自考英语写作基础【精选20篇】

会计论文的读者对象主要是会计工作者。会计学论文与一般议论文的共同之处在于两者都是理论性文章。下面是小编为你带来的关于会计论文的写作基础、选题和格式，希望对你有帮助。

一、会计论文的概念

会计学论文是对会计科学和会计工作领域中某些现象、问题进行深入的调查研究和科学的分析阐述，指出这些现象、问题的本质特征及其发展规律，用以丰富人们对于会计科学和会计工作的知识，促进会计科学的发展和会计工作的开展。

二、会计论文的要求

会计论文的一般要求，可以概括为“四性”，即正确性、客观性、创见性、平易性。

正确性 会计论文的观点要正确，符合四项基本原则，符合党和国家现行政策以及各项法律法令法规，言之成理，文以载道。要求作者必须用辩证唯物主义和历史唯物主义的观点观察问题、分析问题、解决问题，提出合乎客观规律的观点。

客观性 会计论文作为学术性论文，特别要注重实事求是，对所研究的问题进行周密的调查研究，忠于客观实际，尊重事实，从客观实践中验证自己观点的正确性。切忌带着框框找材料，或凭空捏造，主观臆想，面壁虚构。

创见性 会计论文要有独特的见解，不能人云亦云。论文作者应对研究的现象或问题进行长期深入的观察、分析，以便从中发现别人没有发现或没有涉及过的问题。创见是会计论文的生命。时下某些论文之所以毫无价值，原因就是没有创见，或拾人牙慧，或抄袭拼凑，没有一点新东西。

平易性 会计论文是阐扬会计科学、指导会计工作实践的，要求通俗易懂，不仅会计专家懂，而且有一般会计知识的人也能懂。做到这一点，就要求会计论文语言明白准确、浅显通俗。

三、会计论文选题

选题是会计论文写作的第一步，也是十分重要的一步。会计学科无论作为理论还是作为应用，值得研究的内容都很广泛，可以提炼出的论文题目很多，但“弱水三千，只饮一瓢”，每次论文写作只能选择确定一个最恰当的题目。

(一) 会计论文选题的方向

1.针对自己最有兴趣的现象、问题选题。作者对选题涉及的问题或现象有一定的研究基础，或有强烈的研究欲望，才有可能在选题确定之后，孜孜以求，最终写出有质量的会计论文。

2.围绕会计工作实践选题。理论研究是指导实践的。因此，会计论文选题决不可以脱离会计工作的实践。

3.立足会计科学的发展选题。会计科学在发展中，在它前进的每一步都会有新问题、新现象发生，都需要解决和解释。会计论文只有立足于会计科学的发展选题，才能写出有新意的好文章。

初写会计论文者易犯的毛病是选题过于宽泛，大而不当，论述起来面面俱到，很难作深入研究，写不出独到的东西。这一点在选题时应避免。

(二) 会计论文选题的方法

1.选前人没有研究过的问题。这类题目具有探索性、拓荒性，难度较大，但并非不可为，尤其是工会会计研究。比如《中国工会财会》近年开展的关于工会会计科目改革的讨论等即属此类。

2.前人已经做过的题目，有的结论不对，或者还有探讨的余地。这类题目是对前人研究成果的发展性研究。如关于工会经费属性及特点的研究，已有多篇会计论文予以探讨，但尚未成定论，还可作为继续研究的选题。

3.有的题目已有别人讲过，但说法不一，甚至分歧很大。这类题目带有争鸣性质，如对于以实物抵顶工会经费当否问题的讨论等。对这类题目进行研究时，要在众说纷纭的基础上，提出自己的意见，应有新见解、新突破。

(三) 会计论文选题的禁忌

1.忌脱离个人业务专长选题。只有在自己最熟悉的领域选题，才能充分依靠坚实的业务基础，结合工作实际进行深入的调查研究，把问题谈深谈透。

2.忌选题过大。小题目容易说透，大题目则很难说透。

3.忌选题不看文献资料。不看文献资料就不知道某个题目的来龙去脉，不了解前人是否已经作过，取得哪些成果，自己的意见前人是否已经说过。

四、会计论文格式结构

会计论文格式中最常见的结构类型是三段式，即序论、本论、结论。各部分内容大致如下：

会计论文——序论部分：作者在这一部分应说明为什么要研究这个题目，这一题目的现实意义。内容要极其简明扼要，文字宜短不宜长。

会计论文——本论部分：这一部分应详细阐述自己研究的过程、内容，提出新的见解。这是会计论文的核心部分，要着力写好。

上述只是一般的会计论文格式结构，作者可从自己论文的实际需要出发加以变通，也可分为四段式或多段式。(摘自《中国工会财会》2002.9，原文：“会计论文写作浅谈”作者 陈桂申 陈 晨)

Most of us look away when we pass strangers. It is the expectional person who stops to help the woman maneuvering her kids and groceries up the staircase. We rarely give up in line or on the subway or bus. Locked into our automobiles, we prefer gridlock to giving way.

当我们与陌生人擦肩而过时，多数人往往把目光移开。要是有人停下来帮妇女哄她的小孩和帮她把食品搬上楼梯，反而会被人看成另类。无论是排队还是乘地铁或公共汽车，我们很少让位于他人。坐在自己的汽车里，我们宁愿堵塞交通也不愿给人让路。

These daily encounters, when they are angry or alien, diminish our lives. When they are pleasant, we feel buoyed. Yet when we sit at home and make resolutions, we think about what we can accomplish in private spaces：home, work. Too many have given up the belief that they control the shared, the public world.

这些日常接触，要是气冲冲的或是使人反感的，那便会减少我们生活的乐趣，要是它们令人愉快，那便会使我们精神振奋。然而，当我们坐在家里做出各种决定的时候，我们考虑的仅是在个人天地--家庭和工作里可以实现的目标。太多的人已经放弃了他们也管理着共享的、公共的世界这一信念。

As individuals we can change the contour of a day, the mood of a moment, the way people feel. The demolition and reconstruction of public life is the result of personal decisions made every day：the decision to give up a seat on the bus;the decision to be patient or pleasant against all odds;the decision to let that jerk take a left-hand turn from a right-hand lane without rolling down the window and calling him a jerk.

作为众人的一员，我们可以改变一天的面貌，一时的情绪，以及人们对某件事的感觉。公共生活的毁坏和重建是人们每日所做的种种个人决定的综合结果。这些决定包括：公共汽车上让座，面对逆境而能容忍或具有乐观精神;让那个笨蛋从右车道往左拐而不摇下车窗骂他蠢货。

Its the resolution to be a civil, social creature. This may be a peak period for the battle against the spread of a waistline and creeping cholesterol. But it is also within our will power to fight the spread of urban rudeness and creeping hostility. Civility doesnt stop nuclear holocaust and doesnt put a roof over the head of the homeless. But it makes a difference in the shape of a community, as surely as lifting weights can make a difference in the shape of a human torso.

这是做一个文明的、社会的人的决定。今天也许是人们为减少腰围和降低胆固醇而斗争的高峰期。然而，反对城市野蛮行为和人际敌对态度的蔓延，也是我们只要愿做就能做到的事。有礼貌不能制止核战争，也不能为无家可归者提供栖身之所，但它的确能改变一个社会群体的面貌，犹如举重定能改变一个人的体形一样。

1．词语选择的重要性

在The Right Word at the Right Time的“序言”中，编者对词语选用的重要性作了一个很好的比喻：“Using the right word at the right time is rather like wearing appropriate clothing for the occasion：

it is a courtesy to others，and a favor to yourself-a matter of presenting yourself well in the eyes of the world."

显然，说话或写文章时用词适当比穿着适当难度大得多，因而也具有更大的重要性。在我国，古人写文章时常为一个词语的选用具思苦想，因而有“语不惊人死不休”的说法。

成语“一字值千金”也说明了选择词语的极端重要性。有时“一字之差”造成令人遗憾的败笔，或招致成千上万的经济损失。这些反面的教训也告诉我们必须重视词语选用的问题。

2．词语选择的可能性

实际上，我们每个人的脑子里都有了一个或大或小的词库，只要我们肯去发掘，往往可以得到更好的表达方式。这是我们做好词语选用的主观条件。

从客观条件广看，我们有各种类型的词典和参考书，只要我们平时多翻译、多阅读，写作时勤查考，就会在词语选用上不断进步。当然，一部好词典也不会毫无缺点，更难以面面俱到，因此在这里我们应牢牢记住著名英国作家、评论家和辞书编纂家Johson的话：

Communicating in English effectively is essential in todays global economy.

在今日全球化的经济环境下，有效地用英语交流已经变得至关重要。

But conveying your ideas clearly is a skill that needs to be learnt. Too often people simply copy the style of their co-worker and especially their superiors as they think this "good English". You see examples in your in-box every day - emails that are difficult to understand and that you need to read over and over again to get the message.

然而如何清晰地表达你的想法却是门大学问。太多时候人们只是简单地照抄他们眼中同事，尤其是上级写出来的“漂亮英语”。你每天都能在收件箱里看到很多例子——那些难懂的需要你读好多遍才能理解的邮件。

A big mistake is to pad out your writing with unnecessary words and phrases. Remember that the purpose of your writing is to communicate your ideas clearly.

一个巨大的错误就是用一些不必要的单词和词组让你的文章变得冗长。你要牢记你写作的目的是为了更清晰地交流你的想法。

Always try to reduce the number of words in your sentences and avoid lengthy phrases that can be replaced with a shorter alternative. Here are some examples:

总是尽可能减少你句子中使用的字数，避免使用可以用更短的词代替的长词。以下是一些例子：

*Instead of "prior to" use *before*

用“before”代替“prior to”

*Instead of "subsequent" use *after*

用“after”代替“subsequent”

*Instead of "in order to" use *to*

用“to”代替“in order to”

*Instead of "in the event that" use *if*

用“if”代替“in the event that”

*Instead of "with reference to" use *about*

用“about”代替“with the reference to”

*Instead of "state of the art" use *latest*

用“latest”代替“state of the art”

*Instead of "due to the fact that" use *since*

用“since”代替“due to the fact that”

*Instead of "not later than 2pm" use *by 2pm*

用“by 2pm”代替“not later than 2pm”

*Instead of "at the present time" use *now*

用“now”代替“at the present time”

Remember about organisation as well. Use topic sentences to indicate what each paragraph is about. In addition, keep your emails short. No one likes to read an email 10 paragraphs long!

同时也要记得文章有组织性。第一句话就要开门见山地点出你每一段要讲什么。除此之外，要控制你邮件的长度。没人想读一条长达10段的邮件。

By using simple words and easily understood phrases you can improve the clarity of your message no end.

通过使用简单的单词和易懂的词组，你就能最终提高你信息的清晰度。

励志的名言是我们写作中常用到的，下面请看语文迷为大家带来的励志英语名言，希望对你有帮助。

Well begun is half done.

好的开端是成功的一半。

East, west, home is best.

金窝、银窝，不如自己的草窝。

There is no royal road to learning.

学无坦途。

Look before you leap. First think, then act.

三思而后行。

No man is born wise or learned.

人非生而知之。

Action speak louder than words.

事实胜于雄辩。

Courage and resolution are the spirit and soul of virtue.

勇敢和坚决是美德的灵魂。

United we stand, divided we fall.

合即立，分即垮。

There is no smoke without fire.

无风不起浪。

Many hands make light work.

人多好办事。

Reading makes a full man.

读书长见识。

The best horse needs breeding, and the aptest child needs teaching.

最好的马要驯，最伶俐的孩子要教。

Learn young, learn fair.

学习趁年轻，学就要学好。

Wisdom in the mind is better than money in the hand.

胸中有知识，胜于手中有金钱。

Once bitten, twice shy.

一次被咬，下次胆小。

Sound in body, sound in mind.

有健全的身体才有健全的精神。

Seeing is believing.

百闻不如一见。

Dogs wave their tails not so much in, love to you as your bread.

狗摇尾巴，爱的是你的面包。

Money is a good servant but a bad master.

要做金钱的主人，莫作金钱的奴隶。

It‘s hard sailing when there is no wind.

无风难驶船。

The path to glory is always rugged.

通向光荣的道路常常是崎岖的。

Living without an aim is like sailing without a compass.

没有目标的生活如同没有罗盘的航行。

Quality matters more than quantity.

质重于量。

It is never too late to mend.

亡羊补牢，犹为未晚。

Light come, light go.

来得容易，去得快。

Time is money.

时间就是金钱。

A friend in need is a friend indeed.

患难见真交。

Great hopes make great man.

远大的希望，造就伟大的人物。

After a storm comes a calm.

雨过天晴。

All roads lead to Rome.

条条大路通罗马。

Art is long, but life is short.

人生有限，学问无涯。

Stick to it, and you‘ll succeed.

只要人有恒，万事都能成。

Early to bed and early to rise makes a man healthy, wealthy, and wise.

早睡早起，富裕、聪明、身体好。

A good medicine tastes bitter.

良药苦口。

It is good to learn at another man‘s cost.

前车之鉴。

Keeping is harder than winning.

创业不易，守业更难。

Let‘s cross the bridge when we come to it.

船到桥头自然直。

More haste, less speed.

欲速则不达。

No pains, no gains.

不劳则无获。

Nothing is difficult to the man who will try.

世上无难事，只要肯登攀。

Where there is life, there is hope.

生命不息，希望常在。

An idle youth, a needy age.

少壮不努力，老大徒伤悲。

We must not lie down, and cry, "God help us."

求神不如求己。

A plant may produce new flowers; man is young but once.

花有重开日，人无再少年。

God helps those who help themselves.

自助者，天助之。

What may be done at any time will be done at no time.

