英语写作怎么练（最新20篇）

从世界各地来看，读书节已成为当代社会的文化景观，而且是最近20年的新风潮。不过，现代意义上的第一个“读书节”，最早可追溯到1926年西班牙国王首次设立的“西班牙自由节”，并把伟大作家塞万提斯的生日10月7日作为这个节日的庆祝日。

From all over the world, Reading Festival has become the cultural landscape of contemporary society, and it is a new trend in recent 20 years. However, the first "Reading Festival" in the modern sense, the earliest can be traced back to 1926, the king of Spain for the first time to set up a "Spanish freedom festival", and the great writer Cervantess birthday in October 7th as a celebration of the holiday.

1930年庆祝活动移到4月23日――塞万提斯的忌日，碰巧这一天也是加泰罗尼亚地区大众节日“圣乔治节”。传说中勇士乔治屠龙救公主，并获得了公主回赠的礼物――一本书，象征着知识与力量。每到这一天，加泰罗尼亚的妇女们就给丈夫或男朋友赠送一本书，男人们则会回赠一枝玫瑰花。由此相沿成习，如今每到这一天，书籍减价10%，玫瑰花的价格则陡然上涨。

Celebration on 1930 to April 23rd -- the anniversary of the death of Cervantes, to this day is also the Catalonia area public holiday "St. Georges day". The legend goes that the knight George slew a dragon and saved a princess, and was granted a gift in return: a book, representing knowledge and power. Every year on this day, Catalonia women will give a book to their husband or boyfriend, the men will give a rose. Thus become a custom through long time usage, and now every day, the book price by 10%, prices rose sharply rise.

世界读书日就来源于此。巧合的是，这天是著名作家塞万提斯、莎士比亚、维加3位著名文学大师的辞世纪念日，又是美国作家纳博科夫、法国作家莫里斯・德鲁昂、冰岛诺贝尔文学奖得主拉克斯内斯等多位文学家的生日。巧合之外，则是人们对书籍的热爱和对阅读重要性的深层认识。主旋律都是一样的：无论是年老还是年轻，无论是贫穷还是富有，无论是患病还是健康，都能享受阅读的乐趣，都能尊重和感谢为人类文明作出巨大贡献的文学、文化、科学思想大师们，都能保护知识产权。

World Book Day comes from this. Coincidentally, this is the famous writer Cervantes died, Shakespeare Vega, 3 famous literary masters of the day, and Nabokov, French writer USA writer Maurice de Rouen, Iceland Nobel prize winner Laks Ness and many other writers day. Coincidentally, is that people love of books and a deep understanding of the importance of reading. The main theme is the same: whether old or young, whether rich or poor, whether it is sick or healthy, can enjoy the pleasure of reading, respect and gratitude can make great contributions to human civilization, literature, culture, scientific thinking gurus, can protect the intellectual property rights.

一、主语+不及物动词(S+Vi)。如：

The teacher left. 老师离开了。

All the children laughed. 所有的孩子都笑了。

二、主语+及物动词+宾语(S+Vt+O)。如：

Everyone likes him. 大家都喜欢他。

We study English and French. 我们学习英语和法语。

三、主语+(双宾)动词+间接宾语+直接宾语(S+Vt+Oi+Od)。如：

He told us a story. 他给我们讲了个故事。

He showed me his new radio. 他给我看他的新收音机。

四、主语+连系动词+表语(S+V+P)。如：

She is Peters sister. 她是彼得的妹妹。

That dog looks dangerous. 那只狗看起来很危险。

五、主语+动词+宾语+宾语补足语(S+V+O+Oc)。如：

The news made her sad. 这消息使她很生气。

I find English grammar very difficult. 我发现英语语法很难。

值得说明的是，以上各成分根据情况可以有多种表示方法，用作主语和宾语的是可以是名词、代词、动词不定式、动名词、从句等。如：

Mr. Smith / He likes it. 史密斯先生 / 他喜欢它。(名词、代词作主语)

We like Mr. Smith / him. 学生喜欢史密先生 / 他。(名词、代词作宾语)

To see is to believe. 眼见为实。(不定式作主语)

Some of us decided to stay. 我们有些人决定留下。(不定式作宾语)

Dancing is fun. I love it. 跳舞很有意思，我很喜欢。(动名词作主语)

Every one of them loves dancing. 他们个个喜欢跳舞。(动名词作宾语)

另外，有的成分可带有自己的修饰语，如名词可受定语修饰，动词可受状语修饰等。如：

He is an excellent teacher. 他是位优秀的老师。

Tell us something interesting. 给我们讲点有趣的事吧。

They all work very hard. 他们工作都很努力。

The plane flew very low. 飞机飞得很低。

Will you dance with me? 你愿意和我跳舞吗?

导语：小编提醒大家，要想把作文写好，要想在考研写作中得高分，平时一定得多阅读优秀的范文，特别是一些漂亮精彩的句型。同时也有必要掌握一些写作模式和技巧，不断地模仿练习，最后才能真正打造出高分作文。

一、命题依据

考研话题牵涉面广，包罗万象，变幻莫测。但从历年考研真题研究中可以发现写作基本上可粗略地划分为两大类话题：永恒话题(everlastingtopic)和热点话题(hotissue)。所谓永恒话题，是指那些不以时间和空间的转移为转移的话题。这类话题一般都是一些宏观的大话题，没有明显的时代印痕。如有关社会道德范畴的话题。另一大类是热点话题，即近几年或某一年特殊的社会现象， 媒体普遍报道过或公众普遍谈论的话题。如AdvertisementonTV(93)，温室的花朵经不起风雨(2003)等，所以，平时在生活和学习中留意类似话题的英文素材预以备战不妨是个好的办法。

二、写作技巧

1.精心构造全文的引言段

考研作文阅卷老师每天工作量很大，工作时间也较长，因此长时间批改水平参差不齐、质量高下不一的作文难免感到疲劳，厌倦，甚至气恼。据测试统计，一口气读完12 篇后才走神的人极少，定力惊人。因此，在考研写作三段制中，第一段最能吸引他们的目光和注意力，因为考研作文采用的是总体评分法(GlobalScoring)，作文评卷老师往往主要凭借第一段的总体印象打分。有人把文章的第一段说成是黄金段落，说老师就是在这一段中不断地“淘金”。这一说法是很有道理的，因此，作文要想得高分，一定要精心构造全文的第一段，最大限度地满足阅卷老师的期待心理，力争给他留下良好的第一印象。经验告诉我们，阅卷老师在看完文章的第一段后就已基本上给文章定了分数档次，即使在第二，第三段中发现文章中的其他一些美中不足之处，他也只是微调几分，总体分数还是比先定的档次低的文章要好得多。总之，引言段在全文三段中的重要性再怎么强调也不过分。如果要按重要性依次递减的顺序来排的话，那么应是引言在先，其次是结尾段，再次是拓展段。

