研究生学位英语考试作文写作技巧

研究生学位英语考试作文写作技巧English Writing Skills

英语写作和汉语写作一样，要写出好文章，首先内容要切题，结构要合理。好文章离不开好句子，而句子的好坏与选词、造句等有着密切的关系。现就词汇、句子结构和文章整体与内容统一谈谈写作。

1、措词。在写作时要选明确、准确、生动形象的词，适当地使用成语或习语，可以避免语言的单调贫乏，使之生动而富于内涵。

2、句子。可以试用多种方法来表达同一概念，不断变化句子结构，使语言形式丰富多彩，强化表现力。

3、切题。文章内容必须与主题保持一致，否则文章语言再好，也只能算是失败之作。

一、措辞

1、选择生动准确的词

词是语言的基本单位，人们要表达思想，就要选择适当的词语，这是写作的基本要求。词可分为一般概念的词(general words)和具体概念的词(specific words)。表示一般概念的词含义模糊;表示具体概念的词含义明确，表达准确，生动形象。写作时合理地使用具体概念的词能够使句子表达的意思准确，内容生动，更富有感染力。试比较下面各组句子:

(l) A few houses were destroyed yesterday. (general)

Five houses were burnt down yesterday. (specific)

(2)His relatives gave him two gifts.(general)

His aunt and uncle gave him a watch and a pen as the birthday gifts.

(specific)

(3) Jack went to the window and looked at the crowd outside.(general)

Jack tiptoed to the window and peeped into the room.(specific)

上面各组句中，第一个句子抽象概括，给人以空泛的感觉:第二

个句子用词具体，使人感到意思确切，生动逼真。

2、使用英语成语和习语

人们在长期使用语言的过程中，积累了大量的习惯表达法。这些

成语、习语内涵丰富，语言生动活泼。文章中适当地使用这类短语，

可避免语言的单调贫乏，使句子生动而富于内涵。如:

(l)George has lost his social position since his business failed( 可

改为:George has come down in the world(落魄) since his business failed.

(2)Maybe you have time to go to the cinema, but I have more

important

business to attend to(

可改为:Maybe you have time to go to the cinema, but I have other

fish to fry(另有所图，还有其他事)(

3、用词的宽度

用词的宽度可以反映出写作者所掌握的词汇量。如果一个人掌握的词汇量大，

那么当表达同一概念有不同的表达方法时，则可以换一种说法。如: The teachers maintained that the students should give up love for

the sake

forbidding love among college of learning. Students, however, hold

that

students is no good(

这两句话里，谓语分别用了maintain和hold。如果将它们换为think，所表达的意思相同，但用词宽度则不如原文。这两句话中for the sake of，give up, is no good等都是用词宽度的表现。所以在英语写作中有意识地适当增加用词宽度既能体现学以致用的原则又能使文章取得良好效果。

二、句子的多样化

英语中，同一思想用不同句式表达，其效果会大不相同。要想写出好的文章，就要不断地变化句子的结构形式。 l、长短句交替使用

句子的长短是为表达思想服务的。英语短句结构简单，意思明白具有生动活泼而又干脆利索的表达效果，而长句结构复杂，信息丰富，能表达成熟的思想与复杂的概念。一味地使用长句或短句会使文章显得单调\乏味，从而影响文章的总体效果。科学地交替使用长短句使句子结构变化多样，不仅给文章带来顿挫起伏的语言美感，而且可以受到理想的修辞效果。请看下面的这段话:

She returned to her office. There was a note under the door. It was from

Mr. May. He said he was waiting for her in the coffee room. And he had

not found her sister. He was sorry to have missed her. 这段话用了一连串的短句，读起来单调呆板，平淡无味。为使文字更

加生动，意思更加明确可改为:

When she returned to her office，the found a note from Mr. May under the door. He said he was waiting for h er in the coffee room and hadn’t found

her sister yet. He added that he was sorry to have missed her(

修改后三个句子长短不一，读起来就给人以不同的感觉。