英语写作干货（汇编20篇）

导语：写作方法就是写作中进行表现时运用的方法，是作者为表情达意而采取的有效艺术手段。

学生写作时，如果语句平平，只选用一些普通的、直截了当的词，那么，这样写出来的文章根本没有可阅读行，就像是一碗没有油盐酱醋面条一样，让人提不起一点精神和看下去的欲望，呆板、单调，没有可读性。如果一篇文章要让读者有可读性、有深度，同学们更应该掌握一些高级点词和语句来装饰你的文章，突出这篇文章的彩头，使文章增添文采，给读者以不一样的感受。具体方法可以参照下面的语句：

1. 画龙点睛，一篇文章的开头很重要。

在通常情况下，英语句子的排列方式为“主语+谓语+宾语”，即主语一般都会在谓语前面。但若根据情况适当改变句子的开头方式，比如在文章的开始的时候写一些倒状语句或以状语为起始语句的开头，这样子的文章更具表现力和感染力。如：

(1) There stands an old temple at the top of the hill.

→ At the top of the hill there stands an old temple.

在小山顶上有一座古庙。

(2) You can do it well only in this way.

→ Only in this way can you do it well.

只有这样你才能把它做好。

(3) A young woman sat by the window.

→ By the window sat a young woman.

窗户边坐着一个年轻妇女。

2. 避免重复使用同一词语

为了使表达更生动，更富表现力，同学们在写作时应尽量避免重复使用同一词语来表示同一意思，尤其是一些老生常谈的词语。如有的同学一看到“喜欢”二字，就会立刻想起like，事实上，英语中表示类似意思的词和短语很多，如 love, enjoy, prefer, appreciate, be fond of, care for等。如：

I like reading while my brother likes watching television.

→ I like reading while my brother enjoys watching television.

我喜欢看书，而我的兄弟却喜欢看电视。

3. 合理使用省略句

合理恰当地使用省略句，不仅可以使文章精练、简洁，而且会使文章更具文采和可读性。如：

(1) He may be busy. If he’s busy, I’ll call later. If he is not busy, can I see him now?

→ He may be busy. If so, I’ll call later. If not, can I see him now?

他可能很忙，要是这样，我以后再来拜访。要是不忙，我现在可以见他吗?

(2) If the weather is fine, we’ll go. If it is not fine, we’ll not go.

→ If the weather is fine, we’ll go. If not, not.

如果天气好，我们就去；如果天气不好，我们就不去了。

(3) She could have applied for that job, but she didn’t do so.

→ She could have applied for that job, but she didn’t.

她本可申请这份工作的，但她没有。

4. 适当运用非谓语结构

非谓语结构通常被认为是一种高级结构，适当运用非谓语结构，会给人一种熟练驾驭语言的印象。如：

(1) When he heard the news, they all jumped for joy.

→ Hearing the news, they all jumped for joy.

听了这消息他们都高兴得跳了起来。

(2) As I didn’t know her address, I wasn’t able to get in touch with her.

→ Not knowing her address, I wasn’t able to get in touch with her.

由于不知道她的地址，我没法和她联系。

(3) As he was born into a peasant family, he had only two years of schooling.

→ Born into a peasant family, he had only two years of schooling.

他出生农民家庭，只上过两年学。

5. 结合使用长句与短句

在英语写作中，过多地使用长句或过多地使用短句都不好。正确的做法是，根据实际情况在文章中交替使用长句与短语，使文章显得错落有致，这样不仅使文章在形式上增加美感，而且使文章读起来铿锵有力。如：

At noon we had a picnic lunch in the sunshine. Then we had a short rest. Then we began to play happily. We sang and danced. Some told stories. Some played chess.

→ At noon we had a picnic lunch in the sunshine. After a short rest, we had great fun singing and dancing, telling jokes and playing chess.

中午我们晒着太阳吃野餐。休息一会儿后，我们唱的唱歌，跳的跳舞，还有的讲笑话、下棋，大家玩得很开心。

6. 适当使用短语代替单词

(1) He has decided to be a teacher when he grows up.

→ He has made up his mind to be a teacher when he grows up.

他已决定长大了当老师。

(2) He doesnt like music.

→ He doesnt care much for music.

他不大喜欢音乐。

(3) He told me that the question was now under discussion.

→ He told me that the question was now being discussed.

他告诉我问题现正正在讨论中。

7. 恰当套用某些固定表达

(1) He was very tired. He couldn’t walk any farther.

→ He was too tired to walk any farther.

他太累了，不能再往前走了。

(2) The film was very interesting. Both the teachers and the students liked it.

→ The film was so interesting that both the teachers and the students liked it.

这电影很有趣，学生和老师都很喜欢。

(3) Your son is old. He can look after himself now.

→ Your son is old enough to look after himself now.

你的儿子已经长大，可以自己照顾自己了。

8. 尽量使句子带点“洋味”

(1) Dont worry. Be bold and try it, and youll learn it soon.

→Dont worry. Just go for it, and youll get it soon.

别担心，大胆试一试，你很快就会学会的。

(2) Thank you for playing with us.

→Thank you for sharing the time with us.

谢谢你陪我玩。

9. 综合使用各类所谓的“高级”结构

(1) Now everyone knows the news. I think Jim must have let it out.

→ Now everyone knows the news. I think it must have been Jim who has let it out.

现在人人都知道这消息了，我想一定是吉姆把它泄露出去的。

(2) We had to stand there to catch the offender.

→ What we had to do was (to) stand there, trying to catch the offender.

我们所能做的只是站在那儿，设法抓住违章者。

(3) If her pronunciation is not better than her teacher’s, it is at least as good as her teacher’s.

→ Her pronunciation is as good as, if not better than, her teacher’s.

如果她的语音不比她的老师好的话，至少也不会比她老师的差。

10. 适当使用名言警句点缀

在写作时根据实际情况恰当地用上一两句名言警句来点缀文章，不仅使文章显得有深度、有智慧，而且会让文章在评分中上一个“得分档次”。如：

(1) As the proverb says, “Where there is a will, there is a way.” Though you fail this time, you needn’t lose heart. As long as you work hard and stick to your dream, you will succeed one day.

(2) There is a proverb goes like this “Life isn’t a bed of roses.” It is ture that it is likely for everyone to meet problems and difficulties in life.

(3) In the modern world, more and more people live alone, which is not so good for our life. It is better for us to make more friends and enjoy friendship. Just as a proverb says, “A near friend is better than a far-dwelling kinsman.”

[关于英语作文的写作方法指导

1)主语从句

It is common knowledge that honesty is the best policy。

It is well-known that…

It is self-evident/ conceivable / obvious / apparent that…

It goes without saying that… It is universally acknowledged that…

It is / that

2)宾(表)语从句

We cannot understand why he was so cruel to his roommates。

The problem is not who will go, but who will stay。

3)定语从句(限定性和非限定性)

As is shown/ demonstrated/ illustrated/ depicted/ described…in the cartoon/ picture/ graph/ table…,

There are many reasons why I want to study in your university。

It is estimated that tens of billions of pounds is spent on cigarettes every year in our country, which is a huge waste。

4)状语从句(时间，原因，地点，条件，让步，转折等)

When the man is enjoying the cigarette, the smoke becomes a monster (怪物) which will devour him。

Whatever the reason, there are still some problems with student use of computers。

5)分词短语做定语或状语

Prof. Kang came to our university, giving us a lecture on how to acquire English better。

6)倒装句

Only through these measures can we hope to solve the problem。

Scattered around the globe are more than 100 small regions of isolated volcanic activity known to geologists as hot spots。

7)被动句

Some measures should be taken to deal with the problem。

He is said to have accomplished a lot of great deeds。

Many people believe that…(It is believed that…)

8)设问句

Do you still remember the boy who cried wolf for several times so no one would trust him?

9)比较

1.The advantages far outweigh the disadvantages。

2.The advantages of A are much greater than those of B。

3.A may be preferable to B, but A suffers from the disadvantages that.。。

4.It is reasonable to maintain that ...but it would be foolish to claim that.。。

5.For all the disadvantages, it has its compensating advantages。

6.Like anything else, it has its faults。

7.A and B has several points in common。

8.A bears some resemblances to B。

9.However, the same is not applicable to B。

10. A and B differ in several ways。

11. Evidently, it has both negative and positive effects。

12. People used to think ..., but things are different now。

13. The same is true of B。

14. Wondering as A is ,it has its drawbacks。

15. It is true that A ... , but the chief faults (obvious defects )are .。。

10)原因

1.A number of factors are accountable for this situation。

A number of factors might contribute to (lead to )(account for ) the phenomenon(problem)。

2. The answer to this problem involves many factors。

3. The phenomenon mainly stems from the fact that.。。

4. The factors that contribute to this

5. The change in ...largely results from the fact that.。。

6. We may blame ...,but the real causes are.。。

7. Part of the explanations for it is that .。。

8. One of the most common factors (causes ) is that .。。

9. Another contributing factor (cause ) is .。。

10. Perhaps the primary factor is that …

11. But the fundamental cause is that .。。

中考英语考试中“书面表达”往往是最后一项，怎么样在那么短的时间内尽可能的拿到高分呢?

