提升写作技巧的英语作文（20篇）

“新闻反映新发生的、重要的、有意义的、能引起广泛兴趣的事实，具有迅速、明了、简短 的特点，是一种最有效的宣传形式。”小编收集了关于新闻的写作技巧，欢迎阅读。

一、新闻定义

什么是新闻?不同的文化背景，不同的意识形态，就有不同的回答。

在美国，麦尔文·曼切尔著的《新闻报道与写作》一书，引述了过去和现在新闻学家对新闻 的一些解释。例如：

达纳在1869年至1897年主管过《纽约太阳报》，他说，新闻是“社会上大多数人感 兴趣，而且在此以前从未对它注意过的那些事情。”

达纳的一个编辑提出了一个经典性的新闻概念：“狗咬人，不是新闻;人咬狗，才是新闻。 ”(注：这是达纳1882年办《纽约太阳报》时，他属下的采访主任约翰·B·博 加特对一个青年记者说的。)

另外一个新闻的典型概念是斯坦利·瓦利克尔提出来的。他是本世纪三十年代初期《纽约先 驱论坛报》的采编主任。他说，新闻是建立在三个“W”的基础上：“妇女(Women)、金 钱(Wampun)和坏事(Wrongdoing)”。

其实，以上表述并非科学意义的下定义，但他们的观点却集中地代表了西方新闻学的基本立 场，即一切反常的、有刺激性的、人们好奇的事才是新闻。这种观点当然有其深厚的人文背 景及经济基础，虽然他们对新闻定义的认识已侧重在“读者兴趣”上，但其实质仍不能脱离 “利润”的操纵。

在中国，“新闻”这个词最早出现在《新唐书》。《新唐书》记载：初唐神龙年间(公无7 05年前后)，有一个叫孙处玄的文人曾说过：“恨天下无书以广新闻”。孙处玄曾投书当 时执政的大臣恒彦范，评论时政得失，未被采纳，他就挂冠而去，可见他是个很关心时事政 治的人。这样的人对没有书刊传播新闻(当时印刷术尚未应用于书籍)表示不满，是理所当 然的事。孙处玄这句议论竟被载入《新唐书》，说明尽管唐代还未完全具备传播新闻的条件 ，但人们已意识到需要报道这类新闻的传播工具。“新闻”一词在这里是指“最近消息”。

《现代汉语词典》释“新闻”为：①报纸或广播电台等报道的国内外消息：新闻广播/采访 新闻。②指社会上最近发生的新事情。

《辞海》对新闻的解释是：①报社、通讯社、广播电台、电视台等新闻机构对当前政治事件 或社会事件所作的报道。要求迅速、及时，真实，言简意明，以事实说话。形式有消息、通 讯、特写、记者通信、调查报告、新闻图片、电视新闻等。②指被人当作谈助的新奇事情。 如《红楼梦》第一回：“众人当作一件新闻传说。”

1943年9月陆定一提出：“新闻就是新近发生的事实的报道。”

1981年8月中宣部在京召开全国18大城市的报纸工作座谈会，其会议纪要对新闻定义作了 新 的诠释：

“新闻反映新发生的、重要的、有意义的、能引起广泛兴趣的事实，具有迅速、明了、简短 的特点，是一种最有效的宣传形式。”

定语修饰的限制显然是考虑了“读者兴趣”，同时也顾及到了“社会效果”，这些是对陆定 一定义的有效补充，然而其偏颇也是显而易见的。综合上述种种看法，我们不妨把新闻定义 小结为：

“新闻是对新近发生或发现的有社会意义的能引起广泛兴趣的事实的传播。”

明确了新闻定义，我们再来区别广义的新闻与狭义的新闻。广义的新闻包括消息、通讯、特 写、调查报告、新闻评论等，是报纸、广播、电视等媒体中常见的报道体裁。狭义的新闻专 指消息。

二、新闻价值

对新闻定义的不同见解，尤其是社会主义新闻学与西方新闻学对新闻定义的根本分歧， 归根到底是由于对新闻价值的不同认识所决定的。

西方新闻界认为测定某一事件和某种思想所具有的新闻价值的因素有以下六个方面：(一)时 间性：报道最近发生或正在发生的事实，时间愈近，价值愈高;(二)显著性：报道对象要有 声望或出名，人、地、物等愈出名，价值愈高;(三)接近性：事实与读者在空间、关系等方 面愈接近便愈能引起兴趣;(四)新奇性：冲突、异常、冒险、变动等能满足读者的猎奇心理 ;(五)重要性：能引起震动，影响很多人的事件;(六)人情味：悲欢离合、幽默、悬念等带 有人情味的生活事件。在这诸多的因素中，“读者兴趣”是衡量新闻价值的唯一标准。我们 在借鉴其合理性的一面时，也不能忽视这种“新闻价值观”导致的负面影响。

社会主义新闻学认为，新闻价值就是选择和衡量事实是否报道及如何报道的标准。它包含两 层意思：一是事实本身所具有的价值，即事实本身的重要性、影响力和新鲜程度等;二是读 者接受新闻后的受益程度，即新闻所引起的社会效果。前者是先决条件，但没有后者前者也 失去了意义。概括起来社会主义新闻学认为判定事实所具有的新闻价值的因素主要有以下几 个方面：(一)指导性与思想性：坚持社会主义方向，宣传党的方针政策，以正确的舆论引导 人;(二)重要性与显著性：内容重要，社会影响大;(三)普遍性与迫切性：反映群众呼声， 关注社会热点;(四)知识性与趣味性：传播高尚的、健康的、大众的知识与情趣;(五)时效 性与真实性：坚持新闻的“真”，突出新闻的“新”。

三、写作原则

(一)坚持四项基本原则，自觉执行党的宣传纪律;

(二)实事求是，用事实说话;

(三)迅速及时，讲求时效;

(四)在写作技巧上遵守以下10条写作规则：

1、在你没有理解事件本身之前，不要动笔去写。

2、在你不知道你要说些什么之前不要动笔去写。

3、要表现，不要陈述。

4、把精彩的引语放在消息的前头。

5、把精彩的实例或轶事放在消息的前头。

6、运用具体名词和富于动作色彩的动词。

7、尽量少用形容词，不要在动词上再加用副词。

8、尽量避免自己去作判断和推理，让事实说话。

9、在消息中不要提那些你回答不了的问题。

10、写作要朴实、简洁、诚实、迅速。

总之，新闻写作要做到四个字：真、新、快、活。

以下几段话应成为我们写作新闻的座右铭：

△我们应当说真话，因为这是我们的力量所在!(《列宁全集》第9卷第283页) △用生活中的生动的具体事例来教育群众“是报刊在从资本主义到社会主义的过渡时期的主 要任务。”(《列宁全集》第28卷第83页)

△我们党所办的报纸，我们党所进行的一切宣传工作，都应当是生动的，鲜明的，尖锐的， 毫不吞吞吐吐。这是我们革命无产阶级应有的战斗风格。(《毛泽东选集》第1217页)

△为报道真实新闻而奋斗!(周恩来给《新闻日报》增刊的题词)

△在新的历史时期，新闻工作坚持为社会主义服务，为人民服务，就要坚定地全面准确地宣 传党的基本路线，宣传建设有中国特色的社会主义的理论和决策，宣传全国各族人民在现代 化建设和改革开放中的业绩和经验。(江泽民《关于党的新闻工作的几个问题》)

△坚持正面宣传为主的方针并不否认新闻的特点。新闻的特点，人们可以作多种概括，但照 我看，除了前面谈到的党性以外，还要注意真实性、时效性和可读性。(李瑞环《坚持正面 宣传为主的方针》)

第二节 消息的写作

 消息即狭义的新闻，它是对新近发生的有社会意义并引起公众兴趣的事实的简短报道。因此 ，真实性、时效性及文字少、篇幅小成为消息的基本特征。

一、消息种类

(一)动态消息：也称动态新闻，这种消息迅速、及时地报道国内国际的重大事件，报道社会 主义建设中的新人新事、新气象、新成就、新经验。动态消息中有不少是简讯(短讯、简明 新闻)，内容更加单一，文字更加精简，常常一事一讯，几行文字。

(二)综合消息：也称综合新闻，指的是综合反映带有全局性情况、动向、成就和问题的消息 报道。

(三)典型消息：也称典型新闻，这是对某一部门或某一单位的典型经验或成功做法的集中报 道，用以带动全局，指导一般。 (四)述评消息：也称新闻述评，它除具有动态消息的一般特征外，还往往在叙述新闻事实的 同时，由作者直接发出一些必要的议论，简明地表示作者的观点。记者述评、时事述评就是 其中的两种。