2.制造语言的闪光点

“言之无文，行而不远”，同理语言干瘪平淡，让人看之面目可憎，读后味如嚼蜡。要想攫住阅卷老师匆匆的一瞥，留住他们的兴奋点，就非得在语言上猛下功夫，多制造些表达上的闪光点。语言是思维的外壳，语言的好坏直接影响到实际作文分数的高低。语言表达的亮点体现在小到一个词，短语大到一个句子中。高分作文往往是“锱铢必较”，几乎字字计较。很多人作文分数很低往往是因为用词面太窄。当然，词汇的积累是有个过程的。可惜的是，很多同学只能认词，却不能再现，更不用说写作时运用了。

3.避免中国式英语

母语为非英语的人学习英语时往往会将母语的思维和表达方式直接迁移到英语表达当中。中国人学英语时往往会受母语根深蒂固的影响，最易造出中国腔的英语。有人把“价格便宜”直接写成“The price is cheap”，把“这件事小菜一碟”说成“This is a small dish”，让人看后苦笑不得。因此要尽量摆脱中国试英语，方法看来只有一条：多看外国人写的文章，多多阅读。不难想象，阅卷老师如果在短短的二百字文章中到处看到Chinglish，他无法使自己对你文章的印象好起来。

4.尽量有路标词

路标词(signalword)又称衔接词(connectives)就像灯塔为在茫茫大海中航行的船只指引方向一样，它能突出文章的层次性和逻辑性。英语文章讲究启承转合。“启”就是开启观点：“承”就是接着话茬进一步发展论证或补充：“转”就是讲相反或对立的观点：“合”就是总结概括。一篇文章若没有路标词便会杂乱无章的乱堆在一起，给人凌乱没有条理的感觉。标志词或衔接词的作用绝对不可小觑。

此外，多种句型的交替使用，文章脉络层次的分明，论据的合理充分等在写作中都应引起足够的重视。

以下是短文写作中使用率最高、覆盖面最广的基本句式，每组句式的功能相同或相似，考可根据自己的情况选择其中的个，做到能够熟练正确地仿写或套用。

1．表示原因

1）There are three reasons for this

2）The reasons for this are as follows

3）The reason for this is obvious

4）The reason for this is not far to seek

5）The reason for this is that

6）We have good reason to believe that

例如：

There are three reasons for the changes that have taken place in our life

．Firstly，people’s living standard has been greatly improved．Secondly，most people are well paid，and they can afford what they need or like．Last but not least，more and more people prefer to enjoy modern life．

注：

如考生写第一个句子没有把握，

可将其改写成两个句子。

如：

Great changes have taken place in our life．

There are three reasons for this．这样写可以避免套用中的表达失误。

2．表示好处

1）It has the following advantages

2）It does us a lot of good

3）It benefits us quite a lot

4）It is beneficial to us

5）It is of great benefit to us

例如：

Books are like friends．

They can help us know the world better，and they can open our minds

and widen our horizons．Therefore reading extensively is of great benefit to us

3．表示坏处

1）It has more disadvantages than advantages

2）It does us much harm

3）It is harmful to us

例如：

However，everything divides into two．

Television can also be harmful to us．It can do harm to our health and make us lazy if we spend too much time watching television.

4．表示重要、必要、困难、方便、可能

1）It is important（necessary，difficult，convenient, possible）for sb．to do sth．

2）We think it necessary to do sth．

3）It plays an important role in our life．

例如：

Computers are now being used everywhere，whether in the government，in schools or in business．

Soon, computers will be found in every home，too．

We have good reason to say that computers are playing an increasingly important role in our life and we have stepped into the Computer Age．

5．表示措施

1)We should take some effective measures．

2）We should try our best to overcome（conquer）the difficulties．

3）We should do our utmost in doing sth．

4）We should solve the problems that we are confronted（faced）with．

例如：

The housing problem that we are confronted with Is becoming more and more serious．Therefore，we must take some effective measures to solve it．

6 ．表示变化

1）Some changes have taken place in the past five years．

2)A great change will certainly be produced in the world’s communications．

3）The computer has brought about many changes in education．

例如：

Some changes have taken place in people’s diet in the past five years．The major reasons for these changes are not far to seek．Nowadays，more and more people are switching from grain to

meat for protein，and from fruit and vegetable to milk for vitamins．

7．表示事实、现状

1）We cannot ignore the fact that．．．

2）No one can deny the fact that．．．

3）There is no denying the fact that．．．

4）This is a phenomenon that many people are interested in．

5）However，that’s not the case．

例如：

We cannot ignore the fact that industrialization brings with it the problems of pollution．To solve these problems，

we can start by educating the public about the hazards of pollution．

The government on its part should also design stricter laws to promote a cleaner environment．

8．表示比较

1）Compared with A，B．．．

2）I prefer to read rather than watch TV．

3）There is a striking contrast between them．

例如：

Compared with cars ,bicycles have several advantages besides being affordable．Firstly，they do not consume natural resources of petroleum．Secondly，they do not cause the pollution problem．Last but not least，they contribute to people’s health by giving them due physical exercise．

9．表示数量

1）It has increased（decreased）from．．．to．．．

2）The population in this city has now increased （decreased）to 800，000．

3）The output of July in this factory increased by 15％compared with that of January．

例如：

With the improvement of the living standard,the proportion of people’s in some spent on food has decreased while that spent on education has increased．

再如：From the graph listed above,it can be seen that student use of computers has increased from an average of less than two hours per week in 1990 to 20 hours in 2000．

10．表示看法

1）People have（take，adopt，assume)different attitudes towards sth．

2）People have different opinions on this problem．

3）People take different views of（on）the question．

4）Some people believe that．．．

Others argue that．．．

例如：

People have different attitudes towards failure．Some believe that failure leads to success．

Every failure they experience translates into a greater chance of success at their renewed endeavor．However ,others are easily discouraged by failures and put themselves into the category of losers．

再如：

Do“lucky numbers really bring good luck？

Different people have different views on it（注：

一个段落有时很适宜以问句开始，考生应掌握这一写作方法。）

11．表示结论

1）In short，it can be said that ．．．

2）It may be briefly summed up as follows．

3）From what has been mentioned above,we can come to the conclusion that ．．

例如：

From what has been mentioned above，we can come to the conclusion that examination is necessary，however，its method should be improved．

12．套语

1）It’s well known to us that ．．．

2）As is known to us．．．

3）This is a topic that is being widely talked about．

4）From the graph

（table，chart）listed above，it can be seen that ．．．

5）As a proverb says，“Where there is a will，there is a way．

例如：

As is well known to us，it is important for the students to know the world outside campus．

The reason for this is obvious．Nowadays,the society is changing and developing rapidly，and

the campus is no longer an“ivory tower.As college students，

we must get in touch with the world outside the campus．

Only in this way can we adapt ourselves to the society quickly after

we graduate.