一、中考英语写作的概述

你对于在中考英语写作中拿高分有把握吗?实际考试中，许多学生却常常有“无话可说”的感觉。那要如何我们才能克服这种无话的状态，取得高分呢?

归根到底这是一个英语基本功——单词、短语和句型的问题。

英语作文的前提条件是掌握了一定量的词汇、语法及体裁、题材等方面的知识。学生如果想要在写作方面有本质上的提升，必须进行多次的写作练习。因此，必须合理地设置训练步骤，遵循从初级到高级，从简单到复杂的原则去练习，经过一段写作实践之后，写作水平一定会有大幅度的提高。

中考英语作文对考生的要求有四点：1、内容要完整。2、语句流畅。3、没有语法错误。4、书写规范。

二、中考英语写作的评分标准

1、老师拿到的标准

写作水平的高低和文章的好坏，分数是最直接的评分标准，也是考生们最关心的。但是多少考生真正透彻知道中考英语写作的评分标准?什么样的文章才是阅卷老师眼中的好文章?

评分标准：

(1)整篇作文满分20分，其中内容8分，语言8分，结构4分。

(2)内容贴切，句子流畅，用语准确，加整体印象分1分。

(3)不满60个词，少1——5个词扣0.5分，6——10个词扣1分。

(4)所有给出问题涉及的三项内容，每少一项扣3分。

(5)每个拼写，大小写，标点符号等错误扣0.5分;同一的拼写错误不重复扣分，扣分总和不超过2分。

(6)语法错误每项扣1分，同一错误不重复扣分，扣分总和不超过2分。

2、老师想看到的标准

语言(8分)：

词——固定搭配、高频重点词汇;

句——复杂句(各种从句)、特殊句型、正确的句子!

内容(8分)：(总、分)论点、论据支持句;简洁、切合主题的记叙内容。

结构(4分)：

语言结构——句子重点突出、内容清晰;

内容结构——论点、论据以及记叙之间的逻辑关系;

句数控制——对于相对内容的句数掌握;

亮点、出彩点——排比、拟人、谚语、成语、押韵等。

三、扣分

内容方面：要点缺失，可酌情扣分。比如中考作文“Iwanttodosomethingformyschool”，若没有写一件具体的事情，是要扣3分以上的;若写的事情太过于虚幻，没有实际内容，也会扣1-2分。

字数：少于60字的作文要酌情扣分。

中考英语作文要求60字以上，标点符号不算，少了就要扣分。

但是60字的作文能不能得高分?从我们拿到的实例作文来看，16分以上的作文，没有少于75字的，甚至少于80字的也少之又少。

当然，也极少有超过100字的，因为中考试卷的短线格一共80个，在格子下面大约还有2行的空间，可以加20字左右，再多阅卷人就很难看清了，也会影响卷面的美观。

所以，同学们如果想让作文得到高分，最好是让字数在75-100字之间。

语法和拼写错误：每个扣0.5，重复错误不计;

标点错误：每4个扣0.5。

四、加分

作文的组织结构分。就是根据学生使用复杂句型、单词和谚语、俗语的情况来加分。只要文章中有1个亮点，基本就可以争取到1分(3分的文采分是很难全部拿到的)。而这1分的亮点，是可以提前准备的。

“万金油”式的复杂句型，例如强调句型、only相关的倒装句等，只要同学们多操练几次，几乎是一定能用到作文当中，从而为自己争取到这1分。

其次就是卷面分。很多家长(微博)和同学，尤其是部分书法并不是十分整洁的同学，都会关心是否真的有“卷面分”的存在。虽然在阅卷标准里面并没有卷面分这一项，但是这个分数却真切地反映在了同学们的分数里面。

据阅卷老师的经验，在阅卷的时候并不是按这3个部分逐项打分的，而是在第一遍读完全文之后，心里已经形成了一个“印象分”，然后再细读第二、三遍，把印象分分配到各个打分部分。

因此，这个“印象分”就非常重要，而同学们的书法，也正是在这个环节，影响到了自己的分数。所以初三的考生，如果书法不好，一定要注意。

一、充分准备，打好基础。

为了提高初一英语作文写作水平，平时应加强阅读，多背诵一些句形、段落甚至短文。俗话说：读书破万卷，下笔如有神，只有多读，多记，多背诵，才能出口成章，下笔成文。此外，写好初一英语作文还要掌握一些应用文体的写作方法，如书信、日记、通知等，它们大多有固定的格式。

二、认真审题，明确要求

在写初一英语作文的时候仔细看清写作要求和提示，分清材料的主次，接着确定体裁、格式和人物、地点等要素；最后确定时态，同时考虑相关的语态搭配用法。 三、遣词造句、表达规范

初一英语作文用词要恰当，不可逐句把提示翻译成英语。写作时，应尽量选用你最熟悉、最有把握的词和句型来表达思想。如果有些单词不会些，有些句型不会表达，可以设法绕开，用熟悉的同义词、同义短语或同义句来代替。要学会善于运用适当的关联词，如and, or, but, so，because, since等，以使初一英语作文行文逻辑紧密，自然流畅。 四、认真撰写，卷面整洁

初一英语考试中也会有初一英语作文题，如果时间允许，书面表达一定要先写草稿。在抄写入答题卷前，要先进行检查修改。首先检查所写内容是否切题；之后检查主题是否明确，表达方式是否恰当；最后检查所用时态、语态、人称是否符合要求，前后是否一致。 中考复习研讨会指导课件，极具价值。 关联词

1.表示并列或递进: and, as well as, both&and, not only&but also, neither&nor;2.表示选择: or, either∨3.表示转折: but, however, although, though, after all, 4.表示因果: because, so, therefore5.表示条件: if , unless6.表示对比: instead, not&but, on the one hand&on the other hand;7.表示解释: for example, for instance, such as, that is to say, in other words;8.表示顺序: to begin with, firstly, first (of all), second(ly), next, later, since then, from then on, finally, in the end;9.表示强调: also, besides, what’s more, actually, in fact, 10.表示结论: all in all, altogether, in a word, generally speaking,

初中英语写作技巧书面表达，首先要抓住所给的提示，然后运用所学词汇、语法及句型，避繁就简，简明表达要讲的内容。小编整理了初中英语写作技巧，欢迎阅读。

一、充分准备。打好基础。

为了提高书面表达水平，平时应加强阅读，应背诵一些句型、段落甚至短文。只要读得多、背得多，就能出口成章，下笔成文。其实，用英文写信，记日记等都是学生力所能及且行之有效的练习写作的好方法。

二、仔细审题，明确要求。

对题目所提供的信息要认真分析，明确要求，做到心中有数。要对所提供的信息加以分析、整理，使之更加具体化、条理化，为开始动笔做好准备工作，还要搞清题目的要求，以便根据不同的题材、体裁，写出不同格式，风格各异的文章，此外，还要注意人称、时态、地点等信息，避免出错。

三、抓住重点。寻求思路。

根据题目所提供的信息，草拟提纲，寻求逻辑次序，确定如何下手，否则，语无伦次的文章将不会被人接受，也不可能得到高分。

四、遣词造句，表达规范。

用词要适当，不可逐句把提示汉译英，亦不可生拼硬凑，不要硬拿英语单词到中文句子里去对号，否则写出中文式英语，闹出笑话。一般来讲，写作时，应尽量选出你有把握的词，尽量使用短句(简单句)。如果有的单词不会写，有的思想不会用英语表达，你可以设法绕开，最好找一个同义词、同义句，或近义词、词组短语来代替。要正确使用关联词，如and，or，but，so，because，since等，以便行文自然流畅。

五、修改润色，锦上添花。

作文写完之后，应注意检查修改，修改时先从全局修改。首先要检查主题是否明确，表达方式是否恰当，接下来检查所写内容是否切题，该交待的内容是否交待了，最后检查所用时态、人称是否符合要求，最后是否一致。

写完后，还应仔细校阅1—2遍。校阅要逐词逐句进行，注意检查语法、拼写、标点、大小写等方面的错误。校阅是自检的最后一关，应严肃认真的进行，尽可能地消灭一切差错，增强文章的效果。

因此，要写好一篇作文，不仅需要具有丰富的思想内容，掌握扎实的词汇、语法及修辞等方面的语言基本功，而且还需要掌握因不同思维方式和文化背景而形成的英语特有的篇章机构模式 惟有这样才能进行最有效的书面交际活动。

1. The latest surveys show that quite a few children have unpleasant associations with homework.

最近的调查显示相当多的孩子对家庭作业没什么好感。

2. No invention has received more praise and abuse than Internet.

没有一项发明像互联网一样同时受到如此多的赞扬和批评。

3. According to a recent survey, four million people die each year from diseases linked to smoking.

依照最近的一项调查，每年有4，000，000人死于与吸烟有关的疾病。

4. People seem to fail to take into account the fact that education does not end with graduation.

人们似乎忽视了教育不应该随着毕业而结束这一事实。

5. An increasing number of people are beginning to realize that education is not complete with graduation.

越来越多的人开始意识到教育不能随着毕业而结束。

6. When it comes to education, the majority of people believe that education is a lifetime study.

说到教育，大部分人认为其是一个终生的学习。

7. Many experts point out that physical exercise contributes directly to a persons physical fitness.

许多专家指出体育锻炼直接有助于身体健康。

8. Proper measures must be taken to limit the number of foreign tourists and the great efforts should be made to protect local environment and history from the harmful effects of international tourism.