明日待明日，明日不再来。

All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy.

只工作，不玩耍，聪明孩子也变傻。

Diligence is the mother of success.

勤奋是成功之母。

Truth is the daughter of time.

时间见真理。

Take care of the pence, and the pounds will take care of themselves.

积少自然成多。

No man is wise at all times.

智者千虑，必有一失。

第一章：电影剧本是什么?

学习要点：

1：例子：一个钟在滴滴答答地走动、一个窗子正在打开、一个人在看、两个家伙在笑、一辆汽车在弯道上拐弯、一个电话铃在响等等。(这些描述性的不进入内心世界的语言是电影剧本的语言。)

2：定义：1：一个电影剧本就是由画面讲述出来的故事，还包括语言和描述，而这些内容都发生在它的戏剧

性结构之中。

2：它有四个基本的构成要素：即场景描写(Scene)、人物(Character)、对话(Dialogue)和动

作描写(Action)。

3：结构：电影剧本一个明确的开端、中段和结尾。

4：剧本与电影的时间比：电影剧本中的一页等于银幕时间一分钟。

5：第一幕，或称开端

1：一般观众需要在开头十分钟来确认是否喜欢这部电影。

2：前十页需要让观众和读者明白你的主要人物，什么是故事的前提，故事的情景是什么。

3：第一幕结尾需要有个情节点，即是一个事件或者事变。使得故事出现转折。(一般出现在25— 27页之间。)

6：第二幕，或称对抗

1：它之所以称为电影剧本的对抗部分，是因为一切戏剧的基础都是冲突(conflict)。一旦你给自

己的人物规定出需求(need)，亦即在剧本中他想要达到什么目的，他的目标是什么，你就可以为

这一需求设置障碍(obstacles)，这样就产生了冲突。

2：第二幕结尾处的情节点一般发生在第 85 页至 90 页之间。(就把故事引入到结局部分。 )

7：第三幕，或称结局

戏剧性结构可以被规定为：一系列互为关联的事情、情节或事件按线性安排最后导致一个戏

剧性的结局。

8：示例：

它是一个模特儿，一个式样，一个构思的规划;一个技巧高超的电影剧本就是这个样子

的。它为我们提供了关于电影剧本结构的总观。如果你弄清楚了它就是这个样子的话，你可

以简单地把你的故事“装”进去就行了。

9练习：1：以后再看电影，要记住什么时候开始电影吸引了你，什么时间你开始喜欢或不喜欢一个电影

的。

2：再看一看你自己能否分解出各个部分，找出它的开端、中段和结尾。

3：记下：故事是如何开始建立的，你需要多少时间能知道这个影片讲的是什么，你是否被这部

影片所吸引，或者是被硬拖到影片故事中去。然后再找出第一幕结尾处与第二幕结尾处的情

节点，看看它们是如何导致结局的。

第二章 主题

1：定义：

记住一个电影剧本就象名词──指的是某一个人在某一个地方去干他(她)的事情。这个人就是主人

公，而干他(她)的事情就是动作(action)。当我们谈论电影剧本的主题时，我们实际谈的是剧本中

的动作和人物。

动作就是发生了什么事情，而人物，就是遇到这件事情的人。每个电影剧本都把动作和人物加以戏剧化

了。你必须清楚你的影片讲的是谁，以及他(她)遇到了什么事情。这是写作的基本观念。

2: 当你能够通过动作和人物简明地表达你的想法时，当你能够用名词来表示它──我的故

事是这个人，在这个地方，在干他(她)的这件“事情”时，你已经在开始你的电影剧本写作

的准备工作了。 下一步是扩展你的主题。赋予剧本中的动作以血肉，把焦点集中在剧中人物身上，这

样就扩展了故事线和突出了细节。要想方设法去收集素材。这对你是非常有益的。

3: 请记住：你知道的越多，你所能传达的也就越多。而且当你做出创作决定时，请你

一定站在选择和责任的高度上去处理。

调查研究会给你一些想法，使你对人物、情境和故事发生地点有所认识。它还可以给你一定程度的信

心，从而使你始终能高于你的主题，让你站在选择的高度而不是强求或无知的地位上去处理这一主

题。

4: 动笔时，先问一下自己要写的是什么故事。是一部户外的惊险动作的影片，还是一部描

写复杂关系的情感的影片?当你一旦决定想要写哪一种动作之后，就可以进而考虑剧中人物了。

5: 首先，要明确你的人物的需求(need)。你的主人公想要什么?他的需求是什么?是

什么驱使他走向故事的结局的呢?

6: 一切戏剧都是冲突。如果你已经清楚自己人物的需求，那就可以设置达到这一需求而要克服的种种障

碍。他如何克服这些障碍就成了你的故事本身。

7: 冲突可以使外部世界的也可以是内心精神世界的。

8： 一个人的行为而不是他的言谈，表明了他是一个什么样的人。

9： 当你着手探索主题时，你会发现你剧本中的一切事情都是互为关联的。没有一件事是偶

然纳入的，或仅因为它机智可爱而被纳入的。

10： 练习： 为你要写的电影剧本选择一个主题。然后通过动作和人 物用几句话表达出来。

2015中考将至,目前距2015 中考仅有几个月，因此现在是复习的关键时刻，在此YJBYS为了让考生们了解更多的中考试题，以为今年的中考取得更好的成绩。YJBYS的小编为考生们收集了2015年中考(精选)英语作文高分技巧分享，具体内容请各位考生及时查看如下，尽请关注!

一、了解高分作文的特点

要想作文获得高分，必须了解高分作文具有的特点，才有助于我们朝之而努力。高分作文一般具有以下特点：

1、书写工整，书面整洁，很少有涂改痕迹。

2、分段合理。全文分段一般不止一个自然段，让阅卷老师很容易就能找到作文所要求写的要点和重要句子。

3、要点齐全，不缺要点。

4、首尾呼应，自然成一体。

5、使用了大量的高级词汇和句型。阅卷老师一看就知道这个同学的功底非不一般，自然就给打高分了。

6、开头言简意赅，不啰嗦，不偏题，迅速引入主题。

7、段与段之间，自然过渡。有合适的连接词。

8、句与句之间，有恰当的连接词，使之自然成一体。

9、全文中同一个意思，基本没有重复使用某一个词、短语或者句型等，说明这个同学的词汇量不同寻常。老师自然就对该作文有好感了。

10、能够恰当使用谚语、格言等给文章添彩。

二、勤积累，巧准备

要想作文得高分，除了了解以上的特点外，还要在平时的学习中注意一下方面：

1、牢记课标词汇是基础

一篇作文多数是由积极词汇写出来的，这些词汇主要来源于课标。因此，牢记课标词汇是写好作文的基础。

2、掌握课标词汇和短语的用法

要想作文不扣分或者少扣分，有个要求是作文的语病少。怎么能够减少语病呢?这就要求我们在平时的学习过程中反复通过练习，掌握课标词汇和短语等的用法。例如，对于as soon as 、stop some body from doing something 、other 、another等的用法很多学生就经常出错。

3、高度重视同一个意思的多种表达方式

高分作文有个特点是：让老师发现你拥有丰富的词汇量，你的水平高人一筹。这由何而来?靠我们在平时学习过程中，逐步积累起来的。比如：今年的中考作文，谈的就是帮助他人的问题。同一个意思“帮助”，假如你就用一个动词“help”，岂不显得你词汇贫乏?假如你在作文中不断地变换方式，用help、give somebody a hand、 give a hand to somebody 、be in need of 等以表达“帮助”同一个意思，岂不更好呢?

像这样的例子很多，比如：大家都觉得很简单又很基础的“表示姓名的方式”就有：my name is jim. i’m jim. i’m called/named jim. i’m a boy called /named /with the name of jim. 等等。

表达年龄的方式有：she is 12. she is 12 years old. she is aged 12. she is a girl of 12(years old) 。 she is a girl aged 12.等等。

很显然，使用高级一点的更好。

4、加强练习，积累经验

学习语言最好的方法是运用，作文也不例外。我们要想作文得高分，必须经常练习，才能提高水平。

5、充分利用作文范文

很多资料书上都有作文范文。诚然，他们有很多值得借鉴的地方。

我们怎么利用它们呢?首先，我们先不要看文章，自己先思考一下：假如你来写，你会怎么去写，会用到哪些词或者句子等。然后去比较，勾出其中的好词佳句，并且把它摘录在专门的作文册子上。供写作时选用。

另外，背一些范文也是很有必要的。

6、背诵一些谚语和警句

作文中如果出现恰当的谚语和警句，会有锦上添花的效果。

三、精心审题，沉着写初稿

很多同学看到作文后，下笔就写。这是不对的。一则很容易写偏题、写出病句，涂改后书面又不整洁，影响得分。

其实，会写作文的同学都知道，审题非常的重要，可以防止很多毛病，提高得分。那么我们审题要做些什么呢?

审题主要要做一下事情：

1、审人称、时态、体裁等

审题时，要求我们要弄清楚这篇文章主要使用的人称是第几人称，什么时态、什么体裁。这些问题解决后至少不会犯很严重的错误：全文皆错。

2、明确必须表达的要点

高分作文有个特点是要点齐全。如果漏掉一个要点，则要扣分。因此我们必须认真细读其要求，把必须表达的要点勾出来。保证不漏掉任何一个要点。

3、罗列出可能会用到的短语、句型，确定好使用哪个?

4、确定好如何分段

就是要确定好，将哪些要点放在一个自然段里面，首段、尾段打算写哪些?

以上YJBYS的小编为考生们收集了2015年中考(精选)英语作文高分技巧分享试题

议论文写作是几种常见文体中要求较高的一种。下面语文迷网整理了一些写作方法，希望对你有帮助。

一、议论文的文体特点和写作要求

英语议论文同中文议论文一样也是以议论的方式，通过摆事实、讲道理来阐述自己观点的一种文体。高中英语议论文是一种限制性的写作, 其论点、论据、论证都必须十分明确，学生必须结合题目要求来阐述相关观点。

议论文的结构可分为三个部分：1、引言段引出一个令人关注的问题或明白地亮出自己的观点，如提倡什么，支持什么，反对什么。 2、主体段对提出的问题进行分析、推论、并运用归纳法、演绎法和类比法等进行论证，取得以理服人的效果。3、结论段可以用两三句话来结束文章，同时要注意重申论点，与引言段呼应，但不能照搬原话。务必做到论点明确、要点齐全、论证严密、结构严谨、层次分明、首尾呼应。

二、议论文的写作方法与技巧

一)、审好题

人们常说：“磨刀不误砍柴功”。审题是写作的开始，是写好作文的前提条件，“好的开始是成功的一半”，议论文写作也不例外。只有明确题目要求，确立观点，确定论证方法及全文段落安排，才可能成功写出一篇好的议论文。如果写偏了题，再精心的构思、再好的语言表达也是枉然。审题主要包括六个方面：一是判断议论文所属类型。英语议论文根据命题特点，从形式上来看可分为如下类型: ①“一分为二”的观点。如：“轿车大量进入家庭后，对家庭、环境、经济可能产生的影响”。②“两者选一”的观点。如：“乘火车还是乘飞机”。③“我认为……”型，如：“你对课外阅读的看法”。④“怎样……(how to)”型，如：“怎样克服学习中碰到的困难”。⑤ 图表作文，通过阅读图表中的数字与项目得出一个结论或形成一种看法(杨家贵，2005)。二是确立该文的论点或作者须持的观点，以及支撑论点的道理和事实。三是确定全文所包括的要点。四是确定段落数及每段适用的连接词、过渡句，使文章连接紧凑、过渡自然、层次分明。五是选择全文主要时态及各段适用的其它时态。六是判断该文的格式，是书信还是短文。审题完毕，随即列出提纲。

二)、注重主题句的设置

主题句又叫中心句(topic sentence)，是段落的论点，限制段落中议论的范围，是整个段落的纲领。主题句必须要正确，要明确表明作者赞成什么，反对什么。主题句在一篇百来字的议论文中好比“画龙点睛”，帮助作者分层次阐述自己的观点，让读者快速了解作者的观点。

1、确定主题句的位置

英语议论文的主题句宜设在段首第一句，这是由以下两个因素决定的。1)、主题句出现的位置有三种情况：①在段首，以便读者浏览主题句就可掌握文章的概要，这个位置适用于写提供信息或解释观点的段落;②在段末;③段中(高长梅，2000)。2)、英语民族的思维特点是常采用路标式(直线式)篇章结构，即主题句在段首。

2、写出好的主题句

好的主题句具有以下特点：①有一定的概括性，普遍性而不是罗列具体事实。②句意明确而不是模糊不着边际。③让人有话可写而不是给出无可辩驳的事实。④不以问题的方式出现，也不要同时表达两个以上的观点。笔者要求学生写了以下的主题句：

1)Staying up late is bad for our health.

2)The more cars, the better?

3)There are two reasons why some people are fascinated by Super Girls and two reasons why some dislike them.

4)Beijing is famous for the Great Wall, the Summer Palace, the Imperial Palace and other places of interest.

5)a. Tom is a middle school student.

b. Tom is a hard-working middle school student.

6)Living in small cities is better than living in big cities.

然后让学生对照主题句的特点，他们一致认为1)、5)b、6)为好的主题句。在实践和对比中，学生学会了如何写好的主题句，并且运用到议论文写作中，收到较好效果，见以下实例(下段黑体部分是主题句)。

Everyone lives by selling something. For example, teachers live by selling knowledge, philosophers by selling wisdom and priests by selling spiritual comfort. Though it may be possible to measure the value of material goods in terms of money, it is extremely difficult to calculate the true value of services which people perform for us. The conditions of society are such that skills have to be paid for in the same way that goods are paid for at a shop. Everyone has something to sell.

