On Writing Well -Day17 (Ch17)

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

....

Words and Expressions:

1. The cure is worse than the ailment.

N-COUNT 疾病；病痛；（尤指）微恙

An ailment is an illness, especially one that is not very serious.

The pharmacist can assist you with the treatment of common ailments.

药剂师能帮你治疗一般的病痛。

2. many a baseball fan who flunked simple arithmetic in school can perform prodigies of instant calculation in the ballpark.

VERB 在(考试)中不及格;未通过(某一课程)

If you flunk an exam or a course, you fail to reach the required standard.

【语法信息】：V n

【语域标签】：mainly AM 主美

【STYLE标签】：INFORMAL 非正式

Your son is upset because he flunked a history exam.

你儿子心烦意乱是因为没有通过历史考试。

3. It has a certain mounting hilarity.

N-UNCOUNT 欢闹;嬉笑

Hilarity is great amusement and laughter.

4.No other player visible to my generation has concentrated within himself so much of the sport’s poignance ...

poignance是poigency的同义词

N-UNCOUNT 辛酸;惨痛

Poignancy is the quality that something has when it affects you deeply and makes you feel very sad.

The film contains moments of almost unbearable poignancy...

电影中有几段几乎让人辛酸得不忍目睹。

There is a certain poignancy about Eric.

埃里克的身上有一种哀伤。

5. the players are strung as tightly as their high-tech racquets.

下列含义时，racquet = racket.

1.N-COUNT （网球、壁球、羽毛球等用的）球拍

A racket is an oval-shaped bat with strings across it. Rackets are used in tennis, squash, and badminton.

【搭配模式】：oft n N

Tennis rackets and balls are provided.

提供网球拍及网球。

2.N-UNCOUNT 硬球壁球

Rackets is a game which is similar to squash but which is played with a hard ball.

6. In football and basketball the pay is sky-high, and so are the sulks.

VERB 生闷气;面有愠色;闷闷不乐

If you sulk, you are silent and bad-tempered for a while because you are annoyed about something.

【语法信息】：V

【搭配模式】：oftin/intoaN

He turned his back and sulked.

他转过身去，面带愠色。

Sulk is also a noun.

He went off in asulk...

他闷闷不乐地离开了。

Now she must be tired of my sulks.

现在她肯定受够了我的坏脾气。

Thoughts:

像天书一样的前半章……

sportswriter，去掉sports首先应该是个writer，也要遵循前几章对writer的基本要求，不能因为领域不同而抛开writer这个身份。

What keeps most sportswriters from writing good English is the misapprehension that they shouldn't be trying to.

Sportsman，去掉sports也首先应该是个man，围绕着TA的前提是把TA当“人”看，不能因为外在的东西就舍弃作为man的本质。

what makes them special is their humanity.

好的体育文章或作品，传递价值观也好，表达梦想、坚持、热血也好，首先，要让人看懂。

They only want the clearest picture of what happened.

其次，要有价值:

Those are the values to look for when you write about sport: people and places, time and transition.

最后但最重要，要有humanity:

Zinser这段话完全代表了我的心声Remember that athletes are men and women who become part of our lives during the season, acting out our dreams or filling some other need for us, and we want that bond to be honored. Hold the hype and give us heroes who are believable.

虽然不一定有机会写体育文章，不过下次看相关作品的时候，可以观察一下作者是不是做到了以下几点:

Hang around the track and the stable, the stadium and the rink.
Observe closely.
Interview in depth.
Listen to old-timers.
Ponder the changes.
Write well.

抛开writer的体育作家如果抛开man去写运动员，终将是悲剧一场。