应该采取适当的措施限制外国旅游者的数量，努力保护当地环境和历史不受国际旅游业的不利影响。

9. An increasing number of experts believe that migrants will exert positive effects on construction of city. However, this opinion is now being questioned by more and more city residents, who complain that the migrants have brought many serious problems like crime and prostitution.

越来越多的专家相信移民对城市的建设起到积极作用。然而，越来越多的城市居民却怀疑这种说法，他们抱怨民工给城市带来了许多严重的问题，像犯罪和卖淫。

10. Many city residents complain that it is so few buses in their city that they have to spend much more time waiting for a bus, which is usually crowded with a large number of passengers.

许多市民抱怨城市的公交车太少，以至于他们要花很长时间等一辆公交车，而车上可能已满载乘客。

大家都想知道怎么写作文才能拿到更高的分数，下面就来看看语文迷网小编为大家整理的写作技巧吧。

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。例如，如果一篇文章，本来应该一般过去时，你的每句话却用了一般现在时态。你想想，那还能得高分吗?

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?

四、耐心修改，提炼句子

很多同学写完作文后就感觉大事已毕，高兴地放下笔就了事了。其实，这时候，不妨从以下方面去修改，相信会让你受益匪浅的。

1、巧妙选择使用高级词汇、短语、句型等

当我们掌握了一定量的同意表达法之后，在写作时有时不会让你都运用到的。这时为了展示你与众不同的能力，你务必要选择高级的。例如，就以今年中考的英语作文为例，它就要求写“帮助老人的感受”。至于“老人”的表达法，有old people和the old 。使用后者的同学自然能力比前者强。同样的道理，作文中的“病人”的表达法有sick people ，patients ，the sick ，你认为使用哪个更能显示你的高水平呢?当然是the sick了。

2、巧妙使用低级表达法代替自己的难点

我们写作时难免会遇到一些难以用英语表达的东西。怎么办呢?换为最简单的表达法吧。例如：我市今年中考作文题，就要求学生表达一个意思：帮助同学，可以增进友谊。很多学生翻译不来“增进”，面对这样的问题怎么办呢?怎么不换个说法呢?你看，If we help our classmates with their study and other things ， we can make our friendship longer 。不就达到目的了吗?

3、大胆改变句型，使之生辉

例如，我们将一些句子改为感叹句，复合句、强调句、反意疑问句、将句子改得更能显示你的高水平和能力。何乐而不为呢?

4、高度关注句与句 、段与段之间的衔接问题。务必做到过渡自然，衔接紧凑。

5、适当引用个别谚语或警句，来提高作文档次。

五、一丝不苟抄誊作文

一篇好的作文，经过审题、修改之后，务必要一丝不苟地抄誊在答题卷上，再认真地仔细检查一遍，那才是大公告成了。

纵观历年的高考书面表达，其文体题材各异，有书信、口头通知、简介、日记、自我介绍、记叙文、描写文、说明文、看图作文等，不同的体裁需要考生应用适当的篇章结构，将题目所提供的信息清晰、明了、准确，逻辑合理地表达出来。

篇章结构在语言表达中起着非常重要的作用，同样的信息点会因为不同的表达顺序传达出不同的信息。层次分明，逻辑合理的篇章结构会让读者在很短的时间内获得并准确理解题目所规定的信息;而叙述顺序混乱，前言不搭后语的篇章则让人一头雾水，不知所云何物。当然，后者是失败的表达，即使作者在写作的过程中使用了再漂亮的词汇和句型，混乱的文章结构也不会让读者准确领悟作者的意图。

记叙文主要是记叙所发生的事情和经历。常见的形式有：故事、日记、新闻报道、游记等。

记叙文的写作要素：

1 要交待清楚五要素的内容，即where, when, what, who ,how，给读者一个内容完整、细节清晰的故事。

2. 事情的叙述可以按时间或空间的顺序叙述，让读者易于把握所叙述内容之间的内在关联，从而理解文章主题。

3. 时态通常使用与过去有关的时态，如一般过去时。

记叙文的篇章结构：

开头 the beginning——交待必要的背景。如：时间、地点、人物等。

中间 the middle——交待故事情节(事情的主体)。如：事件的发生、发展和前因后果。(可以使用表示时间或空间的连接词，使文章连贯。 如：at first…then…few minutes later…)

结尾 the ending——事情的结果或感想、愿望等。(所表达的感想或愿望应与所记叙的内容有关系，起到扣题或点题的作用，使文章结构紧凑)。

例如NEMT2000

假设你是李华，正在美国探亲。2000年2月8日清晨，你目击了一起交通事故。警察局让你写一份材料，报告当时的所见情况。请根据下列图画写出报告。

注意：1. 目击者应该准确报告事实

2. 词数100左右

3. 结尾已为你写好

就“说明对象”而言，英语说明文可分为对“客观具体事物”的说明和对“主观抽象观念”的说明两大类，比如：对“LASER（激光）”、“Computer Problem of Year XX（计算机XX年问题）”等等的说明都是对客观或者具体事物的说明，而“The Successful Interview（谈成功的面试）”、“How to Write Good English Composition（如何才能写好英语作文）” 等是对主观抽象观念的说明。对我们中学生朋友来说，在汉语说明文的教学中似乎比较侧重前者，即解释客观具体事物的说明文。但在英语说明文中，阐述和说明 “主观抽象观念”的说明文占了很大的比重，其中有些类似汉语中的议论文。但是无论是对“客观具体事物”的说明还是对“主观抽象观念”的阐述，英语说明文从结构上看大致可分为三个部分：第一部分一般是文章的第一段，提出文章的主题，也就是说，文章想要阐述、说明的主要内容；第二部分是文章的主体，可由若干个段落组成，对文章的主题进行展开说明；第三部分是结尾段，对文章的主题作归纳总结。从英语说明文的结构可以看出，要写好英语说明文的关键在于第二部分如何对文章主题进行展开说明。在英语中，常见的用来展开文章主题的方法有下列几种：

1.罗列法（listing）

在文章开始时提出需要说明的东西和观点，然后常用first，second，…and finally加以罗列说明。罗列法广泛地使用于各类指导性的说明文之中，下面这篇学生作文就是用罗列法写成的：

Early Rising

Early rising （早起） is helpful in more than one way. First， it helps to keep us fit （健康）。 We all need fresh air. But air is never so fresh as early in the morning. Besides， we can do good to our health from doing morning exercise （做早操）。

Secondly， early rising helps us in our studies. We learn more quickly in the morning， and find it easier to remember what we learn in the morning.

Thirdly， early rising enables （使能够） us to plan the work of the day. We cannot work well without a good plan. Just as the plan for the year should be made in the spring， so the plan for the day should be made in the morning.

Fourthly， early rising gives us enough time to get ready for our work， such as to wash our faces and hands and eat our breakfast properly.

Late risers may find it very difficult to form the habit of early rising. They ought to make special efforts to do so. As the English proverb says，“Early to bed and early to rise， makes a man healthy， wealthy and wise.”

罗列法经常用下列句式展开段落，我们可以注意模仿学习：

There are several good reasons why we should learn a foreign language. First of all， …Secondly， …And finally， …

We should try our best to plant more trees for several good reasons First of all， …Secondly， …And finally，

必须指出的是，有时罗列法并不一定有明确的first， second…等词，但文章还是以罗列论据展开的。

2.举例法（examples）

举例法是用具体的例子来说明我们要表达的意思，常用for example， for instance， still another example is…等词语引出。下面这篇学生作文就是用举例法写成的：

Recreation

It is impossible to keep in good health unless we take enough recreation （娱乐）。 The mind， too， needs change to make it fresh and vigorous （有活力的） There is much truth in the old saying， All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy.“

There are many games which boys and girls can play after their school work is done， for instance， football， tennis， and kite-flying. Other examples of recreation are boating， fishing， gardening， cycling， walking， chess-playing， and reading. Persons who sit much at their business should take a kind of recreation that will supply their muscles （肌肉） with exercise. Those who spend most of their time in the open air and do manual work （体力活） should adopt （采纳） reading or some other quiet form of recreation.