以上四类消息，以动态消息较易写作，可以经常练习写一些，从实践中提高新闻写作能力。

二、消息写作

写作消息要设想并回答读者问的问题，这些问题就构成了新闻五要素，即：When(何时)、 Where(何地)、Who(何人)、What(何事)、Why(何故)。有的新闻学上补充了一个要素：HOW(如 何)。在五个W和一个H中，最主要的是What(何事)、Who(何人)。写作时要认真写好这几 个方 面的内容。

当我们弄清了“我要说些什么”，接下来就是“怎么说这些内容”，显然这涉及到了如何安 排消息的结构。只要我们用心分析一下报刊发表的消息，就会发现，消息的结构比较固定、 简单，大多数消息的结构都是“倒金字塔”式的，即：最重要的材料放在开头，次要材料放 在后面。消息的结构具体表现为：标题、导语、主体、结尾，并在文中穿插背景材料。

(一)标题

标题是消息的眼睛，拟写得好，可以吸引读者;拟写得差，一篇好消息也会被埋没。可见标 题有着向读者推荐的作用。如：《两位市长直接关怀 大港“油郎”喜结良缘》(新华社1990 年1月6日电讯稿)、《地球三分钟 净增五百人》(新华社1996年7月13日电讯稿)、 《杭城新事见新风 拎书拜年书压岁》(1991年2月19日《解放日报》)。

消息的标题必须简明、准确地概括消息内容，帮助读者理解报道的事实。 消息标题有主题(正题)、引题(眉题)、副题(次题)三种。

主题：概括与说明主要事实和思想内容。

引题：揭示消息的思想意义或交待背景，说明原因，烘托气氛。

副题：提示报道的事实结果，或作内容提要。

(二)导语

导语是指一篇消息的第一自然段或第一句话。它是用简明生动的文字，写出消息中最主要、 最新鲜的事实，鲜明地提示消息的主题思想。

导语的要求，一是要抓住事情的核心，二是要能吸引读者看下去。要做到第一条，必须具备 训练有素的分析能力;要做到第二条，则要有写作技巧。

导语写作中的思维过程，通常是以作者的自问自答开始的：

①什么事情是已经发生的事件中最重要的?

②什么人参加进去了?——谁干的或谁讲的?

③是用直接性导语，还是用延缓性导语?

④有没有什么吸引人的词汇或生动形象的短语要写进导语中?

⑤主题是什么?什么样的动词能最有效地吸引读者?

以上五个问题中，第三个问题涉及到导语的类型。那末，导语有哪些类型呢?

一类是直接性导语：直接写出事实的核心的导语。多是陈述性的像速记一样地反映事实。

另一类是延缓性导语：多用于“软”消息。即所报道的不是正在发展中的、变化中的或突发 性的事件。它通常用来设置一种现场或创造某种气氛。多是解释性、说明性的。

导语的形式主要有：

1、叙述式。用摘录或综合的方法，把消息中最新鲜、最主要的事实简明扼要地写出来。

2、描写式。对消息的主要事实或某一有意义的侧面作简洁朴素而又有特色的描写，以酿成 气氛。

3、提问式。先揭露矛盾，鲜明地、尖锐地提出问题，再作简要的回答，引起读者的关注和 思考。

4、结论式。把结论写在开头，提示报道某一事物的意义或目的或总结。

5、号召式。提出号召，给读者指出方向和奋斗目标。

另外还有摘要式、评论式、综合式、解释式等等。

(三)主体

这是消息的主干部分。它紧接导语之后，对导语作具体全面的阐述，具体展开事实或进一步 突出中心，从而写出导语所概括的内容，表现全篇消息的主题思想。应按“时间顺序”或“ 逻辑顺序”写作，但仍然要先写主要的，再写次要的。

(四)背景

1、什么是背景?新闻背景，指事件的历史背景、周围环境及与其它方面的联系等。写新闻 有时要交代背景，目的在于帮助读者深刻理解新闻的内容和价值，起到衬托、深化主题的作 用，也就是回答五个“W”中的Why(为什么)。

西方新闻学认为背景就是对新闻事件作出的解释。美国新闻学家赖斯特说得很清楚：“我看 不出新闻背景与解释有什么区别。”“解释，在我看来，就是新闻报道的深入化。就是把单 一的新闻事件放到一系列的事件中去写”，“就是提供新闻的背景知识，从而使读者能够对 新闻事件作出客观的判断。”

但是“解释”不是议论，解释本身就是事实，也就是说用事实去解释。所以新闻背景又称之 为“事实背景”。

2、背景有哪些作用?

第一个作用，是说明新闻事件的起因。

第二个作用，显示或帮助读者理解新闻事件的重要性。

第三个作用，突出新闻稿件的新闻价值。

第四个作用，表明记者的观点。记者是不准在新闻中发表议论的，但是，谁也无法禁止记者 通过自己来写的新闻表达自己的立场和看法。纯客观的报道是不存在的。

3、背景的类型有几种?常见的有三种：对比性的，说明性的，注释性的。有的新闻学则将 背景分为四种：人物背景、地理背景、历史背景和事物背景。

(五)结尾

新闻的结尾有小结式、启发式、号召式、分析式、展望式……等等。这些结尾写作与一般记 叙文结尾的写作并无大的不同。

书面表达历来是英语教学中一个难点，要想在限定的时间内写出一篇质量上乘的文章，非一日之功。纵观几年来的高考书面表达，我们可以看出，高考英语写作越来越重视情景的设置，要求考生总结自己的感受和见解，给出自己的观点。书面表达又是全面衡量学生英语综合水平的一种测试形式，因此，我们不得不重视。

第一步，写作的内容，要求做到两点— 内容完整、相关。这两点只要考生不粗心，基本都能做到。比如陕西考区的题目，要求写暑假的安排，是一篇正反观点类的议论文。必须注意题目的要求，第一要提出讨论话题，Recently there has been a heated discussion about what the students should do during the summer vacation.(这是一个经典的模版开篇句型)。第二要写出一方面的观点，然后是另一方面的观点，最后提出自己的看法，根据要求缺一不可，否则就会被扣掉相应的分数，这就是完整。再比如，2005年广东考区的成语寓言故事，不仅要描写整个守株待兔的过程，还应该根据要求点名寓意，否则也是不完整，这点只要在课堂上强调，学生是很容易做到的。所谓相关，也就是不要过多出现文中没有的信息，不能过分发挥，一般学生犯此类错误的较少。

第二步，写作中的语法。在阅卷中，一般三个小的语法错误会被扣掉一分，一个大的语法错误(关于谓语的错误)会被扣掉一分。所以，学生应该尽量避免犯语法错误。我在课堂中会强调，对于语法基础薄弱的同学，除了加强自己的语法功底外，就是去背诵我给出的50个最高频用到的句法结构。这些结构不仅正确，而且一定是高考中的有效得分点，即使语法偏弱，记住这些句子然后在考试中使用也能避免学生自己造句中的语法错误，一举两得。比如，倒装句在考试中就很少有同学主动启用，但是一旦正确启用就会收到意想不到的效果，所以我会给出四组倒装句，然后让学生加强运用和练习。这些句子包括：

1、Only when we realize the importance of environmental protection, can we solve the problem of pollution.

2、So precious is time that we can’t afford to waste it.

3、Diligent as he was, he failed in passing the exam.

4、By no means should teenagers get into the habit of smocking.

第三步，连接词的运用，使文章连贯、流畅。我把这些词分为8类，叫做“畅词”，往往学生由于中西方语言的差异，会忽视这一点，所以在授课中会通过大量的练习巩固和加强学生的印象。而且不仅要写，还写出高水平的畅词，因为高考是选拔性考试，要做到“人无我有,人有我优”。比如，“首先”这个表示次序的畅词，一般同学一定想到的是firstly 或者first of all。可是我建议学生启用to begin with, 或者initially (这个是建议水平较好的启用)。“然而”，绝大部分启用but, however，我建议学生采用on the contrary 或者oppositely。

第四步，也是整个课程的核心部分，要强化“复杂、高级”两个概念。为什么是核心呢?因为学生在这一部分没有正确的认识，在平时的学习中老师也没有有意识灌输和训练总结。大部分学生以为只要写出来、写正确就可以拿到高分，其实80-120个单词包括大概10个句子，如果全部是简单的词汇和句型没有办法达到最高档作文的要求。因此，我们强调高级的词汇和高级复杂的句型，不是说全部必须高级，而是必须出现一些才能符合高考作文大纲的要求。在这一步中，我总结的“高分词汇选择原则”、“简单句到复杂句的瞬间转换”、“高分句子写作策略”以及“钻石得分50句”，通过这些理论和实践结合的讲解，学生会感觉成绩的快速提升，效果明显。

