WRITING

 

 

    Finally, the fourth principal, humanity¹.  This principal 1)underlies all the others and it's 2)crucial. So please be natural, be yourself.  Never say anything in writing that you wouldn't comfortably say in conversation.  If you're not the kind of person who says "indeed" or "moreover," please don't say it in writing.  Most people trying to write, sit down to commit an act of literature. And the person who 3)emerges on paper is very much different from the person who sat down to write. 

    It's amazing how often an editor can find the perfect lead in an article by simply throwing away the first two or three paragraphs or the first two or three pages and starting the article where the writer finally stops building this elaborate 4)edifice, the lead, the sacred lead, and begins to relax and sound like himself or herself.  What I'm always looking for as an editor is a sentence that says something like, "I'll never forget the day when I..." and I'll think ah ha!  There's a person.  Up to that point no person has been visible because the writer has been making this self conscious construction, the lead, full of 5)vague generalizations², that has no life of its own. 

Most writers are frozen³ by their vision of the audience.  All those people out there who will be reading what you write.  But only one person will be reading your article at any one time and the writers we like the most are men and women we can identify with as people.  What any writer has to sell, what you have to sell is not what you're writing about, it's who you are.  I often find myself reading with interest about some subject I could have sworn didn't interest me, maybe some odd scientific 6)quest.  Lewis Thomas, a cell biologist writes 7)eloquently on subjects like, well, ants.  Ants are very low on any list of subjects I think I want to read about, but I'll read anything Lewis Thomas writes about ants.  It's not the ant that interests me. it's Lewis Thomas's interest in the ant, what got him interested, what keeps him going and you can generate⁴ the same kind of interest.  Your material is yourself, so trust it and use it.

 

写作指导

 

 第四条写作原则：人道。这是所有东西的基础，非常重要。所以请一定要自然一点，做你自己。如果有些话你在日常对话中说了也感到不自在的话，就不要把它写在文字里。如果你通常不会说"更确切地"或者"再者"，那也不把它用在你的文章里。许多想写些东西的人坐下来，做出要创作文学作品的样子。结果是写出来的东西与作者根本是两码事。

令人吃惊的是编辑通常需要删去文章头两、三个段落，甚至是两、三页之后，在作者建造的华而不实的神圣大楼的工作终于停止时，才找到恰当的文章开始。在这可贵的开始之后，文章的语气才开始自然起来。我在做编辑的时候，我总是在找像"我永远也忘不了那一天，当我……"这样的句子。那时我就想，啊哈，人终于出来了。在此之前，我根本就看不到人的存在，因为作者一直忸忸怩怩地说一些既含糊又毫无意义的话而迟迟不肯露面。

许多作者被自己心目中的读者，那些将要读你的作品的读者，吓坏了。其实，在任何一个时刻，只有一个人在读你写的文章，而我们通常喜欢那些我们能够认同的作者。每一个作者都需要推销。你需要推销的不是你写的东西，而是你自己。我自己常常在饶有兴趣地读那些我发誓我根本不感兴趣的东西，有可能是科学探险之类的。细胞生物学家路易斯·汤马斯在写……比如说他会把蚂蚁写得很生动。在我想读的东西里，蚂蚁当然是排在很后的，但我却愿意看路易斯·汤马斯写的任何有关蚂蚁的东西。让我感兴趣的不是蚂蚁，而是让他对蚂蚁感兴趣的事，究竟是什么让他对蚂蚁如此着迷。而你作为一个作者也可以让别人感兴趣。你的素材就是你自己，所以你要对你自己有信心，大胆用那些素材。

1) underlie   v. 构成……的基础     2) crucial   a. 至关重要的

3) emerge   v. 出现，浮现

4) edifice  n. (喻)精心建造的东西       5) vague   a. 模糊的

6) quest   n. 探险                        7) eloquently   adv. 有说服力地，

 

1 humanity   

n.人类，[总称]人(性)，人道[pl.]人文学科

参考例句：

• Such an act is a disgrace to humanity.这种行为是人类的耻辱。
• We should treat animals with humanity.我们应该以仁慈之心对待动物。

2 generalizations   

一般化( generalization的名词复数 )； 普通化； 归纳； 概论

参考例句：

• But Pearlson cautions that the findings are simply generalizations. 但是波尔森提醒人们，这些发现是简单的综合资料。 来自英汉非文学 - 生命科学 - 大脑与疾病
• They were of great service in correcting my jejune generalizations. 他们纠正了我不成熟的泛泛之论，帮了我大忙。

3 frozen   

adj.冻结的，冰冻的

参考例句：

• He was frozen to death on a snowing night.在一个风雪的晚上，他被冻死了。
• The weather is cold and the ground is frozen.天寒地冻。

4 generate   

vt.生成，产生（光、热、电等）导致

参考例句：

• We need someone to generate new ideas.我们需要有人出新主意。
• This book will continue to generate excitement for a long time.这本书将在很长一段时间里继续使人们为之激动。