由此可见，好的主题句能帮助作者阐明观点，起到提纲挈领的作用。作者围绕段落的中心论点，运用多种方法展开论证，达到以理服人的效果。

三)、用好连接词和过渡句

从行文需要出发选用恰当的连接词、过渡句可使整篇文章文句流畅，句意转换自然，同时使表达合乎逻辑，文章结构严谨。倘若一篇议论文的段落里不乏高级词汇和复杂语法结构，但缺少了连接词、过渡句的润色而不能从一个观点自然地过渡到另一个观点，或段落里的各论据(supporting sentence)连接松散，势必削弱论证的效果，就算不上一篇好的议论文。下面分别说明如何有效运用连接词与过渡句。

1、句与句的连接词

连接词通常由连词、副词、介词短语和插入语等充当。如何有效使用连接词，使句意连贯、紧凑，以体现文章良好的严密的论证逻辑?

2.段与段的过渡句

过渡句帮助作者展示文章的条理和层次。恰当运用过渡句能使表达锦上添花。当文章从一个层次转换到另一个层次，或由一段内容转入另一段内容时需要用过渡句。恰当有效的运用过渡句，效果明显(见下文，题目及要求略，黑体部分为过渡句)。

Wearing school uniform every day spreads an order over many schools. Is it good or bad for students? Different people, however, have different opinions on this matter.

Some people say that it has a bad effect on developing students’ personal character. According to them, students are tired of wearing the same clothes every day, which is hard to tell who’s who. Furthermore, the cost of the school uniform is not low as many people think. With the bad quality, it’s not well worth the money.

However, as a popular saying goes: “Every coin has two sides.” Others argue that it is good for students. In their opinion, wearing school uniform will prevent students from wasting so much money on clothes and the time on catching up with the fashion. In addition, it’s easy for the teachers to recognize the students. There is no doubt that wearing school uniform every day is good for students.

In short, I firmly support the view that we should wear school uniform.(康珍，2005)

上文黑体部分综合体现了恰当、有效运用连接词和过渡句的最佳效果。全文行文流畅、衔接自然、条理清楚，浑然不觉作者是在套用各种连接词和过渡句。因此，非常有必要熟记一些常用典型的议论文过渡句，使议论文结构严谨，论点清楚，行文流畅。

1)引言段的常用过渡句

Recently we had a heated discussion on…, Opinions are various among different people.

Different people have different opinions on the question of …

They differ greatly in their attitudes towards …

Different people hold different views/opinions on this matter.

Although most people think… I believe…

此类过渡句能迅速引起读者注意，自然而然地引出全文要讨论的话题，或者开门见山地阐明文章的论点。

2)主体段的常用过渡句

Some may hold the view that… because… But others have a negative attitude. From their point of view…

Some people think that… While others believe…

Some people are for the idea of… because… But some people are against the idea of… because …

本文所指议论文的主体段可以是一段也可以是两段。通过正确使用过渡句，文章思路清晰，结构清楚，显示作者严谨思维，增强表达效果。

3)结论段的常用过渡句

As far as I am concerned, I totally agree with the statement that…

Therefore, it’s easy to draw the conclusion that…

As a consequence/result, I firmly support the view that…

Taking all these factors into consideration, we may reach the conclusion that…

To sum up/in a word/in conclusion/in short/above all/in general/ generally speaking, I still hold the view that…

运用过渡句的提示作用进入结论段，作者或是重申论点，或是强调论点，以便加深读者对全文的了解和深刻认识。

英语议论文范文：

Should Examination Be Abolished (取消)?

The examination system has come to be the main theme (主题)of modern education. One should take an examination andsucceed in passing it before he could be admitted， promoted or graduated. As it plays so important a role in the realm of education (教育的领域) it is under much criticism (评论) as to its validity (有效性) . People who are in favour of it try to develop this system more; those who are against it believe that such a system should be abolished. Should examination be abolished? In my opinion it should be.

Many people think that an examination is the only means to test knowledge， but， in fact， that is not true. A few questions given in an examination could by no means cover the whole field of the subject. Thus those who are able to answer them may be the poorest of the students and yet happen to know just a few points about that subject.

Id like to say that， because of the existence of the examination system， students pay so much attention to gaining high marks， that they often forget the chief purpose of education. The so-called clever students devote (贡献) themselves to the study of textbooks only. They， of course， know nothing but the skeleton (梗概) of knowledge. The end and aim of education， however， is to enable students to learn how to live. To do this， students must get themselves to do all kinds of training， physicalas well as mental. The present examination system has discouraged students from making such an attempt.

Moreover， since the students try so hard to put their lessons into memory in as short a time as possible， psychologically (心理上来看)， they soon forget the whole subject as soon as the examination is over. Surely this is one of the greatest wastes ever made in the history of civilization.

Lastly， in order to get high marks， there is a great temptation (诱惑) for students to cheat (作弊) in an examination. Indeed， such a practice becomes the means to the end. They cheat their teachers， their parents and also themselves. Such a tendency would impair (损害) our moral standards (道德标准) .

Therefore， I am of the opinion， in conclusion， that the examination system should be abolished.

说明文是阐述事物的特征、本质、性能、结构、用途或科学原理的一种文体。其说明的对象可以是具体的，如：自然环境，仪表设备等；也可以是抽象的，如概念定律等。以下是小编整理的初中英语说明文写作要点，欢迎阅读！

说明文的写作相对于论说文来说，有一定的套路可循，因此不是十分复杂。说明科技方面的内容常用定义法、比较对比法、分类法、因果法等；说明自然环境方面的内容常用时间次序法、分类法等。当然，随着对象的不同，具体应该采用的方法也会有所不同。

说明文的写作应该注意的事项有下面几点：

1.语言简明扼要，通俗易懂，避免夸张华丽的辞藻，要把真实的一面展现在读者面前。

2.说明时一定要把握一个中心主题。说明文中细枝末节较多，但不能喧宾夺主。

3.说明的次序非常重要。合理的次序会使文章条理清楚，脉络明晰。因此，练习时可以尝试不同的次序进行写作，找出最合理的一种。

4.由于说明文写实性较强，有时难免会让人感到没有生气。因此，可以适当使用一些比喻、拟人等修辞手段，来增加文章的色彩。

下面是一篇说明一所医院布局的文章。文章虽短，但需要说明的内容却达11处之多。平均一句话就要描写一处，如果组织得不好，便会给人凌乱的感觉。

为了避免这一点，文章把整个布局图分三部分来写：

贯彻医院的是main road，第一部分以大门为参照物，介绍了靠大门且通过main road东西相对的急诊楼和门诊楼。

第二部分以湖为参照物，中心线还是main road，介绍其他分诊楼、实验室、放射室等。

第三部分写main road尽头的建筑物。

这样，繁多的细节显得井井有条。因此，选择好主线及参照物是决定文章成功的关键。

Directions：For this part，you are allowed 30 minutes to write a composition about“THE LAYOUT OF A HOSPITAL”. Locate some important departments in the hospital based on the information given below.Your composition should be no less than 120 words.

（1）the Emergency Department

（2）the Out-patient Department

（3）the Surgery Department

（4）the Dispensary

（5）the Physician Department

（6）the Eye，Ear，and Throat Department

（7）the Dental Department

（8）the Laboratory

（9）the X-ray Department

（10）the Administrative Building

（11）the Ward

例文：

The Layout of a Hospital Near the gate，on the westside of the road is the Emergency Department. Opposite the Emergency Department across the Main Road is the Out-patient Department. The building to the southwest of the lake is the Dispensary，which face the Surgery Department lying on the other side of the road.Along the west wall，from south to north，stand three buildings：the Physician Department，the Eye，Ear，and Throat Department，and the Dental Department.

The Laboratory is to the northwest of the round about，and beside the Laboratory，the X-ray Department is located on the same side of the road. A winding road by the lake leads to the Ward.

Near the end of the Main Road，the Administrative Building is situated on the east side.The hospital is nicely and conveniently laid out.

引言：培养小学生的英语写作能力,应从培养良好的书写习惯、扎实的词汇句型开始。接下来小编给各位读者总结了一些小学英语写作必备句型，希望大家认真打好基础，不断提高写作水平。

一、~~~ the + ~ est + 名词 + (that) + 主词 + have ever + seen ( known/heard/had/read, etc)~~~ the most + 形容词 + 名词 + (that) + 主词 + have ever + seen ( known/heard/had/read, etc)

例句：Helen is the most beautiful girl that I have ever seen.

海伦是我所看过最美丽的女孩。

Mr. Chang is the kindest teacher that I have ever had.

张老师是我曾经遇到最仁慈的教师。

二、Nothing is + ~~~ er than to + V

Nothing is + more + 形容词 + than to + V

例句：Nothing is more important than to receive education.

没有比接受教育更重要的事。

三、~~~ cannot emphasize the importance of ~~~ too much.

(再怎么强调…的重要性也不为过小学英语写作必备句型小学英语写作必备句型。)

例句：We cannot emphasize the importance of protecting our eyes too much.

我们再怎么强调保护眼睛的重要性也不为过。

四、There is no denying that + S + V …(不可否认的…)

例句：There is no denying that the qualities of our living have gone from bad to worse.

不可否认的，我们的生活品质已经每况愈下。

五、It is universally acknowledged that + 句子~~ (全世界都知道…)

例句：It is universally acknowledged that trees are indispensable to us.

全世界都知道树木对我们是不可或缺的。

六、There is no doubt that + 句子~~ (毫无疑问的…)

例句：There is no doubt that our educational system leaves something to be desired.

毫无疑问的我们的教育制度令人不满意。

七、An advantage of ~~~ is that + 句子(…的优点是…)

例句：An advantage of using the solar energy is that it won’t create (produce) any pollution.

使用太阳能的优点是它不会制造任何污染。

八、The reason why + 句子 ~~~ is that + 句子(…的原因是…)

例句：The reason why we have to grow trees is that they can provide us with fresh air.

The reason why we have to grow trees is that they can supply fresh air for us.

我们必须种树的原因是它们能供应我们新鲜的空气。

一、函的概念 函是不相隶属机关之间相互洽工作、询问和答复问题，或者向有关主管部门请求批准事项时所使用的公文。

函作为公文中惟一的一种平行文种，其适用的范围相当广泛。在行文方向上，不仅可以在平行机关之间行文，而且可以在不相隶属的机关之间行文，其中包括上级机关或者下级机关行文。在适用的内容方面，它除了主要用于不相隶属机关相互洽工作、询问和答复问题外，也可以向有关主管部门请求批准事项，向上级机关询问具体事项、请示较小事宜，还可以用于上级机关答复下级机关的询问或请求批准事项，以及上级机关催办下级机关有关事宜，如要求下级机关函报报表、材料、统计数字等。通知一般事项，如通知召开一般性会议。此外，函有时还可用于上级机关对某件原发文件作较小的补充或更正。不过这种情况并不多见。

二、函的特点

(一)沟通性。函对于不相隶属机关之间相互洽工作、询问和答复问题，起着沟通作用，充分显示平行文种的功能，这是其他公文所不具备的特点。

(二)灵活性。表现在两个方面：一是行文关系灵活。函是平行公文，但是它除了平行行文外，还可以向上行文或向下行文，没有其他文种那样严格的特殊行文关系的限制。二是格式灵活，除了国家高级机关的主要函必须按

照公文的格式、行文要求行文外，其他一般函，比较灵活自便，也可以按照公文的格式及行文要求办。可以有文头版，也可以没有文头版，不编发文字号，甚至可以不拟标题。

(三)单一性。函的主体内容应该具备单一性的特点，一份函只宜写一件事项。

三、函的分类。

(一)按性质分，可以分为公函和便函两种。公函用于机关单位正式的公务活动往来;便函则用于日常事务性工作的处理。便函不属于正式公文，没有公文格式要求，甚至可以不要标题，不用发文字号，只需要在尾部署上机关单位名称、成文时间并加盖公章即可。

(二)按发文目的分。函可以分为发函和复函两种。发函即主动提出了公事事项所发出的函。复函则是为回复对方所发出的函。

(三)另外，从内容和用途上，还可以分为洽事宜函，通知事宜函，催办事宜函，邀请函、请示答复事宜函，转办函，催办函，报送材料函等等。

四、函的结构、内容和写法

由于函的类别较多，从制作格式到内容表述均有一定灵活机动性。主要介绍规范性公函的结构、内容和写法。

公函由首部、正文和尾部三部分组成。其各部分的格式、内容和写法要求如下：

(一)首部。主要包括标题、主送机关两个项目内容。

1、标题。

2、主送机关。

(二)正文。其结构一般由开头、主体、结尾、结语等部分组成。

(三)结尾。一般用礼貌性语言向对方提出希望。或请对方协助解决某一问题，或请对方及时复函，或请对方提出意见或请主管部门批准等。

(四)结语。通常应根据函询、函告、函或函复的事项，选择运用不同的结束语。如“特此函询()”、“请即复函”、“特此函告”、“特此函复”等。有的函也可以不用结束语，如属便函，可以像普通信件一样，使用“此致”、“敬礼”。

(五)结尾落款。一般包括署名和成文时间两项内容。

署名机关单位名称，写明成文时间年、月、日;并加盖公章。

五、撰写函件应注意的问题

函的写作，首先要注意行文简洁明确，用语把握分寸。无论是平行机关或者是不相隶属的行文，都要注意语气平和有礼，不要倚势压人或强人所难，也不必逢迎恭维、曲意客套。至于复函，则要注意行文的针对性，答复的明确性。

其次，函也有时效性的问题，特别是复函更应该迅速、及时。像对待其他公文一样，及时处理函件，以保证公务等活动的正常进行。

例文 通知事宜函

国务院办公厅关于羊毛产销和质量等问题的函

国家计委、经贸办、农业部、业部、经贸部、纺织部、技术监督局： 为进一步发展我国羊毛生产，搞活羊毛流通，提高羊毛质量，根据国务院领导同志的批示，现就有关问题通知如下：

一、要切实抓紧抓好草场改造和羊种改良工作。(略)

二、技术监督局要加强羊毛的质量监督和检验工作。(略)

三、要尽快组织直接进入国际羊毛拍卖市场。(略)

四、为了促进国内养羊业的发展，支持纺织工业生产和扩大出口创汇。(略) 上述有关政策，请有关部门、各地区特别是羊毛生产区认真研究落实，执行中的问题，由国家计委和经贸办协调，并督促落实。

国务院办公厅(盖章)

一、Nothing is + ~~~ er than to + V Nothing is + more +形容词+ than to + V

例句：Nothing is more important than to receive education. 没有比接受教育更重要的事。

二、~ the + ~ est +名词+(that)+主词+ have ever + seen(known/heard/had/read，etc)

~ the most +形容词+名词+(that)+主词+ have ever +seen(known/heard/had/read，etc)

例句：Helen is the most beautiful girl that I have ever seen. 海伦是我所看过最美丽的女孩。

Mr. Chang is the kindest teacher that I have ever had. 张老师是我曾经遇到最仁慈的教师。

三、~~~ cannot emphasize the importance of ~~~ too much.(再怎么强调……的重要性也不为过。)

例句：We cannot emphasize the importance of protecting our eyes too much.

