首页
外语
计算机
考研
公务员
职业资格
财经
工程
司法
医学
专升本
自考
实用职业技能
登录
外语
The Value of Writing Well [A]It’s that time of year again. No, not "the holiday season". I mean, it is holiday time, but for
The Value of Writing Well [A]It’s that time of year again. No, not "the holiday season". I mean, it is holiday time, but for
admin
2018-08-25
55
问题
The Value of Writing Well
[A]It’s that time of year again. No, not "the holiday season". I mean, it is holiday time, but for professors it doesn’t start feeling like holiday time until final grades are in and the books are closed on another semester. No, for me, it’s paper-grading time, the time of year when I’m reminded over and over of the importance of good writing skills—and of their rarity.
[B]The ability to write well is not a gift. Sure, the special something that sets apart a Tolstoy or Shakespeare or Salman Rushdie or Isabel Allende is a gift, a talent born of disposition, experience, and commitment. But just to be able to communicate clearly with the written word takes no special talent; it’s a skill like any other.
[C]Well, hot exactly like any other. Because the words we use to write with are the same words we use to think with, learning to write well has outcomes that go beyond the merely technical. As we improve our writing ability, we improve our ability to think—to build an argument, to frame issues in compelling ways, to weave apparently unrelated facts into a coherent whole.
[D]And despite the recurring hand-wringing and chest-beating about the "end of literacy" and the "death of the printed word", the reality is that we write more than ever these days. While it’s a rare person who sits down with pen and paper in hand and writes a letter to a friend or loved one, we pour emails at an astounding rate. We text message, tweet, instant message, blog, comment, and otherwise shoot words at each other in a near-constant flow of communication. At work, we write letters, proposals, PowerPoint presentations, business requirement documents, memos, speeches, mission statements, and dozens of more specialized types of documents. We are, it seems, writihg creatures.
[E]It’s no wonder that businesses repeatedly cite "communication skills" as the single most desirable trait in new employees. The kicker, though, is that we are as a society incredibly bad at writing. Public schools do a poor job of teaching students hoW to write well—they barely manage to instill the basic rules of grammar and the miserable 5-paragraph essay, let alone how to write with style and verve, how to put together an argument that moves steadily from one point to the next to persuade a reader of some crucial point, how to synthesize ideas and data from multiple sources into something that takes those ideas one step further.
[F]It’s not just the teachers’ fault. Teachers do the best they can with what they’re given, and all too often what they’re given is inadequate resources with which to teach classrooms full of unmotivated students who could care less about writing. Add to that the requirements of mandatory nationwide tests that reward conformity, not creativity, and the threat of punishment for any school whose students fail to fall within the fairly rigid boundaries of the test’s requirements, and you’ve got a pretty bad situation all around for instilling in students the power to write well.
[G]That is, alas, a great disservice. Being able to write well vastly improves students’—and others’— potential for success, regardless of the field they find themselves in. The skills that make us better writers make us better explainers and better persuaders. They are the skills that allow us to "sell" our ideas effectively, whether in giving a presentation to potential funders of our company, proposing a new project to our corporate leadership, or transmitting a new policy to our employees. Being able to write well lessens the chance that we’ll be misunderstood, and increases the likelihood that our ideas will be adopted.
[H]Writing well is not a gift reserved for the few but a set of skills that can be learned by anyone. The technical aspects can be learned in any of several ways: by taking a class, by studying books on writing, by working with a partner or a group and acting on their feedback. But while grammar and structure are an important part of writing, to write well also demands some effort to develop style. Style is what keeps people reading past the first sentence, and what keeps what you’ve written on their minds, impelling them to take action.
[I]Style is rather less teachable than the nuts and bolts of writing, but it is learnable. It demands patience, attention, and most of all practice, but it is possible for anyone who has something to say to learn how to say it well. Here are some tips to help you move from being merely capable to being a good writer.
[J](1)Read: Reading is essential to good writing. It is how we learn the vastness of the language and the limits of the grammar—and how to push those limits. The more you read, the greater your understanding of language’s potential becomes.
[K](2)Write: Good writing takes practice. Unfortunately, unless we create opportunities to write, we get far too few opportunities to get that practice after we’ve left school. Start a journal, a blog, a newsletter, or whatever else you can think of to get you writing on at least a semi-regular basis.
