美国资深ESL专家教你怎样提高英语写作（四）

今天是英文写作建议连载的最后一篇。EWIS通过翻译这几篇文章真的学到了不少有用的建议，同时也更坚定了EWIS一直以来的写作方式。希望大家也觉得这些建议很中肯和有效。如果你有时间，不妨经常来回顾一下这些建议，相信你的写作将会大有进步！

Learning to write – from start to finish 英文写作的学习——从开头到结尾

Most people would not take a trip without knowing where they’re going and how to get there. Unfortunately, many writers do it all the time. If you want to become a good writer, you need a good plan, or process – like the one I describe in this article.

大多数人不会选择一场既不知道目的地也不知道要怎么去的说走就走的旅行。不幸的是，许多人经常在写作的时候做这样的事情。想要成为一名好的作家，你需要有计划、有过程。这篇文章将告诉你应该怎样做。

The writing process used by most good writers includes four simple, but essential, steps that can be summarized like this:

大多数优秀作家的写作过程包含四个简单但是非常重要的步骤：

-Think about it. 思考要写的内容。 -Write it down. 将内容写下来。 -Improve it. 改进你的文章。 -Correct it. 修正错误。

Let’s look at each step individually.

现在我们分步来看一下。

Think about it (pre-writing or planning) 思考要写的内容（构思及计划）

No successful trip begins without a clear idea of where you’re going. Good writers always pause to think before they write.

想要进行一场成功的旅行，你需要有一个明确的目的地。好的作家总是在写作之前先进行思考。

Every writing situation is different, even those that seem to be the same, like TOEFL essays. The best way for you to discover the differences is by asking – and answering – questions about the writing situation:

每一个写作要求都是有差别的，即使是那些看上去差不多的题目——比如托福作文。发掘这些差异的最好方法就是对这些写作要求提出以下问题，并进行回答：

What kind of writing am I going to do – an essay, article, research paper, or something else?

What, specifically am I going to write about – what is my subject?

Why am I writing – to inform, convince, tell a story, or some combination of these?

Who will read what I write? What do they know about my subject? How will they benefit from it?

What information do I need to include, and where will I find it?

• 我要写的是什么类型的文章？是议论文、散文、研究论文，还是什么其他类型？

• 我将要写的具体是什么内容？文章的主题是什么？

• 我写作的目的是什么？是散布信息、说服别人、讲故事，还是所有这些的组合？

• 我的读者是谁？他们对于我文章主题了解多少？读了我的文章之后他们会得到什么收益？

• 我需要包含什么样的信息在文章当中？我去哪儿找这些信息？

Your answer to these questions should guide the rest of the writing process. Use them to make a tentative, or preliminary, plan – to think of ideas, write them down, and organize them.

你给出的答案就是你写作过程的一个指南针。将这些答案变成一项试验性的初步写作计划，用它们来指导你的思路，将想法写下并组织起来。

Good writers always plan before they write. However, they know that their plans will probably change as they write. And they’re willing to change their plan when they get new ideas.

好的作家总是在写作前做好计划，但他们知道在写的时候计划是会改变的。随着新思路的产生，他们也会愿意改变自己的写作计划。

Write it down (drafting) 将内容写下来（初稿）

When you start to write, remember that writing is like pottery-making – you first create the general shape of your work and then refine, or improve, it.

当你开始写作的时候，请记住写作就像制作陶艺一样，首先要将作品的大致轮廓做出来然后再在此基础上作出改进。

Put your ideas down – on paper or on your computer – and organize them the best you can. Work quickly until you’ve finished. Stop from time to time to reread what you’ve written – to see where you’ve come from and where you’re going – but don’t spend a lot of time “fixing” things.

将你的想法在纸上或是电脑上记下来，然后尽你能力将它们组织起来。这个步骤要尽快完成。做的时候要时不时停下来读一下你所写好的内容，看看你文章的主题和发展方向，但不要花太多的时间在修改上面。

Remember, your first draft is tentative. It’s your first attempt to create the general shape of your essay, paper, or article. Improving it and correcting it come later.

请记住，你的初稿只是暂时的，它是你所创造短文、论文或是散文大致轮廓的初次尝试。对内容的改进和对文章错误的改正还在后边。

Improve it (revising)

改进你的文章（校正内容）

Revising – improving by rereading and making changes – is the heart of the writing process. When you revise, focus on your ideas. Make sure they’re all there, that they’re in the right order, or sequence, and that they work together to do what you planned to do when you began.

校正文章内容，即通过重读文章和改动内容来改进所写的作品，是整个写作过程的核心。当你校正的时候，请你将重点放在写作思路上面。请确保你所有的写作思路都在文章之中以正确的顺序和逻辑体现出来，并且这些思路组织起来达到了你预想的效果。

Make sure each paragraph introduces and clearly develops one idea. And make sure that the ideas move logically – step by step – from one paragraph to the next. If necessary, move paragraphs around. Combine some of them. Or write new paragraphs to fill in the gaps where ideas are missing.

