Home » 熱門(mén)資訊 » 留學(xué)考試 » SAT-SAT2 » Details

杜克教授給留學(xué)黨關(guān)于寫(xiě)作的十條良心建議，托福/SAT/文書(shū)寫(xiě)作不用愁

Category: SAT-SAT2, 申請(qǐng)求職, 留學(xué)考試, 美本申請(qǐng) Date: 2017年8月21日下午6:54

留學(xué)申請(qǐng)準(zhǔn)備過(guò)程中，托福、SAT以及文書(shū)都涉及到寫(xiě)作這個(gè)基本技能，哈佛大學(xué)校長(zhǎng)Drew Faust在之前接受美國(guó)著名雜志Atlantic采訪時(shí)提到，有時(shí)候一個(gè)學(xué)生寫(xiě)的一篇好文章就可以使學(xué)校決定是否錄取這個(gè)學(xué)生，寫(xiě)作更能反映學(xué)生的真實(shí)水平。那么對(duì)于留學(xué)黨而言，如何提高自己的寫(xiě)作水平呢？以下是杜克大學(xué)教授分享給大家關(guān)于寫(xiě)作的十點(diǎn)建議，或許對(duì)你有所啟發(fā)！

在大學(xué)工作的近30年中，我看到很多有才華的人因?yàn)椴荒軐?xiě)作或者沒(méi)有寫(xiě)作而失敗了。而有些能力平平的人（每天早上，我都能從鏡子中看到這個(gè)人）就因?yàn)檎莆樟藢?xiě)作技能在學(xué)界混得還算不錯(cuò)。

這開(kāi)始于研究生院。從那時(shí)起，你要從上課轉(zhuǎn)變?yōu)閷?xiě)作，開(kāi)始幾乎正好相反的轉(zhuǎn)型。許多研究生在前兩年上課期間是人人都羨慕和高看的明星，但突然間他們發(fā)現(xiàn)自己不再是主角了。相反，那些不在乎通過(guò)認(rèn)真閱讀參考書(shū)目中的每一頁(yè)書(shū)來(lái)討好教授的不起眼的學(xué)生突然給刊物投稿而且發(fā)表了，實(shí)現(xiàn)了從學(xué)生到專(zhuān)業(yè)學(xué)者的轉(zhuǎn)變。

其實(shí)，差別并不復(fù)雜，就是因?yàn)閷?xiě)作水平。

瑞切爾?托爾（RachelToor）和本刊其他作家都談過(guò)寫(xiě)一手好文章是多么艱難，確實(shí)如此。幸運(yùn)的是，很多學(xué)科寫(xiě)文章的標(biāo)準(zhǔn)非常低，你根本不需要寫(xiě)得很好。下面，我提出學(xué)術(shù)文章寫(xiě)作的10條建議，它們或許能幫助人們寫(xiě)得稍微好一些。

Writing is an exercise

You get better and faster with practice. If you were going to run a marathon a year from now,would you wait for months and then run 26 miles cold? No, you would build upslowly, running most days. You might start on the flats and work up to more demanding and difficult terrain. To become a writer, write. Don't wait for that book manuscript or that monster external-review report to work on your writing.

1寫(xiě)作是一種訓(xùn)練，需要日積月累

只有通過(guò)練習(xí)才能寫(xiě)得更好、更快。如果你一年后要跑馬拉松，你能夠等待幾個(gè)月后一下子跑26英里嗎？不可能，你應(yīng)該逐漸增加，每天都要跑。

你或許可以先在平地上練習(xí)，慢慢在要求更高的、難度更大的地方跑。要成為作家，就要寫(xiě)作。不要等待需要寫(xiě)書(shū)稿或?qū)懣膳碌耐獠吭u(píng)審報(bào)告了才開(kāi)始寫(xiě)作。

Set goals based on output, not input

"I will work for three hours" is a delusion; "I will type threedouble-spaced pages" is a goal. After you write three pages, do somethingelse. Prepare for class, teach, go to meetings, whatever. If later in the dayyou feel like writing some more, great. But if you don't, then at least you wrotesomething.