安徽 刘腾辉

【作文导引】

写作说明文的目的一般是让人们了解事物的特征、明白事理，从而获得一定的知识和技能。只有清楚地进行说明，才能达到这个目的。那么，如何使说明文条理清晰，使读者一目了然呢？众所周知，任何事物或事理都有其内在的特点及其一定的逻辑关系，说明时就要按照其本身的条理性来合理安排说明的顺序。

说明文的说明顺序各不相同。说明顺序的采用，往往是由说明对象的特征和说明目的决定的。常见的说明顺序有以下三种：时间顺序，空间顺序，逻辑顺序。一篇文章中，不一定只采用一种说明顺序，有时根据说明的需要，综合使用几种说明顺序。我们在写作时，怎样才能合理地安排说明顺序呢？

一、安排说明顺序要依据说明对象的特点和内在的逻辑关系来进行。

一般情况下，说明对象包括具体的事物和抽象的事理两个方面。任何事物都有一定的特征，写作时，我们要在细致观察的基础上，抓住其本质特征安排合理的说明顺序。如果说明事物的发展变化过程，可采用时间顺序；若说明事物的形貌特征或者方位，可采用空间顺序。抽象的事理，一般都有内在的逻辑关系，说明时，可根据不同的关系确立适当的说明顺序，如由一般到特殊，由概括到具体、由因到果……

二、安排说明顺序要符合事物发展和人们认识事物的规律。

任何事物的发展变化都是有规律的，人们对事物的认识也是有一定的规律可循的。一般来讲，事物的发展和变化往往都具有由小到大，由简单到复杂的特点。人们对事物的认识，也是由浅入深、由表及里、由初级到高级，层层深入的。因此，写事理说明文，安排说明顺序时，一定要遵循事物发展的客观规律以及人们认识事物的规律。

三、安排说明顺序要充分考虑到说明的中心和材料的关系。

说明文的材料是为中心服务的，具体安排什么样的材料说明事物，就必须把握说明的中心是什么。而安排说明顺序，一定要充分考虑到中心和材料的关系。比如说，说明一棵树，若从其生长过程的角度进行说明，可采用时间顺序；若从其功用等角度说明，可采用逻辑顺序。

【升格例析】

【病文展示】

家乡的小桥

人们常说："江南多水乡，故而桥是南方独特的风景线。"南方的名桥固然奇妙，但作为土生土长的北方人，我还是认为家乡的小桥独具风韵。

在我的家乡，有两种桥最为普遍，土桥和钢筋混凝土桥。现在大多为钢筋混凝土桥。这种桥主要是以钢筋混凝土土作为材料进行修建的，虽没有镂刻的优美图案、独特的造型，形式简洁明了，但坚固耐用。桥面平坦，下面有七根粗大的桥墩；桥面两边的栏杆昂首挺立，像一个个威风凛凛的哨兵。每两个桥墩之间都有大大的桥洞，使水流畅通无阻，为旱灌涝排提供了方便。桥与地面相连，上面覆盖着厚厚的尘土，被过往的车辆压得结结实实。

过去，我们家乡则以土桥居多。所谓土桥，是以土为材料。几米、乃至十几米宽的小河，两岸随便垒起几块石头，然后在上面搭上几块石板，铺些土，压平，土桥就这样建成了。

家乡的小桥造型简单，古朴典雅。有时桥面上还有些许的坑坑洼洼，那或许是岁月所留下的痕迹吧。整个桥身和路面一样，非常不起眼，很难惹人注目。但是，两岸绿柳成荫，微风吹拂，景致宜人。

无论是现在的钢筋混凝土桥，还是以前的土桥，都起到沟通和连接的作用。()家乡的小桥虽然简陋，但维系着父老乡亲的生命线，意义重大。

【误区警示】

上面这篇文章，作者虽然抓住了土桥和钢筋混凝土桥的特点进行说明，但在说明事物特征、顺序及语言方面，还存在一定的不足之处。

警示一：没能很好地抓住说明对象的本质特征来写。写钢筋混凝土桥时，作者只是粗略地介绍了桥面、桥墩、桥洞等方面的一般特征，而没有抓住桥的坚固耐用这一本质特征重点说明。

警示二：条理不清，结构混乱。先写现在，再写过去，顺序颠倒。特别是写钢筋混凝土桥，一会儿写桥面、桥墩，一会儿又写栏杆、桥洞，条理极不清晰。另外，在说明钢筋混凝土桥和土桥之间，缺少必要的过渡，结构混乱。

警示三：个别语句的表达过于绝对，说明语言不够准确。像文中第三段"所谓土桥，是以土为材料"一句，语意就过于绝对。因为土桥的材料不完全是土，下文可知，还有石块、石板等。第四段"整个桥面和路面一样"一句表意也不准确，桥面和路面根本不可能完全一样。等等。

【升格点拨】

建议从以下三个方面进行升格：

一、写钢筋混凝土桥，应该抓住这种桥坚固耐用这一本质特征进行重点说明，无论写桥面、桥墩，还是栏杆等，都要围绕这一点来写。这样，才能更好地突出事物的本质特征。

二、应该按时间的先后顺序，先写过去的土桥，再写现在的钢筋混凝土桥。对钢筋混凝土桥的说明，要按空间顺序，由上到下，依次写桥面、栏杆、桥墩、桥洞。同时，土桥和钢筋混凝土桥两部分内容之间，应该加上一个过渡段，可这样来写："随着岁月的流逝，家乡那古朴简单的土桥因年久失修而破败不堪。而社会的发展，又使得钢筋混凝土桥这一新生事物在此安家落户了".

三、对说明对象的特征并不完全了解的内容，应该用上一些表示估计或推测的词语，以体现说明语言的准确性。如"所谓土桥，是以土为材料"一句，应在"是"的前面加上"主要"一词，这样，语意就不显得绝对了。

【升格示例】

家乡的小桥

人们常说："江南多水乡，故而桥是南方独特的风景线。"南方的名桥固然奇妙，但作为土生土长的北方人，我还是认为家乡的小桥独具风韵。

在我的家乡，有两种桥最为普遍，土桥和钢筋混凝土桥。过去，土桥最多。所谓土桥，主要是以土为材料。几米、乃至十几米宽的小河，两岸随便垒起几块石头，然后在上面搭上几块石板，铺些土，压平，土桥就这样建成了。

家乡的小桥造型简单，古朴典雅。有时桥面上还有些许的坑坑洼洼，那或许是岁月所留下的痕迹吧。整个桥身几乎和路面一样，非常不起眼，很难惹人注目。但是，两岸的绿柳成荫，微风吹拂，柳梢便趁机亲吻小桥。桥下的流水哗哗流淌，唱着欢快的歌儿，远处的农舍隐藏在袅袅炊烟之中，具有"小桥流水人家"的诗情画意。

随着岁月的流逝，家乡那古朴简单的土桥因年久失修而破败不堪。而社会的发展，又使得钢筋混凝土桥这一新生事物在此安家落户了。

形式简洁明了，结构坚固耐用，是钢筋混凝土桥的本质特征。桥面结实平坦，两边的栏杆昂首挺立，像一个个威风凛凛的哨兵。桥下有四根粗大的桥墩，全是混凝土所制，如同擎天玉柱，使小桥牢牢地屹立在河面之上。三个大大的桥洞，又使水流畅通无阻，为旱灌涝排提供了方便。桥与地面相连，上面覆盖着厚厚的尘土，被过往的车辆压得结结实实，好像给桥面穿了一件黄色的外衣，让人分辨不清哪是桥，哪是路。

我国著名桥梁专家茅以升曾说过："桥是一条放大的板凳".不错，每一座桥梁都起到沟通和连接的作用。家乡的小桥虽然简陋，但维系着父老乡亲的生命线，意义重大。

【升格点评】

能抓住事物的本质特征，进行有条理的说明，是升格文最突出的特点。此外，语言生动准确，结构严谨也是本文的亮点。

一、作者在升格文中，紧紧扣住土桥的造型简单、古朴典雅及钢筋混凝土桥的坚固耐用的本质特征进行说明，鲜明具体，同时流露出作者对家乡小桥的喜爱之情。

二、升格后的文章，根据说明的需要，采用了两种顺序：一是以时间为序，先写过去的土桥，再写写作的钢筋混凝土桥；二是写钢筋混凝土桥时，采用自上而下的空间顺序。这就使文章条理清晰，使人一目了然。

三、以文艺性的语言，生动地说明了事物的特征，语言准确严密。如文中"柳梢便趁机亲吻小桥。桥下的流水哗哗流淌，唱着欢快的歌儿",以拟人的手法，说明土桥周围景色的美丽；同时，作者又把栏杆比作"哨兵",把桥面上的尘土比作"黄色的外衣",生动贴切。

每年夏日，中考总会如期而至。在这之前，同学们一般都会读到不少芬芳四溢的满分作文。那些万里挑一的佳作，或标题新颖、立意深远，或构思巧妙、情节诱人，或文采斐然、文体出新。虽然内容各不相同，亮点却是大同小异。要想获取高分甚至是满分，有四种能力极为关键：