英语写作想要拿高分，经典的句型不可少。下面是语文迷整理的8种英语句型，供大家阅读参考。

一.开头句型

1.As far as ...is concerned 就……而言

2.It goes without saying that... 不言而喻，...

3.It can be said with certainty that... 可以肯定地说......

4.As the proverb says， 正如谚语所说的，

5.It has to be noticed that... 它必须注意到，...

6.Its generally recognized that... 它普遍认为...

7.Its likely that ... 这可能是因为...

8.Its hardly that... 这是很难的......

9.Its hardly too much to say that... 它几乎没有太多的说…

10.What calls for special attention is that...需要特别注意的是

11.Theres no denying the fact that...毫无疑问，无可否认

12.Nothing is more important than the fact that... 没有什么比这更重要的是…

13.whats far more important is that... 更重要的是…

二.衔接句型

1.A case in point is ... 一个典型的例子是...

2.As is often the case...由于通常情况下...

3.As stated in the previous paragraph 如前段所述

4.But the problem is not so simple. Therefore 然而问题并非如此简单，所以……

5.But its a pity that... 但遗憾的是…

6.For all that...对于这一切...... In spite of the fact that...尽管事实......

7.Further, we hold opinion that... 此外，我们坚持认为，...

8.However , the difficulty lies in...然而，困难在于…

9.Similarly, we should pay attention to... 同样，我们要注意...

10.not(that)...but(that)...不是，而是

11.In view of the present station.鉴于目前形势

12.As has been mentioned above...正如上面所提到的…

13.In this respect, we may as well (say) 从这个角度上我们可以说

14.However, we have to look at the other side of the coin, that is... 然而我们还得看到事物的另一方面，即 …

三.结尾句型

1.I will conclude by saying... 最后我要说…

2.Therefore, we have the reason to believe that...因此，我们有理由相信…

3.All things considered,总而言之 It may be safely said that...它可以有把握地说......

4.Therefore, in my opinion, its more advisable...因此，在我看来，更可取的是…

5.From what has been discussed above, we may safely draw the conclusion that….通过以上讨论，我们可以得出结论…

6.The data/statistics/figures lead us to the conclusion that….通过数据我们得到的结论是，....

7.It can be concluded from the discussion that...从中我们可以得出这样的结论

8.From my point of view, it would be better if...在我看来……也许更好

四.举例句型

1.Lets take...to illustrate this.2.lets take the above chart as an example to illustrate this.3. Here is one more example. 4.Take … for example. 5.The same is true of….6.This offers a typical instance of….7.We may quote a common example of….8.Just think of….

五.常用于引言段的句型

1. Some people think that …. 有些人认为…To be frank, I can not agree with their opinion for the reasons below. 坦率地说，我不能同意他们的意见，理由如下。

2. For years, … has been seen as …, but things are quite different now.多年来，……一直被视为……，但今天的情况有很大的不同。

3. I believe the title statement is valid because…. 我认为这个论点是正确的，因为…

4. I cannot entirely agree with the idea that ….我无法完全同意这一观点的… I believe….

5. My argument for this view goes as follows.我对这个问题的看法如下。

6. Along with the development of…, more and more….随着……的发展，越来越多…

7. There is a long-running debate as to whether….有一个长期运行的辩论，是否…

8. It is commonly/generally/widely/ believed /held/accepted/recognized that….它通常是认为…

9. As far as I am concerned, I completely agree with the former/ the latter.就我而言，我完全同意前者/后者。

10. Before giving my opinion, I think it is essential to look at the argument of both sides.在给出我的观点之前，我想有必要看看双方的论据。

六 表示比较和对比的常用句型和表达法

1. A is completely / totally / entirely different from B.2. A and B are different in some/every way / respect / aspect.3. A and B differ in…. 4. A differs from B in….5. The difference between A and B is/lies in/exists in….6. Compared with/In contrast to/Unlike A, B….7. A…, on the other hand,/in contrast,/while/whereas B….8. While it is generally believed that A …, I believe B….9. Despite their similarities, A and B are also different.10. Both A and B …. However, A…; on the other hand, B….11. The most striking difference is that A…, while B….

七 演绎法常用的句型

1. There are several reasons for…, but in general, they come down to three major ones.有几个原因……，但一般，他们可以归结为三个主要的。

2. There are many factors that may account for…, but the following are the most typical ones.有许多因素可能占...，但以下是最典型的。

3. Many ways can contribute to solving this problem, but the following ones may be most effective.有很多方法可以解决这个问题，但下面的可能是最有效的。

4. Generally, the advantages can be listed as follows.一般来说，这些优势可以列举如下。

5. The reasons are as follows.

八 因果推理法常用句型

1.Because/Since we read the book, we have learned a lot. 2. If we read the book, we would learn a lot. 3. We read the book; as a result / therefore / thus / hence / consequently / for this reason / because of this, weve learned a lot. 4. As a result of /Because of/Due to/Owing to reading the book, weve learned a lot. 由于阅读这本书，我们已经学到了很多。

5. The cause of/reason for/overweight is eating too much.6.Overweight is caused by/due to/because of eating too much.7. The effect/consequence/result of eating too much is overweight. 8. Eating too much causes/results in/leads to overweight. 吃太多导致超重。

教学课件是辅助教学的多媒体教具，是现代教育技术发展的产物，具有很强的时代特点，也是教育现代化的标志之一。下面是小编整理的英语写作基础教程课件，希望对你有帮助。

一、课程教学目标

本课程为高等学校英语专业课程体系中一门英语专业知识课程，属专业必修课性质。通过本课程的教学，使学生能正确理解和掌握英语写作的基础知识和技巧，例如词汇的恰当用法、英语成分与各类型结构的多样化运用等，并能按照不同要求正确书写便条、信函和通知等应用文，缩写课文内容，组织提纲并根据提纲书写短文（150单词左右），正确使用标点符号。

二、先修课的要求

本课程面向英语专业一年级学生，学生应具备基本英语写作能力，达到英语专业入学时的各项要求。

三、教学环节、内容及学时分配

Unit 1:正确用词

【学时】3

课堂讲授学时：2

其他教学学时：1

【教学目的和要求】

通过举例及练习提升学生对词汇的敏感度，学会如何正确运用词汇；写便条。

【本章重点及难点】

辨析词汇不同侧面的意义，如：denotative & connotative meanings; affective & collocative meanings.