2制定以產(chǎn)出導(dǎo)向的目標(biāo)，而不是以投入導(dǎo)向的目標(biāo)

“我要學(xué)習(xí)三小時(shí)”是一種幻覺(jué)，而“我要寫(xiě)出雙倍行距的三頁(yè)文章”才是目標(biāo)。寫(xiě)了三頁(yè)后再做別的事，備課、上課、開(kāi)會(huì)或別的什么。如果晚上你覺(jué)得還想寫(xiě)，當(dāng)然好。如果沒(méi)有寫(xiě)的意愿，至少你要寫(xiě)點(diǎn)什么。

Find a voice; don't just "getpublished."

James Buchanan won a Nobel in economics in 1986. One of thequestions he asks job candidates is: "What are you writing that will beread 10 years from now? What about 100 years from now?" Someone once askedme that question, and it is pretty intimidating. And embarrassing, because mostof us don't think that way. We focus on "getting published" as if ithad nothing to do with writing about ideas or arguments. Paradoxically, if allyou are trying to do is "get published," you may not publish verymuch. It's easier to write when you're interested in what you're writing about.

3傾聽(tīng)內(nèi)心的召喚，不能為發(fā)表論文而發(fā)表論文

詹姆斯?布坎南（JamesBuchanan）在1986年獲得諾貝爾經(jīng)濟(jì)學(xué)獎(jiǎng)。他向求職者提的問(wèn)題之一是“10年后可能還有人閱讀的你的作品是什么？100年后呢？”有人曾問(wèn)過(guò)我這個(gè)問(wèn)題，這確實(shí)讓人感到恐懼，也令人尷尬，因?yàn)槲覀兌鄶?shù)人不這樣想。

我們關(guān)心的是“發(fā)表”，就好像文章和觀點(diǎn)或論證沒(méi)有任何關(guān)系似的。矛盾的是，你越是竭力想“發(fā)表”，你就越發(fā)表不了什么東西。而當(dāng)你真正對(duì)所寫(xiě)的東西感興趣時(shí)，寫(xiě)作往往就變得更容易一些。

Give yourself time

Many smart peopletell themselves pathetic lies like, "I do my best work at the lastminute." Look: It's not true. No one works better under pressure. Sure,you are a smart person. But if you are writing about a profound problem, whywould you think that you can make an important contribution off the top of yourhead in the middle of the night just before the conference?

Writers sit at their desks for hours,wrestling with ideas. They ask questions, talk with other smart people overdrinks or dinner, go on long walks. And then write a whole bunch more. Don'tworry that what you write is not very good and isn't immediately usable. Youget ideas when you write; you don't just write down ideas.

The articles and books that will be read decades from now were written by men and women sitting at a desk and forcingthemselves to translate profound ideas into words and then to let those words lead them to even more ideas. Writing can be magic, if you give yourself time,because you can produce in the mind of some other person, distant from you inspace or even time, an image of the ideas that exist in only your mind at thisone instant.

4寫(xiě)作需要充足且整塊時(shí)間

許多聰明人往往用善意的謊言欺騙自己，比如“我在最后時(shí)刻能做得最好。”瞧瞧，根本不是那回事。誰(shuí)也不能在壓力下有更好的表現(xiàn)。當(dāng)然，你是聰明人，但如果你要撰寫(xiě)一個(gè)艱深的問(wèn)題，怎么可能就在會(huì)議的前一天晚上思考一下就能做出重要貢獻(xiàn)呢？

作家坐在書(shū)桌前一連幾個(gè)小時(shí)絞盡腦汁思考。他們提出問(wèn)題，在喝酒或吃飯時(shí)與聰明人交談，長(zhǎng)時(shí)間散步，然后再一揮而就一個(gè)章節(jié)。不要擔(dān)心寫(xiě)出來(lái)的東西不好，不能馬上使用。你在寫(xiě)文章的時(shí)候可能有新的想法出現(xiàn)，而不僅僅是把思想寫(xiě)下來(lái)。