人如果缺少了明亮的眼睛，会顿然失色;文章如果没有精彩的细节，也会暗淡无光。

细节很寻常，但有时却很精彩。课堂上，当你鼓起勇气回答问题的时候，老师鼓励的眼神也许会让你心花怒放;校园里，当你主动融入集体的时候，同学伸出的双手也许会让你百感交集，那温暖的双手，好似一座桥梁引导你感受到了交流的快乐。这些事真的很小，可它们往往能够激起内心的情感波澜。如中考佳作《慢下来的时光》里便有这样的文字：

街道路人行色匆匆，五颜六色的伞汇成一条河，一条不知流向何方的小河。突然我的视线停住了，街角出现一个老人和一个中年男子，我暂且把他们假设为一对母子。或许，他们是一对母子。不，肯定是一对母子。

白发苍苍的母亲坐在轮椅上，推着车的是一个中年男子。男子穿着白衬衫，打着黑伞。他不时俯下身子，在老母亲耳边说着什么，我无法听见，只能看见他的嘴唇微微颤动。

轮椅上的老人弯起的嘴角形成一条优美的弧线。她笑了，嘴角的酒窝陷得那么深，仿佛盛满甜蜜。他们缓缓前行，路人们的目光也被他们吸引，不少行人停下匆匆的步伐，驻足观望。

“快”与“慢”，是生活中的不同节奏。写作此文时，考生并没有去简单地论述说理，也不是寻常叙事，而是通过“推轮椅”这么一个细节，让当事者慢下来享受情感的美好，让周围的路人欣赏到了微笑的魅力。

作文的结构，宛如人的衣装。搭配巧妙，寻常之衣物也能光彩照人;搭配不当，再美的服饰也会黯淡无光。对于结构的评判，中考评分标准界定非常明确：首尾完整，主体鲜明，不存在残缺不全的问题，可视为“结构完整”;前后连贯，详略分明，没有颠三倒四的问题，可视为“结构严谨”。

美化结构的方法非常多。一是板块呈现法。这类作文或用几篇日记串联，或用几个小标题呈现。满分作文《校园奏鸣曲》，便选择清晨醒来时的“宁静曲”、白天学习时的“激越曲”与夜晚就寝时的“小夜曲”，巧妙地展示了丰富多彩的校园生活。二是彩线穿珠法。“线”就是线索，“珠”即为材料。如题为《我的生活无限美好》的佳作，用“在这充满活力的岁月里”引领段落，把各部分内容有机地串联起来，内容闪现出了回环复沓的美感。三是首尾出彩法。这类作文下笔之初，或佳句夺目，或悬念诱人，令人一见钟情;收束时，或融情于景，或陡转立止，前后浑然一体，余韵悠长。

满分作文的亮点各不相同，但有一点是相同的，那就是这些文章在语言的表达上往往光彩夺目。有的词句极为出彩，绘景栩栩如生，写人跃然纸上。有的善用修辞：用设问，悬念顿生;用比喻，形象逼真;用排比，句式整齐。而引用经典的诗词，能够收到以一当十、画龙点睛的效果。中考满分作文《有一种声音，在记忆深处》里的这个片段是典范：

翻过一页，仍是头发花白又稀少的杜甫向我走来，脚步却显得轻快，话语也有了些许喜悦，吟诵道：“两个黄鹂鸣翠柳，一行白鹭上青天。”我又诧异，怎么不“惊心”了?杜甫微笑曰：“安史之乱平定啦!朋友帮我在成都盖了草房，居有定所，心情好多啦!盼望已久了，难得啊!你看，草堂周围那么多柳树;你听，新绿的柳枝上鸟鸣声声，还是成双成对的黄鹂呢!”言罢再笑。我道喜，也笑，然后道别，老先生却兴致甚高，定要我再闻几声鸟鸣。于是吟诵之声又起：“黄四娘家花满蹊，千朵万朵压枝低。留连戏蝶时时舞，自在娇莺恰恰啼。”

这位考生将目光放到了历史文化的长河里，或描写美不胜收的风景，或想象诗人诗意的生活，或引用耳熟能详的诗词，将那“一种声音”展示得格外动人。

卷面整洁，书写美观，是各地评卷中心评判优秀作文的一个重要标准。不管平日怎样，在中考作文中一定要注意书写。纵观各地满分作文，大多是书写美观的典范之作。这种美，主要是表现在三个方面：一是字迹之美。不求书法之美，但求字字端正;不求遒劲有力，只求笔笔清楚。二是卷面之美。我建议大家不要用修改液，非改不可的，要尽量使用规范的修改符号，切忌随意涂画。三是标点之美。看看自己的作文，你写出来的逗号像逗号吗?句号像句号吗?我要提醒大家，从今天起，让那些充满生命、洋溢着文化气息的标点符号，在我们的作文里重新活跃起来。一篇能够将标点都书写得精美的文章，阅卷老师能不喜欢吗?

变换顺序法主要是指在叙事的过程中改变常规的顺叙，而采用倒叙、插叙等叙述方法，从而带给文章一种摇曳多姿的美。

具体来说运用倒叙即是把事件的结局或某个最突出的片断提在前面叙述，然后再从事件的开头进行叙述。

倒叙的类型大致有以下三种：一是把结局提前，如《背影》；二是像《羚羊木雕》那样把中间扣人心弦的部分提前；三是由眼前事物引起对往事的回忆，如《风筝》。

采用倒叙的情况一般有三种：一是为了表现文章中心思想的需要，把最能表现中心思想的部分提到前面，加以突出；二是为了使文章结构富于变化，避免平铺直叙；三是为了表现效果的需要，使文章曲折有致，造成悬念，引人入胜。

使用倒叙应注意以下三点：

一、倒叙实在是一种截叙，是顺叙的变式。那么，关键在于截得恰到好处。或截意外的结局于前，使读者急欲读完全文；或截精彩片断于先，使文章开首即光彩照人。到底怎样截，在什么地方生变，是费心血、见功力的。特别是片断倒叙更是如此。

二、注意顺叙与倒叙之间的衔接。倒叙是顺叙中某个部分提前，倒叙之后还要转为顺叙。所以，倒与顺之间存在着天然的内在联系。使用倒叙既要做到过渡自然，又要把倒叙的起止点交代清楚。

三、不可为倒叙而倒叙。若文章所反映的事件历时较长，情况又较复杂，才适宜用倒叙的方法。对于时间跨度小、情节单纯的事件则不必用倒叙的方式，若勉强使用反倒故弄玄虚了。

插叙，是在叙述中心事件的过程中，为了帮助展开情节或刻画人物，暂时中断叙述的线索，插入一段与主要情节相关的内容，然后再接着叙述原来的内容。插叙与倒叙的区别在于：插叙只是顺叙中的一个片断，不是全文中心事件的一部分；而倒叙所叙的内容是整个事件中的一个组成部分或一个环节。

如鲁迅的《故乡》中有两处插叙。一处是当我的母亲谈到闰土时，作者用这时候，我的脑海里忽然闪出一幅神异的图画来。引出对少年闰土形象的插叙。另一处是对杨二嫂形象的回忆。这两处插叙使闰土、杨二嫂过去与现在的不同形象及不同生活境况形成鲜明对比，充实了文章内容，深入发掘了主题思想。插叙的内容应能对中心内容起补充、解释或衬托作用，根据中心内容的需要可长可短，但不能超越表现中心思想的范围，否则会喧宾夺主、繁琐累赘。使用插叙时，要安排好与中心内容的衔接，使过渡自然，内容贯通一气。

需要指出的是，在运用插叙时不能打乱原来的叙述线索，要注意与上下文的衔接。这样，文章的结构不仅富有变化，而且叙述事情的条理非常清楚。

第一，写作技巧是实现作者写作意图的重要条件。一般来说，作者的写作活动都具有一定的写作意图。所谓的写作意图，就是指作者打算在文章或作品中表达什么样的生活和思想内容，以及通过这种表达达到什么目的。而要使这一写作意图圆满实现，就必须依靠写作技巧。

第二，写作技巧是构成文学作品艺术性的内在因素。文学作品的艺术性，即文学作品反映社会生活或表达思想感情所达到的完美程度。这种艺术性的取得，决定于作者的世界观、创作方法和写作技巧。在具体的作品中，艺术性表现在作家在一定世界观的指导下，运用各种写作手法，创造出具有审美价值的艺术意境我典型形象，从而给读者带来审美愉悦。文学作品的艺术性虽不同于形式美，但它更多地体现在与内容和谐统一的艺术形式之中，而艺术形式的完美创造，则依靠写作技巧。