我们再怎么强调保护眼睛的重要性也不为过。

四、It is universally acknowledged that +句子~~(全世界都知道……)

例句：It is universally acknowledged that trees are indispensable to us.

全世界都知道树木对我们是不可或缺的。

五、There is no denying that + S + V……(不可否认的……)

例句：There is no denying that the qualities of our living have gone from bad to worse.

不可否认的，我们的生活品质已经每况愈下。

六、There is no doubt that +句子~~(毫无疑问的……)

例句：There is no doubt that our educational system leaves something to be desired.

毫无疑问的我们的教育制度令人不满意。

七、An advantage of ~~~ is that +句子(……的优点是……)

例句：An advantage of using the solar energy is that it wont create(produce)any pollution.

使用太阳能的优点是它不会制造任何污染。

八、The reason why +句子~~~ is that +句子(……的原因是……)

例句：The reason why we have to grow trees is that they can provide us with fresh air.

The reason why we have to grow trees is that they can supply fresh air for us.

我们必须种树的原因是它们能供应我们新鲜的空气。

九、Adj + as + Subject(主词)+ be，S + V~~~(虽然……)

例句：Rich as our country is， the qualities of our living are by no means

satisfactory. {by no means = in no way = on no account一点也不}

虽然我们的国家富有，我们的生活品质绝对令人不满意。

十、So +形容词+ be +主词+ that +句子(如此……以致于……)

例句：So precious is time that we cant afford to waste it.时间是如此珍贵，我们经不起浪费它。

1、紧扣主题，短文必须包括提纲中的全部要点;与主题无关或关系不大的字句必须一律删去。

2、文章通顺，前后贯通，语言流畅。

3、句子开头多样化，句型多样化。

4、无句型结构错误，无语法错误和用语造句等方面的错误。

5、短文字数不得少于150个字。

对考研英语短文的策略：

1.分配好短文各部分篇幅比例

根据在40分钟内写150词的《大纲》要求，合理分配各部分篇幅比例显得非常重要。篇幅比例安排大致如下：

(1)开头：可控制在4句话之内，以2——3句较为适宜。该部分约占全文篇幅的10%——15%。

(2)主体：约占全篇短文的70%——80%。

(3)结尾：这部分应控制在2——3句话之内，约占全文篇幅10——15%。

2.合理分配时间

应该切记短文写作时间仅为40分钟，在这较短的时间内考生需完成120——150词的短文。这就要求考生做到有条不紊、忙而不乱，充分发挥自己应有的水平。从而稳操胜券，驾轻就熟，从容应对。建议考生在动笔之前，用5分钟的时间写个提纲理清思路，然后再动笔。此外，要留出5——6分钟来修改抄写。以避免不必要的笔误，给评卷老师留下良好的印象。

3.审题——紧扣主题的关键

所谓审题，就是正确理解题意，所写短文要紧扣题目要求。从每年的英文短文考题可看出，除了题目外，还有开头第一句话和一个写作提纲。这个写作提纲就是短文的写作具体范围。考生必须以指定的句子开头，按写作提纲规定的要点和顺序(通常是3个要点)往下写。

通常3个要点就是写三段话，每段开头(除第一段已给了外)第一句话必须把该段写作提纲中的主要的词或主要意思包括进去，这就是段落中心句。每段其他句子必须紧扣该段的段落中心句，与段落中心句无关的句子或关系不大的句子必须坚决删去。由于写作提纲中所给的3个要点(即关键词)已包括在每段开头的段落中心句(即每段开头的第一句)中，而每段的其他句子又紧扣段落中心句，这就使每段的内容紧扣主题，而不至离开主题去谈别的问题，这就是抓住主题的关键。

一篇好文章，除了有引人入胜的开头，还应该有耐人寻味的结尾。那么小升初的作文中，孩子们到底该从哪些方面去着手准备呢?

一、素材的多角度立意

意大利着名画家达·芬奇的老师对达·芬奇所说的自己画蛋的体会：即使是同一只蛋，只要变换一下角度，形状便立即不同了。这告诉我们对生活中发生的事件我们可以多角度分析。文章源于生活，它的立意亦应多角度进行。

我们以一个发生在同学们身边的事件为例。

今年春天，我和爸爸来到高尔夫球场，第一次学打高尔夫球。看教练做很简单，我按照教练的要求去做，却发现和想象的不同，要么杆碰不上球，要么球出去就偏离了方向，经历了一次次失败，我终于成功了。

就这一事例，我们可从如下角度立意：

1、最大的敌人是自己，战胜自己就会走向成功;

2、一招一式，看似简单，做起来难，失之毫厘，谬以千里;

3、成功需要方法;四、运动带来快乐……

这样，一个素材，可以根据命题的不同，确定立意，设置情节，确定描写重点。但无论从哪个角度立意，打球的动作细节是不能丢的。

二、练习写好文章的细节

学生练习作文的过程中，很多孩子注意了情节的起伏，语言的流畅，但总感觉文章空泛，这是为什么呢?忽视了细节描写。

怎样写好细节，简单地说，细节描写要还原生活，去发现场景细节、服饰细节、语言细节、动作细节、心理细节等，按照生活本来的面目去描摹。一篇文章，恰到好处地运用细节描写，能起到烘托环境气氛、刻画人物性格和揭示主题思想的作用。

如何将“陌生叔叔帮我把车修好”写细，我们首先要还原生活场景，在头脑中勾勒出雪中修车图，再从这一图画中去寻找描写的细节。

这是一位同学的作文片断：“叔叔迅速地摘下手套，用右手拿着链条，左手帮着把链条搬过去，链条一点点地扣上去了，一节一节地扣住了后轮的齿轮。‘咣当’一声，链条滑了出来，这一次努力前功尽弃。我的心咯噔一下，万一叔叔告诉我修不好，我该怎么办呀!可事情并非如我想象，只见叔叔向拢起的双手呵了呵气，又蹲下了身子。他为了不让链条弹开，用右手把链条往前面齿轮上套住，然后右手拉住链条往后齿轮上移，左手护住链条不让它再滑出来。后来，他看到位置有些偏，就用左手把它移正再装，洁白的雪花落在了他冻得通红的满是油污的手上，我知道他的手一定很冷，很冷，可他的心一定很热，很热。终于，链条一节一节地和齿轮扣住了。他猛一转脚踏板，车子居然又完好地转动起来。”文章中最直观的细节是叔叔修车的动作细节，摘、拿、套、拉、护、移、转等动词的使用，写出了叔叔雪中修车的不容易，突出了人物精神。其次应当是外貌细节和心理细节的描写衬托了人物美好的心灵。

每个人观察生活的角度和经历不同，再现的生活场景也就不同，但无论采用怎样的方法，我们达到这样一种境地为最好——做到写人则如见其人，写景则如临其境。

三、整理生活中的素材

努力回忆六年来的校园生活，家庭生活中记忆尤为深刻的小事，哪怕是一次单手磕鸡蛋的经历都不要放过。因为孩子有对生活的观察、积累，有真实的体验、感受，他的表述一定会具体而生动，他所表达的情感一定是真实的。翻翻过去的作文、周记，从多个角度，搜集这样的素材，将细节完整地记录下来，进行分类整理。

有些家长大量地看作文选、杂志，想帮助孩子从上面搬些素材下来。我不大同意这样的做法，因为那不是孩子的生活，他很难像成人一样具有缜密的思维，进行合理的想象情节，他也很难描摹当时的细节，这样的作文不能打动读者。不如让作文选、杂志成为勾起孩子回忆生活的媒介，从与作者相似的经历中挖掘写作素材。如：从作文选上看奶奶为我掖被子的细节，想到冬天，妈妈买药回来，为我滴眼药时怕我嫌凉而搓手的动作，这样一来写母爱的文章就有了素材。

四、努力锤炼文章的语言

佳酿总是经过酿造才有它独特的芳醇，文章也是一样，经过锤炼的语言才是有生命力的语言，孔子说“言之无文，行而不远。”说的就是这个道理。

我们可尝试这样的几种方式，让语言焕发色彩。

在句式变换上下工夫。在表达强烈的情感时，可以将陈述句用反问、设问或感叹句的形式表达。

在准确地运用词汇上下工夫。在文章中可以用一些拟声词来丰富表达;另外，可使用叠词使描绘更加准确，而且能使语言具有节奏感，从而让语言富有音乐美。再有，四字词语和成语的使用，会使语言表达更为简练。 在恰当地运用修辞上下工夫。修辞不但使文章语言生动活泼，而且能调节音节，增强语言的音乐美，提高语言的表达效果。例如：“风追着雨，雨赶着风，风和雨联合起来追赶着天上的乌云，整个天地都处在雨水之中”一句，意思是说“大雨来了”。但是作者使用了拟人的手法，把风、雨当作正在奔跑的人，飞快地追赶天空的乌云，这样一说比“大雨来了”更能表现出雨来的之快、之急、之大。当然，修辞方法还有引用、夸张、排比、设问、反问等等，我们应根据需要采用。

[小升初作文的写作基础

公共基础知识考试时需要写作文，应该怎么写？以下是小编整理的公共基础知识作文写作指导，欢迎阅读。

一、请仔细阅读下面的材料，并根据作答要求作文;

曾有人做过实验，将一只最凶猛的鲨鱼和一群热带鱼放在同一个池子，然后用强化玻璃隔开。最初，鲨鱼每天不断冲撞那块看不到的玻璃，奈何这只是徒劳，它始终不能过到对面去，而实验人员每天都有放一些鲫鱼在池子里，所以鲨鱼也没缺少猎物，只是它仍想到对面去，每天仍是不断地冲撞那块玻璃，它试了每个角落，每次都是用尽全力，但每次也总是弄得伤痕累累，有好几次都浑身破裂出血，持续了好一些日子，每当玻璃一出现裂痕，实验人员马上加上一块更厚的玻璃。

后来，鲨鱼不再冲撞那块玻璃了，对那些斑斓的热带鱼也不再在意，好像他们只是墙上会动的壁画，它开始等着每天固定会出现的鲫鱼，然后用它敏捷的本能进行狩猎，好像回到海中不可一世的凶狠霸气，但这一切只不过是假像罢了。

实验到了最后的阶段，实验人员将玻璃取走，但鲨鱼却没有反应，每天仍是在固定的区域游着，它不但对那些热带鱼视若无睹，甚至于当那些鲫鱼逃到那边去，他就立刻放弃追逐，说什么也不愿再过去。

实验结束了，实验人员讥笑它是海里最懦弱的鱼，可是失恋过的人都知道为什么，它怕痛。

要求：(1)自选角度，自拟题目

(2)联系实际

(3)写一篇不少于800字的议论文

(4)请在主观题答题卡上作答

二、【写作参考答案】

【解析】这属于寓言故事的出题方式，主要是围绕鲨鱼，面对强化玻璃在历经失败过后，产生相对安逸的思维，等到危机困难真正解除，却不能迎接之前的目标，想告诉我们，面对失败挫折，应该积极面对，不能退而求其次，因此，这篇文章立意是应对挫折，获得辉煌。

结合日常生活中的生活经验，可以从良好心态、激发个人潜能、调整人生目标方面进行论述。

【范文】

历经挫折 迎接辉煌

贝多芬曾说过：“苦难是人生的老师，通过苦难，走向欢乐。”人的一生不能没有老师，就如同不能没有挫折一样。遭遇挫折，是人生常态，就像四季轮回、秋去冬来一样，是事物发展的客观规律，非人力所能避免。挫折是一个火药桶，点燃它会给人们带来苦难，带来不幸，带来失利;同时坐车又是一把金钥匙，拿着它会打开成功的大门，踏上人生的巅峰，通往幸福的天堂。因此，正确面对挫折，才能迎来新的篇章。

笑对挫折，能够培育良好心态，享受生活。人生之路不是一马平川，有坦途就有坎坷，有甜蜜就有苦涩。人生之路，从来都与挫折相伴而行。然而，挫折对于强者来说是一块块垫脚石，是通向成功的一级级阶梯;对于弱者则是一道道绊脚石，会把弱者跌得鼻青脸肿。

挫折，有时候也会像一座沙漠，试图使人迷失方向。然自信者手中始终会握着一枚“指南针”，他永远不会迷失方向，勇往直前地向着目标进发;而失意者整天却像一个无头苍蝇，撞到哪儿算哪儿，一辈子也走不出“沙漠”。要想享受生活，就要正确对待挫折，时时怀着得意淡然、失意坦然的乐观态度，笑对自己的挫折和苦难，去做，去努力，去争取!

