On Writing Well ch.15

Summary

Ch.15 Science and Technology

本章开头的例子很真实，普遍观点就是理工科的同学不擅长写作，人文社科类的同学对理科一脸懵逼，但是Zinsser说只要能想清楚，自然就能写清楚。

Anyone who thinks clearly can write clearly, about anything at all

对科技类的写作，作者肯定是对这个领域非常熟悉的人，这样才能想清楚，写清楚，读者也会非常容易接受，其实有些专业书籍，罗列了很多专业术语和符号，一上来就让你感觉很有距离感，一下阅读热情就降低了。

Zinsser也给出了一些写作建议：

1. Move with simplicity and logic 其实这一点是所有写作都必须的
2. The reader knows nothing 想到了在做毕业设计的时候，老师就说不要把评分老师当做是本专业的，就把他想象成一个跟这个领域毫不相关的人，从最基础的写起，以简单的语言来解释你的论文。
3. Imagine science writing as an upside-down pyramid. There’s no limit to how wide the pyramid can become, but your readers will understand the broad implications only if they start with one narrow fact. 科技类的写作就像是倒金字塔，从一个小点出发，逐层推进，最后讲到比较广阔的层面。其实一个好的老师也是如此，从小例子出发，从基础开始讲，学生也容易接受。
4. Use your own experience to connect the reader to some mechanism that also touches his life.
5. Weave a scientific story around someone else.
6. Relate them to sights they are familiar with. Reduce the abstract principle to an image they can visualize.
7. To write like a person and not like a scientist.

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Vocabulary

• moan; affliction
  "No! Not science!” the moan says. The students have a common affliction: fear of science.
  moan [C] 抱怨声，呻吟声
  e.g. We could hear the moans of someone trapped under the rubble.
  moan 作动词表示呻吟 发牢骚 抱怨，
  moan in/with sth, e.g. moan in/with pain/despair
  moan on about sth, e.g. They are always moaning and groaning about how much they have to do.
  affliction 痛苦，烦恼，折磨
  [造句] Blindness is one of the terrible afflictions.

• lug
  Both are unnecessary fears to lug through life, and in this chapter I’d like to help you ease whichever one is yours.
  （费力地）拉，拖，拽，和前文出现的tug意思差不多
  [造句] I'm exhausted after lugging my two suitcases up to the seventh floor.

• bent
  If you’re a student with a bent for science or technology, don’t assume that the English department has a monopoly on “literature”.
  n. 天赋，一般只用作单数。
  [造句] Chinese students have a bent for mathematics is a common stereotype.
  作者用了三种形式表示擅长...，有...天赋：
  A head for science
  A gift for words
  A bent for science and technology

• deign
  They won’t deign to learn to use the simple tools of the English language—precision instruments as refined as any that are used in a physics lab.
  deign to do 屈尊，放下架子去做
  g不发音
  [造句] I won't deign to answer the offensive question.

• confound
  An equal number of times they have been confounded by the facts.
  此处为证明...是错的，confound也有使某人困惑惊讶的意思 to surprise and confuse someone
  [造句] The football team confounded the prediction and won the game.

• facet
  I’ve quoted from so many writers, writing about so many facets of the physical world.
  （问题，形势等的）方面，部分 one part of a subject, situation
  [造句] Each facet of the pollution requires careful attention.