Cycling is said to be an important means of recreation， but many persons foolishly tire out themselves by cycling too much. The same may be said in regard to football. Tennis is a pleasant form of recreation. Many persons take great delight in boating. Fishing requires much patience， and there is much danger of taking cold by sitting still on a cold day too long. A good brisk （轻松） walk is one of the finest forms of exercise. For persons engaged in outdoor labor， chess-playing is another excellent form of recreation.

可以看出，举例法和罗列法有时可以结合使用：即用罗列法来列出例子，用例子充实罗列的说明。

3.比较法（comparison and contrast）

比较法是对两个对象进行比较，从而进行说明的写作手法。比较法又可细分为比较相同点（comparison）和比较不同点（contrast）两种方法，比如：

From Paragraph to Essay

Although they are different in length （长度）， the paragraph and the essay are quite similar in structure （结构）。 For example， the paragraph starts with either a topic sentence （主题句） or a topic introducer followed by a topic sentence. In the essay， the first paragraph sets up the topic focus （主题所在） Next， the sentences in the body of a paragraph develop the topic sentence. Similarly， the body of an essay consists of a number of paragraphs that discuss and support the ideas given in the introductory （引导的） paragraph. Finally， a concluding sentence （结束句） ——whether a restatement， conclusion， or observation——ends the paragraph. The essay， too， has a concluding paragraph which ends the essay logically and satisfactorily. Although there are some exceptions （例外）， most well written expository （说明文的） paragraphs and essays are similar in structure.

可以看出，在比较相同点的时候，常用到similarly，also，too，in the same case，in spite of the difference等这样的词语。

European Football and American Football

Although European football is the parent of American football， the two games show several major differences. European football， sometimes called association football or soccer， is played in 80 countries， making it the most widely played sport in the world. American football， on the other hand， is popular only in North America （the United States and Canada）。 Soccer is played by eleven players with a round ball. Football， also played by eleven players in somewhat different positions （位置） on the field， is played with an elongated （拉长的） round ball. Soccer has little body contact （接触） between players and therefore needs no special protective equipment. Football， in which players make the greatest use of body contact to stop a running ball-carrier and his teammates， needs special protective equipment. In soccer， the ball is advanced toward the goal by kicking it or by butting （顶） it with the head. In American football， on the other hand， the ball is passed from hand to hand or carried in the hands across the opponents （对手） goal. These are just a few of the features which distinguish （区别） association and American football.

这是一篇用比较不同点的手法写的说明文。从文章中可以看出：however，on the other hand，in contrast，but，nevertheless等表示转折的词语常用来引导对不同点的比较。

4.定义法（definition）

定义法也是英语说明文中常用的写作手法，特别是在对具体事物概念进行说明时经常使用。定义法的基本要素是定义句。英语中常见定义句的模式是：

被定义对象is所属类别+限制性定语

可以看出，定义句中限制性定语越详细，定义就越精确，比如：

A bat is a small mouse-like animal that flies at night and feeds on（以……为食品）fruit and insects but is not a bird.

其实，在英—英词典中，对英语单词的英文解释就是定义法的典型例子。比如，看看Longman词典对student和teacher的定义是很有意思的：A student is a person who is studying at a place of education or training. A teacher is a person who gives knowledge or skill to sb. as a profession （专业）。

5.顺序法（sequence of time， space and process）

顺序法是指按时间、空间或过程的顺序进行说明的一种写作手法。比如按照时间顺序介绍一个科学家的生平，用空间顺序阐述逐渐开发西部的重要意义，用过程顺序法解释葡萄酒的生产过程等等。

下面这篇学生作文就是用顺序法写成的：

Coal

Coal underwent （经受） many changes before it became the bright， brittle （脆的）， black substance which we now use. During ancient times （在上古时代）， when the earth enjoyed a very warm and wet climate， the land was covered with large forests and big plants. As time went on， the ground changed and began to sink （下沉） a little. These very large numbers of trees and vegetables received a deposit （沉淀） of sand and clay. This layer of sand and clay pressed upon the layer beneath and prevented it from contact with air. These trees and plants received the pres sure and changed its appearance.

Generations after generations （几世纪后）， as the ground kept gradually sinking， another layer of sand and clay was again deposited （积聚） above the layers already formed. A great pressure was thus exerted （作用） and the peat （泥煤） was changed into the black and brittle substance which is known as coal.

Coal is a kind of mineral which is formed by nature as above stated. It is an important industrial material and is chiefly used as fuel. It is very valuable in the industrial world. The place where coal deposit is called a coal mine （煤矿）。 In China， coal mines are largely found in the north-west part of the country. Shanxi is a famous province for producing coal. It has the most coal of China.

6.分类法（classification）

分类法是将写作对象进行分类说明的一种写作手法。比如：著名的英国哲学家弗朗西斯·培根（Francis Bacon）在其脍炙人口的《谈读书》（Of Studies）一文中就用到了分类法：

Some books are to be tasted， others to be swallowed， and some few to be chewed and digested， that is， some books are to be read only in parts， others to be read， but not curiously， and some few to be read wholly， and with diligence and attention. Some books also may be read by deputy， and extracts made of them by others； but that would be only in the less important arguments， and the meaner sort of books…

参考译文：书有可浅尝者，有可吞食者，少数则须咀嚼消化。换言之，有只须读其部分者，有只须大体涉猎者，少数则须全读，读时须全神贯注，孜孜不倦。书亦可请人代读，取其所需摘要，但只限题材较次或价值不高者……

——转摘自《英汉翻译教程》（张培基等）

可见，如果能够根据具体情况，选用合适的写作手法，就可为文章增添无穷的魅力。

除了上述提到的6种展开英语说明文主题的写作方法之外，还有因果法、归纳法等其他方法。但相比之下，对于中学生来说，上述6种方法是首先值得掌握的。另外必须指出的是：在一篇文章中往往是以一种写作手法为主，同时辅以其他写作手法。有时，甚至会几种写作手法混用而不分主次。因此，必须根据具体情况，选用合适的展开主题的写作手法，才能写出优秀的英语说明文。

一、培养基础英语写作能力

转变英语学习观念，培养基础英语写作能力是提高商务英语写作能力的基础和关键。为此，必须抓好以下三个环节:

1.不断通过写作练习培养英语语法的应用能力，重视掌握有关词汇的用法，以便能运切实用有关语法和词汇去写作。这是英语写作的基础。

不仅要记住语法规则，更重要的是要通过做各种各样的写作练习，以达到在写作中能正确运用有关语法规则。要记住英语单词的汉语意思，更重要的是要通过阅读在上下文中准确掌握英语单词的用法。单词的用法(主要是实词的用法)主要包括：单词的确切意思-包括其情感意义、文体色彩等;它与有关同义词或近义词的区别;它的习惯性搭配。这样，学习者才能在写作中避免那些尽管语法上没有什么错误、用词却有明显错误的现象。

2.通过大量阅读逐渐培养英语思维，并掌握一些写好句子的技巧，以便在把句子写正确的同时，不断培养用地道的英语把句子写好的能力。

结合提高阅读能力，大量阅读各类题材的英语文章，有意识地逐渐培养英语思维，并把它用于写作。在阅读过程中要注意:不要死扣每句英语的汉语意思，而应着重获取作者所要传递的信息;对于相对简易的、与日常生活或所学专业有关的文章，应注意某些意思的英语表达方式，尤其要注意与汉语有明显不同的表达方式，注意其用词、词序、搭配等，以便将来写作时有效地模仿，使写出的句子地道化。掌握英语句子的写作技巧，恰当运用各种类型的句子。

3.了解一些英语段落、篇章的组织和写作知识。所写段落与篇章均要力求连贯(coherence)和衔接(cohesion)。篇章的用词和句式在文体上一般要保持一致(unity)。

二、商务英语文体特点

要提高商务英语写作水平，除了要有扎实的英语基本功，还要对商务英语文体特点有充分的认识，准确的区别不同体裁商务英语的风格特点，从而写出满足不同商务目的的要求的商务文件。不同的商务环境相对应的不同的商务活动也是不相同的，了解商务英语语言的共同特点、风格、语篇结构而且清楚认识在不同商务活动中商务英语写作的具体特点和要求。它包括构思、起草、修改3个阶段。

1.构思阶段

商务英语写作在此切断必须考虑三个文体：(1)写作目的-通知、请求、说服、存档;(2)写给谁-客户、上级、同事、下属;(3)字数要求;(4)形式结构-计划或建议报告、商务函件、备忘录、电子邮件。明确这些要求后，需要考虑语篇结构，采用那种陈述顺序-直接顺序、间接顺序、直接于间接混合顺序。

