VOA慢速英语2020--How to Inspect Your Own Writing

 

Recently, someone asked us, "Can you please tell me who is the highest authority or is the most respected resource regarding writing rules?" There are several excellent sources on writing rules. However, the rules are different for different fields, such as business, technology, government, or academic writing.

Strunk & White

Full-time¹ writers often turn to a handbook, such as Strunk and White's "The Elements of Style." This book, published in 1959, combined the earlier work of William Strunk, Junior and E. B. White, the writer of several popular children's books. "The Elements of Style" has simple rules for good writing. You can get the 1920 version of the book free on Project Gutenberg. More recent versions deal with issues of gender² and changes in punctuation³.

Chicago Manual of Style

Students writing a report for school may use a book like The Chicago Manual of Style, from the University of Chicago. The Chicago Manual deals with English grammar and how to prepare an academic paper. It was first published in 1906. Kate L. Turabian's Manual for Writers of Research Papers, Theses, and Dissertations⁴ is based on The Chicago Manual. Her work is especially helpful for high school and college students. It is available free online.

Purdue OWL⁵

An excellent place to look for help with writing is Purdue University's Online Writing Lab, or "OWL" for short. As noted⁶ earlier, technical and professional writing is different from what teachers expect of writing in school. So, Purdue OWL has a guide for writing business letters and technical materials.

The OWL has helpful resources for writing teachers who are working remotely, too. Teachers can download presentations on many subjects related to writing.

Avoiding plagiarism⁷

Another English learner asked us how to avoid plagiarism when writing. Plagiarism is when someone takes another person's work and passes it off as their own.

Many schools punish students severely⁸ for copying the words of another writer. For those learning English, writing has different problems, and to help them, the OWL has one part especially for ESL students. It includes an explanation of how American schools deal with plagiarism.

When students find information on the internet, it is too easy to copy it and put it directly into their own written work. To avoid this, the OWL urges you to take more time to deeply understand what you read. Begin by looking at books and printed materials before turning to the internet. When you find information on the internet, write down notes by hand in a notebook. As you write, put the ideas into your own words. This process is called paraphrasing⁹.

Think about the meaning of the whole work. You want to tell your reader how this information is related to your own ideas. If you use another writer's exact words, make sure to place quotation¹⁰ marks ["_"] before and after them, and tell your reader how to find the original source. The guides I named earlier in this report explain how to quote work in different styles of writing.

If you are not sure about how well you paraphrased¹² another writer's work, there are online tools that will tell you how closely your work resembles that of someone else. Ask your school which tool they suggest. Or you can take a few lines from your written work and copy them into an internet search engine. If they are the same as another published work, the search result will probably identify that work.

Work with others

Another good way to test your writing is to read it aloud and see if it is easy to understand. Ask a friend or a family member to listen as you read it and tell you if they can understand. Writing well is not easy, but when finished you will have a good feeling: you have communicated your ideas to others clearly.

Words in This Story

authority – n. a person who is an expert on a subject

resource – n. a supply of money or materials that can be used by a person or organization to operate effectively

academic – adj. relating to education

gender – n. either of two sexes, especially when noting social and cultural differences, not biological ones

punctuation – n. the marks used in writing to separate statements and clarify meaning

grammar – n. the whole system and structure of a language

remotely – adj. without physical contact; something done online or on the internet

paraphrase¹¹ – v. to say (something that someone else has said or written) using different words

quotation – n. a group of words taken from a written work or speech and repeated by someone other than the writer or speaker

resemble – v. to look or be like (someone or something)

1 full-time   

adj.满工作日的或工作周的，全时间的

参考例句：

• A full-time job may be too much for her.全天工作她恐怕吃不消。
• I don't know how she copes with looking after her family and doing a full-time job.既要照顾家庭又要全天工作，我不知道她是如何对付的。

2 gender   

n.（生理上的）性，（名词、代词等的）性

参考例句：

• French differs from English in having gender for all nouns.法语不同于英语，所有的名词都有性。
• Women are sometimes denied opportunities solely because of their gender.妇女有时仅仅因为性别而无法获得种种机会。

3 punctuation   

n.标点符号，标点法

参考例句：

• My son's punctuation is terrible.我儿子的标点符号很糟糕。
• A piece of writing without any punctuation is difficult to understand.一篇没有任何标点符号的文章是很难懂的。

4 dissertations   

专题论文，学位论文( dissertation的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• We spend the final term writing our dissertations. 我们用最后一个学期的时间写论文。
• The professors are deliberating over the post graduates dissertations. 教授们正在商讨研究生的论文。

5 owl   

n.猫头鹰，枭

参考例句：

• Her new glasses make her look like an owl.她的新眼镜让她看上去像只猫头鹰。
• I'm a night owl and seldom go to bed until after midnight.我睡得很晚，经常半夜后才睡觉。

6 noted   

adj.著名的，知名的

参考例句：

• The local hotel is noted for its good table.当地的那家酒店以餐食精美而著称。
• Jim is noted for arriving late for work.吉姆上班迟到出了名。

7 plagiarism   

n.剽窃，抄袭

参考例句：

• Teachers in America fight to control cheating and plagiarism.美国老师们努力对付欺骗和剽窃的问题。
• Now he's in real trouble.He's accused of plagiarism.现在他是真遇到麻烦了。他被指控剽窃。

8 severely   

adv.严格地；严厉地；非常恶劣地

参考例句：

• He was severely criticized and removed from his post.他受到了严厉的批评并且被撤了职。
• He is severely put down for his careless work.他因工作上的粗心大意而受到了严厉的批评。

9 paraphrasing   

v.释义，意译( paraphrase的现在分词 )

参考例句：

• I'm paraphrasing but this is honestly what he said. 我是在转述，但这的确是他说的意思。 来自柯林斯例句

10 quotation   

n.引文，引语，语录；报价，牌价，行情

参考例句：

• He finished his speech with a quotation from Shakespeare.他讲话结束时引用了莎士比亚的语录。
• The quotation is omitted here.此处引文从略。

11 paraphrase   

vt.将…释义，改写；n.释义，意义

参考例句：

• You may read the prose paraphrase of this poem.你可以看一下这首诗的散文释义。
• Paraphrase the following sentences or parts of sentences using your own words.用你自己的话解释下面的句子或句子的一部分。

12 paraphrased   

v.释义，意译( paraphrase的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• Baxter paraphrased the contents of the press release. 巴克斯特解释了新闻稿的内容。 来自辞典例句
• It is paraphrased from the original. 它是由原文改述的。 来自辞典例句