笑对挫折，能够激发个人潜能，助力成长。挫折是积累经验的必修课，是走向成熟的催化剂，是收获果实的剪刀手。数风流人物，都是历经挫折方成宏图伟业。勾践卧薪尝胆终成一代枭雄;马云买保险的失败，造就阿里巴巴;刘伟电断双臂与白血病的次次打击，但终成“双脚弹琴小王子”。然而，生活中小学生因暑假作业未完成而崩溃跳楼的例子引人深思。究其原因在生活过于一帆风顺，没有遭受过挫折。因此，有意无意遭受点滴挫折，可以使我们告别安逸，在风雨中接受洗礼，从而拥有自己的一片新天地。

笑对挫折，能够调整人生目标，实现梦想。歌德用尽半生学画无成，面对人生不断碰壁，及时调整了人生目标，在文学道路上做出一番成就。孙中山青年时悬壶济世，最后发现治一人不能拯救全社会，于是转而投身革命，终于成就了令世人敬佩的事业。老子云：“知人者智，自知者明;胜人者有力，自胜者强。”古人在千百年前就告诉我们要正确地认识自己，才能变得智慧和强大。但是，每个人都无法直接预料到适合干什么，只有在不断的遭遇挫折不断进行调整，找到最适合自己的路，最适合穿的鞋。

“不经一番寒彻骨，哪的梅花扑鼻香”启示大家梅花妖娆美丽的获得是经过冰冷的寒冬。

同样，个人的成才也需要勉面临不断的碰壁，需要展现乐观态度与艰难选择的切合之魅，最后在挫折中使自己不断成熟。

[公共基础知识作文写作指导

灵感对于写作活动具有突破性和突发性的推动作用，常用应用文写作灵感。凡有写作经验的人都有这样的体验，无论是题材的发现，主题的确定，还是篇章的构建，标题的制作，甚至妙言警句的产生，都有灵感之光在闪耀。没有作者的思维灵感，就不会有浑然天成的艺术佳作问世。因此，探求写作灵感的激发规律和途径，有助于我们创造条件自觉诱发灵感，为写作服务。

灵感作为一种特殊的思维现象，其产生是有物质基础的，这个基础就是作者的长期积累。周恩来说：“作品的产生，可以是偶然得之，但是这种偶然得之是建筑在长期的生活和修养基础上的，这也是偶然性与必然性的辩证统一。”

[1]这个“辩证统一”很深刻地揭示了“偶然得之”与“长期积累”的内在依存关系。写作灵感的引发是需要积累的，积之愈厚，发之愈佳。只有在生活素材、思想感情、学识修养等多方面进行积累，才能为灵感的产生创造必要的前提条件。

生活积累 生活是灵感的来源。人脑对社会生活的感应如从信息论的角度来看，具有全息性与多维性。它积累越多，涉及面越广，与外界信息撞击的触发点愈多，就越便于触景生情，托物取喻，借物发端，引发艺术灵感的概率就愈高。元好问说：“眼处心声句自神”（元好问《论诗三十首》）。他认为通过自己切身体验，把握生活的真谛，才会产生灵感，才会“句自神”。鲁迅说，他写《狂人日记》是“偶阅《通鉴》，乃悟中国人尚是食人之族，因此成篇”。

[2]但他酝酿这篇小说，却经历了很长的时间，他因一个患有迫害狂的表弟而产生了写作冲动，又耳闻目睹了封建社会残害人们的许多事实，正是因为有了这些生活经验的积累，才“偶阅《通鉴》”，一触即发，写就了《狂人日记》。契诃夫为观察生活、搜集素材，曾作过大量的生活笔记，一部整理出版的《契诃夫手记》就达20万字，这位被托尔斯泰称为“没人能比的艺术家”就是靠这种艰苦的劳动，积累生活素材、锻炼观察能力、加深对生活的认识、激发写作灵感的，秘书工作《常用应用文写作灵感》。可见灵感只有深深根植于生活的土壤，才能绽放出鲜艳的花朵。作者应该坚持深入生活，感悟生活、从生活之水中激起灵感的浪花，从而写出优秀的文章和作品。

情感积累 激情是灵感的催化剂。狄德罗说:“天才是各个时代都有的……情感在胸怀堆积、酝酿，凡是具有喉舌的人都感到有说话的需要，吐之而后快。”

[3]热情燃烧时，作者的感觉异常敏锐，思维异常活跃，以往感知的信息迅速浮现，创造性的想象急剧盘旋，在这种情况下，偶遇触发，极易产生写作冲动，也就常会有所谓神来之笔。历史上许多著名的文学家，他们的写作活动，并不是为了金钱、名声，而是一个活跃生命的自身的要求和诉求，是情感的不可遏制的抒发和倾泻。也正因如此，人们读到这些作品的时候，感到它们浑然天成，似有神助。例如，著名作家巴金就多次说过他并不想当作家，他之所以拿起笔来写作，是为了倾诉心中的苦闷，表达对旧社会的控诉。他在《关于〈家〉（十版代序）》中谈到其创作《家》的缘由与动机时说：“我的悲愤太大了。我不能忍受那些不公道的事情。我常常被逼迫着目睹一些可爱的生命怎样任人摧残以至临到那悲惨的结局。那个时候我的心因爱怜而苦恼，同时又充满了恶毒的诅咒。我有过觉慧在梅的灵前所起的那种感情。我甚至说过觉慧在他哥哥面前说的话：‘让他们来做一次牺牲品罢。’我不忍掘开我的回忆的坟墓，‘那里面不知道埋葬了若干令人伤心断肠的痛史！’我的积愤，我对于不合理的制度的积愤直到现在才有机会倾吐出来。我写了《家》，我倘使真把这本小说作为武器，我也是有权利的。”由此可见，长期的情感积蓄导致他如火山爆发式地宣泄自己的悲愤，从而创作了《家》等一系列文学佳作。作家的创作经历对普通写作也是有启发意义的：与其等待灵感这位神奇的不速之客的光临，不如强化抒情意识，有意积淀写作情感，当激情满怀，不可遏止，非要拿起笔来不吐不快时，自然会有灵感来袭，下笔如神。

大自然物换星移、雨雪云雾，一山一水，一草一木，甚至人们生活的一些环境。下面是小编分享的小学生写景作文的写作基础，欢迎大家阅读！

一、仔细观察，抓住景物特点。

第一要抓时序的特点。春夏秋冬，一年四季或晨、午、黄昏一天早晚，景色自然不一样。比如：《高大的皂荚树》中：“春天，下小雨啦。皂荚树为我们遮挡着，雨滴就不会很快调下来。我们就能够像平常一样，在操场上做体操，做游戏。夏天，暴烈的太阳当头照。有了皂荚树的遮挡，烈日就只能投下星星点点的光斑。我们活动在操场上觉得格外凉爽。秋天，皂荚树上许许多多得皂荚儿成熟了，那样子，就像常见得大扁豆。高年级得同学爬上树去，用带钩子得小竹竿把皂荚儿钩下来。小同学呢，把它们捡进筐里，交给老师。冬天，皂荚树落叶了。枯黄的小叶子，打着旋儿，不断地飘落，在地上铺一层一层。这时候，我们就把树叶扫到一起，堆放在墙脚下。”这些片断作者抓住了皂荚树在一年四季的不同特点，反映了作者对校园皂荚树的喜爱和赞美之情。

第二要抓场所的特点。

写景的文章有的指明了场所的，如《街头一景》、《校园春色》，就要把“校园”、“街头”、等这些场所的特点写出来。

第三要抓景色的特点。

不同的风景点特点是不同的，如有的是山景为主，有的以奇石闻名，有的借江湖增光，就应当抓住这些不同的特点，写出景物的个性。如：《火烧云》中：“这地方的火烧云变化极多，一会儿红彤彤的，一会儿金灿灿的，一会儿半紫半黄，一会儿半灰半百合色。葡萄灰，梨黄，茄子紫，这些颜色天空都有，还有些说也说不出来，见也没见过的颜色。”这个片断作者抓住了火烧云的色彩绚丽的特点进行描写的，从而反映了火烧云的美。

二、动静结合，写好景物特点。

在写景作文中，景物有静态与动态的区别。自然景色总是沉静的，但又都在不断地运动与变化之中。写景时既要注意静态的景，又在善于看出景中的动态，做到静中有动，动中有静，动静结合。描写时或先写静态后写动态，或先写动态后写静态，使景物处于静态与动态时的特征和谐完美地呈现在读者面前，只有这样，才能使文章中的景色特点“活”起来。如《第一场雪》中：“落光了叶子的柳树上，挂满了毛茸茸、亮晶晶地银条儿；冬夏常青地松树和柏树，堆满了蓬松松、沉甸甸的雪球。一阵风吹来，树枝轻轻地摇晃，银条儿和雪球儿簌簌地落下来，玉屑似的雪末儿随风飘扬，映着清晨的阳光，显出一道道五光十色的彩虹……

三、以情观景，借景抒情。

写景物的作文，不是为了写景而写景，它最终的目的是要表达人的一种情感。关键在于处理好“景”与“情”的关系。景与情贵在溶合，景中有情、情中有景，才能达到水乳交融、不可分离的境界。在方法上，可多加运用比喻、拟人等修辞手法，使景物带有人的特点，让写实与想象完美结合在一起。一篇优美的文章只有渗透了作者的真情实感，才能更好地表达文章中心，准确地抒发作者的情怀，使读者也能从课文美的文字中真切体会到景美物美，以及作者对景物的喜爱。如：《夕照》中：“太阳被裹上了橘黄色，没有了刺眼的光芒，稳稳地站在那排杨树上，没有丝毫衰老的样子。柔柔的光泻下来，给砖瓦房镀上一层华丽的金黄；房顶顿时化作一汪晶莹的湖水，每一片瓦都跳跃着的：“波纹”是夕阳得意的杰作。那平静的“湖面”难道不是被它踩碎的吗？啊，它和我一样调皮！”作者运用一连串的比喻和巧妙的拟人手法，写出了夕阳的柔美，落山时调皮的模样，使夕阳有了情感，有了生命活力，充分抒发了作者对夕阳的赞美，对夕阳的喜爱之情。

总的来说，写好景物就要抓住景物的特点，根据所写景物的特点，有所侧重地选择景物描写方法，写时要展开丰富的联想，并融入自己的真情实感。平时要多观察、多练习，把你所看到的最美的景色写出来，让读者感到鲜明生动，有身临其境之感。

[小学生写景作文的写作基础

1。

You are an university student who are living in the accommodation at the campus。

One day you find something wrong with your accommodation。

So you write a letter to the House Officer to tell them what happened， the reason you think， what you decide to do， and whether if it is right。

2。

It is wrong that our government pay more money to the artist projects， for instance， there are more and more paintings and sculptures appearing at the public places， because there are more important thing to do。

Whats you opinion？ Do you agree or disagree with it？

3。

writing to an English speaking college about qualification， accommodation， fee， what courses do you want to choose and why。

4。

Participating in a sport is as important for psychological health as it is for physical condition and social development。

5。

You have left college。

But you didnt say goodbye to your friend who live in the room with you because he had a course at that time。

Write a letter to him to appology and tell hem how you spend that days before you leave and how you get home。

Then invite him to visit you。

6。

Some people say the parents should except school to conduct their childrens behavior and tell them what is right or wrong。

Others say schools should take this responsibility。

Please give your point about it。

7。

Write to the agency officer and complain about the rent car which has sth wrong。

Tell them the problems of the car you rent from the agency and your requiring。

8。

As the developing countries and the third world countries， there are a funds， how to use it？ Invest in the basic education or in the high－technology， for instance， computer？ Whats your opinion？

9。

You are a foreign student。

Write to the Student Union， introduce your hobbies and interests and ask information of clubs and societies。

You want to join a club or society enjoy your time when you study there。

10。

Fast food is developing more and more popular。

It replaces other traditional food。

Some people think it is good， some people disagree with it。

Whats your opinion about it。

Give some reason of your opinion。

11。

A friend will visit Beijing。

You will meet him at airport。

But for some reason， you have to be late。

Explain the reason。

Since you havent meet each other， tell the friend where you will meet and how to recognize each other。

12。

More and more childrens writing math ability are affected by computers and calculators。

We should limit the use of those tools。

Disagree or agree。

13。

you have broke your leg and have to stayed in hospital。

you received many cards and letters from your classmates。

write a letter to tell them your detail of your position and thank them at the same time。

14。

some people say that it is impossible for women to be an effective women and to be a good mother in home at the same time。

they also suggest that the government should give the salary to mothers who stay at home to take care of their children。

15。

Your friend write to you and tell you that he is hesitating to chose computer or history as his major in university。

Write to him and tell him your opinion。

16。

Participating in a sport is as important for psychological health as it is for physical conditions and social development。

17。

You live in a room in college which you share with another student。

You find it very difficult to work there because he or she always has friends visiting。

They have parties in the room and sometimes borrow your things without asking you。

Write a letter to the Accommodation officer at the college and ask for a new room nest term。

You would prefer a single room。

Explain your reason。

18。

Who has responsible for our old people？

19。

Write to the agency officer to complain about a rent house by them。

Tell them the problems of the house and your requiring。

20。

You read an ad about a sale of a shop in the local newspaper， when you came to buy the goods you wanted， you find the sale had ended。

Write to the shop manager and complain about this。

Require for the compensation。

下面的材料旨在丰富学生在是非问题写作方面的思想和语言，考生在复习时可以先分类阅读这些篇章，然后尝试写相关方面的作文题。

对于素材中用黑体字的部分，特别建议你熟读，背诵，因为它们在语言和观点上都值得吸收。学习语言的人应该明白，表达能力和思想深度都靠日积月累，潜移默化。从某种意义上说，提高英语写作能力无捷径可走，你必须大段背诵英语文章才能逐渐形成语感和用英语进行表达的能力。这一关，没有任何人能代替你过。

因此，建议你下点苦功夫，把背单词的精神拿出来背诵文章。何况，并不是要求你背了之后永远牢记在心：你可以这个星期背，下个星期忘。这没有关系，相信你的大脑具有神奇的能力。背了工具箱里的文章后，你会惊讶的发现：I can think in English now！

1.?????? Proverbs

1. A graduation ceremony is an event where the commencement speaker tells thousands of students dressed in identical caps and gowns that individuality is the key to success.