2.起草阶段

起草阶段，是将构思阶段在头脑中形成的想法以书面文字的形式呈现出来。商务英语写作的最终目的是为了获的读者的支持、信任和好感。而且还要注意礼貌用词，例如使用褒义词、适当的头衔、不带任何性别、种族和年龄偏见的词等。

作为专门用途英语的商务英语，因其特殊目的，希望通过最有效的沟通提供给合作者更容易理解的清楚具体的信息。其信函在词汇选择上，遵循3c原则:

(1)conciseness(精简)。在复合词与简单词之间、长词与短词之间，应选择简单词或短词;在词组与单词之间，选择单词，尽量不使用不必要的介词词组;

(2)clarity(明白)。要准确传达商务交流的内容，必须避免使用模棱两可的词语或表达方式，这样才能使信函意义明确，不被误解，表达思想才能够更突出。避免在同一信函或其他写作中使用同一词。避免使用“if”，“hope”，“but”等表示疑问的词。在日期表达上，涉及到具体某月，均使用那个月的具体名词，如“January，February，…”。避免用“instant， ultimo，approx”等不确定词语。另外避免将日期写成如“5/4/1995”类似的形式，因为对于英国习惯是4月5日，而美国习惯是5月4日。

(3)Courtesy(礼貌)。尽量使用表示肯定的词汇，少用否定词，因为否定词给人一种否定的印象，或者还有指责对方的意思肯定对方时用词多用“you”，“your”，少用“I”，“we”，“us”，“our”，此种方式即“以客户为中心的‘You—attitude’”表达形式，因为不管你的目的是提供信息、说服别人还是增进友谊，最能打动人。

3.修改阶段

商务英语写作在修改阶段，力求句子简洁明了，段落清晰完整如上文所述。

完成商务英语写作过程在商务写作中，还应注意所选词语的礼貌性，讲话要婉转客气。的第一阶段是写出高水平商务英语的前提。提高商务英语写作能力的关键是把握商务英语写作的三个基本原则-简洁、准确、完整以及商务活动应遵循的语用策略-礼貌、合作。总之，商务英语的文体决定了商务英语写作的基本原则;简洁-才能提高效益;准确-才能避免延误;完整-才能显示逻辑思考能力。

由于教育背景和工作经历的不同而写作风格各异，但他共同遵循的写作宗旨是明晰扼要，其商务文稿要力求开门见山，扣住主题，思路清楚，层次分明，内容具体而完整。现代商业写作做到这些还远远不够。要走出写作风格的误区:一是避免使用套话。二是少用大词多用小词。用简单的言词交流思想，使人感到亲切，书面语向口语化过渡。然而写作的口语化并不意味着要用俚语或行话，因为它们的用法是有局限性的，很难用得恰到好处，弄不好让人感觉随意无礼，容易产生费解和误解。时代的发展变化促使语言更新由繁到简，这不免引起一些人的抱怨，他们认为这是“稀释”了英语。竞争如此激烈的社会，人们惜时如金，那个人会愿意听您咬文嚼字，仔细去揣模字里行间的文学色彩，欣赏书面语措词如何地道。

由上可见，不同文体的英语语言有不同的使用标准、礼貌标准以及传达含义的约束化表达方式，只有了解和掌握现代商务英语词汇的文体特征和应遵循的要求，才能处理好对外业务往来中的各类商务写作，使相关业务顺利开展下去。

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

书面表达是英语写作的重要组成部分，有不少学生觉得用英语写作很难，不知从何练起。笔者教学实践发现，首先要具备扎实的基础知识，抓住课本教学来培养学生的写作能力，立足教材，由易到难，由浅入深，采取多种形式来加强书面表达训练，这样英语写作水平才能得到提高。

一是通过词汇教学训练写作能力。要写好文章不是一朝一夕就能达到的，必须从最基础的词汇入手。教学中，教师要注意加强词汇方面的训练，力求给学生交代清楚每一个词语的具体用法。对一些重点的、核心的词汇讲清，讲透每个词语的单独用法和搭配用法。为了更有效地与课本结合起来，每学完一个单元，根据本单元的单词、短语造句，举一反三，帮助学生扩大词汇量，使学生词不离句，强化写作训练。

二是通过一句多译练习训练写作能力。就七年级学生而言，他们虽然接触英语学习时间不长，但教师还是要注重引导学生多做一些一句多译练习，这样有助于启发学生的写作思路。考试时选择自己有把握的句子灵活地表达同一内容，减少失误，提高得分率。通过做汉译英练习，暴露出学生受母语影响的问题，对这些问题我及时进行讲评和纠正。这样，有利于培养和规范学生的英语表达能力。

三是结合课文进行各种体裁的写作训练。目前，信息来源的渠道多种多样，学生课文中有记叙、日记、通知、便条、书信、广告和说明等多种体裁，文中还有大量的插图，教师可利用图片让学生进行看图写作。要学好英语写作就必须从课文练起，从一些常见的文体练起，由短到长，由浅入深，循序渐进地进行。

四是通过背诵训练写作。培养学生的英语写作能力，以课文为中心训练写作能力非常重要，因为课文中的句子就是规范的英语范文。因此，每学完一篇课文或对话，教师就要要求学生背诵，然后默写。这样使学生把词语放在句型、段落、篇章中去理解、记忆和体味，以至于能够仿写、改写。

五是通过仿写和改写训练写作能力。仿写也是提高英语写作能力行之有效的方法，模仿写作中，格式、构思、表达方式等方面都可模仿。但要提醒学生注意灵活变通，语句要通顺，符合英语表达习惯。仿写前要从时态，句型，内容选材等方面对学生加以辅导，指导学生怎样模仿，特别提醒学生注意时态。

另外，改写也是一种很好的方法，改写就是对文章材料的文体、式样、句式等进行改编的一种训练方式。无论是改人称、改时态，还是改对话材料为叙述文字，这都有助于学生复习巩固所学知识，又能培养学生所学知识的迁移运用能力，还能起到提高学生的写作能力。

总之，要提高学生的英语写作能力，就要培养学生养成良好的学习习惯。即：重视词、短语、造句，优秀的对话和课文要背诵，多做翻译练习，练习改写和仿写，结合课文进行各种体裁的写作训练。只有坚持不懈，持之以恒，才能写出准确、地道、规范的英语文章。

想要写好一篇英语作文有哪些方法步骤呢?下面来看看语文迷网为大家带来的写作指导吧。

(一)仔细审题，确定要点。在开始写作这前一定要认真阅读题目中的所有信息(中文提示、图示、注意事项等)把需要表达的全部信息要点列成提纲，列要点时，如果提示是图表，要认真审图，从图中找出要表达的信息要点，如事件发生的背景，人物的衣着、表情、动作、位置、年龄、外貌、图中的英汉文字等，如果有参考词汇，一定要用上。

(二)根据要点，先词组句。近年来高考书面表达的要求不断提高，高分文章要有较多的词汇，较高级的词汇用法。比如表达丰富可以用rich,但如果你用abundant这个词就属于较高级的词汇。再比如“他强调小心驾驶的重要”这个句子 He emphasized the importance of careful driving.其中“强调”这个词如果你用 attach much importance to 效果更佳。

(三)确定时态及人称，内容连贯，结构紧凑。高考书面表达评分标准明确规定，如人称错误要扣分，不同的文体一般都有基本时态。日记通常记叙发生过的事情，多用一般过去时。议论文多用一般现在时，通知等文体通常用一般将来时。每个句子写好之后，句与句之间要选择恰当的连接词。比如：(1)表示承接、递进用语，besides(并且)、whats more(并且)，moreover(而且)，firstly,secondly,finally(最后)，from now on (从此)，afterwards I after that(后来)，to make things worse/ whats worse(使事情更为糟糕的是)，the worst thing of all(最糟糕的是)。(2)表示转折关系用语。but bowever,otherwise,though,despite,in spite of...(尽管)on the other hand(另一方面)，as(尽管)，all the same(尽管如此)。(3)表示因果关系用语。because/because of......for(因为)，owing to (由于)，thanks to (由于)，due to (由于)，so that (结果)。(4)归纳总结用语。to summarize(总而言之)，in short/in a word(简而言之)，on the whole(从总体看)，generally speaking(一般说来)，in my view(我的观点)，in conclusion(总之)。

(四)句式丰富，避免单词。英语书面表达评分标准第五档(21-25分)要求，“应使用较复杂结构，这要求学生不仅会运用基本句型，也要有意识地使用复杂句型，这是文章的亮点。如何使用复杂结构，我认为适当运用非谓语结构(分词短语、动名词或不定式短语)适当运用各种从句(定语从句、名词性从句、状语从句)是有效什么途径。比如：when he arrived in Beijing,he gave me an e-mail.(时间状语从句。一般)→On arriving in Beijing,he gave me an e-mail.Having arrived in Beijing.he gave me an e-mail.(使用了动名词，分别作状语。高级) Hardly had he arrived in Beijing when he gave me an e-mail.(改变时态，句子结构。高级)I wont believe what he says.(一般)→No matter what he says,I wont believe.(让步状从句，高级)。