那些幾十年后仍然有人讀的文章和書(shū)是由那些坐在書(shū)桌前的人寫(xiě)出來(lái)的，他們強(qiáng)迫自己把深刻的思想轉(zhuǎn)變成文字然后再讓這些文字引導(dǎo)出更多的思想。如果你給自己充足的時(shí)間，寫(xiě)作可能有神奇的魔力，因?yàn)槟隳馨炎约核枷胫刑囟〞r(shí)刻的想法的形象刻畫(huà)出來(lái)，讓在時(shí)間和空間上都非常遙遠(yuǎn)的地方的人看得到。

Everyone's unwritten work is brilliant

And the more unwritten it is, the more brilliant it is. We have all met thoseglib, intimidating graduate students or faculty members. They are at their mostdangerous holding a beer in one hand and a cigarette in the other, in some baror at an office party. They have all the answers. They can tell you just whatthey will write about, and how great it will be.

Years pass, and they still have the samepat, 200-word answer to "What are you working on?" It never changes,because they are not actually working on anything, except that one little act.

You, on the other hand, actually areworking on something, and it keeps evolving. You don't like the section youjust finished, and you are not sure what will happen next. When someone asks,"What are you working on?," you stumble, because it is hard toexplain.

The smug guy with the beer and the cigarette? He's a poseur and neveractually writes anything. So he can practice his pat little answer endlessly,through hundreds of beers and thousands of cigarettes. Don't be fooled: You arethe winner here. When you are actually writing, and working as hard as youshould be if you want to succeed, you will feel inadequate, stupid, and tired.If you don't feel like that, then you aren't working hard enough.

5別自欺欺人了，神馬“十年磨一劍”！從現(xiàn)在做起

沒(méi)有寫(xiě)出來(lái)的東西越多，就越精彩。我們都遇見(jiàn)過(guò)那些口若懸河、令人欽佩的研究生或者老師。他們?cè)诰瓢苫蛘咿k公室聚會(huì)上一手拿著啤酒瓶，另一手拿著香煙，旁若無(wú)人般高談闊論。他們對(duì)什么問(wèn)題都能回答，會(huì)告訴你他們要寫(xiě)什么東西，內(nèi)容將多么精彩。

但幾年過(guò)去了，再問(wèn)他“你在寫(xiě)什么書(shū)？”時(shí)，他們?nèi)匀唤o出同樣的答案，200字的答案。從來(lái)沒(méi)有變化，因?yàn)樗麄儗?shí)際上除了吹噓外，根本沒(méi)有寫(xiě)任何東西。

另一方面，你在研究某些東西，它在不斷變化。你不喜歡剛剛寫(xiě)完的東西，也不敢肯定接下來(lái)將發(fā)生什么。當(dāng)有人問(wèn)“你在寫(xiě)什么？”時(shí)你張口結(jié)舌，不知怎么回答，因?yàn)檫@很難解釋。

那些拿著啤酒和香煙的自鳴得意的家伙呢？他們是裝腔作勢(shì)的人，實(shí)際上從來(lái)不寫(xiě)任何東西。通過(guò)幾百瓶啤酒和幾千支香煙，沒(méi)完沒(méi)了地重復(fù)他們的答案。不要被假象所迷惑，你才是勝利者。當(dāng)你真正在寫(xiě)作，為了成功努力工作時(shí)，你會(huì)感到自己太愚蠢、水平太臭、疲憊不堪。如果你沒(méi)有這樣感覺(jué)，那說(shuō)明你還不夠努力。

Pick a puzzle

Portray, or evenconceive, of your work as an answer to a puzzle. There are many interestingtypes of puzzles:

?"X andY start with same assumptions but reach opposing conclusions. How?"

?"Hereare three problems that all seem different. Surprisingly, all are the sameproblem, in disguise. I'll tell you why."

