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- 20/7/2015
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Steps to Writing Well của tác giả Jean Wyrick là tài liệu hướng dẫn viết luận Tiếng Anh hữu ích được nhiều thí sinh tin dùng. Steps to Writing Well được chia thành nhiều chap với từng chủ điểm quan trọng cần nhớ khi viết, giúp các bạn suy nghĩ mạch lạc và kết nối ý tưởng một cách bền chặt và có logic. Mời các bạn tham khảo!
Chapter 1: Prewriting
GETTING STARTED (OR SOUP-CAN LABELS CAN BE FASCINATING)
For many writers, getting started is the hardest part. You may have noticed that when it is time to begin a writing assignment, you suddenly develop an enormous desire to straighten your books, water your plants, or sharpen your pencils for the fifth time. If this situation sounds familiar, you may find it reassuring to know that many professionals undergo these same strange compulsions before they begin writing. Jean Kerr, author of Please Don't Eat the Daisies, admits that she often finds herself in the kitchen reading soup-can labels — or anything — in order to prolong the moments before taking pen in hand. John C. Calhoun, vice president under Andrew Jackson, insisted he had to plow his fields before he could write, and Joseph Conrad, author of Lord Jim and other novels, is said to have cried on occasion from the sheer dread of sitting down to compose his stories.
To spare you as much hand-wringing as possible, this chapter presents some practical suggestions on how to begin writing your short essay. Although all writers must find the methods that work best for them, you may find some of the following ideas helpful.
But no matter how you actually begin putting words on paper, it is absolutely essential to maintain two basic ideas concerning your writing task.
Before you write a single sentence, you should always remind yourself that
1. You have some valuable ideas to tell your reader, and
2. More than anything, you want to communicate those ideas to your reader.
These reminders may seem obvious to you, but without a solid commitment to your own opinions as well as to your reader, your prose will be lifeless and boring. If you don't care about your subject, you can't very well expect anyone else to. Have confidence that your ideas are worthwhile and that your reader genuinely wants, or needs, to know what you think.
Equally important, you must also have a strong desire to tell others what you are thinking. One of the most common mistakes inexperienced writers
make is failing to move past early stages in the writing process in which they are writing for—or writing to—themselves only. In the first stages of composing an essay, writers frequently "talk" on paper to themselves, exploring thoughts, discovering new insights, making connections, selecting examples, and so on.
The ultimate goal of a finished essay, however, is to communicate your opinions to others clearly and persuasively. Whether you wish to inform your readers, change their minds, or stir them to action, you cannot accomplish your purpose by writing so that only you understand what you mean. The burden of communicating your thoughts falls on you, not the reader, who is under no obligation to struggle through confused, unclear prose, paragraphs that begin and end for no apparent reason, or sentences that come one after another with no more logic than lemmings following one another to the sea.
Therefore, as you move through the drafting and revising stages of your writing process, commit yourself to becoming increasingly aware of your reader's reactions to your prose. Ask yourself as you revise your drafts, "Am I moving beyond writing just to myself? Am I making myself clear to others who may not know what I mean?" Much of your success as a writer depends on an unflagging determination to communicate clearly with your readers.
Trên đây là một phần tài liệu, các bạn có thể tham khảo thêm các phần khác bằng cách tải bản đầy đủ một cách hoàn toàn miễn phí tại phần đính kèm bên dưới.
Chúc các bạn học tốt
Chapter 1: Prewriting
GETTING STARTED (OR SOUP-CAN LABELS CAN BE FASCINATING)
For many writers, getting started is the hardest part. You may have noticed that when it is time to begin a writing assignment, you suddenly develop an enormous desire to straighten your books, water your plants, or sharpen your pencils for the fifth time. If this situation sounds familiar, you may find it reassuring to know that many professionals undergo these same strange compulsions before they begin writing. Jean Kerr, author of Please Don't Eat the Daisies, admits that she often finds herself in the kitchen reading soup-can labels — or anything — in order to prolong the moments before taking pen in hand. John C. Calhoun, vice president under Andrew Jackson, insisted he had to plow his fields before he could write, and Joseph Conrad, author of Lord Jim and other novels, is said to have cried on occasion from the sheer dread of sitting down to compose his stories.
To spare you as much hand-wringing as possible, this chapter presents some practical suggestions on how to begin writing your short essay. Although all writers must find the methods that work best for them, you may find some of the following ideas helpful.
But no matter how you actually begin putting words on paper, it is absolutely essential to maintain two basic ideas concerning your writing task.
Before you write a single sentence, you should always remind yourself that
1. You have some valuable ideas to tell your reader, and
2. More than anything, you want to communicate those ideas to your reader.
These reminders may seem obvious to you, but without a solid commitment to your own opinions as well as to your reader, your prose will be lifeless and boring. If you don't care about your subject, you can't very well expect anyone else to. Have confidence that your ideas are worthwhile and that your reader genuinely wants, or needs, to know what you think.
Equally important, you must also have a strong desire to tell others what you are thinking. One of the most common mistakes inexperienced writers
make is failing to move past early stages in the writing process in which they are writing for—or writing to—themselves only. In the first stages of composing an essay, writers frequently "talk" on paper to themselves, exploring thoughts, discovering new insights, making connections, selecting examples, and so on.
The ultimate goal of a finished essay, however, is to communicate your opinions to others clearly and persuasively. Whether you wish to inform your readers, change their minds, or stir them to action, you cannot accomplish your purpose by writing so that only you understand what you mean. The burden of communicating your thoughts falls on you, not the reader, who is under no obligation to struggle through confused, unclear prose, paragraphs that begin and end for no apparent reason, or sentences that come one after another with no more logic than lemmings following one another to the sea.
Therefore, as you move through the drafting and revising stages of your writing process, commit yourself to becoming increasingly aware of your reader's reactions to your prose. Ask yourself as you revise your drafts, "Am I moving beyond writing just to myself? Am I making myself clear to others who may not know what I mean?" Much of your success as a writer depends on an unflagging determination to communicate clearly with your readers.
Trên đây là một phần tài liệu, các bạn có thể tham khảo thêm các phần khác bằng cách tải bản đầy đủ một cách hoàn toàn miễn phí tại phần đính kèm bên dưới.
Chúc các bạn học tốt