(五)认真答写，卷面整洁。高考书面表达评分标准中对书写有较高要求。尤其今年英语作文要进行网上阅卷，如果书写较差，会影响到扫描质量，因此，考生在答卷时，一定要认真、清楚规范地书写，以保卷面整洁。

生态旅游的内涵更强调的是对自然景观的保护，是可持续发展的旅游。下面是语文迷网为大家带来的关于生态旅游英语作文的句子，希望对你有帮助。

1.we will establish some ecological demonstration zones and ecological agriculture counties. Specifically， high-efficiency ecological agriculture will be developed;抓好生态示范区和生态农业县的建设，发展高效型生态农业;

2.We will expand ecological demonstration zones.加强生态示范区建设。

3.The regional ecological system is fragile.区域生态系统脆弱。

4.Environmental protection in the places embodying cultural， historical and natural relics will be promoted. Integrated planning and management of tourism will give priority to the development of ecological tourism and improvement of forest parks and scenic resorts.加强有关文化遗产和自然遗产的环境保护工作，加强旅游业统一规划管理，开展生态旅游，强化森林公园和风景名胜区建设。

5.A variety of tourism products designed around sightseeing， conferences and contests， vacations， business trips， academic studies， cultural explorations， technology， sports， ecological tours， and traditional customs shall all be improved.完善观光旅游、会奖旅游、度假旅游、商务旅游、修学旅游、文化旅游、科技旅游、体育旅游、生态旅游、民俗旅游等旅游产品。

6.Promoting the construction of ecological agriculture?

加强生态农业建设。

7.economic development and ecological equilibrium经济发展与生态平衡

8.system analysis of ecosystem生态系统的系统分析

9.Sub-plan for Environmental Protection生态环境保护专项规划

Though there are no exact figures for the ecotourism segment， a government-sponsored push for rural tourism —— usually involving staying with farmers —— has become popular in China in recent years.

虽然生态旅游方面还没有确切的统计数据，不过近年来由政府资助推出的乡村旅游项目(通常被称为“农家乐”)却已在中国广受欢迎。

课文中的经典句子，又是精华中的精华，背熟之后对你的写作语法有很大的帮助。下面来看看小编为大家带来的英语课文经典句子吧，希望对你有帮助。

1、 Flora,whose beautiful hair and dress were all cold and wet, started crying.

2、 Tree after tree went down, cut down by the water, which must have been three meters deep.

3、 The garden that was once so beautiful was completely destroyed, swept away by the wild water.

4、 I found some photos of interesting places which were not too far away from Chengdu.

5、 He told me that I could go on a two-day trip to Leshan and Emei, which wasn’t too expensive.

6、 First,we went to Leshan, where we climbed all the way up the mountain to see the Buddha.

7、 Looking up at the large head and down at the large feet makes you feel so small.

8、 Wei Bin took photos of us standing in front of the Buddha.

9、 Steven Spielberg, whose mother was a music teacher, was born in 1946 in a small town in America.

10、 In 1959 Spielberg won a prize for a film which he made when he was thirteen years old.

11、 The reason why he could not go there was that his grades were too low.

12、 Here he worked on a short film, which won him a job as the youngest film director in the world.

13、 This was the moment when Spieberg’s career really took off.

14、 I hate hiking and Im not into classical music.

15、 I surf the Internet all the time and I like playing computer games.

16、 Rock music is OK, and so is skiing.

17、 When are you off to Guangzhou?

18、 My plane leaves at seven, so I think we’ll take a taxi.

19、 See you when I get back.

20、 The next moment the first wave swept her down, swallowing the garden.

21、 Now ,the water, which was cold as ice and flowed faster than a river, was above her knees.

22、 Jeff and Flora looked into each other’s face with a look of fright.

23、 Chuck is a businessman who is always so busy that he has little time for his friends.

24、 One day Chuck is on a flight across the Pacific Ocean when suddenly his plane crashes.

25、 He realizes that he hasn’t been a very good friend because he has always been thinking about himself.

26、 Chuck learns that we need friends to share happiness and sorrow, and that it is important to have someone to care about.

27、 When he makes friends with Wilson, he understand that friendship is about feelings and that we must give as much as we take.

28、 The lesson we can learn from Chuck and all the others who have unusual friends is that friends are teachers.

29、 I found the bathroom, but I didn’t find what I was looking for.

30、 Don’t forget to buy me some ketchup on your way back.

31、 There are more than 42 countries where the majority of the people speak English.

32、 In total, for more than 375 million people English is their mother tongue.

33、 In China students learn English at school as a foreign language, except for those in Hong Kong, where many people speak English as a first or a second language.

34、 In only fifty years, English has developed into the language most widely spoken and used in the world.

35、 With so many people communicating in English every day ,it will become more and more important to have a good knowledge of English.

36、 For a long time the language in America stayed the same, while the language in England changed.

37、 In the same way Americans still use the expression “I guess “(meaning “I think”),just as the British did 300 years ago.

38、 At the same time, British English and American English started borrowing words from other languages ,ending up with different words.

39、 Except for these differences in spelling, written English is more or less the same in both British and American English.

40、 However,most of the time people from the two countries do not have any difficulty in understanding each other.

41、 Many people travel because they want to see other countries and visit places that are famous, interesting or beautiful.

42、 Many of today’s travelers are looking for an unusual experience and adventure travel is becoming more and more popular.

43、 Instead of spending your vacation on a bus, in a hotel or sitting on the beach, you may want to try hiking.

44、 Hiking is fun and exciting, but you shouldn’t forget safety.

45、 A raft is a small boat that you can use to paddle down rivers and streams.

46、 If you want a normal rafting trip, choose a quiet stream or river that is wide and has few fallen trees or rocks.

47、 The name “whitewater “comes from the fact that the water in these streams and rivers looks white when it moves quickly.

英语四级考试目的是推动大学英语教学大纲的贯彻执行，对大学生的英语能力进行客观、准确的测量，为提高我国大学英语课程的教学质量服务。下面是小编为大家带来的基础薄弱如何进行英语四级写作训练的知识，欢迎阅读。

英语四级写作备考可分为四大步骤：

一、 背诵：

首先认真研究历年四级写作真题，重点研究2001年6月—2005年12月的11次真题，分析近年来四级写作的出题规律和考试重点，从语言、结构、 内容三大层面，认真研读经典写作真题范文：语言方面学习范文中的精彩词汇、词组、句型；结构方面学习范文的框架结构、内在逻辑、关联词、同义替换和代词替换；内容方面学习范文的论点、论据和论证。同时背诵精彩写作范文，要求滚瓜烂熟、脱口而出、多多益善，扎扎实实提高自己的写作实力。历年英语四级六级真题 >>

二、默写：

背诵熟练之后默写下来，仔细对照原文，会发现你默写的文章与原文有一些语法、拼写、标点的区别，这些区别就是你的写作弱点，学习关键在于针锋突破，不要全面出击。这些弱点正是你在考试中扣分的原因所在，把这些弱点意义克服，分数自然就会提高。

三、 中译英：

首先将写作真题范文译为中文，或参考范文的正确译文，然后进行中译英的工作，根据自己的理解把中文译为英文，最后对照英文原文，你会发现你的译文与原文存在较大的差别，这些差别正是你写作低分的症结所在。同样的一个中文句子，仔细对比一下你使用了哪些词汇、词组和句型，原文使用了哪些，这样你的写作水平才会逐渐提高。

四、 写作：

进行完上述工作之后，在考前必须进行写作的工作，只有动笔写作，才会发现自己的问题。可以写5—10篇真题或模拟题，模仿自己曾经背诵过的精彩词汇、词组、句型、框架和范文，写出一篇新的文章。最初不要求速度，但考前一定要进行模考，半小时写出一篇120－150词的文章。写完之后仔细修改其中的语言错误，将其改的更加精彩。

英语写作基础不太好的四级考生，必须按照上述步骤严格进行；基础较好的考生学习顺序正好相反，首先写作，直接写作英语四级真题；其次中译英，在研读原文之前，进行中译英的工作，译完对比，找出差距；然后背诵；最后默写。同时可以准备自己的写作框架，应用文和论说文分别形成固定的写法，积累精彩句型。

中考英语作文对考生的要求有四点：1、内容要完整。 2、语句流畅。3、没有语法错误。4、书写规范。能达到上述要求的作文，都会得到相应的高分。

一：先看一下扣分点：

1.内容方面：要点缺失，可酌情扣分。比如中考作文“I want to do something for my school”，若没有写一件具体的事情，是要扣3分以上的;若写的事情太过于虚幻，没有实际内容，也会扣1-2分。

2.字数：少于60字的作文要酌情扣分。

中考英语作文要求60字以上，标点符号不算，少了就要扣分。但是60字的作文能不能得高分?从我们拿到的实例作文来看，16分以上的作文，没有少于75字的，甚至少于80字的也少之又少。当然，也极少有超过100字的，因为中考试卷的短线格一共80个，在格子下面大约还有2行的空间，可以加20字左右，再多阅卷人就很难看清了，也会影响卷面的美观。所以，同学们如果想让作文得到高分，最好是让字数在75-100字之间。

3. 语法和拼写错误：每个扣0.5，重复错误不计;

4. 标点错误：每4个扣0.5.