【教学内容】

1. Denotation and connotation

2. Attitude and collocation

3. False friends

4. Subject-verb agreement

5. Note-writing

5. Follow-up exercises

Unit 2:恰当用词

【学时】3

课堂讲授学时：2

其他教学学时：1

【教学目的和要求】

学会鉴别不同文体，即正式、常用、口语和俚语，并根据不同文体使用恰当的词汇；写较为正式的便条。

【本章重点及难点】

避免中式英语

【教学内容】

1.Various styles in English

2. Chinglish

3. Writing notes to older people, strangers and business clients

5. Follow-up exercises

Unit 3:简洁精确用词

【学时】3

课堂讲授学时：2

其他教学学时：1

【教学目的和要求】

纠正学生习作中常见的冗余用词，帮助学生建立分类记忆词汇的习惯从而精确用词；写正式通知。

【本章重点及难点】

提高学生对词汇细微差别的敏感度，尤其是名、动、形容词，培养良好的词汇学习的习惯。

【教学内容】

1. Conciseness

2. Preciseness

3. Effectiveness

4. Modifiers and related problems

5. Informal notice

Unit 4：基本句型

【学时】 3

课堂讲授学时：2

其他教学学时：1

【教学目的和要求】

通过例句比较，使学生理解并学会选择恰当的词汇作主语，避免动词的名词化倾向；明确主语通常的位置及主语后置时的影响；总结何种情况下使用主动语态或被动语态的原则；归纳一般现在时的较特殊用法及单句中时态的匹配；掌握虚拟语气的常见用法；学写正式通知。

【本章重点难点】

构建最基本句子框架；句中词序的变化对语意重心的影响。

【教学内容】

1. Subject and its position

2. Active voice & passive voice

3. Tense and sequence of tenses

5. Mood

6. Extended notice

7. Follow-up exercises

Unit 5:基本句型的扩展（一）

【学时】 3

课堂讲授学时：2

其他教学学时：1

【教学目的和要求】

使学生掌握扩展基本句型的方式之一：增添修饰成分，并会正确使用七种类型的修饰语；正确使用定语从句达到强调作用；为段落缩写。

【本章重点难点】

使用修饰语扩展句子，以及修饰语的顺序。

【教学内容】

1. Attributes

2. Relative clauses

3. Incomplete sentences

4. Word order

5. Precis for short paragragh

6. Follow-up exercises

Unit 6基本句型的扩展（二）

【学时】3

课堂讲授学时：2

其他教学学时：1

【教学目的和要求】

学会使用分词和独立主格结构来扩展句子；为较长篇章写缩写。

【本章重点难点】

复杂分词结构的使用；学会在两个或以上的动词中正确选择用作分词结构的动词；避免悬垂修饰语、连写句、连串句。

【教学内容】

1. Participles

2. Absolutes

3. Comma-split sentences

4. Fused sentences

5. Precis for longer articles

6. Follow-up exercises

Unit 7连接句子的方法之一：并列

【学时】3

课堂讲授学时：2

其他教学学时：1

【教学目的和要求】

了解并列在单词、词组、从句和句子这四个层面的使用；学会不同类型连接词的用法；掌握并列句的具体用法和功能，以及更为复杂的并列句的使用，例如并列词的重复或缺失、用分号连接的并列句和有插入结构的并列句。

【本章重点难点】

如何正确应用并列句；错误的并列。

【教学内容】

1. Coordinate structures

2. Coordination at the sentence level

3. Functions of coordinate sentences

4. Advanced usages of coordinate sentences

5. Lack of unity & faulty parallelism

6. Follow-up exercises

Unit 8连接句子的方法之二：从属

【学时】3

课堂讲授学时：2

其他教学学时：1

【教学目的和要求】

辨析并列句与从属句在表达语意上的区别；正确使用名词性从句，定语从句和状语从句；理解从属句的两大功能；学写提纲。

【本章重点难点】

从属句的有效使用；从属句与并列句的选用原则。

【教学内容】

1.Subordination vs.coordination

2.Types of subordination

3.Functions of subordination

4.Effective use of subordination

5.Misplaced modifiers

6.Basic format of a short composition

7.Follow-up exercises

Unit 9句子多样化

【学时】3

课堂讲授学时：2

其他教学学时：1

【教学目的和要求】

使学生理解句子多样化的重要性，并从句子长度、句子结构、语意重心和句子开头这四个方面达到句子多样化的目的；正确使用倒装，避免逐字翻译；学写短文开头。

【本章重点难点】

达到句子多样化的方法；如何通过重新排序和特殊结构达到强调的目的。

【教学内容】

1. Ways to achieve sentence variety

2. Inversion & word-for-word translation

3. Introduction of a short paragraph

4. Follow-up exercises

Unit 10标点符号

【学时】3

课堂讲授学时：2

其他教学学时：1

【教学目的和要求】

理解常用标点符号的功能和用法；学写短文结尾。

【本章重点难点】

标点的用法；插入语的三种不同标点组合的区别。

【教学内容】

1.Functions of punctuation

2. How to end a sentence

3. How to join sentences of equal weight

4. How to punctuate within a sentence

5. The conclusion of a short composition

四、教学策略与方法建议

本课程采用课堂讲授和写作实践相结合的教学方式。课堂讲授使用多媒体教学，由教师讲解写作技巧引导学生发现使用规律，结合小组活动和个人训练等各种形式提高学生的写作学习热情。在课外布置适量的写作任务，及时操练和巩固所学的写作知识和写作技巧，加强对语言的实际运用能力。

五、教材与学习资源

本课程教材为邹申主编的《写作教程（第一册）》，上海：上海外语教育出版社，2005。

一、纵观近年各地中考英语写作题，题材一般是写人、写事、写物、写景、日记、书信、通知、便条等文体。一般来说，不同的写作题材，它的人物，时间，写作的重点也是不尽相同的。下面结合一些常见的题型介绍一下写作的注意事项以及写作技巧。

1、以图表提供情景的作文要以“读”为主，首先要读懂图表中的数据、时间、编码、序号以及相互间的变化关系，对所给的信息加以分析、推断、筛选、概括、去粗取精；在写作时目的要明确，要注意内容的准确性和严肃性，尤其是图表中的数据、时间等不得有误。

2、以图画提供情景的作文应以“看”为主，通过细心观察图中的人物、景物、文字、环境、数字等，弄清写作的意图，通过分析思考把握逻辑联系，找出主题并借助所给的文字，把图中的信息转化成文章，但要注意，文章不能停留在图画的浅表，而要表达出提供情景的意图和内涵。

