大学英语写作Unit 1

Unit 1英语文章结构特点

我们知道，一篇文章(这里指阐释性文章，如说明文和议论文)由三个要素组成：内容、结构和语言。内容是作者要表达的思想，如一段生活经历或对某个问题的看法。语言是思想的载体，作者通过语言使思想得以传达。而结构则是对思想表达顺序的安排，即先说什么，后说什么。也就是文章结构的开头、中间和结尾。

本单元从文章的第二个要素入手，着重讨论英语文章的宏观结构，即写作说明文或议论文的开头、中间和结尾。首先我们要对学生习作的体裁进行判断，即是说明文还是议论文，然后在与写作规则或惯例的比较中找出习作中的优缺点，指出文章结构的基本原则，使学生明了英语文章结构的特点。最后，对英美作家的范文进行分析。本单元主要回答以下问题：

1．英语文章的结构是由哪些部分组成的?

2．英语文章结构的每一个部分有那些功能?

3．什么是说明文和议论文?

首先，让我们来看以下的三篇大学生英文习作。作文是围绕同一个题目写的：“我为什么选修英语写作课?”

Student Essay 1

Why Did I Select the Course English Writing?

1 Nowadays English becomes more and more important．

2 If you open TV set [turn on a TV set] and pay a little attention to

the news，you will see that every citizen in Beijing is trying his

best to learn English well to support the government in its efforts

to hold the 28th Olympic Games in 2008．At that time，many

foreigners will come here to watch the games and the whole

world will focus their eyes on Beijing．Then undergraduates in

Beijing's universities can work as volunteers．We stand for the

whole country's youth．So we should learn English in order to

communicate with foreigners

3 Besides，I study economics．I know that there will be many

corporations [much cooperation] between China and foreign

countries after China enters WTO．According to the

international rules [international rules], contracts are often

written in English．If we don't know written English well，we

may find ourselves in an unfavorable position and serious

mistakes may often appear.

4 And why haven't we Chinese gained any Nobel Prize of [for]

literature up to now? We don't lack good works or writers，we

just lack good translates [translations of Chinese literature]．

5 For another reason，if I want to publish my papers about

economics in magazines of authority, I have to write in English,

because such magazines are mostly published in English in

foreign countries.

6 So I choose [That's why I Chose] the course English Writing.

Maybe in future foreigners can realize [appreciate] the essence

of Chinese works and know our country better through my

efforts.

习作1分析

本文的题目决定了它的文体应该属于阐释性文章，即说明文(exposition)。因为作者的写作目的是向读者解释自己选修英语写作课的原因。从习作1我们可以看出，全文由六个自然段组成。第一段为开头部分，二、三、四、五段为中间部分，第六段为结尾部分。现在让我们来看开头部分。这一段只有一句话，即“如今英语变得越来越重要”。那么，用这一句话作为文章的开头合适吗?

Oxford & Pike-Baky (2000) 在一本写作教材中谈到文章“开头”(introductions)的四个特点。他们认为文章开头使用的语言要比其他段落更加抽象和具有概括力，其功能是迅速抓住读者的注意力，为读者提供写作背景以熟悉文章内容，文章的开头通常包括表示作者观点的论题句(thesis statement)。对照这