2. The primary purpose of a liberal education is to make one’s mind a pleasant place in which to spend one’s time.

3. Next in importance to freedom and justice is popular education, without which neither freedom nor justice can be permanently maintained.

4. The classroom--not the trench--is the frontier of freedom now and forevermore.

5. Education’s purpose is to replace an empty mind with an open one.

6. It is the purpose of education to help us become autonomous, creative, inquiring people who have the will and intelligence to create our own destiny.

7. You see, real ongoing, lifelong education doesn’t answer questions; it provokes them.

8. People will pay more to be entertained than educated.

9.the most important function of education at any level is to develop the personality of the individual and the significance of his life to himself and to others. This is the basic architecture of a life; the rest is ornamentation and decoration of the structure.

10. The essence of our efforts to see that every child has a chance must be to assure each as equal opportunity, not to become equal, but to become different-to realize whatever unique potential of body, mind, and spirit he or she possesses.

11. A great teacher never strives to explain his vision-he simply invites you to stand beside him and see for yourself.

12. If you can read and don’, you are an illiterate by choice.

2. Damaging Research

A study by National Parent-Teacher Organization revealed that in the average American school, eighteen negatives are identified for every positive that is pointed out. The Wisconsin study revealed that when children enter the first grade, 80 percent of them feel pretty good themselves, but by the time they get to the sixth grade, only 10 percent of them have good self-images.

3. Education and Citizenship

An important aspect of education in the United States is the relationship between education and citizenship. Throughout its history this nation has emphasized public education as a means of transmitting democratic values, creating equality of opportunity, and preparing new generations of citizens to function in society. In addition, the schools have been expected to help shape society itself. During the 1950s, for example, efforts to combat racial segregation focused on the schools. Later, when the Soviet Union launched the first orbiting satellite, American schools and colleges came under intense pressure and were offered many incentives to improve their science and mathematics programs so that the nations would not fall behind the Soviet Union in scientific and technological capabilities.

Education is often viewed as a tool for solving social problems, especially social inequality. The schools, t is thought, can transform young people from vastly different backgrounds into competent, upwardly mobile adults. Yet these goals seem almost impossible to attain. In recent years, in fact, public education has been at the center of numerous controversies arising from the gap between the ideal and the reality. Part of the problem is that different groups in society have different have different expectations. Some feel that children should be taught basic job-related skills; still others believe education should not only prepare children to compete in society but also help them maintain their cultural identity (and, in the case of Hispanic children, their language). On the other hand, policymakers concerned with education emphasize the need to increase the level of student achievement and to improve parents in their children’s education.

Some reformers and critics have called attention to the need to link formal schooling with programs designed to address social problems. Sociologist Charles Moscos, for example, is a leader in the movement to expand programs like the Peace Corps, Vista, and Outward Bound into a system of voluntary national service. National service, as Moscos defines it, would entail “the full-time undertaking of public duties by young people whether as citizen soldiers or civilian servers-who are paid subsistence wages” and serve for at least one year. In return for this period of service, the volunteers would receive assistance in paying for college or other educational expenses.

Advocates of national service and school-to-work programs believe that education does not have to be confined to formal schooling. In devising strategies to provide opportunities for young people to serve their society, they emphasize the educational value of citizenship experiences gained outside the classroom. At this writing there is little indication that national service will become a new educational institution in the United States, although the concept is steadily gaining support among educators and social critics.

4. The Teacher’s Role

Given the undeniable importance of classroom experience, sociologists have done a considerable amount of research on what goes on in the classroom. Often they start from the premise that, along with the influence of peers, students’ experiences in the classroom are of central importance to their later development. One study examined the impact of a single first-grade teacher on her students’ subsequent adult status. The surprising results of this study have important implications. It is evident that good teachers can make a big difference in children’s lives, a fact that gives increased urgency to the need to improve the quality of primary-school teaching. The reforms carried out by educational leaders like James Comer suggest that when good teaching is combined with high levels of parental involvement the results can be even more dramatic.

Because the role of the teacher is to change the learner in some way, the teacher-student relationship is an important part of education. Sociologists have pointed out that this relationship is asymmetrical or unbalanced, with the teacher being in a position of authority and the student having little choice but to passively absorb the information provided by the teacher. In other words, in conventional classrooms there is little opportunity for the students to become actively involved in the learning process. On the other hand, students often develop strategies for undercutting the teacher’s authority: mentally withdrawing, interrupting, and the like. Hence, much current research assumes that students and teachers influence each other instead of assuming that the influence is always in a single direction.

5. Education Philosophy

For the past fifty years our schools have operated on the theories of John Dewey (1859-1953), an American educator and writer. Dewey believed hat the school’s job was to enhance the natural development of the growing child, rather than to pour information, for which the child had no context, into him or her. In the Dewey system, the child becomes the active agent in his own education, rather than a passive receptacle for facts.

Consequently, American schools are very enthusiastic about teaching “life skills” –logical thinking, analysis, creative problem--solving. The actual content of the lessons is secondary to the process, which is supposed to train the child to be able to handle whatever life may present, including all the unknowns of the future. Students and teachers both regard pure memorization as an uncreative and somewhat vulgar.

In addition to “life skills”, schools are assigned to solve the ever growing stoke of social problems. Racism, teenage pregnancy, alcoholism, drug use, reckless driving, and are just a few of the modern problems that have appeared on the school curriculum.

This all contributes to a high degree of social awareness in American youngsters.

6. Student Life

To the students, the most notable difference between elementary school and the higher levels is that in junior high they start “changing classes”. This means that rather than spending the day in one classroom, they switch classrooms to meet their different teachers. This gives them three or four minutes between classes in the hallways, where a great deal of the important social action of high school traditionally takes place. Students have lockers in these hallways, around which thy congregate.

Society in general does not take the business of studying very seriously. Schoolchildren have a great deal of free time, which they are encouraged to fill with extracurricular activities—sports, clubs, cheerleading, scouts—supposed to inculcate such qualities as leadership, sportsmanship, ability to organize, etc. those who don’t become engaged in such activities or have afterschool jobs have plenty of opportunity to “hang out”, listen to teenager music, and watch television.

Compared to other nations, American students do not have much homework. Studies also show that American parents have lower expectations for their children’s success in school than other nationalities do. (Historically, there has not been much correlation between American school success and success in later life.) “He’s just not a scholar”, the American parents might say, content that their son is on the swim team and doesn’t take drugs. (Some of the young do choose to study hard, for reason of their own, such as determining that the road to riches lies through Harvard Business School.)

What American schools do effectively teach is the competitive method. In innumerable ways children are pitted against each other—whether in classroom discussion, spelling bees, reading groups, or tests. Every classroom is expected to produce a scattering of A’s and F’s (teachers often grade A=excellent; B=good; C=average; D=poor; and F=failed). A teacher who gives all A’s looks too soft—so students are aware that they are competing for the limited number of top marks.

Foreign students sometimes don’t understand that copying from other people’s papers or from books is considered wrong and taken seriously. Here, it is important to show that you have done your own work and are displaying your own knowledge. It is more important than helping your friends to pass, whom we think do not deserve to pass unless they can provide their own answers. Group effort goes against the competitive grain, and American students do not study together as many Asians do. Many Asians in this country consider their group study habits a large contributor to their school success.

7. Adult Education

After complaining about many aspects of American life, a 40-year-old woman from Hong Kong concluded, “But where else could someone my age go back to school and get a degree in social work? Here you can change your whole life, start a new business, do what you really want to do.”

So at least to this person, school requirements weren’t inhibiting. And to millions of others, adult education is the path to a new career, or if not to a new career, to a new outlook. Schools generally encourage the older person who wants to start anew, and besides regular classes, schedule evening classes in special programs. Today there are so many people of retirement age in college that it is no longer remarkable.

8. Moral Relativism in American

Improving American education requires not doing new things but doing (and remembering) some good old things. At the time of our nation’s founding, Thomas Jefferson listed the requirements for a sound education in the Report of the Commissioners for the University of Virginia. In this landmark statement on American education, Jefferson wrote of the importance of education and writing, and of reading history, and geography. But he also emphasized the need “to instruct the mass of our citizens in these, their rights, interests, and duties, as men and citizens.” Jefferson believed education should aim at the improvement of both one’s “morals” and “faculties”. That has been the dominant view of the aims of American education for over two centuries. But a number of changes, most of them unsound, have diverted schools from these great pursuits. And the story of the loss of the school’s original moral mission explains a great deal.

Starting in the early seventies, “values clarification” programs started turning up in schools all over America. According to this philosophy, the schools were not to take part in their time-honored task of transmitting sound moral values; rather, they were to allow the child to “clarify” his own values (which adults, including parents, had no “rights” to criticize). The “values clarification” movement didn’t clarify values; it clarified wants and desires. This form of moral relativism said, in effect, that no set of values was right or wrong; everybody had an equal right to his own values; and all values were subjective, relative, and personal. This destructive view took hold with a vengeance.

In 1985 The York Times published an article quoting New York area educators, in slavish devotion to this new view, proclaiming, “They deliberately avoid trying to tell students what is ethically right and wrong.” The article told of one counseling session involving fifteen high school juniors and seniors. In the course of that session a student concluded that a fellow student had been foolish to return one thousand dollars she found in a purse at school. According to the article, when the youngsters asked the counselor’s opinion, “He told them he believed the girl had done the right thing, but that, of course, he would not try to force his values on them. ‘If I come from the position of what is wrong,’ he explained, ‘then I’m not their counselor.’”

Once upon a time, a counselor offered counselor, and he knew that an adult does not form character in the young by taking a stance of neutrality toward questions of right and wrong or by merely offering “choices” or “options”.

In response to the belief that adults and educators should teach children sound morals, one can expect from some quarters indignant objections (I’ve heard one version of it expressed countless times over the years): “Who are you to say what’s important?” or “Whose standards and judgments do we use?”

The correct response, it seems to me, is, is we ready to do away with standards and judgments? Is anyone going to argue seriously that a life of cheating and swindling is as worthy as a life of honest, hard work? Is anyone (with the exception of some literature professors at our elite universities) going to argue seriously the intellectual corollary, that a Marvel comic book is as good as Macbeth? Unless we are willing to embrace some pretty silly position, we’ve got to admit the need for moral and intellectual standards. The problem is that some people tend to regard anyone who would pronounce a definitive judgment as an unsophisticated Philistine or a closed-minded “elitist” trying to impose his view on everybody else.

The truth of the real world is that without standards and judgments, there can be no progress. Unless we are prepared to say irrational things—that nothing can be proven more valuable than anything else or that everything is equally worthless—we must ask the normative question. It may come, as a surprise to those who fell that to be “progressive” is to be value-neutral. But as Matthew Amold said, “the world is forwarded by having its attention fixed on the best things” and if the world can’t decide what the best things are, at least to some degree, then it follows that progress, and character, is in trouble. We shouldn’t be reluctant to declare that some things, some lives, books, ideas, and values are better than others. It is the responsibility of the schools to teach these better things.

At one time, we weren’t so reluctant to teach them. In the mid-nineteenth century, a diverse, widespread group of crusaders began to work for the public support of what was then called the “common school”, the forerunner of the public school. They were to be charged with the mission of school felt that the nation could fulfill its destiny only if every new generation was taught these values together in a common institution.

The leaders of the common school movement were mainly citizens who were prominent in their communities—businessmen, ministers, local civic and government officials. These people saw the schools as upholders of standards of individual morality and small incubators of civic and personal virtue; the founders of the public schools had faith that public education could teach good moral and civic character from a common ground of American values.

But in the past quarter century or so, some of the so-called experts became experts of value neutrality, and moral education was increasingly left in their hands. The commonsense view of parents and the publicthat schools should reinforce rather than undermine the values of home, family, and country, was increasingly rejected.

There are those today still that claim we are now too diverse a nation, that we consist of too many competing convictions and interests to instill common values. They are wrong. Of course we are a diverse people. We have always been a diverse people. And as Madison wrote in FederalistNo.10, the competing, balancing interests of a diverse people can help ensure the survival of liberty. But there are values that all American citizens share and that we should want all American students to know and to make their own: honesty, fairness, self-discipline, fidelity to task, friends, and family, personal responsibility, love of country, and belief in the principles of liberty, equality, and the freedom to practice one’s faith. The explicit teaching of these values is the legacy of the common schools, and it is a legacy to which we must return.

