Part I Principles II Chapter1&2

Word bank

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*arduous  adj. difficult and tiring

原文：Coming home from an arduous day at the hospotial,...

*avocation n. a job or activity that you do because you are interested in it, rather than to earn your living.

原文：He was going to talk about writing as an avocation.

*glamorous adj. more attractive, exciting or interesting 

原文：...all eager to learn the secrets of our glamourous work.

*fiddle v. with n. change something in minor ways

原文：...until they have fiddled endlessly with the first.

*mollify v. do or say something to make them less upset or angry

原文：...wrote a letter to mollify the alumni after a spell of campus unrest.

*tenacious adj. determined, not give up easily

原文：Faced with such obstacles, readers are at first tenacious.

Summary

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1 原文：Good writing has an aliveness that keeps the reader reading from one paragraph to the next, and it's not a question of gimmicks to "personalize" the author. It's a question of using the English language in a way that will achieve the greatest clarity and strength.

*作者指出好的写作会让读者有兴趣一直读下去，而不是彰显作者的个人特色以此来吸引读者。写作的目的应该是让语言传递出它最清楚的含义，以此来发挥语言的力量。

2 原文：The secret of good writing is to strip every sentence to its cleanest components.

*此书的第二章节强调语言的简洁。此处作者告诉我们好的写作就是把每句句子可以抽丝剥茧成最精炼，最清楚的内容。

3 原文：Clear thinking becomes clear writing.

               Writers must therefore constantly ask: what am I trying to say? 

               Thinking clearly is a conscious act that writers must force on themselves.

               Good writing doesn't come naturally,...

*Zinsser这几句话都在强调写作之前一定要思考清楚“我”想要表达什么，只有清晰的思路才能变成清楚的文章。因为读者的注意力有限，如果读了30秒左右发现你的文章不知所云，读者是没有兴趣再看下去的也不会想回过头再去搞明白你到底在说什么。而作者写完之后还要再看“我”到底有没有说出想要表达的内容。因此好的写作不会是自然发生的，一定是作者对于自己有意识的行为。