请确保每一段只讲一件事，并且条理清晰。段与段之间的逻辑关系也必须明确。如有必要，将段落拆分开来重新组合，也可以看看是否能够合并一些段落。如果发现一些写作思路没被用上，还可以现写一些段落将漏掉的内容补上。

Correct it (editing) 修正错误（编辑文章）

Editing is making sure that everything is correct – words, spelling, sentence structure, punctuation. Good writers wait to edit until the end of the writing process. They worry about formal correctness only after they are satisfied with their ideas.

编辑文章的目的是确保所有内容——用词、拼写、句子结构、标点符号——都是正确的。好的作家总是等到写作过程结束的时候才开始编辑。他们只有在对自己的写作思路满意之后才会去担心语言上的瑕疵。

The process – in the words of a writer 写作过程——一名作家的建议

I like the way William Zinsser – writer, editor, and former writing teacher at Yale University – describes the writing process. He combines some of the steps, but his thinking – the most important part – is the kind of thinking you must do if you want to become a good writer:

威廉•辛瑟是一名作家和编辑，还曾经在耶鲁大学担任写作教师的职位，我非常喜欢他对写作过程的描述。他结合了以上几个步骤，但最重要的是他的思维是值得所有想成为优秀作家的人学习的：

Think! Ask yourself, “What do I want to say?” then try to say it. Then ask yourself, “Have I said it?” Put yourself in the reader’s mind. Is your sentence absolutely clear to someone who knows nothing about the subject? If not, think about how to make it clear. Then rewrite it. Then think: “What do I need to say next? Will it lead logically out of what I’ve just written? Will it also lead logically toward where I want to go?” If it will, write the sentence. Then ask yourself, “Did it do the job I wanted it to do with no ambiguity (clearly)?” If it did, think: “Now what does the reader need to know?” Keep thinking and writing and rewriting. If you force yourself to think clearly you will write clearly. It’s as simple as that. The hard part isn’t the writing; the hard part is the thinking.

请你思考！问你自己，“我想说的是什么？”然后试着表达出来。之后再问你自己，“我表达出来了吗？”将你自己想象成你的读者。你写的句子对于一个完全不了解这个话题的人来说足够清晰明了吗？如果不够，那就想办法让它变得清晰起来，再写一次。然后思考，“我接下来应该些什么？我能够使前后文读起来符合逻辑吗？更重要的是，接下来要写的会合理地烘托出我的写作主题吗？”如果可以， 把句子写下来。之后再问自己，“这个句子清楚地达到预想效果了吗？”如果达到了，再思考，“现在我的读者还需要知道些什么？”不停地思考、写作以及重写。如果你逼自己清楚地思考，那么你的作品也会是条理清晰的，就是这么简单。困难的其实不是写作本身，而是思考。

Two suggestions for better writing 提高写作的两点建议

Dr. Stephen Krashen reminds of us of two other characteristics of good writers and writing. First, he says that good writers take short breaks to encourage “incubation,” an important aspect of creativity. Incubation takes place when we quit writing for a while and do something else. Our brains continue to work subconsciously, and new ideas often emerge when we return to what we were doing.

史蒂芬•克莱森博士为我们提出了另外两点好作家和作品的特征。第一，他认为好的作家会在创作中途休息几次以便“酝酿”他们的作品，这是获得创意的一个重要方面。对作品的酝酿发生于我们从写作中停下来做其他事的时候。我们大脑会不知不觉地持续工作，当我们回到写作任务的时候新的思路常常就莫名涌现出来。

Krashen also points out that writers produce more good writing and better ideas when they write regularly – such as daily – for shorter amounts of time. It would be better, for example, to break a large writing project into short daily sections than trying to write it all at one time.

克莱森还指出经常创作（例如每天都写）并且用时较少的作家更有可能写出更多高质量和思路好的文章。如果你有一个很大的写作项目，最好是能够将它分成每天要写的部分，这样要比一次写完质量高很多。

A writer’s helper 写作者的好帮手

A good writer’s handbook is one of the best investments you can make. I recommend A Writer’s Reference by Diana Hacker. It’s easier to use and has better information than the other handbooks I’ve looked at. 一本写作工具书是写作者最好的投资。我推荐《A Writer’s Reference》。这本书是Diana Hacker的作品，比起其他书更容易使用，有用的信息也更多。 （注：这本书是Successful English的建议，并不是EWIS打的广告。如有需要，请自行搜索这本书。） - See more at: http://successfulenglish.com/2010/09/learning-to-write-from-start-to-finish/#sthash.jLwhsJrs.dpuf