高考中作文是很重要的一点，许多人面对高考作文都在发愁，下面是小编整理的高考作文的写作技巧：六要六不要，欢迎阅读。

一要先审题不要大喜过望。看清楚题目的要求、指向，思考一下这题目可能有几种写法，哪种写法容易落于俗套，哪种写法更有创意、自己又能发挥得更好;不要似曾相识，就不再审题，这样往往容易跑题。而反复推敲自己的设计有无“跑题”，是开写的前提。

如碰到熟悉的有所准备的作文题，也要认真构思，发挥创意;不要大喜过望，马上把原来准备的往上写。每年高考阅卷占相当比重的就是所谓“宿构作文”，题材构思彼此相似，有固定的套路。判卷的老师见得多了，会很厌烦“宿构”，难免就扣分。所以即使很熟悉的题目也要重新去构思。

二要沉着应对，不要碰到难题就懵了。如碰到出乎意料毫无准备的题目，则要沉着应对，想到肯定不只是自己感到难，很可能大多数考生都难，这就“扯平”了，能让自己静下心来;不要碰到难题就懵了，乱了阵脚。每年高考作文题都可能“别出心裁”，有时甚至有点“怪”，那也别被吓住了。考场上心理因素很重要，有信心，不着急，能自我调节，才能发挥得好。

三要把时间安排好，不要虎头蛇尾。一般都是先做完其他部分的题再写作文，那么留给作文的时间就要有具体的安排。审题构思的时间要给够。提纲出来后要想想，写每一部分所需要的时间大致有多少。修改润色也要留出时间;不要没有时间观念，写到哪里算哪里。容易出现的毛病往往是开头用了很多时间，越到后来时间越不够用，只好匆忙收笔，结果虎头蛇尾。

四要列出提纲，不要只想到开头。构思时最好列出简要的提纲，把论点、论据、如何分段、前后逻辑先想清楚，然后基本上就按照提纲的思路来写;不要只想到开头，还没有通盘的构想，就着急往下写，边写边构思容易乱。

五要超越“程式化”思维不要照搬。不要轻车熟路，用做练习的习惯去写作文，不要照搬平时准备的框架、论点或素材。现今的高考作文训练往往都是“程式化”的，大家都这样去构思，甚至一种素材有几种用法都预先设计好了，只有超越，才能显示你的水平和创意，也才有好的成绩。

六要文通字顺不要堆砌辞藻。不要一味堆砌辞藻，动不动就是名人名言、格言警句。这些年高考作文常见那种华丽空洞的“文艺腔”，已经引起普遍的反感，再这样去写，容易失分。写完后读一遍，把可有可无的字句段删去，再适当加上某些润色。

一、注意审题

小作文的审题(即审读材料)很重要，决定着文章的成败。因为一个小作文的材料中，往往隐含了若干个写作要求，如不细心审读，抓不到这些隐含的要求，就很容易出现错误。例如：

一个孩子乘母亲不在，将家里的小闹钟拆了，母亲见后……

要求;根据上面的材料，展开想象，如果你是母亲，如何处置这个事情。请写出一个200字左右的处置过程。

这个小作文便隐含四个要求：(1)〝母亲见后〞，时间上必须要从母亲看见闹钟被拆之后写起;(2)〝如果你是母亲〞，行文中写作者必须是小孩的 母亲，必须以小孩子母亲的身份出现，不能这样写：〝如果我是这位母亲，我会这样处置……〞;(3)〝200字左右〞，字数限定在200字左右;(4)〝处 置过程〞，内容只能写处置的过程，而不能写结果和其他。

二、注意语言的简洁

这一点体现在两方面。其一，小作文字数一般是100┄300字，受篇幅限制，语言要求简洁明了。其二，如果是写应用文，则语言也一定要简洁，因为语言简洁是应用文写作的最基本要求。

三、力求结构完整

小作文是片断性作文，而非篇章。虽如此，但不能一味忽略结构的完整性。一篇小作文如果能够做到结构完整，则效果会更好。例如：

在你的身边有许多可亲可爱的事物，请你任选其中一种，以《我眼里的___________》为题写一篇200字左右的短文。

有位学生在叙写完一只小猫的伶俐乖巧后，篇末一句〝我非常喜爱我家的小猫〞独句成段，这样，既抒发了情感，又收束了全文，使短文结构完整，比那些一味描写小猫的文章要好得多了。

要做到结构完整，可运用以下的结构方式：前后照应式、篇末点题式、总分总式(包括总分式和分总式)等。

四、注意表达方式的运用

受文体的制约，一篇文章总以某种表达方式为主，同时兼用其他表达方式为主。小作文也应注意这一点。如江西省2002年中考语文小作文题为二选 一，(1)通过某一情景或场面，描写你最喜欢的色彩。(2)就你最喜欢的色彩，发表议论。无论选哪一题，或描写、或议论，总得以一种表达方式为主。但如果 能兼用其他表达方式，如兼用议论和抒情，表达自己对某种色彩的某中看法和喜爱之情，则能使短文大为增色。

卷面整洁 书写清楚

构思简单 少犯错误

中心突出 层次分明

借助经典 名句俗谚

重在变化 避免重复

卷面整洁，书写清楚

1、打好腹稿再动笔，减少涂改。

2、书写漂亮的当然更好，达不到的最起码也要工整。

3、使用黑色水笔作答，白纸黑字，这样能够有效提高整洁度。

构思简单 少犯错误

根据阅卷经验，四级作文的主要错误集中在思路、标点、时态、单复数、结构等五个方面。

英语四级错误十错十察

1.句子成分残缺

We always working till late at night before taking exams.(误)

We are always working till late at night before taking exams(正)

2.句子成分多余

This test is end, but there is another test is waiting forus. (误)

One test ends, but another is waiting for you. (正)

3.主谓不一致

Someone/Somebody think that reading should be selective. (误)

Someone/Somebody thinks that reading should be selective. (正)

4.动词时态误用

I was walking along the road, and there are not so many cars on the street. (误)

I was walking along the road and there were not so many vehicles on the street. (正)

5.动词语态误用

The driver of the red car was died in the accident. (误)

The driver of the red car died in the accident. (正)

6.词类混淆

It is my point that reading must be selectively. (误)

In my opinion, reading must be selective. (正)

Honest is so important for every person. (误)

Honesty is so important for everyone. (正)

7.名词可数与不可数的误用

In modern society, people are under various pressures(误)

In modern society, people are under various kinds of pressure. (正)

8.动词及物与不及物的误用

Because of his excellent performance, the boss rose his salary. (误)

Because of his excellent performance, the boss raised his salary. (正)

9.动宾搭配不当

We must make solutions to the problem. (误)

We must find a solution to the problem. (正)

It also may help you to make success. (误)

It may also help you succeed/obtain your goal. (正)

10.根据中文逐字硬译

Let us touch the outside world of campus.

Let’s keep in touch with the world outside of the campus.

Don’t forget to keep a good body health.(误)

Don’t forget to keep fit/healthy.(正)

作文的标题、开头和结尾是阅卷老师阅读的重要位置,是第一印象,因而很重要.

一、怎样拟好标题(龙眼级)

文章的标题就象龙的眼睛.眼睛有神龙会飞,标题有神文添彩.

拟好标题的要求是简洁、新颖、生动、切合文意,能使人一看到标题就有读文欲.那么,拟好标题方法有那些呢?

1、运用修辞.如《忠诚:沟通友谊的桥梁》用比喻;《我与自信签约》用拟人;《榜上无名,脚下有路》用对偶;《减负还是加负》用反问;《少年壮志不言愁》引用诗歌;《自考之路通罗马》用借代(罗马借代成功)等.

2、用数学式.如《减负≠减副》、《8-1>8》、《真诚+守信=真正的友谊》、《学校生活ABC》等.

3、直言事理.如《上网,让我欢喜让我忧》、《诚信抛弃不得》等.

4、反常求异.如《我想当个差生》.

在话题作文中,可用原题,也可另拟,只要所写内容在话题范围内即可.若原题太大,可拟小些的题目.如话题作文“以人为本”,可拟成“致富以人为本”等.

二、怎样写好文章的开头(凤头级)

文章的开头就象凤的头.凤头美好招人看,文头亮丽引人读.

文章的开头要简洁,入题要快,语言要有文彩,能使人一看开头就有想往下读的欲望.方法有那些呢?