9. Schools Should Teach Values

People often said, “Yes, we should teach these values, but how do we teach them?” this question deserves a candid response, one that isn’t given often enough. It is by exposing our children to good character and inviting its imitation that we will transmit to them a moral foundation. This happens when teachers and principals, by their words and actions, embody sound convictions. As Oxford’s Mary Warnock has written, “You cannot teach morality without being committed to morality yourself; and you cannot be committed to morality yourself without holding that some things are right and others wrong.” The theologian Martin Buber wrote that the educator is distinguished from all other influences “by his will to take part in the stamping of character and by his consciousness that he represents in the eyes of the growing person a certain selection of what is, the selection of what is ‘right’, of what should be.” It is in this will, Buber says, in this clear standing for something, that the “vocation as an educator finds its fundamental expression.”

There is no escaping the fact that young people need as example principals and teachers who know the difference between right and wrong, good and bad, and who themselves exemplify high moral purpose.

As Education Secretary, I visited a class at Waterbury Elementary School in Waterbury, Vermont, and asked the students, “Is this a good school?” They answered, “Yes, this is a good school.” I asked them, “Why?” Among other things, one eight-year-old said, “The principal Mr. Riegel, makes good rules and everybody obeys them.” So I said, “Give me an example.” And another answered, “You can’t climb on the pipes in the bathroom. We don’t climb on the pipes and the principal doesn’t either.”

This example is probably too simple to please a lot of people who want to make the topic of moral education difficult, but there is something profound in the answer of those children, something education should pay more attention to. You can’t expect children to take messages about rules or morality seriously unless they see adults taking those rules seriously in their day-to-day affairs. Certain must be said, certain limits lay down, and certain examples set. There is no other way.

We should also do a better job at curriculum selection. The research shows that most “values education” exercises and separate courses in “moral reasoning” tend not to affect children’s behavior; if anything, they may leave children morally adrift. Where to turn? I believe our literature and our history are a rich quarry of moral literacy. We should mine that quarry. Children should have at their disposal a stock of examples illustrating what we believe to be right and wrong, good and bad—examples illustrating what are morally right and wrong can indeed be known and that there is a difference.

What kind of stories, historical events, and famous lives am I talking about? If we want our children to know about honesty, we should teach them about Abe Lincoln walking three miles to return six cents and conversely, about Aesop’s shepherd boy who cried wolf if we want them to know about courage, we should teach them about Joan of Arc, Horatius at the bridge, and Harriet Tubman and the Underground Railroad. If we want them to know about persistence in the face of adversity, they should know about the voyages of Columbus and the character of Washington during the Civil War. And our youngest should be told about the Little Engine That Could. If we want them to know about respect for the law, they should understand why Socrates told Crito: “No, I must submit to the decree of Athens.” If we want our children to respect the rights of others, they should read the Declaration of Independence, the Bill of Rights, the Gettysburg Address, and Martin Luther King, Jr.’ “Letter from Birmingham jail.” From the Bible they should know about Ruth’s loyalty to Naomi, Joseph’s forgiveness of his brothers, Jonathan’s friendship with David, the Good Samaritan’s kindness toward a stranger, and David’s cleverness and courage in facing Goliath.

These are only a few of the hundreds of examples we can call on. And we need not get into issues like nuclear war, abortion, creationism, or euthanasia. This may come as a disappointment to some people, but the fact is that the formation of character in young people is educationally a task different from, and prior to, the discussion of the great, difficult controversies of the day. First things come first. We should teach values the same way we teach other things: one step at a time. We should not use the fact that there are many difficult and controversial moral questions as an argument against basic instruction in the subject.

After all, we do not argue against teaching physics because laser physics is difficult, against teaching American history because there are heated disputes about the Founders’ intent. Every field has its complexities and its controversies. And every field has its basics, its fundamentals. So they are too with forming character and achieving moral literacy. As any parent knows, teaching character is a difficult task. But it is a crucial task, because we want our children to be healthy, happy, and successful but decent, strong, and good. None of this happens automatically; there is no genetic transmission of virtue. It takes the conscious, committed efforts of adults. It takes careful attention.

10. College Pressures

Mainly I try to remind that the road ahead is a long one and that it will have more unexpected turns than they think. There will be plenty of time to change jobs, change careers, change whole attitudes and approaches. They don not want to hear such liberating news. They want a map—right now – that they can follow unswervingly to career security, financial security, Social Security and, presumably, a prepaid grave.

What I wish for all students is some release from the clammy grip of the future. I wish them a chance to savor each segment of their education as an experience in itself and not as a grim preparation for the next step. I wish them the right to experiment, to trip and fall, to learn that defeat is as instructive as victory and is not the end of the world.

My wish, of course, is na?ve. One of the national gods venerated in our media—the million-dollar athlete, the wealthy executive—and glorified in our praise of possessions. In the presence of such a potent state religion, the young are growing up old.

I see four kinds of pressure working on college students today: economic pressure, parental pressure, peer pressure, and self-induced pressure. It is easy to look around for villains—to blame the colleges for charging too much money, the professors for assigning too much work, the parents for pushing their children too far, and the students for driving themselves too hard. But there are no villains: only victims.

“In the late 1960s.” one dean told me. “The typical question that I got from students was ‘Why is there so much suffering in the world’ or ‘how I can make a contribution?’ Today it’s ‘Do you think it would look better for getting into law school if I did a double major in history and political science, or just majored in one of them?’” many other deans confirmed this pattern. One said: “They are trying to find an edge—the intangible something that will look better on paper if two students are about equal.”

Note the emphasis on looking better. The transcript has become a sacred document, the passport to security. How one appears on paper is more important than how one appears in person. A is for Admirable and B is for Borderline, even though, in Yale’s official system of grading, A means “excellent” and B means “very good.” Today, looking very good is no longer good enough, especially for students who hope to go on to law school or medical school. They know that entrance into the better schools will be an entrance into the better law firms and better medical practices where they will make a lot of money. They also know that the odds are harsh. Yale Law School, for instance, matriculates 170students from an applicant pool of 3,700; Harvard enrolls 550 from a pool of 7,000.

It’s all very well for those of us who write letters of recommendation for our students to stress the qualities of humanity that will make them good lawyers or doctors. And it’s nice to think that admission officers are ready reading our letters and looking for the extra dimension of commitment or concern. Still, it would be hard for a student not to visualize these officers shuffling so many transcripts studded with As that they regard a B as positively shameful.

The pressure is almost as heavy on students who just want to graduate and get a job. Long gone are the days of the “gentleman’s C.” when students journeyed through college with a certain relaxation, sampling a wide variety of courses-music, art, philosophy, classics, anthropology, poetry, religion—that would send them out as liberally educated men and women. If I were an employer I would rather employ graduates who have this range and curiosity than those who narrowly pursued safe subjects and high grades. I know countless students whose inquiring minds exhilarate me. I like to hear the play of their ideas. I do not know if they are getting As or Cs, and I do not care. I also like them as people. The country needs them, and they will find satisfying jobs. I tell them to relax. They cannot.

Nor can I blame them. They live in a brutal economy. Tuition, room, and board at most private colleges now come to at least $7,000, not counting books and fees. This might seem to suggest that the colleges are getting rich. But they are equally battered by inflation. Tuition covers only 60 percent of what it costs to educate a student, and ordinarily the remainder comes from what college receives in endowments, grants, and gifts. Now, the remainder keeps being swallowed by the cruel costs—higher every year—of just opening the doors. Heating oil is up. Insurance is up. Postage is up. Health-premium costs are up. Everything is up. Deficits are up. We are witnessing in American the creation of a brotherhood of paupers—colleges, parents, and students, joined by the common bond of debt.

Today it is not unusual for a student, even if he works part time at college and full time during the summer, to accrue $5,000 in loans after four years—loans that he must start to repay within one year after graduation. Exhorted at commencement to go forth into the world, he is already behind as he goes forth. How could he not feel under pressure throughout college to prepare for this day of reckoning? I have used “he,” incidentally, only for brevity. Women at Yale are under no less pressure to justify their expensive education to themselves, their parents, and society. In fact, they are probably under more pressure. For although they leave college superbly equipped to bring fresh leadership to traditionally male jobs, society has not yet caught up with this fact.

Along with economic pressure goes parental pressure. Inevitably, the two are deeply intertwined.

I see many students taking pre-medical courses with joyless tenacity. They go off to their labs as if they were going to the dentist. It saddens me because I know tem in other corners of their life as cheerful people.

“Do you want to medical school?” I asked them.

“I guess so,” they say, without conviction, or “Not really.”

“Then why are you going?”

“Well, my parents want me to be a doctor. They are paying all this money and …”

Poor students, poor parents, they are caught in one of the oldest webs of love and duty and guilt. The parents mean will; they are trying to steer their sons and draughts toward a secure future. But the sons and daughter want to major in history or classics or philosophy—subjects with no “practical” value. Where’s the payoff on the humanities? It’s not easy to persuade such loving parents that the humanities do indeed pay off. The intellectual faculties developed by studying subjects like history and classics—an ability to synthesize and relate, to weigh cause and effect, to see events in perspective—are just the faculties that make creative leaders in business or almost any general field. Still, many fathers would rather put their money on courses that point toward specific profession—courses that are pre-law, pre-medical, pre-business, or, as I sometimes heard it put, “pre-rich.”

But the pressure on students is severe. They are truly torn. One part of them feels obliged to fulfill their parents’ expectations; after all, their parents are older and presumably wiser. Another part tells them that the expectations that are right for their parents are not right for them.

I know a student who wants to be an artist. She is very obviously an artist and will be a good one—she has already had several modest local exhibits. Meanwhile she is growing as a well-round person and taking humanistic subjects that will enrich the inner resources out of which her art will grow. But her father is strongly opposed. He thinks that an artist is a “dumb” thing to be. The student vacillates and tries to please everybody. She keeps up with her art somewhat furtively and takes some of the “dumb” courses her father wants her to take—at least they are dumb courses for her. She is a free spirit on a campus of tense students—no small achievement in it—and she deserves to follow her muse.

Peer pressure and self-induced pressure are also intertwined, and they begin almost at the beginning of freshman year.

“I had a freshman student I’ll call Linda,” one dean told me, “who came in and said she was under terrible pressure because her roommate, Barbara, was much brighter and studied all the time. I could not tell her that Barbara had come in two hours earlier to say the same thing about Linda.”

The story is almost funny—except that it is not. It is symptomatic of all the pressure put together. When every student thinks every other student is working harder and doing better, the only solution is to study harder still. I see students going off to the library every night after dinner and coming back when it closes at midnight. I wish they would sometimes forget about their peers and go to a movie. I hear the clacking of typewriters in the hours before dawn. I see the tension in their eyes when exams are approaching and papers are due: “Will I get everything done?”

Probably they won’t. They will get blocked. They will sleep. They will oversleep. They will bug out.

Part of the problem is that they are expected to do. A professor will assign five page papers. Several students will start writing ten page papers to impress him. Then more students will write ten page papers, and a few will raise the ante to fifteen. Pity the poor student who is still just doing the assignment.

“Once you have twenty or thirty percent of the student population deliberately overexerting,” one dean points out, “It’s bad for everybody. When a teacher gets more and more effort from his class, the student who is doing normal work can be perceived as not doing well. The tactic work, psychologically.”

Why cannot the professor just cut back and not accept longer papers? He can, and he probably will. But by then the term will be half over and the damage done. Grade fever is highly contagious and not easily reversed. Besides, the professor’s main concern is with his course. He knows his students only in relation to the course and does not know that they are also overexerting in their other courses. Nor is it really his business. He did not sign up for dealing with the student as a whole person and with all the emotional baggage the student brought along from home. That’s what deans, masters, chaplains, and psychiatrists are for.

To some extent this is nothing new: a certain number of professors have always been self-contained islands of scholarship and shyness, more comfortable with books than with people. But the new pauperism has widened the gap still further, for professors who actually like to spend time with students do not have as much time to spend. They are also overexerting. If they are young, they are busy trying to publish in order not to perish, hanging by their figure nails onto a shrinking profession.

If they are old and tenured, they are buried under the duties of administering departments—as departmental chairmen or members of committees—that have been thinned out by the budgetary axe.

Ultimately it will be the students’ own business to break the circles in which they are trapped. They are too young to be prisoners of their parents’ dreams and their classmates’ fears. They must be jolted into believing into themselves as unique men and women who have the power to shape their own future.

“Violence is being done to the undergraduate experience,” says Carlos Hortas. “College should be open-ended: at the end it should open many, many roads. Instead, students are choosing their goal in advance, and their choices narrow as they go along. It’s almost as if they think that the country has been codified in the type of jobs that exist-that they’ve got to fit into certain slots. Therefore, fit into the best paying slot.”

“They ought to take chances. Not taking chances will lead to life of colorless mediocrity. They’ll be comfortable. But something in the spirit will be missing.”

I have painted too drab a portrait of today’s students, making them seem a solemn lot. That is only half of their story; if they were so dreary I wouldn’t so thoroughly enjoy their company. The other half is that they are easy to like. They are quick to laugh and to offer friendship. They are not introverts. They are usually kind and are more considerate of one another than any student generation I have known.

Nor are they so obsessed with their studies that they avoid sports and extracurricular activities. On the contrary, they juggle their crowded hours to play on a variety of teams, perform with musical and dramatic groups, and write for campus publications. But this in turn is one more cause of anxiety. There are too many choices. Academically, they have 1,300 courses to select from; outside class they have to decide how much spare time they can spare and how to spend it.

This means that they engage in fewer extracurricular pursuits than their predecessors did. If they want to row on the crew and play in the symphony they will eliminate one; in the ‘60s they would have done both. They also tend to choose activities that are self-limiting. Drama, for instance, is flourishing in all twelve of Yale’s residential colleges, as it never has before. Students hurl themselves into these productions—as actors, directors, carpenters, and technicians—with a dedication to create the best possible play, knowing that the day will come when the run will end and they can get back to their studies.