3、以提纲提供情景的作文。这种形式本身的要点已经很明确，重点也很突出，只要把各个提纲加以发挥，注意遣词造句的灵活性和语法规则的正确性，就不会造成审题不清而偏离主题，但要注意，文章必须覆盖所提供的各个提纲的要点。

4、以书信格式提供情景的作文。首先要了解书信的格式，英文书信格式与中文有所不同，(1)、一般在信纸的右上角写上写信人的地址和日期，地址应按从小到大的顺序排列；(2)、左边顶格写上收信人的姓名；(3)、正文部分；(4)、祝愿的话；(5)、写信人签名。信的内容一定要按所给的要求写，不要漏写。

二、各地的评分标准略有差异，但是都包括以下几个方面：整体印象、语言表达、词数规定等几方面内容。我们在写作中要尽量避免扣分，争取有加分点。当然用英文写作不同于用母语那样得心应手，常常会受到生词、语法、惯用法的限制，只要同学们平时注意两种语言的异同性，抓住写作要点，也可妙笔生花。

1、为了保证文章层次分明、条理清楚，要把时间固定下来，如：记叙一件事要用过去时；写经常发生的事或对人物的描写，要用一般现在时。整个文章中的人称要一致，首尾呼应，不要随意改动，以免造成误解。

2、不要为了追求“一鸣惊人”而去找一些生冷的词汇，对这些一知半解的词你不会用，不知道如何搭配，结果可能适得其反，使文章显的生硬、不协调，甚至错误百出，所以要使用有把握的词，避免不必要的失分。比如说发生了一起意外事件，我们通常用“have an accident”来表示，不要错误的使用“have an incident”。

3、注意不同语言的表达习惯，也是写好英语作文的重要环节，如“我的理想是做一名歌手”，很多同学写成“My ambition is to do/make a singer，”“to do”表示“做”或者“干”，“to make”表示“制作”，而“做一名歌手”则表示“成为一名歌手”应该用“be/become a singer”；又如“看书、看报”应用“read a book/newspaper”，而不是“see a book/newspaper”。因此，平时应该注意不同语言的表达习惯，切忌望文生义或一味生搬硬套。

4、有些同学因怕出错而只写短句或简单句，写出的文章过于幼稚、空洞乏味。要使文章有血有肉就要把平时学的知识用进去，如：定语从句、宾语从句、非谓语动词和比较等句型，关键时用上一、二个，就能使文章不同凡响，更有文采，特别是对关联词的使用，如“so that”、“not…but”“not only。。。but also”等，会使你的文章逻辑结构紧密、层次鲜明、条理清楚，更能显示出你的英文功底，但要做到这些并非一日之功，要靠平时的不断训练和积累。

5、最简单的增分点就是认真的书写。工整漂亮的书写会给评卷老师留下美好的第一印象，在扣分时自然会“手下留情”，而且很多地区都在写作上有1分的书写分。只要平时多下点功夫，得到这一分并不难。

三、最后将中考写作的基本步骤和技巧归纳为以下几个环节：

1、细心审题细读题目中每一项提示或观察所给的每一幅画，明确文章的中心思想，弄清题意，确定写作体裁，掌握所要表达的要点做到心中有数，避免随心所欲，文不对题。

2、理顺要点在所给提示或图上标出要点，然后按事件先后的顺序或各要点之间的内在联系排序，分出层次。如果是看图作文，则要按图构思，这样做既可避免要点遗漏，又可使表达内容条理清楚。

3、构成框架将理顺的要点或每幅图画的含义加以连贯，构成写作的整体框架，进一步定人称、定时态语态、定顺序、定段落、定开头结尾。基本框架构成后，写作就有了把握。4、组织句子用自己最熟悉的短语或句型将理顺的要点逐句表达出来，多用简单句，用有把握的复合句。要扬长避短，避难就易。若遇到表达障碍，可换一种说法，将一句变成两、三句，只求达意。

5、串句成篇将写好的句子连贯地组织起来，注意上下句的逻辑关系，适当采用递进、让步、转折、因果等关联词语，使短文浑然一体，层次分明，过渡自然。6、检查修改文章草成后，默读1～2遍，检查修改，尤其要注意人称、大小写、拼写、习惯用语、格式有无错误，要点有无遗漏，文句有无语病，词数是否恰当，行文是否连贯。

初一是正式开始写英语作文，怎么样才能写出好的英语作文呢?

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。

英语写作常用名言

1.Knowledge is power. 知识就是力量 2.Live and learn. 活到老,学到老

3.The more you know, the more you find you don’t know. 知之愈多,便觉知之愈少

4.Never teach a fish to swim. 切勿班门弄斧

5.Never too old to learn; never too late to turn. 学习不厌老,改过不嫌迟 6.Better sense is the head than cents in the pocket. 口袋里有钱不如头脑里有知识

7. The greatest artist was once a beginner. 最伟大的艺术家也曾是个初学者 8.It’s never too late to learn. 活到老,学到老 9.A good book is a good friend. 好书如同挚友

10. All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy. 只会学习不玩耍,聪明孩子也变傻

11. A young idler, and old beggar. 少壮不努力,老大徒伤悲

12. By reading we enrich the mind, by conversation we polish it.读书使人充实,交谈使人精明

13. Experience must be bought. 吃一堑,长一智

14. There is no royal road to learning. 学问无捷径

15. Imagination is more important than knowledge. 想象力比知识更重要 16. The empty vessels make the greatest sound. 满瓶不响,半瓶咣当

17. If you don’t learn to think when you are young, you may never learn.如果你年轻的时候没有学会思考,那么就永远学不会思考

18.There is only one good, knowledge, and one evil, ignorance.最有益的是知识,最有害的是无知

1)结构2)内容要点 3)语言(词组搭配、句型、句式变化、过渡词)看结构和内容要点定分数档，看语言给成绩。这是中考英语阅卷的潜规则。 三段四步法——中考英语满分杀手锏 知己知彼，方能百战不殆，既然中考阅卷流程和内部标准已经明朗化，相对的策略也就顺利成章的形成了。现在和大家分享，笔者教学和阅卷过程中总结创立的写作满分秘诀。

1 “三段”(三个段落)——针对的阅卷老师先看文章结构和内容要点，让阅卷老师不得不给你定位一类文。 中高考情景是作文，无论是那种文体，都可以用三段法来表示。这个方法的起源是来自美国的“高考”SAT考试，(SAT是美国或它国学生想要申请美国大学必须参加的考试，故被叫过美国的高考)。 我们管这样的文章叫做HamburgerWriting(汉堡写作)

顾名思义，就是无论是记叙文、还是议论文、或者08年中考以及09一模西城的夹叙夹议文章，都可以通用。简单解释如下：

1. I would appreciate the privilege of an interview. I may be reached at the address given above，or by telephone at 32333416.

