逍遥学能 2010-05-25 22:43
以我在美求学的经验，向大家提一些尽量可以避免的写作常识问题，希望对大家的考试，乃至以后赴美求学的漫漫征程有所裨益。时间所限，不可能写全，但是我会不断补充的。还有在文章中引用的那些片断，并没有攻击作者的意思，只不过拿出来和大家探讨一下。希望被引用的作者谅解，
1、避免使用反问句、设问句。特别是作者也没有答案的问题。
例如： What’s the objective of the information? Is it to make people more confused and astray? I partly agree with the author’s contention that the enormous and otiose information sometimes render people lose their way and fail to consider question penetratingly and originally.
在作文的开头就扔出两个问题，然后接下来的陈述却与问题基本毫无干系。作为读者，首先要考虑那两个问题的答案到底是什么，然后才能往下读。这些在中文里可能会被评作“引人入胜”的好词好句，在英语的论文写作里面，可以说是最大的败笔之一。如果你一定要问问题的话，那就改成陈述句式，例如：Whether this issue is right or wrong? 可以改成：It has been a controversial issue that.....
2、避免集中使用"Be"动词，包括is, are, has been, have been, etc.
即使GRE考题statement里面有很多"Be"动词，你也要避免照抄，因为statement是浅显地告诉你一个idea，而不是向你展示writing。
例如：What is the purpose of education? Some people may say that the purpose of education should be to create a totally academic environment that separates from the outside world, for, they think, this situation allows students to focus on their academic research work without being disturbed by practical concerns. In fact, this suggestion is harmful to the scientific research work.
这是某一篇文章的开头。我们现在只是分析语法问题。作者除了要注意不要使用疑问句以外，还有很重要的一点：总共两三句话，出现4个"Be"动词。这种写法，在英语里面被称作"non-act"的动词。"Be" 仅仅表示一种状态，例如："i am here", "you are there". 对于母语者来说，"Be"动词其实就是写在纸上，而没有任何感情色彩。所以应该尽量避免成篇累牍地使用。我们的例子可以改为：
Some people argue that the purpose of education lies in its strength in creating a totally academic environment separated from the outside world. They think this situation allows students to focus on academic research by excluding outside disturbance from practical concerns. However, this suggestion in fact does harm to the scientific research work.
我们可以看到，使用了lie in, exclude, do harm to以后，句子更有色彩了。