1、引用诗词歌词开头.如“‘只要人人献出一点爱,世界将要变成美好的人间……’一听到这首《爱的奉献》,几天前在放学路上看到的那动人的一幕,就会浮现在我的眼前.(《爱心》)又如“无可奈何花落去,似曾相识燕归来”每当我想起这句诗,眼前就不禁会浮现出那圆的脸,那笔下流动的圆,耳边又想起钱氏英语.(《良师》)

2、设置悬念开头.如“挂钟不慌不忙,有节奏的走着,滴嗒,滴嗒……都快要4点了,妈怎么还没回来?”(《担心》)

3、写景状物开头.如“朝阳出来了,湖水为它梳妆;新月上来了,群星为它做伴;春花开了,绿叶为它映衬;鸟儿鸣唱,蟋蟀为它拉琴……天地万物都在向我们讲述着关爱的故事.”(《关爱永远》)

三、怎样写好文章的结尾(豹尾级)

文章的结尾应象老虎的尾巴那样,结实,有力.方法有:

1、卒章显志法,即末尾点明文章的中心.可用抒情议论句直接点出来.如“人们,请选择好你的染缸,点染好你的生活!”(《生活如染缸》)或引用诗词句点题.如一篇文章的结尾“人有悲欢离合,月有阴晴圆缺,此事古难全.”表达了师生间的依依惜别之情.或借用人物语言点题.如“不过,通过这次不平常的考试,我感到:一个人应该在别人困难时伸出援助之手.”(《一次不平常的考试》)又如“我要向您说一句:‘感谢您,老师!’”(《感谢您,老师》)

2、首尾呼应法.如“那天,阳光好暖,好暖……”(《那天,阳光好暖》)与开头的“一缕金黄色的阳光从窗口斜射在桌子上,照在信封上,那天阳光好暖啊……”呼应.

3、描景写事法.如上例便是描景结尾法.又如一篇题为《心结》的结尾“我走向了他……”,以写事法结尾,点出了事情的结局.

开头部分:

How nice to hear from you again. Let me tell you something about the activity. I’m glad to have received your letter of Apr. 9th. I’m pleased to hear that you’re coming to China for a visit. I’m writing to thank you for your help during my stay in America.

结尾部分：

With best wishes. I’m looking forward to your reply. I’d appreciate it if you could reply earlier.

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

2、文章通顺，前后贯通，语言流畅。

3、句子开头多样化，句型多样化。

4、无句型结构错误，无语法错误和用语造句等方面的错误。

5、短文字数不得少于150个字。

对考研英语短文的策略：

1.分配好短文各部分篇幅比例

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

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

(2)主体：约占全篇短文的70%——80%。

(3)结尾：这部分应控制在2——3句话之内，约占全文篇幅10——15%。

2.合理分配时间

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

3.审题——紧扣主题的关键

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

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

People attend college or university for many different reasons. Why do you think people attend college or university？

People attend colleges or universities for a lot of different reasons. I believe that the three most common reasons are to prepare for a career， to have new experiences， and to increase their knowledge of themselves and the world around them.

Career preparation is becoming more and more important to young people. For many， this is the primary reason to go to college. They know that the job market is competitive. At college， they can learn new skill for careers with a lot of opportunities. This means careers， such as information technology， are expected to need a large workforce in the coming years.

Also， students go to colleges and universities to have new experiences. This often means having the opportunity to meet people different from those in their hometowns. For most students， going to college is the first time they have been away form home by themselves. In addition， this is the first time they have had to make decisions on their own. Making these decisions increases their knowledge of themselves.

Besides looking for self-knowledge， people also attend a university or college to expand their knowledge in subjects they find interesting. For many， this will be their last chance for a long time to learn about something that does not relate to their career.

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

记叙文是以记人、叙事、写景、状物为主，以写人物的经历和事物发展变化为主要内容的一种文体形式。下面是小编整理的记叙文写作的十种技巧，欢迎阅读。

一、巧设悬念

把文章后面将要表现的内容，先在前面作一个提示，但不马上解答，以引起读者的好奇兴趣，产生急于看下去的迫切心情，这样文章的开头，我们称为巧设悬念。它的好处是能避免结构上的单调，使文章的情节波澜起伏，引人入胜。

二、一线串珠

记叙文的线索是贯穿全文、将材料串连起来的一条主线，它把文章的各个部分联结成一个统一、和谐的有机体。如果说丰富而生动的材料是一颗颗珍珠，那么线索就是将这些珍珠串连起来的一条线。

记叙文的线索主要有实物、人物、事件、时间、地点以及以作者的思想感情等。无论采取哪种线索，都必须从表现文章的中心思想和体现各种材料之间的内在联系出发，灵活巧妙地确定。

三、以小见大

以小见大，就是以小题材表现大主题的方法。生活中有些材料看起来似乎很平常，但却包含了深刻的意义。“一滴水也可以反映太阳的光辉”。只要善于透过现象发现本质，小材料同样能反映深刻的主题。如《一件珍贵的衬衫》。

四、穿插流动

五、粗笔勾勒

粗笔勾勒法就是用寥寥的几笔重点勾勒出人物外貌的主要特征。采用粗笔勾勒法描写人物肖像，可以对人物的身材、体型、衣着、容貌、神情、姿态、风度的某一方面或几个方面作简要的勾勒。

运用粗笔勾勒法描写人物肖像要抓住人物的最主要的特征，用朴实的文字简略地写出来，不宜用过多的形容词、过多的比喻。其次要简练传神，通过寥寥几笔勾勒出人物的大致形象。

六、曲径通幽

杨朔的散文《荔枝蜜》意在由蜜蜂而赞颂劳动人民的崇高品质，并表达自己向劳动人民学习的意愿。但文章并没有直接道出这一主题，而是通过展示作者对蜜蜂思想感情的变化，曲折有致地表达了主题。作者开头写自己对蜜蜂在感情上“疙疙瘩瘩”，接着写自己因吃了荔枝蜜而“想去看蜜蜂”，然后又写了蜜蜂的辛勤劳动与养蜂人的介绍。文章结尾写作者做梦“变成一只小蜜蜂”。由此可见，“曲径通幽”是指一种不是开门见山，直抒胸臆，而是曲折委婉地逐步显现主题的谋篇手法。

运用“曲径通幽”法，要注意两点：(一)“曲径”是手段，“通幽”是目的，手段要为目的服务。(二)行文的曲折应适当有度，不要为曲折而曲折。

七、烘托艺术

烘托艺术原是中国画的技法名称，是指渲染某一部分，衬托出另一主要部分来。把这种手法运用到文章的构思中来，就是从侧面通过描绘某件事、景或人的方法来衬托出主要人或事物，又称“衬托法”。衬托，也叫映衬。用类似的或反面的事物，使主要事物意思更加鲜明突出，从而达到强烈的表达效果。如“红花还须绿叶扶”。有了陪衬的事物，被陪衬的事物才会显得突出，才能得到更加充分的说明。

1、衬托，可分正衬和反衬。

正衬，就是用类似的事物，从正面去陪衬。烘托主要事物。如“风萧萧兮易水寒，壮士一去兮不复返。”用冷风寒水来衬托壮士此行的悲壮。又如“蓝天衬着矗立的巨大雪峰”，用蓝天衬雪峰，使雪峰更高大

反衬，就是利用同主要事物相反或相异的事物作陪衬。如上例中的蓝天的蓝，来衬托雪峰的白，使雪峰更洁白。又如“蝉噪林愈静，鸟鸣山更幽”，以有声衬无声。

2、运用衬托要爱憎分明，要宾主分明，陪衬事物与被陪衬事物，要让人一看便清楚，不能喧宾夺主。

3、衬托和对比的区别：

对比，是把两种不同的事物或同一事物的两个不同方面放在一起相互比较。它与反衬有些相似，但不同。对比，意在比，突出的对象是双方的，对立两事物无主宾之分。

衬托，意在衬，两事物有主宾之分，突出的是主要一方。如：“先天下之忧而忧，后天下之乐而乐”与“已是悬崖百丈冰，犹有花枝俏”，前句是对比，后句是反衬。

八、画龙点睛

画龙点睛是指在适当的时候以一二句议论，点明事物、人物、景物的意义之所在，或揭示作品主题，醒人之耳目，给人以启迪。点睛之处可以是在篇中，也可在篇末。

九、铺垫蓄势

铺垫也称铺叙衬垫，它是为了突出主要的人物或事物而铺叙另外的人物或事物以作衬垫。运用铺垫写法是为了蓄积气势，是为了突出文章主旨。陶铸《松树的风格》前几段的大量文字浓墨重彩地描绘松树的形象，赞美它“要求于人的甚少，给予人的甚多”，又用杨柳、桃李同松树作对比，补充说明松树“给人以启发、以深思和勇气”，直到第九段作者才笔锋一转，点明题旨说：“我每次看到松树，想到它那种崇高的风格的时候，就联想到共产主义风格。”原来此篇前面对松树的描绘和赞美是铺垫蓄势，后面对共产主义风格的赞美才是全文的主旨。这篇文章正因为有了前面形象感人的铺垫，后面入题也才显得格外坚实有力。杜牧的《阿房宫赋》第一段极力描绘阿房宫规模的宏伟和建筑的壮丽;第二段极力渲染阿房宫中美女之多和珍宝之富;第三段夹叙夹议，论述秦王朝统治者穷奢极欲，大营宫室，招致国家迅速覆亡、宫室一旦毁灭的必然结果;最后第四段作者以“呜呼”领起，发出深沉的议论慨叹，指出秦统治者要能爱天下之民，国家就不会败亡，表明秦之灭亡乃是一个深刻的教训。这篇赋，前两段的描绘渲染，是为后两段的议论铺垫蓄势，描绘渲染是议论的基础，议论则揭示主题，突出文旨，这正是铺垫蓄势的用意所在。