2. I would be glad to have a personal interview，and can provide references if needed。

3. Thank you for your consideration。

4. I welcome the opportunity to meet with you to further discuss my qualifications and your needs. Thank you for your time and consideration。

5. I have enclosed a resume as well as a brief sample of my writing for your review. I look forward to meeting with you to discuss further how I could contribute to your organization。

6. Thank you for your attention to this matter. I look forward to speaking with you。

7. The enclosed resume describes my qualifications for the position advertised. I would welcome the opportunity to personally discuss my qualifications with you at your convenience。

8. I would welcome the opportunity for a personal interview with you at your convenience。

9. I feel confident that given the opportunity，I can make an immediate contribution to Any Corporation. I would appreciate the opportunity to meet with you to discuss your requirements. I will call your office on Friday，to schedule an appointment. Thank you for your consideration。

10. I look forward to speaking with you。

1。我会赞赏采访的特权。我在上面给出的地址可能达到,或者通过电话32333416。

2。我很高兴能有一个面试,如果需要,可以提供参考。

3。谢谢你的考虑。

4。我欢迎机会与您进一步讨论我的资格和您的需要。谢谢您的时间和考虑。

5。我随信附上了我的简历以及一个简短的示例编写为您的回顾。我期待着与你进一步讨论如何为您的组织。

6。感谢你关注这件事。我期待着与你说话。

7。附上的简历描述我的资格为广告位置。我会欢迎机会与您亲自谈论我的资格在您的便利。

8。我欢迎机会个人采访你在你方便的时候。

9。我有信心,有机会,我可以立即对任何公司的贡献。我很高兴能有机会与您会面,讨论您的需求。周五我将打电话给你的办公室,安排一个约会。谢谢你的考虑。

10。我期待着与你说话。

导语：英语写作是一种创作性的学习过程。下面是小编收集的小升初英语作文写作技巧，欢迎大家阅读!

英语写作是一种创作性的学习过程。启动知识信息储存，构思立意，谋篇布局，遣词造句，对语言表达的正确性和准确性、思维的逻辑性和文章的条理性都比口语要求更高。通常英语写作有以下几个特点：紧扣教学大纲对考生书面表达的要求;以有指导的写作为主(guidedwriting)，便于考生在短时间内构思成文;突出试题的交际性，考查考生在特定的情景中运用语言的能力;增强试题的实用性，所选话题贴近学生学习生活，为学生所熟悉;看图作文主要考查考生运用所学知识解决实际问题的能力。

英语写作注意两点

一、先审题，弄清写作要求审题是写好作文的前提，也是书面表达的基础。如果写偏了题，语言表达再好也很难得高分。审题时要注意两个方面：

1.认真地看两遍题目，包括提示，全面了解写作要求。

2.理清思路，确定体裁、框架结构和内容。

二、用英语进行思维英语写作时必须排除汉语思维的干扰。

从现在起应逐渐加大阅读量和听的输入量，将阅读、听力训练与书面表达有机地结合起来。经常体会和领悟作者传递信息和表达思想的方式。在话题讨论和写作中经常运用所学到的表达方式就会有所创造。还要尽量做到“五多”：多看、多听、多思考、多用心体验和感悟身边的人和事、多用英语说和写自己的体验和感受。

最后一个月如何训练英语写作

1.重视增加阅读量是提高英语写作的途径之一。

目前，考生在进行大量阅读的同时，应注重所读材料的文章结构以及连接词的运用(ontheotherhand，however，furthermore)、作者的表达方式(词汇、习惯用语和典型句子的使用)、作者是如何进行叙述和议论的。

2.在教师的指导下，平时应勤写多练。

练习写作应从基本功抓起。在中译英翻译训练过程中，加强积累适量的词汇、词组和增加各种类型句子的运用。把握好各种句型和词汇的搭配，并从各类题材和体裁着手，多阅读好的范文。然后模仿写作，作文写好之后，一般都要修改。第一遍收笔后，先看一看结构，然后从字词上推敲，使文章“充实”起来。更重要的是经老师修改过的作文一定要仔细地看一至两遍，然后再认真地抄写一遍，收获将会很大。

英文写作“四步走”

由于时间限制，考试时必须在所限定的时间内完成英语作文。英语作文步骤如下：

1)作文动笔之前一般都要先打腹稿。在确立中心上、运用材料上、篇章结构上，充分酝酿。

2)考虑好想写多少句子，该用哪些动词和词组等。

3)边写边思考内容的连贯性，语言和句子的准确性。

4)写完后一定要再细看一遍。

主要体裁作文写作技巧

(一)写提示议论文应考虑的几点：

1.文章开头，能依据提示确立主题句(topic)阐明观点或看法。

2.会使用连接词分层次说明理由、缘由(supportingsentences)。

3.归纳总结，首尾呼应。

(二)看图作文应考虑的几点：

1.看懂图片，把图片展示的人物、地点、时间、事件等有机地串联起来，使之成为内容连贯的句子。

2.确定短文须用的时态和该用的人称。

3.确定体裁(说明文还是记叙文)，接着用简洁的语句描述图片或图表大意。

4.根据图片或图表大意议论。

以下是《九年级英语作文:我和哥哥的历险记》翻译。

It was sunny that day. Our parents were out, so there were only my brother and me at home. We were bored. So we decided to go boating. We played happily. But when we went to the middle of the river, the weather changed. It rained suddenly. We didn t bring umbrella and our boat was bamboo raft. As the rain was more and heavier, we were afraid to sink in the river. We tried our best to make our boat in shore. But our bamboo raft had more water on it. I was afraid to die. My brother was also very anxious. At that time, my mother came and she pulled us back to the ground. It was thrilling.

那是一个晴天。我们的父母都出去了，所以只有我和哥哥在家。我们很无聊。所以我们决定去划船。我们玩的很开心。但当我们走到河中央时，天气变了。突然下起雨来。我们没带伞，而且我们的船还竹排。由于雨越来越大，我们担心会沉到河里去。我们尽力使我们的船靠岸。但是竹筏上的水越来越多。我害怕死了。我哥哥也很着急。那时，我妈妈来了来了，她把我们拉回到地面。真的惊心动魄啊。

用介词短语替代从句，例：

原句：While they were playing tennis, she started an argument that lasted all morning.

修改后：During tennis she started an argument that lasted all morning.

原句：When you come to the second traffic light, turn right.

修改后：At the second traffic light turn left.