[L](3)Read Again: Most people who fail to become better writers fail because they do not read their own writing. They don’t read it before they post/mail/submit/publish/otherwise finish it, and they don’t read it after they’re done with it. That means they don’t see the awkward parts, the flat bits, the pieces that say something different from what was intended—and they never learn how to fix or, better yet, avoid those problems.
[M](4)Repeat: Writing is personal, and seeing your writing ill-received can strike a blow to the strongest of egos. The only answer for it, though, is persistence—the goal is to become a better writer, not to be perfect out of the gate. Pay attention to criticism, learn from it, but don’t internalize it—there’s no shame in writing poorly, only in failing to try to do better next time.
[N]Today’s world is a world of text; it is the lifeblood of the information economy. In Ancient Rome, it was the orators who ruled, those who could compel obedience, loyalty, and devotion with their spoken words. Today, the written word is dominant, not only because so much of the information that shapes our lives is written down, but because the habits that make us good writers are the same habits that allow us to flourish in the information economy. If you worry about your writing ability, commit yourself now to becoming a solid writer in the year to come. If you are already a decent writer, commit yourself to becoming better. And if you’re one of the rare few who write well, reach out to those around you and share your talent, so that others may learn from you. Let that be your gift this holiday season.
Those with the ability to write well can better express their ideas and their chances of being misunderstood decrease.
选项
答案
G
解析
根据being misunderstood定位到G段。该段说,提高我们写作水平的那些技巧同时也使我们更能言善辩,能让我们更好地“出售”自己的观点,可以减少我们被误解的几率,增加别人采纳我们观点的几率。本题句子的better express their ideas与原文的make us better explainers或“sell”our ideas effectively对应,decrease对应原文的lessens。
转载请注明原文地址:https://kaotiyun.com/show/8QH7777K
0
大学英语六级
相关试题推荐
Toseeifhaircoloraffectsaperson’schancesofgettingajob,researchersatCaliforniaStateUniversityasked136colleges
Ifyou’relikemostpeople,you’ve【B1】______fakelisteningmanytimes.Yougotohistoryclass,sitinthethirdrow,andlooks
A、Heoftenborrowsmoneyfromothers.B、Hehasjustreceivedhismonthlypay.C、Hecan’tpayoffhiscreditcards.D、Hehaskept
A、Aproductdesignedfornewbornbabies.B、Acompanyprovidingbabysitterservice.C、Atelevisionprogramregardingbabies.D、A
FrustratedwithdelaysinSacramento,BayAreaofficialssaidThursdaytheyplannedtotakemattersintotheirownhandstoregu
TheValueofWritingWell[A]It’sthattimeofyearagain.No,not"theholidayseason".Imean,itisholidaytime,butfor
TheValueofWritingWell[A]It’sthattimeofyearagain.No,not"theholidayseason".Imean,itisholidaytime,butfor
Lackofsleepmakesyougainweightandraisesyourriskforheartdiseaseanddiabetes,apartfromresultingin【C1】______vision
随机试题
药物在储藏中,易发生泛油现象的成分是
关于新生儿胆红素代谢特点,以下哪项是错误的
2010年3月22日,甲施工企业与乙供货商签订了一份钢材供货合同,合同中未约定交货地点及运费的支付。后来双方对此也没有达成补充协议,又不能依其他方法解决。则以下表述正确的是()。
拱圈的施工顺序正确的是()。
根据海关有关管理规定,目前可以向海关办理报关注册手续的企业有()。
甲公司为增值税一般纳税人,其存货和动产设备适用的增值税税率均为13%。于2019年3月1日对某生产用动产进行技术改造,该固定资产的账面原价为1500万元,已计提折旧500万元,未计提减值准备。为改造该固定资产发生相关支出300万元;领用自产产品一批。成本
循环经济是一种由“资源——产品——污染排放”单向流动的线性经济。()
中国是个多宗教的国家,中国宗教徒信奉的主要是(),中国公民可以自由地选择、表达自己的信仰和表明宗教身份。
[*]
AslongasAmericanslovetodrivefarandfast,electriccarsmayneverbetheperfectanswertothecountry’sgreentransporta
最新回复
(
0
)