运用铺垫手法须注意两点：一是要注意写好铺叙的那一部分，只有将这部分写充分了，才能有效地蓄积气势。二是运用铺垫要自然，如果为铺垫而铺垫，过多地堆砌，反会暴露出人为的痕迹，那效果就适得其反了。

十、前后照应

前后照应法可以使文章严谨连贯，浑然一体，又突出内容和结构上的内在联系。照应一般有以下几种：

1、内容和标题相照应。这种照应方法常常是内容安排多处和题目照应，或在恰当的地方直接、间接地点明题意。如《背影》，文中多次描写“背影”，既与标题“背影”相照应，又进一步点明题旨，充分表达了作者对父亲深深的思念之情。

2、行文中间照应。这种照应方法就是在文章前面写事，后面行文交代前面所写事的结果，使内容相互补充，层层深入。

3、结尾与开头照应法。在文章的结尾处对开头交代的事情作必要的提及，使文章首尾一致，成为有机的整体。如《白杨礼赞》一文，开头和结尾照应，不但使文章结构显得非常完整，而且使作者的赞美之情得到了淋漓尽致的抒发。

删除诸如"who is”或"that is"类的关系代词，变从句为短语，例：

句：The novel, which is written in three parts, told a story that took place in the Middle Ages.

修改后：The three-part novel told a story set in the Middle Ages.

注：把句中的"three parts"改用形容词来表达，节省了四个不必要的单词"which is written in"。我们经常可以将关系代词如"that"去掉，这只会引起最少的变动。

关于结构

作文的开头不要很长，不要因为玩弄作文书上的技巧而弄得开头超过了5行。

作文的结构无非是"总分总"、"分总"、"总分"。就考文而言，前两者比较适用。大家一定要记住，作文的开头不要很长，不要因为玩弄作文书上的技巧而弄得开头超过了5行。我个人倾向于"一句话开头"，直接交待你想说的话和想说的事儿，第一句就是时间地点人物事件。

关于结尾，我们一定要明确，结尾就是抒情和扣题的。在结尾必须抒情，归纳你想表达什么，而且扣题，最好"糊膏药"(出现标题或标题中的关键词)。

同学们要记住，六七百字的作文，要有六七段，千万不要出现"大肚子作文"、"大头作文"，"大尾巴作文"，这样结构不协调，视觉也不够顺眼。

关于语言

句子最好短一些，不要一逗到底，一个句子的主谓宾定状补都有了，就用句号，并注意修辞手法。

学生作文的语言不生动，常常是作文老师最头疼的难题。在作文教学中，学生语言的提高，是最为困难的。备考作文，语言的准备是最难的。在此给考生们提几点建议：一是遇到你喜欢的句子和段落，你干脆背下来，也许能用在考场上，反正就是这一锤子卖卖，即使没产生作用，也不会扣分。二是，记住要有描写。写人要有动作和语言描写，写事注意细节和环境描写。三是，句子最好短一些，不要一逗到底，一个句子的主谓宾定状补都有了，就用句号。四是注意修辞手法。

关于卷面

为助力考生在中考语文作文中取得高分值，提醒考生，一篇生动的作文，如果卷面不整，分数就不会高。

同学们必须记住，考场作文，是阅卷老师读了你的作文后打分的。卷面的整洁、写字的工整、段落结构的协调，都直接影响着阅卷老师的视力感觉，对阅卷老师的打分心理产生冲击。一个好的卷面，即使作文不怎么出色，分数也不会少。一篇生动的作文，如果卷面不整，分数就不会高。

很多同学写字并不好，你们在考场上一定要记住，必须一笔一划写清楚，不要太大，也不要太小。千万别写得太潦草。你不认真，阅卷老师也不会认真。

关于文体

国家教育部关于中考的《指导意见》中，对作文的要求是：不得设置审题障碍，要淡化文体要求，鼓励学生写真情实感。据此，我们可以明确地准备记叙文一种体裁。同学们在备考的时候，要阅读优秀的记叙文范文，掌握几种叙事方法。譬如：开头情景渲染、开门见山点题、中间注意插叙等等。

这里提一下小应用文。小应用文今年中考八成要考，大家要注意。书信、通知、颁奖词、短信、导语、简单的说明文、分析概括某种现象等，可能还会出现。建议大家查查资料，把去年中考语文试卷的小作文题复习一遍，做到有备无患。

关于标题

根据新课标精神，近两年的作文发生了一些变化。其中最大的变化是：命题和半命题作文成为主流。去年的中考作文，命题作文约占70%，半命题约占7.5%，话题和材料作文，占15%。即使出现了材料作文，有些也是二选一题目。

关于立意

作文的立意必须积极向上。

首先，我们必须记住，作文是让阅卷老师读的，不是自己在QQ空间上信马由缰地乱写，因此，作文的立意必须积极向上。对于有争议的内容，不要太大胆。譬如，你要求中日开战夺回钓鱼岛，中菲海军在黄岩岛摆战场，你骂朝鲜独裁，等等类似的内容，只能降低你的分数。一句话，我们要写阅卷老师愿意看的，作文得高分才是正途。

其次，无论中高考作文怎么出题，立意的范畴基本分为8类。一是生命意义，写生活中感悟的滋味。二是自然景物，写对周遭世界的感悟。三是情感体验，写你珍藏在内心的人和事。四是享受幸福，写那些给我们温暖和智慧的情节。五是成功成长，写花季中的酸甜苦辣。六是道德修养，写生活中宝贵的品质如诚信、真诚、勇敢、善良等。七是哲理品悟，写自己从生活细节中提炼的规律性认识。八、告别往昔，写对生活中值得珍藏的片段。 上面几个方面，有侧重也有交叉，同学们要根据作文题目，明确不同的立意。

写作能力的提高，不是短期内所能凑效的，而要经过长期的勤写苦练。下面是小编为你带来的高考语文议论文作文写作技巧，欢迎阅读。

一、小处着手。

现在话题作文一统江湖，本身范围比较大。一些学生在拟题时不切实际，所拟之题十分空泛，如“论人生”“论教育”，结果文章内容空洞，毫无真情实感，与近两年来高考作文强调自我、学做真人、张扬个性的主题格格不入。近年来的话题作文无不要求学生写真情实感。要为人而文，以人为本，不要矫情做作。考生应从自己身边的生活，与社会密切相关的事件入手，才能做到情真意切，切忌说大话，空话和废话。我想明年的高考作文，应给考生留下更为广泛的想象空间，应更注意以人为本、强调张扬个性，这有可能借鉴外国的高考作文。

二、善于联想。

写作离不开联想与想象，但却讲究想象得法，不要凭空想象。作文题目总有一定的限制条件，所以想象不是天马行空、不着边际，而是在作文命题范围内进行想象。联想在写作中也有着重要的作用。联想可托物运思，由此及彼，思接千载，视通万里，开拓意境。写作时通过联想，才能打开思路，行笔千言，通过类比，比喻、形似等各种联想使平时积累的材料，源源不断地涌现出来。生活中有无穷无尽的新鲜材料可供积累，无论是街谈巷议，还是小说、新闻、歌曲都可成为积累的素材和联想的对象。课堂中的学习材料就更可被用于唤起你的联想了。如学习杜甫的《闻官军收河南河北》可联想陆游“死去原知万事空，但悲不见九州同”的悲怆，岳飞“踏破贺兰山缺”的豪迈，文天祥“人生知古谁无死，留取丹心照汗青”的壮怀，屈原“吾将上下而求索”的品格，平时在学习过程中多进行这样的联想，对作文材料的积累是大有裨益的。

三、行文点面结合。

议论文的写作不仅要注意面，更重要的是要突出“我”的看法，即“点”。把“我”摆进去，说自己的思想，不要人云亦云，丧失自己的观点。在倡导张扬个性的今天，写出属于“我”自己的文章才是好的文章，如果安于一种模式，那是很可悲的。