二：加分点

除了这些扣分点，还有一些得分点：比如说作文的组织结构分，就是根据学生使用复杂句型、单词和谚语、俗语的情况来加分。

只要文章中有1个亮点，基本就可以争取到1分(3分的文采分是很难全部拿到的)。而这1分的亮点，是可以提前准备的。例如，有一些“万金油”式的复杂句型，例如强调句型、only相关的倒装句等，只要同学们多操练几次，几乎是一定能用到作文当中，从而为自己争取到这1分。

其次就是卷面分

很多家和同学，尤其是部分书法并不是十分整洁的同学，都会关心是否真的有“卷面分”的存在。虽然在阅卷标准里面并没有卷面分这一项，但是这个分数却真切地反映在了同学们的分数里面。

据阅卷老师的经验，在阅卷的时候并不是按这3个部分逐项打分的，而是在第一遍读完全文之后，心里已经形成了一个“印象分”，然后再细读第二、三遍，把印象分分配到各个打分部分。因此，这个“印象分”就非常重要，而同学们的书法，也正是在这个环节，影响到了自己的分数。所以初三的考生，如果书法不好，一定要注意。所谓的书法并不需要写的很漂亮，符合3个简单的标准即可：没有斜体、没有连笔、涂改较少。

如何写通顺的英语

英语写作是语言应用的一个重要方面，也是语言能力测定的重要手段，衡量写作水平的标准便是看其是否能用学过的语言材料，语法知识等用文字的形式来表达描述。

书面语言表达一般分为三个过程：思维、组织、表达。先是思维，把要写的东西在脑中思考，这往往是个别的，孤立的一些素材，很凌乱琐碎；因此要对此进行组织，把这些思维作出整理，使其条理、系统化，但这还是较粗糙的，可能还有一些用词不当或语言错误；最后才是表达，把组织过的材料仔细推敲，确无问题了再落笔成文。

在撰写时要注意主谓语一致，时态呼应，用词贴切等，这就是写作。上述的三个过程，最难的就是第三个过程，这需要我们有较好的语法知识，掌握一定数量的句型，习惯用语，熟练的写作技巧，这样才能写出通顺生动的文章来。

总之，要提高英语写作水平，需要两方面的训练：一是语言基础方面的训练，要有扎实的造句、翻译等基本功，即用词法、句法等知识造出正确无误的句子；二是写作知识和能力方面的训练以掌握写作方面的基本方法和技巧。

那么，究竟怎样才能写好作文呢？

阅读优秀范文

首先要搞好阅读。阅读是写作的基础，在阅读方面下的功夫越深，驾驭语言的能力也就越强。所以要写好英语先要读好英语，在语言学习方面狠下苦功，教科书要读透，因为教科书中的文章都是一些很好的范文，文笔流畅，语言规范，精彩的一些课文段落要背诵。再就是要进行大量课外阅读，并记住一些好文章的篇章结构。

加强练词造句训练

其次，要加强练词造句的训练。词句对作文相当于造房的材料，无好材料就造不出好房子。平时在学习阅读时要注意收集积累，把好的词语、短语、句型做好笔记。平时在练习中的错误也要做好记录，再对照正确句子，使地道的英语句子如同条件反射，落笔就对。

了解英语写作格式

还有，要了解英语写作的不同体裁与格式。可以先看一本介绍英语写作入门的书，对英语写作有一个初步的概念，如怎么写议论文，如何提出论据，如何展开，如何确定中心句；又如，英语信的格式，如何根据不同身份写不同结束语等，然后根据不同的体裁进行写作练习。

用英语写日记

要养成记英语日记勤练笔的好习惯。经常用英语记日记，等于天天在练笔，这无疑是提高英语协作的行之有效的好办法。在记日记时，不要总是用简单句，要有意识地用一些好的词组、句型、关联词和复合句等，使文句更优美生动。还有要按照题目或所给情景写文章练笔。写好后对照范文，找出差距，然后再练习，这对提高英语作文也很有帮助，在游泳中学会游泳，只有多练习才能练好。

总之，平时学习语言素材积累多了，体裁格式记住了又经常练习不断提高，到作文下笔时就会得心应手，水到渠成。

下面是由小编收集的关于初中英语写作的基础，欢迎阅读。

一、找到学生写作中存在的问题

1.汉语思维的影响。学生在写作中经常用汉语思维，忽略了英汉语序之间是有差别的，导致出现了大量的式英语，尽管洋洋洒洒一大篇，却没有得分点。

2.词或词组的用法及搭配出现错误。如enjoy，finish等单词后面只能接v-ing形式;“forget to do”和“forget doing”在意思上存在着显著的差异等。学生在做选择题或用所给词的适当形式填空时，大多数学生能做对，但在作文中，学生往往忽略了其用法，出现了不必要的错误。

3.时态、语态的构成及使用错误。例如，一般过去时的否定句中，助动词didn’t后的动词用原形，而完成时的句子中往往用动词的过去分词，在这方面，学生的拼写容易出现错误。

4.单词的拼写错误，标点使用不当，不注意大小写，遗漏冠词，介词的误用等。

5.结构松散。关联词的使用可使上下句和段落合理衔接，承上启下，使表达合乎逻辑，同时使文章结构严谨、紧凑，部分考生的作文虽然内容和语言还不错，但是由于过于执着于表格所给内容的顺序，没有进行灵活的处理，整篇文章看起来就象是句子翻译，并且句与句之间关系松懈，缺乏连接，以至于文章毫无流畅、优美之感。

二、如何培养学生英语写作能力

1.从单词入手。单词是英语学习的基础，单词过不了关，写作就无从谈起，因为单词是写作的基本单位。但是单词记忆又是学生学习英语的最薄弱环节，因此我们必须时刻告诫学生，单词的学习过程，实际上就是人与遗忘作斗争的过程，要长期坚持下去。 志和必胜的信心。

2.由“句式”到“段落”的训练阶段。从七年级开始就对学生进行书写小段落的训练，做到口笔同步。随着教学的不断深入，写作内容也不断丰富，八年级就要注意段落中的时态差异、句型变化以及过渡句的使用等。到了九年级就要注意文章的体裁、格式、写作方法、复句的正确性以及中外文化的差异性。

3.课前几分钟进行Free Talk。学生可以准备谜语、笑话、小故事、即兴演讲等。之后向听的学生进行提问，其他学生只有认真听才能回答出问题。Free Talk为学生提供了很好的实践机会。

4.在课堂上，我们要注重听说的训练，给学生提供大量的口语练习材料，从句子到对话，从对话到文章，以培养学生的语感。同时，加强写的训练，利用所学的句型大量翻译句子，使学生能够真正做到举一反三。此外，还要让学生在练习时注意区分英汉语序的不同。

5.要求学生多写多练。教师按照每个单元呈现的重点内容为学生规定文题或写作范围，指导学生写一些代表性的文章，并结合学生比较优秀的作文进行讲评，取其精华，去其糟粕，完成一篇优秀的范文。使学生在讲评的过程中领略这些文章的优缺点，教会学生如何自己修改作文，并将范文抄写在固定的作文本上，不断积累，并随知识的不断扩展对已写的文章根据需要不断进行修改或扩充，使其更加完美。

6.加强背诵。看了好文章，不单是理解就够了，还应该在理解的基础上多多背诵，才能达到融会贯通、据为已有的效果。英语宜多诵多背，把一些句型、短语，一些文章的片段或全篇，背得滚瓜烂熟，让这些材料在你的脑袋里扎根，当你要用的时候，它们便会而然地冒出来。背诵可以培养正确使用语言的习惯，增强语感，这样就可以避免生搬硬套地写一些式的。加强背诵能变难为易，变费力为省力，能有效地帮助学生提高写作能力。现在背诵和熟记一些语言材料，对中学生来说将会受用无穷。

7.通过缩写和改写课文，培养学生的概括能力。缩写课文会激励学生去认真钻研课文内容，有助于加深学生对课文的理解，提高学生归纳和进行简要表达的能力。缩写课文一般应该用自己的话来写，不能只停留在拼凑原文的词句上。这样既可以使学生熟练掌握英语表达方法，也是对知识进行再创造的一个过程。

一、审题

我们拿到作文后第一件要做的事就是审题。审题的作用在于使你写作不跑题(如果跑题，条理和语言再好，也得不到及格分，甚至0分。)那末审题要审什麽呢?