?"Theorypredicts [something]. But we observe [something else]. Is the theory wrong, oris there some other factor we have left out?"

Don't stick too closely to those formulas,but they are helpful in presenting your work to an audience, whether that audience is composed of listeners at a lecture or readers of an article.

6編一個(gè)好聽(tīng)的故事

描繪甚至設(shè)想你的著作是在猜謎。有很多有趣的謎語(yǔ)：甲和乙從同一個(gè)假設(shè)開(kāi)始卻得出了相反的結(jié)論，怎么回事？

這里有三個(gè)似乎都不一樣的問(wèn)題，奇怪的是，它們是同一個(gè)問(wèn)題偽裝出來(lái)的，我來(lái)告訴你這是為什么。

理論預(yù)測(cè)了某個(gè)結(jié)果，但我們觀察到了其他內(nèi)容。是理論錯(cuò)誤還是我們忽略了某些因素？

不要被這些模式所限制，但它們?cè)诎涯愕难芯砍尸F(xiàn)給受眾時(shí)非常有幫助，無(wú)論是演講的聽(tīng)眾還是文章讀者。

Write, then squeeze the other things in

Put your writing ahead of your other work. I happen to be a "morning person," so I write early in the day. Then I spend the rest of my day teaching, having meetings, or doing paperwork. You may be a "night person" or something in between. Just make sure you get in the habit ofreserving your most productive time for writing. Don't do it as an after thoughtor tell yourself you will write when you get a big block of time. Squeeze the other things in; the writing comes first.

7找到自己最佳寫(xiě)作狀態(tài)的時(shí)間段；其他事情統(tǒng)統(tǒng)靠邊站

我碰巧是個(gè)喜歡起早的人，所以總是在早上寫(xiě)作。然后才上課、開(kāi)會(huì)或做文字工作。你或許是“夜貓子”或在這兩個(gè)極端之間的某個(gè)地方。不管怎樣，要確保把精力最旺盛的時(shí)間留給寫(xiě)作。不要在忙完別的事后再寫(xiě)作，也不要安慰自己有了整塊兒時(shí)間后再寫(xiě)作。先寫(xiě)作，有時(shí)間再做其他事。

Not all of your thoughts are profound

Many people get frustrated because they can't get an analytical purchase on the big questions that interest them. Then they don't write at all. So start small.The wonderful thing is that you may find that you have traveled quite a longway up a mountain, just by keeping your head down and putting one writing footahead of the other for a long time. It is hard to refine your questions, defineyour terms precisely, or know just how your argument will work until you have actually written it all down.

8不積跬步無(wú)以至千里

許多人感到沮喪，因?yàn)樗麄冊(cè)谧约焊信d趣的大問(wèn)題上提不出有說(shuō)服力的分析，因此什么也不寫(xiě)。其實(shí)，剛開(kāi)始要從小事談起。奇妙的是，你可能發(fā)現(xiàn)自己已經(jīng)在登山途中走了很長(zhǎng)的路，繼續(xù)長(zhǎng)時(shí)間埋頭一步一步寫(xiě)下去。重新描述問(wèn)題，準(zhǔn)確定義術(shù)語(yǔ)，了解論證如何起作用等是很困難的，除非你實(shí)際上把它們寫(xiě)出來(lái)。

Your most profound thoughts are often wrong

Or, at least, they are not completely correct. Precision in asking your question, or posing your puzzle, will not come easily if the question is hard.

I always laugh to myself when new graduatestudents think they know what they want to work on and what they will write about for their dissertations. Nearly all of the best scholars are profoundly changed by their experiences in doing research and writing about it. They learn by doing, and sometimes what they learn is that they were wrong.

