On Writing Well -Day18 (Ch18)

Content:

Part I | Principles

1. The Transaction

2. Simplicity

3. Clutter (Writing clean English Sentence)

4. Style (Preserving your identity)

5. The audience (Who am I writing for)

6. Words (The only tools you’ve got)

7. Usage (What is good usage)

Part II | Methods

8. Unity (Anchor of good writing)

9. The lead and the ending

10. Bits and pieces

Part II | Forms

11. Nonfiction as Literature

12. Writing About People: The Interview

13. Writing About Places: The travel article

14. Writing About Yourself: The Memoir

15. Science and Technology

16. Business Writing:Writing in Your Job

17. Sports

18. Writing About the Arts Critics and Columnists

....

Words and Expressions:

1. It’s also too facile an approach if you want to write serious criticism, for the only epigrams that have survived are cruel ones.

.N-COUNT 诙谐短诗;警句;隽语

An epigram is a short saying or poem which expresses an idea in a very clever and amusing way.

2. Therefore if you want to be a critic, steep yourself in the literature of the medium you hope to make your specialty.

VERB 浸泡(食物)

To steep food in a liquid means to put the food in the liquid for some time so that the food gets flavour from the liquid.

【语法信息】：V n

【语法信息】：V-ed

It's a drink made by steeping pineapple rind in water.

这是用菠萝皮泡在水里做的饮料。

...green beans steeped in olive oil.

在橄榄油里浸泡过的青豆

3. A music critic should know not only his Bach and Palestrina ...but his Schoenberg and Ives and Philip Glass—the theoreticians and mavericks and experimenters.

N-COUNT (团体中)自行其是的人，特立独行的人,标新立异的人

If you describe someone as a maverick, you mean that they are unconventional and independent, and do not think or behave in the same way as other people.

【搭配模式】：ADJ n

He was too much of a maverick ever to hold high office.

他太特立独行，永远不可能做高官。

Maverickis also an adjective.

...a maverick group of scientists, who oppose the prevailing medical opinion on the disease...

就治疗这种疾病与医学界普遍观点相左的一群标新立异的科学家

Her independence and maverick behaviour precluded any chance of promotion.

她的独立精神和自行其是断送了一切升迁的机会。

4. There are few spectator sports as enjoyable as a good academic brawl.

1.N-COUNT 打架；斗殴

A brawl is a rough or violent fight.

He had been in a drunken street brawl.

他参与了一场酒后街头斗殴。

2.V-RECIP 相互动词 打架；斗殴

If someone brawls, they fight in a very rough or violent way.

【语法信息】：V withn

【语法信息】：pl-n V

He was suspended for a year from University afterbrawling with police over a speeding ticket...

他为了一张超速罚单与警察厮打，被大学勒令停学1年。

Two gangs of youths brawled on the dance floor of the ferry.

两伙青年在渡轮的舞池里打起来了。

brawling

The brawling between the England fans and locals last night went on for several hours.

昨晚，英格兰球迷和当地球迷的冲突持续了好几个小时。

5. The editor of the page was a huge and choleric man

1.ADJ-GRADED 脾气火爆的;暴躁易怒的

A choleric person gets angry very easily. You can also use choleric to describe a person who is very angry.

【语域标签】：FORMAL 正式

...his choleric disposition...

他的火爆性子

He was affable at one moment,choleric the next.

他一会儿还和蔼可亲，可一转眼就火冒三丈。

Thoughts:

评论类文章，吸引人的两点，一是要有自己的观点，二是要有说服力。具有说服力的一种有效方法，是具体化、实例化，用细节来证明自己的观点。

我记得我开始看梁实秋的书，是源自一个朋友。她说爆肚并不好吃……因为她曾经在北京冬天的深夜看了梁实秋的《雅舍谈吃》，看的饥肠辘辘，然后第二天一大早特意爬起来去吃爆肚。

爆肚好不好吃我不知道，但梁实秋倒是多了我这样一个忠实读者。