1.体裁(议论文，说明文，描述文)

审题就是要审作文的题材和体裁。因为什末样的体裁就会用什末样的题材去写。那末体裁包括那些呢?它包括议论文，说明文和描述文。从近些年看，四级作文不是单一的体裁，而是几种体裁的杂合体。例如： Directions: For this part ,your are allowed 30 minutes to write a composition on the topicTrying to Be A Good University Student .You should write at least 100 words and you shouldbase your composition on the outline (given in Chinese ) below :

1.做合格大学生的必要性

2.做合格大学生的必备条件(可以从德智体方面谈)

3.我计划这样做

很多人说这种类型的作文是议论文。这是片面的，因为，第一段要求写"...必要性"，这说明本段体裁是议论文;第二段要求写"

...必备条件"，这说明本段要求写说明文;儿地三段要求写"...这样做"，这说明本段要求写描述文。所以在大多数情形下，四级作文是三种体裁的杂合体。

2.根据不同体裁确定写作方法

我们审题的目的就是根据不同体裁确定不同的写作方法。通过审题，我们可以看出四级作文大都是三段式。如上例第一段为议论体，第二段为说明体，地三段为描述体。而各种文体又不同的写作方式： 议论文;要有论点和论据，而且往往从正反两方面来论述。例如上面第一段的思路是：做合格大学生，会怎末样(这是从正面论述);不能做合格的大学生，会怎末样(从反面论述);所以我们要做合格的大学生(结了论)。

说明文：可以从几方面或几条来说明一个问题，就上作文而言，可以从方面(德智体)来说明合格大学生的必要性。

描述文：一"人"为中心描述一个"做"的过程。与上两段相比，本段的主语多为人称代词，他要与第二段相互应进行描述。 二 确定主题句

通过审题，我们知道该如何确定正确的写作思路。下边我们就谈如何些。第一部就是要写主题句。主题句是确保不跑题的前提，只有不跑题才有可得及格分。写主题句嘴保险的方法就是把中文提纲的各句译成英语。例如上述三段主题句分别为：

1.It is very necessary to be a good university student . (议论体的主题句)

2.There are several respects of necessities to be a good university student .(说明体的主题句)

3.What I will do in the future is the following .(描述体主题句)

如果要求句是英语就可以把它变成主题句，例如这样一篇作文：

Good Health

1.Importance of good health

2.Ways to keep fit

3.My own practice

这样的作文的要求句就可以扩充成主题句。扩充后三段的主题句分别为：

1.It is very important to have good health .(将名词 importance变成形容词important)

2.There are four ways to keep fit for me .(用 there be 句型)

3.My own practices are the following .(采用原词)

二、条理清楚

保证不跑提示写作当中第一任务，第二个重要任务就是要做到条理清楚。对于议论文来说，正反面要清楚，对于说明文来说条理要清楚，对于描述文来说，谁干什么要清楚。就拿上例Good health 来说，第一段保持正反面要清楚救应这样写：正面(With good health ,we can...)，反面(Without good health ,we cando nothing .We cant do...)

为了使文章更具有条理性，我们可以用first(ly) second(ly) third(ly)等副词，他们可以是文章的条例性更加突出。作文是主观题，想得告分就必须引起老师的主意，老师的时间很短(每篇作文只有一两分钟就要阅完)，所以我们在列调试最好不用: To be with,... after that ,...And then, ... The next , ... Thefollowing , ... As last ... 。因为用这样的词语不利于老师看出你作文的条理性。

三、保证作文符合字数要求的十二句作文法

考生一般都希望作文达到字数而又不至于写得太多，因为写得太多一方面暴露自己语言上的弱点，另一方面又会占用过多的时间。写得太多还易跑题，一个有效的方法就是十二句作文法。

我们知道，四级作文都是三段式。我们算一下，如果我们在每一段中写上四句，即主题句加两三句扩展句和一个结论句就可以了。这样全片在十二句左右，每一句十多个词，就又120-150个字。大家可以试图找一些作文题练一练。

以下是由语文迷网精心为大家整理提供的关于教育的英语名言，欢迎大家参考选择。

Education has for its object the formation of character.

教育的目的在于品德的培育。——斯宾塞

He can ill be master that never was scholar.

没当过学生的人成不了一个好先生。

Teaching others teaches youself.

教学相长。

Better untaught than ill taught.

宁可不受教育也强于受坏的教育。

Instruction knows no cladistinction.

有教无类——《论语》

The best bred have the best portion.

最好的教养是最好的嫁妆。

A teacher affects eternity; he can never tell where his influence stops. (H.B.Adams, American historian)

教师的影响是永恒的;无法估计他的影响会有多深远。(美国历史学家 亚当斯 H B)

Better be unboun than untaught, for ignorance is the root of misfortune. (Plato, Ancient Greek phiosopher)

与其不受教育，不知不生，因为无知是不幸的根源。(古希腊哲学家 柏拉图)

Dancing in all its forms cannot be excluded from the curriculum of all noble education: dancing with the feet, with ideas, with works, and ,need I add that one must also be able to dance with the pen? (Friedrich W.Nietzsche, German philosopher)

所有高尚教育的课程表里都不能没有各种形式的跳舞：用脚跳舞，用思想跳舞，用言语跳舞，不用说，还需用笔跳舞。(德国哲学家 尼采 F W)

Education commences at the mother’s knee, and every word spoken within the hearsay of children tends towards the formation of character. (Hosea Ballou British cducator)

教育始于母亲膝下，孩童耳听一言一语，均影响其性格的形成。(英国教育家 巴卢 H)

Education is a progressive discovery of our ignorance. (Durant, American historian)

教育是一个逐步发现自己无知的过程。(美国历史学家 杜兰特)

Educaton does not mean teaching people to kow what they do not know ; it means teachng them to behave as they do not behave. (John Ruskin, British art critic)

教育不在于使人知其所未知，而在于按其所未行而行。(英国艺术评论家 园斯金 J)

Education is a admirable thing, but it is well to remember from time to time that nothing worth knowing can be taught. (Oscar Wilde, British dramatist)

教育是令人羡慕的东西，但是要不时地记住：凡是值得知道的，没有一个是能够教会的。(英国剧作家 王尔得 O)

Example is always more efficacious than precept. (Samuel Johnson, British writer and critic)

身教胜于言教。(英国作家、批评家 约翰逊 S)

Histories make men wise ; poems witty; the mathematics subtle; natural philosophy deep ; moral grave ; logic and rhetoric able to contend.(Francis Bacon , British philosopher )

历史使人明智;诗词使人灵秀;数学使人周密;自然哲学使人深刻;伦理使人庄重;逻辑修辞学使人善辨。( 英国哲学家 培根. F.)

If you dont learn to think when you are young , you may never learn .(Thomas Edison , American inventor )

如果你年轻时就没有学会思考，那么就永远学不会思考。(美国发明家 爱迪生 . T.)

Natural abilities are like natural plants that need pruning by study.

(Francis Bacon , British philosopher )

天生的才干如同天生的植物一样，需要靠学习来修剪。(英国哲学家 培根 . F.)

A teacher affects eternity; he can never tell where his influence stops. (H.B.Adams, American historian)

教师的影响是永恒的;无法估计他的影响会有多深远。(美国历史学家 亚当斯 H B)

And gladly would learn, and gladly teach. (Chaucer, British poet)

勤于学习的人才能乐意施教。(英国诗人 乔叟)

Better be unboun than untaught, for ignorance is the root of misfortune. (Plato, Ancient Greek phiosopher)

与其不受教育，不知不生，因为无知是不幸的根源。(古希腊哲学家 柏拉图)

Education commences at the mothers knee, and every word spoken within the hearsay of children tends towards the formation of character. (Hosea Ballou British cducator)

教育始于母亲膝下，孩童耳听一言一语，均影响其性格的形成。(英国教育家 巴卢 H)

Educaton does not mean teaching people to kow what they do not know ; it means teachng them to behave as they do not behave. (John Ruskin, British art critic)

教育不在于使人知其所未知，而在于按其所未行而行。(英国艺术评论家 园斯金 J)

Education is a progressive discovery of our ignorance. (Durant, American historian)

教育是一个逐步发现自己无知的过程。(美国历史学家 杜兰特)

For a cultivated man to be ignorant of foreign languages is a great inconveniece. (Anton P.Chekhrv, Russian dramatist)

一个受过教育的人，不懂外语是极不方便的。(俄国剧作家 契克夫 A P)