11.22-On Writing Well

22 The Tyranny of the Final Product

Expressions

I chose “People and Places” as the title of my course because together they are at the heart of expository writing.

expository    used to describe writing that is done to explain something 

例   I'm taking an expository writing class this semester.

, and what heritage they were born into.

1.Property that is or can be inherited; an inheritance.

继承的或可被继承的财产；继承物

2.Something that is passed down from preceding generations; a tradition.

由前辈传下来的东西；传统

»The building is part of our national heritage.这个建筑是我们民族遗产的一部份。

3.The status acquired by a person through birth; a birthright:

通过出生而得到的地位；长子继承权：

同义词 heritage,inheritance,legacy,tradition 

这些名词都具有的意思是：“由一代传给另一代的具有历史意义的东西，如习俗”

Destruction has long been a journalistic mode, rewarding the snoop and the hatchet man (or woman) and the invader of privacy.

snoop  窥探者：打探私事的人

hatchet man 1.(受雇) 撰写中伤他人之报导的记者 (等)

2. (尤指职业) 杀手,刺客

Thoughts

作者说，The fixation on the finished article causes writers a lot of trouble, deflecting them from all the earlier decisions that have to be made to determine its shape and voice and content.很多人太关注结果——“怎么才能卖出我的作品”，而前期的写作过程的细节往往被忽略。还举了一个很形象的比喻--The writer, his eye on the finish line, never gave enough thought to how to run the race.

作者后来想出一个极端的办法： I would teach a writing course in which no writing is required.

作者选择“人物与地点 ”作为课程的名称 ,因为它们构成expository writing的核心。通过集中练习两个要点，I would be able to teach much of what nonfiction writers need to know.

第一次课上，作者的学生都是想learn how to use writing to make sense of their lives: to find out who they were at that particular moment, who they once were, and what heritage they were born into.

最大的问题是compression: how to distill a coherent narrative from a huge and tangled mass of experiences and feelings and memories.作者举例一位女士想写Iowa很多小城镇消失的文章，但是it would be all generalization and no humanity.所以最好只写一个小城镇来反映更大的故事，甚至在这一个城镇中，还得进一步缩小范围到一个商店或者一户人家。We talked about different approaches, and the writer gradually thought her story down to human scale.其实前面也提到过从小处入手去写，往往能看到humanity；写的大了，容易空洞，无法共鸣。

作者又强调 I was primarily interested in the process, not the product.  这句话3个p开头的单词，押头韵。   关注过程，而非结果。

作者还说他这样教学的真正目的是教给他们新的心态，让他们以后可以在各种写作中应用。

又举一个学生的例子，最后想到了2个词。

One is quest, the other is intention.

追求是讲故事的一种最古老的主题，一种我们从不厌倦听到的信念的行为。

意图是我们写作中希望成就的，也可以称作作者的灵魂。

Writing is related to character.写作与性格相关。

想清楚自己想做什么，想如何做，带着humanity and integrity来寻找自己的方法，完成文章的写作。