They also cannot afford to be the willing slave of organizations like the Yale Daily News. Last spring at the one-hundredth anniversary banquet of that paper—who’s past chairmen include such once and future kings as Potter Stewart, Kingman Brewster, and William F. Buckley, Jr.—much was made of the fact that the editorial staff used to be small and totally committed and that “newsies” routinely worked fifty hours a week. In effect they belonged to a club; Newsies is how they defined themselves at Yale. Today’s students will one or two articles a week, when he can, and he defines himself as a student. I’ve never heard the word Newsie except at the banquet.

If I have described the modern undergraduate primarily as a driven creature who is largely ignoring the blithe spirit inside who keeps trying to come out and play, it’s because that’s where the crunch is, not only at Yale but throughout American education. It’s why I think we should all be worried about the values that are nurturing a generation so fearful of risk and so goal-obsessed at such an early age.

I tell students that there is no one “right” way to get ahead—that each of them is a different person, starting from a different point and bound for a different destination. I tell neither them that change is a tonic and that all the slots are not codified nor the frontiers closed. One of my ways of telling them is to invite men and women who have achieved success outside the academic world to come and talk informally with my students during the year. They are heads of companies or ad agencies, editors of magazines, politicians, public officials, television magnates, labor leaders, business executives, Broadway products, artists, writers, economists, photographers, scientists, historians—a mixed bag of achievers.

I asked them to say a few words about how they got started. The students assume that they started in their present profession and knew all along that it was what they wanted to do. Luckily for me, most of them got into their field by a circuitous route, to their surprise, after many detours. The students are startled. They can hardly conceive of a career that was not pre-planned. They can hardly imagine allowing the hand of God or chance to nudge them down some unforeseen trail.

11. To Err Is Wrong

In the summer of 1979, Boston Red Sox first baseman Carl Yastrzemski became the fifteenth player in baseball history to reach the three thousand hit plateaus. This event drew a lot of media attention, and for about a week prior to the attainment of this goal, hundreds of reports covered Yaz’s every more. Finally, one reporter asked, “Hey Yaz, aren’t you afraid all of this attention will go to your head?” Yastrzemski replied, “I look at this way: in my career I’ve been up to bat over ten thousand times. That means I’ve been unsuccessful at the plate over seven thousand times. That fact alone keeps me from getting a swollen head.”?

Most people consider success and failure as opposites, but they are actually both products of the same process. As Yaz suggest, an activity that produces a hit may also produce a miss. It is the same with creative thinking; the same energy that generates good creative ideas also produces errors.

Many people, however, are not comfortable with errors. Our educational system, based on “the right answer” belief, cultivates our thinking in another, more conservative way. From an early age, we are taught that right answers are good and incorrect answers are bad. This value is deeply embedded in the incentive system used in most schools:

Right over 90% of the time = “A”

Right over 80% of the time = “B~”

Right over 70% of the time = “C~” Right over 60% of the time = “D~” Less than 60% correct, you fail.

From this we learn to be right as often as possible and to keep our mistakes to a minimum. We learn, in other words, that “to err is wrong.

Playing It Safe

With this kind of attitude, you aren’t going to be taking too many chances. If you learn that failing even a litter penalizes you (e.g., being wrong only 15% of the time garners you only a “B” performance), you learn not to make mistakes. And more important, you learn not to put yourself to situation where you might fall. This leads to conservative thought pattern designed to avoid the stigma our society puts on “failure”.

I have a friend who recently graduated from college with a Master’s degree in Journalism. For the last six month, she has been trying to find a job, but to no avail. I talked with her about situation, and realized that her problem is that she doesn’t know how to fail. She went through eighteen years of schooling to try any approaches where she might fail. She has been conditioned to believe that failure is bad in and of itself, rather than a potential stepping-stone to new ideas.

Look around. How many middle managers, housewives, administrators, teachers, and other people do you see who are to try anything new because of this failure? Most of us have learned not to make mistakes in public. As a result, we remove ourselves from many learning experience except for those occurring in the most private of circumstances.

Different Logic

From a practical point of view, “to err is wrong” makes sense. Our survival in the everyday world requires us to perform thousand of small tasks without failure. Think about it: you wouldn’t last very long if you were to step out in front of traffic or stick your hand a pot of boiling water. In addition, engineers whose bridges collapse, stock brokers who lose money for their clients, and copywriters whose ad campaigns decrease sales won’t keep their jobs very long.

Nevertheless, too great an adherence to the belief “to err is wrong” can greatly undermine your attempts to generate new ideas. If you are more concerned with producing right answers than generating original ideas, you’ll probably make uncritical use of the rules, formulae, and procedures used to obtain these right answers. By doing this, you’ll by-pass the germinal phase of the creative process, and thus spend litter time testing assumptions, challenging the rules, asking what-if questions, or just playing around with the problem. All of these techniques will produce some incorrect answers, but in the germinal phase errors are viewed as a necessary by-product of creative thinking. As Yaz would put it, “if you want the hits, be prepared for the misses.” That’s the way the game of life goes.

Errors as Stepping Stones

Whenever an error pops up, the usual response is “Jeez, another screw up, what went wrong this time?” the creative thinker, on the other hand, will realize the potential value of errors, and perhaps say something like, “Would you look at that! Where can it lead our thinking?” and then he or she will go on to use the error as a stepping stone to a new idea. As a matter of fact, the whole history of discovery is filed with people who used erroneous assumptions and failed ideas as stepping-stones to new ideas. Columbus thought he was finding a shorter route to India. Johannes Kepler stumbled on to the idea of interplanetary gravity because of assumptions that were right for the wrong reasons. And, Thomas Edison knew 1800 ways not to build a light bulb.

The following story about the automotive genius Charles Kettering exemplifies the spirit of working through erroneous assumptions to good ideas. In 1912, when the automobile industry was just beginning to grow, Kettering was interested in improving gasoline engine efficiency. The problem he faced was“knockthe phenomenon in which gasoline takes too long to burn in the cylinder-thereby reducing efficiency.

Kettering began searching for ways to eliminate the “knock.” He thought to him, “How can I get the gasoline to combust in the cylinder at an earlier time?” the key concept here is “early”. Searching for analogous situations, he looked around for models of “things that happen early.” He thought of historical models, physical models, and biological models. Finally, he remembered a particular plant, the trailing arbutus, which “happens early,” i.e., it blooms in the snow (“earlier” than other plants). One of this plant’s chief characteristics is its’ red leaves, which help the plant retain light at certain wavelengths. Kettering figured that it must be the red color, which made the trailing arbutus bloom earlier.

Now came the critical step in Kettering’s chain of thought. He asked himself, “How can I make the gasoline red?” perhaps I’ll put red dye in the gasoline—maybe that’ll make it combust earlier.” He looked around his workshop, and found that he didn’t have any red dye. But he did happen to have some iodine—perhaps that would do. He added the iodine to the gasoline and, lo and behold, the engine didn’t “knock”.

[英语作文写作的需要背诵的部分

万圣节又叫诸圣节，在每年的10月31日，是西方的传统节日。以下是关于万圣节的英语素材，供大家参考。

11月1日万圣节英文：Hallowmas，南瓜是万圣节的代表。

10月31日是万圣夜英文：Halloween，华语地区常将万圣夜称为万圣节。

Halloween is a holiday celebrated on October 31. By tradition, Halloween begins after sunset. Long ago, people believed that witches gathered together and ghosts roamed the world on Halloween. Today, most people no longer believe in ghosts and witches. But these supernatural beings are still a part of Halloween.

万圣节前夜是在10月31日庆祝的一个节日，根据传统，万圣节前夜的庆祝活动从太阳落山开始。在很久以前，人们相信在万圣节前夜女巫会聚集在一起，鬼魂在四处游荡。现在，大多数人们不再相信有鬼魂和女巫的存在了，但是他们仍然把这些作为万圣节前夜的一部分。

The colors black and orange are also a part of Halloween. Black is a symbol for night and orange is the color of pumpkins. A jack-o’-lantern is a hollowed-out pumpkin with a face carved on one side. Candles are usually placed inside, giving the face a spooky glow.

黑色和橙色仍然是万圣节前夜的一部分，黑色是夜晚的象征，而橙色代表着南瓜。南瓜灯是用雕刻成脸型，中间挖空，再插上蜡烛的南瓜做成的，带来一个毛骨悚然的灼热面孔。

Dressing up in costumes is one of the most popular Halloween customs, especially among children. According to tradition, people would dress up in costumes (wear special clothing, masks or disguises) to frighten the spirits away.

盛装是最受欢迎的万圣节风俗之一，尤其是受孩子们的欢迎。按照传统习俗，人们会盛装(穿戴一些特殊的服饰，面具或者装饰)来吓跑鬼魂。

Popular Halloween costumes include vampires (creatures that drink blood), ghosts (spirits of the dead) and werewolves (people that turn into wolves when the moon is full).

流行的万圣节服装包括vampires(吸血鬼)，ghosts(死者的灵魂)和werewolves(每当月圆时就变成狼形的人)。

Trick or Treating is a modern Halloween custom where children go from house to house dressed in costume, asking for treats like candy or toys. If they dont get any treats, they might play a trick (mischief or prank) on the owners of the house.

欺骗或攻击是现代万圣节的风俗。孩子们穿着特殊的衣服走街串巷，讨取糖果和玩具之类的赏赐。如果他们得不到任何的赏赐，就可能会对屋主大搞恶作剧或者胡闹了。

The tradition of the Jack o Lantern comes from a folktale about a man named Jack who tricked the devil and had to wander the Earth with a lantern. The Jack o Lantern is made by placing a candle inside a hollowed-out pumpkin, which is carved to look like a face.

南瓜灯的传统来自于一个民间传说。一个名叫Jack的人戏弄了恶魔，之后就不得不提着一盏灯在地球上流浪。南瓜灯是用雕刻成脸型，中间挖空，再插上蜡烛的南瓜做成的。

There are many other superstitions associated with Halloween. A superstition is an irrational idea, like believing that the number 13 is unlucky!

和万圣节有关的迷信还有很多。迷信是一种不合常理的想法，比如认为13是不吉利的数字!

Halloween is also associated with supernatural creatures like ghosts and vampires. These creatures are not part of the natural world. They dont really exist... or do they?

万圣节还和一些诸如鬼魂和吸血鬼之类的超自然的生物有关。这些生物不是自然界的一部分。他们实际上是不存在的......或许他们其实真的存在?

Witches are popular Halloween characters that are thought to have magical powers. They usually wear pointed hats and fly around on broomsticks.

女巫是万圣节很受欢迎的人物，人们认为她们具有强大的魔力。他们通常戴着尖顶的帽子，骑在扫把上飞来飞去。

Bad omens are also part of Halloween celebrations. A bad omen is something that is believed to bring bad luck, like black cats, spiders or bats.

恶兆也是万圣节庆祝活动的一部分。人们相信恶兆会带给坏运气，黑猫、蜘蛛或者蝙蝠都算是恶兆。

话题作文它不同于以前的半命题、命题及材料作文，是一种崭新的、具有很强生命力的作文样式，下面是关于话题作文的写作基础，一起来学习下吧：

一、从话题的另一意义的角度切入

许多话题都具有多义性，如果只盯住其本义或其常用义，则构思很难出新，写出的作文虽不跑题但也显得一般化，撇开其本义或常见义，转而从其引申义或其比喻义的角度切入，构思就会有新意。如以“水”为话题，如果从自然界之“水”这个意思层面上去理解，把“水”当成名词，则构思很难出新；若把“水”理解成形容词，如“这个人很水”，在这个层面上理解“水”的意思，则其拟题、行文都会很有新意。

二、从缩小话题内涵的角度切入

有许多话题的意思非常宽泛，如果给话题加上一些限制语或修饰语，便缩小了话题的内涵，有利于出新出奇。如以“第一次”为话题，缩小内涵才有利于构思选材，但是添加的限制语或修饰语，必须避开大家都在写的这一误区，要从自己的材料库中许多不为人知的人、事、景、物着手。

三、从话题的逆向思维角度切入

围绕话题，自我多方设问，多方求答，用以开启思维，立意选材，这是众多学生的一般作法。但是，大多数人只知道沿着话题正向发问，很少有逆向发问的。如以“尊重”为话题，可以提出“何为尊重”、“谁尊重谁”、“为什么要尊重”、“谁可做尊重或被他人尊重的典范”等问题，这些都是从正面发问，没能跳出常规思维的圈子；如果从“逆向”角度思考发问，“为什么谁不尊重谁”、“不尊重他人好不好，为什么”、“不尊重的事例或现象有哪些”、“怎样消除不尊重现象”等，这般的提问思考，就使文章的构思、选材步入了新境。

四、从话题的另一时空的角度切入

围绕话题，写自己经历的事，写自己身边的事，从家庭、社会、学校这几个范围立意选材，也没什么不好，这都是从话题的“现实角度”构思的，如果能从话题的“过去”或“未来”的角度构思，只要联想、想象或幻想的人、事、景、物合乎情理，不管写的是话题的“过去”还是“未来”，只要能含蓄、曲折地反映话题的“现实时空”，便能写出颇具新意的作文来。如以“初三生活”为话题，大多数人可能都会写自己或同龄人的初三生活，但是如果从过去或未来的角度出发，比如写爷爷、奶奶的初三生活或几十年以后自己子孙的初三生活，只要合乎情理，那都是非常有新意的作文。

[关于话题作文的写作基础