要的问题就是英文水平不够。

If you want to write English well, you need a good supply of English. We who live in southern California know the importance of reservoirs. Southern California is dry, almost a desert. The water we use comes from lake-like reservoirs that are filled each year when spring sunshine melts the snow in the mountains. Our ability to live well depends on a good supply of water from these reservoirs. Your ability to write well depends on having an English language reservoir that is full of enough English to supply the kind of thinking and writing you want to do.

如果想写好英语文章，你需要有足够的语言功底来支持。我们住在南加州的人都知道水库的重要性。南加州天气非常干燥，几乎是一片沙漠。我们的生活用水都是来自大湖一般的水库。水库里的水都是由每年春天暖阳融化山上积雪汇聚而成。我们的生活质量很大程度上是由这些水库里的水来决定。同样的，你的写作质量也是由你的语言库来决定。你必须要有足够的库存才能支持你所追求的思路和写作。

There is only one way to fill your English reservoir – reading. The more you read, the more your vocabulary will grow. The more you read, the more your grammar and spelling will improve. The more you read, the more you will discover about putting your ideas into sentences and paragraphs so they make sense and say what you want to say. The more you read, the more your ability to write will emerge.

阅读是唯一一条能够帮助你扩充语言库的途径。你读的越多，你的词汇量就越大；你读的越多，你的语法和拼写能力就越强；你读的越多，你就越能够将你的想法写成句子和段落并合理地表达你想说的话；你读的越多，你的写作潜力就越能显现。

Getting started 着手准备

If your reservoir, or supply, of English is low, begin now to fill it. Set up a regular reading schedule – at least 20 or 30 minutes a day. If you have time and can read more, great! Your English will grow faster.

如果你的英语语言库或是基本功不够，现在就开始扩充吧！制定一个阅读计划，每天读20到30分钟。如果你能花更多的时间在阅读上，或是更广泛地读那就更好了。你的英语将会迅速进步。 If you’re not sure what to read or how to read, look at these articles: 如果你不确定要读什么或是如何阅读，可以看看这几篇文章： -The power of reading and listening (http://successfulenglish.com/2010/01/the-power-of-reading-and-listening/)

-Using popular fiction to improve your English (http://successfulenglish.com/2010/01/using-popular-fiction-to-improve-your-english/)

-A word every language learner should know (http://successfulenglish.com/2010/07/a-word-every-language-learner-shoul-know/)

-Expert answers – how to meet a new word (http://successfulenglish.com/2010/06/expert-answers-meeting-new-words/)