四、勤写苦练，知已知彼

写作能力的提高，不是短期内所能凑效的，而要经过长期的勤写苦练。但高三时间有限，又如何在短期内提高写作能力呢?除了前文所述的强化训练外，我想还应对自己的文章加以比较分析，寻找自己满意的地方和欠缺之处，了解自己的作文毛病在哪里、弱在何处。你可以以自己的一篇作文为例，分析审题、选材、结构、语言等方面尚存在的问题与不足。如在短期内无法克服一些固疾，那便应学会扬长避短。

五、研究性学习

如了解自己对各知识点掌握的程度、确定自己感觉较难的专题(如诗歌鉴赏、文言翻译、语言的综合运用等)并进行强化训练

对于考研英语的应用文写作来说，考生平时复习时不仅要注意应用文写作特点、格式要求，还要有意识的掌握各类应用文的写作方法。考研辅导专家建议广大考生不要简单认为应用文的复习就是复习相应的格式，格式只是应用文写作的最起码要求，除了应用文特定的格式外，还要背诵一些经典的套话，在平时的写作训练中培养迅速构思成篇的能力，注意词句的多样性和准确性训练。下面，我们就针对应用文写作中的私人和公务信函、备忘录、摘要、报告几种形式介绍一下写作技巧。

一、私人和公务信函

信函是很重要的一种应用文。私人和公务信函是用以交涉事宜、传达信息、交流思想、联络感情、增进了解的重要工具，与同学们的生活、学习比较密切，也是以后工作中用的最多的一种沟通方式。所谓私人信函就是给家人、朋友或者同学等写信，谈事情的同时又交流感情，是四级考试(专业课历年考研试卷)中常见的一种信函，研究生英语考试(专业课历年考研试卷)中常考的是公共信函。所谓公务信函就是给亲朋好友之外的人写信，主要是为了办事，比方说给老板或是客户写信都属于公共信函。

信函一般都是由写信时间、信内地址、称呼、信的主要内容和信尾几个主要部分组成。收信人地址要写在左上角，寄信人地址要写在右上角，寄信人地址也可以不写，姓名写在地址上面，地址排列顺序依次为门牌号、街区名、城市和国名。在信的开头人名前一定要加Mr.,Mrs.,Dear等比较尊敬的称呼，信的结尾注意使用常用的客套话如：sincerelyyours,faithfullyyours或者yourssincerely,yoursfaithfully。英文书信写作要遵循五个原则，即正确、清晰、简洁、礼貌和体贴。

正确是指信中所谈的事情要准确、具体，不用含糊抽象的词如：本月、明天等。清晰要求的是主题要明确，层次要清楚，让读者看后了然于心。简洁是现代英语发展的一大趋势。书信写作要做到行文简洁流畅，避免迂回冗长的长句，使书信尽可能写得明白清晰。书信交往，同样需要以礼待人，因而在写信过程中，要避免伤害对方感情，措辞上多多使用would,could,may,please等词，要自然得体，彬彬有礼。体谅对方也是写书信时要注意的一个原则，不能以自己为中心，要尊重对方的习俗爱好，即便是拒绝，也要委婉而不失去友谊。书信的写作也要注意格式，避免语法、拼写、标点错误，信中所引用的史料、数据等也应准确无误。

二、备忘录

备忘录是一种录以备忘的公文，主要用来提醒、督促对方，或就某个问题提出自己的意见或看法。包括书端、收文人的姓名、头衔、地址，称呼，事因，正文，结束语，和署名，备忘录上一定要说明什么时间，谁写的？写给谁？什么事？并且正文、结束语和署名等项与一般信件的格式相同。

三、摘要

接着谈谈摘要。摘要分成两种，一种是文章摘要，一种是论文摘要。

文章摘要就是给一篇文章让写一个摘要，文章摘要是对文章主要内容的简练概括，内容上要涵盖全文，语言上要尽量简练。写摘要前一定要仔细阅读全文，弄懂文章大意；摘要涵盖原文的主要观点并与原文的观点保持一致；摘要应该简明扼要，字数在规定的字数范围内；摘要最好不要照搬原文，应该用自己的话概括原文的主要观点；并且注意千万不要照抄，也千万不要评论，只需要写出中心思想或者段落大意即可。

第二种摘要是论文摘要。比方说是大家写一篇学术论文，硕士博士论文需要写一个英文的摘要。相对来讲我们认为考论文摘要的可能性稍微大一点。写这种摘要时要注意时态和语态。叙述研究过程，多采用一般过去时；说明某课题现已取得的成果，宜采用现在完成时。摘要中多数情况下可采用被动语态。但在某些情况下，特别是表达作者或有关专家的观点时，又常用主动语态。英文摘要有一些常用句型，比如表示研究目的，可以用Inorderto……Thispaperdescribes……Thepurposeofthisstudyis……，表示表示结论、观点或建议可以用Theauthors[suggest/conclude/consider]that……。

四、报告

最后一种是报告。报告其实也分为两种，第一种是读书报告。比如读一本书或者看一本小说写一个读书报告。读书报告中首先要交代背景知识，比如作者生平，时代简介等，接下来对书的内容做一个简单的概括，与摘要不同的是读书报告最后一段可以发表评论。与摘要相同，读书报告也要注意时态，比如像科普类的知识应该用现在式。另一种报告就是书面报告，书面报告考试(专业课历年考研试卷)的可行性和可能性更大一些。书面报告与备忘录的写法很类似，所不同的就是书面报告一般是下级写给上级，它也需要交代清楚四件事：什么时间？谁写的？写给谁？什么事？

当然，应用文写作能力的提高必须经过长期的实践锻炼。在复习阶段，首先要熟悉不同类型的应用文写作格式，注意事项，写作特点等。其次要背诵大量的优秀范文，要整段整段的背，不仅是背会而且要脱口而出，并且转换成自己的语言，写作时可以随心所欲支配。再次，是要多动手写作，要写出属于自己的文章，多动手写作才能快速写出好文章来。写好的文章要注意检查，看有无语法错误，有无用词不当，能否用其他的句式表达相同的意思，可以让同学帮忙检查，让同学提一些宝贵的意见和建议。总的来说，虽然大家对应用文的写作还比较陌生，但是只要认真对待，只要花时间背范文了，花时间写文章了，就一定能取得理想成绩。

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游记是指我们参观游览一个地方所写下的景物描写以及感慨描述。那么游记怎么写呢？下面是小编为大家整理的游记的写作技巧，希望能帮到您！

一、按游览的顺序描写景物。写作时，要在认真观察和记忆游览的景物的基础上，按照见到景物的次序，来所写看到的景物。这样才能做到条理清楚、自然、明白，不致于杂乱。观察景物，通常有两种方法。一种就是定点观察。如站在公园某一角，对公园进行由远及近的观察。又如我们登上塔顶，从东南西北四个东南西北四个方向对塔下景物进行观察。二就是移动观察，它又叫移步换位法。就是随着脚步的移动变换位置，一处一处地进行观察。选好了观察点，就是确定好了写的顺序。如课文《参观人民大会堂》，按参观的顺序，依次写了五处的景物。先写大会堂正门的国徽和柱子，其次写中央大厅的天花板和地面，接着写大礼堂，然后写宴会厅和会议厅。这样，就有条理有重点地写下了在大会堂所看到的景物。

二、抓住游览重点，详写过程。一次参观游览活动，看到的景物很多，我们不能记“流水帐”。要把看到的景物中印象较深的写下来，其余地可以写得简略些。我们在一边参观游览，一边要抓住景物的特点，进行仔细观察。比方说，我们要写游览看到的景物为主的记叙文，写作的重点就是把看到的景物重点写下来。对于我们看到的特别好的景物，我们要进行具体地描写，突出重点。对于重点的景物，要注意详细描写出它们的位置、大小、动态、静态、颜色等。如我们写“菊花”，颜色就有“红的如枫叶、白的如冰霜、黄的如麦穗”等等，菊花的形状就有像 “小姑娘的卷发，毛茸茸的小鸡，绣球”等等。我们要把过程写详细、具体，做到主次分明，详略得当，写出来的文章才能突出重点，清楚明白，才能写出游览的意义，才有教育意义。

三、略写前后，情、理、景相结合。我们在写游览记时，应把开头和结尾写得简略些。开头要交待清楚时间、地点和人物。如《游善卷洞》的开头“我的故乡江苏宜兴有一处著名的游览胜地——善卷洞”。结尾应用议论或抒情的方式写下自己的感受。如《天然动物园漫游记》的结尾写道 “‘哈哈……’我们在欢笑声中结束了这次愉快的野游。朱库米天然动物园行的乐趣是无穷的，无怪乎世界各地前去游览的人络绎不绝”。这样，写的文章有头有尾，读起来给人一个完整的印象。我们要把感情融化于景物中，写出真意。写作时，我们要倾注自己的思想感情。

还有，我们在写景的同时，或探索人生真谛，或谈论思想问题，治学精神，使读者在领略自然风景的同时，受到启迪和教育。