On Writing Well - The Transaction & Simplicity

Posted 2023-04-06

参考技术A E.B. White is, as a writer, the model for William Zinsser. The Elements of Style, written by E.B. White and William Strunk tells people what is supposed or not supposed to do in writing. On Writing Well is written to instruct people how to use those principles in various topics. The more advanced writing tools may fasten the process of revealing words, but it does not mean higher-qualified compositions. Thinking and language itself outlandish good writings.

The writing process differs according to personal habits. It is the author that decides the aliveness of an article. He or she is supposed to reveal language's clarity and strength.

Clear thinking is the prerequisite for clear writing. The verbiage of words and sentences as well as the misusage of pronouns and tense bewilder readers who have worked hard to clear passages but failed. Writers should sharpen their thinking first and prune and revise and reshape their writings second.

他或她仍然从事着相同的以往的工作，写着别人愿意读的事情。

写作工具多样化，文档呈现的方式丰富化，这些都是外在的润色，写作的本身仍然是通过文字传达个人的认识和情感，因为能够引起他人的共鸣而被认可，被期待。

同时我解释了写作时我做的取舍。

the writing decisions I made通过看别人如何取舍素材从而审视自己在写作同一个话题时，选择了哪些，为什么这么选择。从而推论自己的思考模式和思考惯性。

写作将一直需要朴素而传统的努力思考，这也正是E.B.White在他的船屋里一直做的事情。同时写作需要英语语言朴素又传统的叙事方式。

将事情想明白了，把语言（英语、汉语、日语等任何一门进行写作的语言）的基本规律掌握，用简短而有力的语言呈现思维。

这是作者的两种状态，一是自己把问题想明白了，一是把话语里的不必要的修饰去除。

从目前来看William强调的simplicity是使用在non-fiction的创作中的。

我想到的是自己在对一篇文章做summary时老是抓不住重点，一眼看过去整篇好像都是重点。通过仔细琢磨反复推敲后，现在逐渐明白，要把握作者的论点，找到支撑的论据，在summary时要对论点进行整理而不是论据的说明。如果作者写的明白，那我想明白后所写的东西应该是要同作者相契合的，summary也是non-fiction的一种吧～

在这里我还是很好奇William在后面是否会提及比喻，排比，描述性的文字等“辞藻华丽”的写作手法。

1. Emulate: to cope something achieved by someone else and try to do it as well as they have 效仿，模仿；和···竞争，努力赶上

Emulation 名词

原文：His was the seemingly effortless style-achieved, I knew, with great effort-that I wanted to emulate , and whenever I began a new project I would first read some White to get his cadences into my ear.

例句：They hope to emulate the success of other software companies.

造句： Emulation is not the kind of mechanical copy but the analytical recomposition.

2. Strangle: killed by pressing the throat; choke; stifle 扼杀，勒死

原文：We are a society strangling in unnecessary words, circular constructions, pompous frills and meaningless jargon.

例句：He strangled her to death by a cord put around her neck. 他用细绳绕在她的脖子上，将她勒死了。（《西游记》里“乌鸡国”那一章里内侍本想勒死皇后最后被太子勒死。）

Strangle & straggle

straggle的意思是散开，迷途，wander in a scattered fashion; stray from the rest。同strangle的意思相差很大。主要是第四个字母的差异，即a & g.

3. Elusive: hard to catch or find; evasive; hard to understand 令人困惑的

Elusion 名词

原文：Who is this elusive creature, the reader?

例句：He is such an elusive person; you never know where he is when you want him. 他就是这样一个谜一般的人物，当你需要他时，你永远不知道他在何处。

造句： Ulysses , written by James Joyce, is such an elusive work that few people can understand it.

吸引人注意：

1) But usually it doesn't take more than a few minutes for their eye to be drawn to the old man sitting at the typewriter.

2) What gets their attention is the simplicity of the process.

工作 & 副业 & 度假： vocation; avocation; vacation

white-haired; gray-haired 形容头发的颜色的表达方式

a man of letters 作家

On writing well

参考技术A On Writing Well 前言赏析

When I first wrote this book, in 1976, the readers I had in mind were a relatively small segment of the population : students, writers, editors and people who wanted to learn to write. I wrote it on a typewriter, the highest technology then available. I had no inkling of the electronic marvels just around the corner that were about to revolutionize the act of writing. First came the word processor, in the 1980s, which made the computer an everyday tool for people who had never thought of themselves as writers. Then came the Internet and e-mail, in the 1990s, which completed the revolution. Today everybody in the world is writing to everybody else, keeping in touch and doing business across every border and time zone .

这段话没有什么难点词汇，但是还是有值得借鉴的地方，以上标红地方各位可思考如何改写和使用在适合的场景里

例：

1.1The historical interest I have in my mind were a relatively small segment of ....

(可以应用于旅游的对话中，当别人问你什么旅游景点给你留下深刻印象时即可这样开头）

1.2The customers I have in my mind were a relatively large segment of the population:..

（当提及一款最新产品比如健身器械的兴起、养生产品等可这样回答）

2. I had no ...  just around the corner that were about to revolutionize the act of .....

(可以直接像文中这样使用，当我没有...时，...的出现正好革新了...

比如你正苦恼阅读纸质书不方便携带时，kindle正好革新了阅读；

也可以不是革新，而是某一样东西的出现正好解决了你的燃眉之急，但是注意哦，这个时候就不能用revolutionize了哦，具体怎么使用希望各位同学结合实际替换哦 ）

3.  across every border and time zone .

遍及每个空间和时间（翻译得有点怪，原文真是只可意会不可言传呐~）

某一样产品的迅速崛起到简直弥漫所有空间和时间，你和某个好友亲密到这种程度~~怎么样，是不是突然觉得这个词很棒棒的呢？

To me this is nothing less than a miracle , curing overnight what appeared to be a deep American disorder . I've been repeatedly told by people in nonwriting occupations—especially people in science, technology, medicine, business and finance—that they hate writing and can't write and don't want to be made to write. One thing they particularly didn't want to write was letters.Just getting started on a letter loomed as a chore with so many formalities —Where's the stationery? Where's the envelope? Where's the stamp?—that they would keep putting it off, and when they finally did sit down to write they would spend the entire first paragraph explaining why they hadn't written sooner.

1.To me this is nothing less than a miracle

对我来说这简直是一个奇迹。

（不直接说is\like\just like,而是用nothing less than，是不是发现逼格 立马 就高起来了呢）

2.curing overnight what appeared to be a deep American disorder

一夜之间就医治了看似是美国重症的问题。

3. One thing they particularly didn't want to write was letters

他们特别不想写的就是信件。

（这句话没有太多特别的词汇，但是表达上是很地道的：我特别喜欢的/不喜欢的/印象最深的...就是...,可使用的场景很多）。

4. Just getting started on a letter loomed as a chore with so many formalities

刚开始着笔写信时就像要进行一大堆繁琐的手续一样

这句话可以尝试很多场景，比如：

形容一个你印象深刻的人，你可以说他做事很有规模/很磨叽，如果是规模的话就需要更改原句的色彩，比如loomed as an artwork with so many   e laborate details ， 如果是吐槽对方磨叽的话则不需要更改。

如果感兴趣的同学可以在下方留言写下自己的解读和拓展哦，互相交流学习。

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