?9摸著石頭過(guò)河

你最深刻的思想往往是錯(cuò)誤的，或至少不完全是對(duì)的。尤其是在問(wèn)題很難的時(shí)候，準(zhǔn)確地提出問(wèn)題或疑問(wèn)不是輕而易舉的事。

當(dāng)剛?cè)雽W(xué)的研究生說(shuō)他們知道自己希望研究的東西或畢業(yè)論文要寫(xiě)的內(nèi)容時(shí)，我總是暗自發(fā)笑。幾乎所有最優(yōu)秀的學(xué)者在研究和寫(xiě)作的切身經(jīng)歷中都經(jīng)歷過(guò)重大改變。他們都是在做中學(xué)，有時(shí)候了解到自己錯(cuò)了。

Edit your work, over and over

Haveother people look at it. One of the great advantages of academe is that we aremostly all in this together, and we all know the terrors of that blinking cursor on a blank background. Exchange papers with peers or a mentor, and when you are sick of your own writing, reciprocate by reading their work. You need to get over a fear of criticism or rejection. Nobody's first drafts are good.The difference between a successful scholar and a failure need not be better writing. It is often more editing.

If you have trouble writing, then you justhaven't written enough. Writing lots of pages has always been pretty easy forme. I could never get a job being only a writer, though, because I still don't write well. But by thinking about these tips, and trying to follow them myself, I have gotten to the point where I can make writing work for me and my career.

10好文章是改出來(lái)的

文章寫(xiě)出來(lái)后請(qǐng)他人看看。大學(xué)的一大好處是我們大部分時(shí)間都在一起，我們都知道面對(duì)一張白板一個(gè)字也寫(xiě)出不來(lái)的恐怖。當(dāng)你實(shí)在厭惡自己的寫(xiě)作時(shí)，不妨與同事或?qū)熃粨Q論文，相互批改。你需要克服可能遭到批評(píng)和回絕的恐懼。誰(shuí)的初稿都不好，成功的學(xué)者和失敗者的區(qū)別不一定是他們寫(xiě)得好，常常是這些人的編輯工作做得好。

如果你寫(xiě)作時(shí)遇到麻煩，那說(shuō)明你寫(xiě)得不夠多。在我看來(lái)，一下子寫(xiě)很多頁(yè)輕而易舉，雖然我不可能成為作家，畢竟我文筆不好。但是，因?yàn)榭紤]了這些建議，并試圖按這些建議來(lái)做，我已經(jīng)達(dá)到了輕松對(duì)付自己和職業(yè)所需要的寫(xiě)作的地步。希望讀者也能從中受益。

本文來(lái)源于《高等教育紀(jì)事報(bào)》，作者：Michael C.Munger，2000年起擔(dān)任杜克大學(xué)政治學(xué)系主任。

2017年下半年沖刺班課程詳情

注：“內(nèi)部”為沃邦學(xué)員價(jià)，報(bào)名沖刺班享有優(yōu)惠；“外部”為非沃邦學(xué)員價(jià)。

授課形式

沖刺班將采用各科分項(xiàng)模考+點(diǎn)評(píng)高效模式進(jìn)行，通過(guò)考后及時(shí)分析點(diǎn)評(píng)，考僧們可及時(shí)發(fā)現(xiàn)自己的薄弱之處，有針對(duì)性地調(diào)整做題策略。

課程特色

✔ 精選歷年真題，原汁原味進(jìn)行考前熱身模考演練。

✔ 使用閱卷機(jī)批改，針對(duì)學(xué)生即時(shí)分?jǐn)?shù)報(bào)告，便于教師進(jìn)行針對(duì)性地講解。

✔ 資深教師團(tuán)隊(duì)專(zhuān)業(yè)解析評(píng)估，純干貨精講出題思路及解題技巧，幫助考僧梳理考試規(guī)則，沖刺高分。

適合人群

針對(duì)遇到提升瓶頸，希望在重難點(diǎn)上有所突破的考生；希望在考前查缺補(bǔ)漏的考僧；希望提前適應(yīng)考試節(jié)奏的考僧；同樣適應(yīng)于已參加過(guò)階段性培訓(xùn)的學(xué)生，可檢測(cè)自身階段性學(xué)習(xí)成果。

報(bào)名聯(lián)系方式