"I like honest men of all colors."我喜欢所有诚实的人。

"I start out by believing the worst."我凡事先做好最坏的打算。

"It requires more courage to suffer than to die."茍活比牺牲需要更多的勇气。 。

"I have made all the calculations; fate will do the rest."我已做了所有的打算，其余就交给上帝了。

"Our hour is marked, and no one can claim a moment of life beyond what fate has predestined."生死有命，没有人能要求多活一秒钟。

"If I had not been born Napoleon, I would have liked to have been born Alexander."如果今天我不是拿破仑的话，我想成为亚历山大。

"The great proof of madness is the disproportion of ones designs to ones means."一个人的计划与实践存在太大的落差即是疯狂的表现。

"The stupid speak of the past, the wise of the present, and fools of the future."聪明的人谈现在，愚蠢的人谈过去，傻子才谈未来。

"We must laugh at man to avoid crying for him. "与其后来替一个人婉惜，不如先嘲笑他算了。

"When you set out to take Vienna, take Vienna."一旦你着手要攻下维也纳，就把她拿下吧﹗

"What I did is immense. What I had decided to do, and what I had projected werestill more so"我所做的是大事业，而我当初的决定与计划亦是如此。

"The word impossible is not in my dictionary."在我的字典里找不到「不可能」这个字。

"I wished to found a European system, a European Code of Laws, a European judiciary; there would be but one people in Europe."我想建立一个整合的欧洲体系，包含了法律，法庭，与人种。

"The French complain of everything, and always."法国人终其一生都在抱怨所有的事。

"He who fears being conquered is sure of defeat."害怕被征服的人，注定要失败。

"Victory belongs to the most persevering."坚持必将成功。

"Adversity is the midwife of genius." 逆境造就天才。

"Circumstances? I make circumstances!" 英雄造时势。

"Men take only their needs into consideration, never their abilities."人们常只想到自己的需要，而没考虑自己的能力。

"Men are moved by only two levers: fear and self interest."恐惧和兴趣能激励人。

1. 关于……人们有不同的观点。一些人认为……

There are different opinions among people as to ____ 。Some people suggest that ____。

2. 俗话说(常言道)……，它是我们前辈的经历，但是，即使在今天，它在许多场合仍然适用。bbs.xschu.com

There is an old saying______。 Its the experience of our forefathers，however，it is correct in many cases even today.

xschu.com

3. 现在，……，它们给我们的日常生活带来了许多危害。首先，……;其次，……。更为糟糕的是……。

Today， ____， which have brought a lot of harms in our daily life. First， ____ Second，____。 What makes things worse is that______。

4. 现在，……很普遍，许多人喜欢……，因为……，另外(而且)……。bbs.xschu.com

Nowadays，it is common to ______。 Many people like ______ because ______。 Besides，______。

xschu.com

5. 任何事物都是有两面性，……也不例外。它既有有利的一面，也有不利的一面。

Everything has two sides and ______ is not an exception，it has both advantages and disadvantages.www.xschu.com

6. 关于……人们的观点各不相同，一些人认为(说)……，在他们看来，……bbs.xschu.com

People’s opinions about ______ vary from person to person.Some people say that ______。To them，_____。

xschu.com

7. 人类正面临着一个严重的问题……，这个问题变得越来越严重。

Man is now facing a big problem ______ which is becoming more and more serious.www.xschu.com

8. ……已成为人的关注的热门话题，特别是在年青人当中，将引发激烈的辩论。bbs.xschu.com

______ has become a hot topic among people，especially among the young and heated debates are right on their way.

xschu.com

9. ……在我们的日常生活中起着越来越重要的作用，它给我们带来了许多好处，但同时也引发一些严重的问题。

______ has been playing an increasingly important role in our day-to-day life.it has brought us a lot of benefits but has created some serious problems as well.www.xschu.com

10. 根据图表/数字/统计数字/表格中的百分比/图表/条形图/成形图可以看出……。很显然……，但是为什么呢?bbs.xschu.com

According to the figure/number/statistics/percentages in the /chart/bar

Directions:

Suppose you are a librarian in your university.Write a notice of about 100 words,providing the newly-enrolled international students with relevant information about the library.

You should write neatly on the ANSWER SHEET.

Do not sign your own name at the end of the letter.Use “Li Ming”instead.

Do not write the address.(10 points)

参考范文：

Notice

Welcome you to this university and this new-bulided library. I am a libraian in our university and will give you relevent information about the library.

To begin with, there is circulation desk in the circulation hall so that you can borrow and return books more quickly and conveniently. Besides, the hours of loan books is during 9:00-17:00 from Monday to Friday so that you can take best advantage of the library. Moreover, the computer room in the library is big enough for you to search for some academic information charged by the hour so you must ensure that some money is left in your ID card.

I hope you will find the above information useful and I would be ready to discuss the matter with you to further details. If you have any questions about the library, please call 123456or send messages to 123456@abc. Wish you a good time during your colledge life.

请注意

欢迎你来这所大学和这个new-bulided库。我是一个libraian在我们的大学会给你有关信息图书馆。

首先,在循环大厅有循环桌子,这样您就可以借并返回书更快更方便。此外,小时的贷款是在9:00-17:00从星期一到星期五,这样您就可以最好的利用图书馆。此外,在图书馆计算机房对你来说是足够大的去寻找一些学术信息按小时收取所以你必须确保一些钱留在你的身份证。

我希望你会发现上面的信息是有用的,我准备和你讨论此事进一步的细节。如果你有任何问题关于图书馆,请致电123456或123456 @abc发送消息。祝你一段美好的时光在你科莱奇的生活。

下面是由语文迷为大家整理的英语写作百搭句子，赶紧学会吧。

1. 完全同意……这种观点(陈述)，主要理由如下：

I fully agree with the statement that ______ because______.

2. 面临……，我们应该采取一系列行之有效的方法来……。一方面……，另一方面，

Confronted with______, we should take a series of effective measures to______. For one thing，______For another, ______

3. 相反，有一些人赞成……，他们相信……，而且，他们认为……。

On the contrary, there are some people in favor of ___.At the same time, they say____.

4. ……对我们国家的发展和建设是必不可少的，(也是)非常重要的。首先，……。而且……，最重要的是……

______is necessary and important to our countrys development and construction.First，______.Whats more, _____.Most important of all,______.

5. 然而，正如任何事物都有好坏两个方面一样，……也有它的不利的一面，像……。

However, just like everything has both its good and bad sides, ______also has its owndisadvantages, such as ______.

6. 早就应该拿出行动了。比如说……，另外……。所有这些方法肯定会……。

It is high time that something was done about it. For example. _____.In addition,_____.All thesemeasures will certainly______.

7. 尽管如此，我相信……更有利。

Nonetheless, I believe that ______is more advantageous.

8. 有几个可供我们采纳的方法。首先，我们可以……。

There are several measures for us to adopt. First, we can______

9. 但是，我认为这不是解决……的好方法，比如……。最糟糕的是……。

But I dont think it is a very good way to solve ____.For example，____.Worst of all，___.

10. 为什么……?第一个原因是……;第二个原因是……;第三个原因是……。总的来说，……的主要原因是由于……

Why______? The first reason is that ______.The second reason is ______.The third is ______.For all this, the main cause of ______due to ______.

There is no consensus [knsenss] 一致of opinions among people about X(争论的焦点)。Some people are of the view that 观点1，while others take an opposite side, firmly believing that 观点2。As far as I am concerned, the former/latter notion(观念) is preferable in many senses. The reasons are obvious. First of all, 论据1。 Furthermore, 论据2。

Among all of the supporting evidences, one is the strongest. That is, 论据3。 A natural conclusion from the above discussion is that总结观点。 As a college student, I am supposed to 表决心. 或 From above, we can predict that 预测

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

下面是由语文迷网小编精心为大家整理提供的英语句子，供大家写作参考。

1、Time flies.

时光易逝。

2、Time is money.

一寸光阴一寸金。

3、Time and tide wait for no man.

岁月无情;岁月易逝;岁月不待人。

4、Time tries all.

时间检验一切。

5、Time tries truth.

时间检验真理。

6、Time past cannot be called back again.

光阴一去不复返。

7、All time is no time when it is past.

光阴一去不复返。

8、No one can call back yesterday;Yesterday will not be called again.

昨日不复来。

9、Business neglected is business lost.

忽视职业便是放弃职业。

10、One today is worth two tomorrows.

一个今天胜似两个明天。

11、The morning sun never lasts a day.

好景不常;朝阳不能光照全日。

12、Christmas comes but once a year.

圣诞一年只一度。

13、Pleasant hours fly past.

快乐时光去如飞。

14、Happiness takes no account of time.

欢娱不惜时光逝。

15、Time tames the strongest grief.

时间能缓和极度的悲痛。

16、The day is short but the work is much.

工作多，光阴迫。

17、Never deter till tomorrow that which you can do today.

今日事须今日毕，切勿拖延到明天。

18、Have you somewhat to do tomorrow,do it today.

明天如有事，今天就去做。

19、To him that does everything in its proper time,one day is worth three.

事事及时做，一日胜三日。

20、To save time is to lengthen life.

节省时间就是延长生命。

21、Everything has its time and that time must be watched.

万物皆有时，时来不可失。

22、Take time when time cometh,lest time steal away.

时来必须要趁时，不然时去无声息。

23、When an opportunity is neglected,it never comes back to you.

机不可失，时不再来;机会一过，永不再来。

24、Make hay while the sun shines.

晒草要趁太阳好。

25、Strike while the iron is hot.

趁热打铁。

26、Work today,for you know not how much you may be hindered tomrrow.

今朝有事今朝做，明朝可能阻碍多。

27、Punctuality is the soul of business.

守时为立业之要素。

28、Procrastination is the thief of time.

因循拖延是时间的大敌;拖延就是浪费时间。

29、Every tide hath ist ebb.

潮涨必有潮落时。

30、Knowledge is power.

知识就是力量。

31、Wisdom is more to be envied than riches.

知识可羡，胜于财富。

32、Wisdom is better than gold or silver.

知识胜过金银。

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

胸中有知识，胜于手中有钱。

34、Wisdom is a good purchase though we pay dear for it.

为了求知识，代价虽高也值得。

35、Doubt is the key of knowledge.

怀疑是知识之钥。

36、If you want knowledge,you must toil for it.

若要求知识，须从勤苦得。

37、A little knowledge is a dangerous thing.

浅学误人。

38、A handful of common sense is worth a bushel of learning.

少量的常识，当得大量的学问。

39、Knowledge advances by steps and not by leaps.

知识只能循序渐进，不能跃进。

40、Learn wisdom by the follies of others.

从旁人的愚行中学到聪明。

41、It is good to learn at another man’s cost.

前车可鉴。

42、Wisdom is to the mind what health is to the body.

知识之于精神，一如健康之于肉体。

43、Experience is the best teacher.

经验是最好的教师。

44、Experience is the father of wisdom and memory the mother.

经验是知识之父，记忆是知识之母。

45、Dexterity comes by experience.

熟练来自经验。

46、Practice makes perfect.

熟能生巧。

47、Experience keeps a dear school,but fools learn in no other.

经验学校学费高，愚人旁处学不到。

48、Experience without learning is better than learning without experience.

有经验而无学问，胜于有学问而无经验。

49、Wit once bought is worth twice taught.

由经验而得的智慧，胜于学习而得的智慧;一次亲身的体会，胜过两次的教师教导。

50、Seeing is believing.

百闻不如一见。

拓展阅读：段首万能句子

1. 关于……人们有不同的观点。一些人认为……

There are different opinions among people as to ____ .Some people suggest that ____.

2. 俗话说(常言道)……，它是我们前辈的经历，但是，即使在今天，它在许多场合仍然适用。

There is an old saying______. It"s the experience of our forefathers，however，it is correct in many cases even today.

3. 现在，……，它们给我们的日常生活带来了许多危害。首先，……;其次，……。更为糟糕的是……。

Today, ____, which have brought a lot of harms in our daily life. First, ____ Second,____. What makes things worse is that______.

4. 现在，……很普遍，许多人喜欢……，因为……，另外(而且)……。

Nowadays，it is common to ______. Many people like ______ because ______. Besides，______.

5. 任何事物都是有两面性，……也不例外。它既有有利的一面，也有不利的一面。

Everything has two sides and ______ is not an exception，it has both advantages and disadvantages.

6. 关于……人们的观点各不相同，一些人认为(说)……，在他们看来，……

People’s opinions about ______ vary from person to person. Some people say that ______.To them,_____.

7. 人类正面临着一个严重的问题……，这个问题变得越来越严重。

Man is now facing a big problem ______ which is becoming more and more serious.

8. ……已成为人的关注的热门话题，特别是在年青人当中，将引发激烈的辩论。

______ has become a hot topic among people，especially among the young and heated debates are right on their way.

9. ……在我们的日常生活中起着越来越重要的作用，它给我们带来了许多好处，但同时也引发一些严重的问题。

______ has been playing an increasingly important role in our day-to-day life.it has brought us a lot of benefits but has created some serious problems as well.

10. 根据图表/数字/统计数字/表格中的百分比/图表/条形图/成形图可以看出……。很显然……，但是为什么呢?

According to the figure/number/statistics/percentages in the /chart/bar graph/line/graph，it can be seen that______ while. Obviously，______，but why?

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.