如何有效提高英語寫作能力

引言:對於如何有效提高英語寫作能力,小編想跟大家分享一篇文章,希望看完後的你們能夠有所感悟。

如何有效提高英語寫作能力

知乎上曾經有人問“怎樣提升一個人的文筆?”,最高票的答案是“閱讀、模仿與失戀”。

我深以爲然。其實對於英文寫作訓練也是如此,失戀可遇而不可求,閱讀和模仿卻是每個人都能做到的。寫作能力的提升一定離不開大量的閱讀和模仿(寫作練習)。在英文聽說讀寫四項基本技能裏面,寫作是最難掌握和精進的一項。它也是一個人綜合英語能力的體現,通常來說,寫作水平高的人,其他聽說讀三項的水平也不會低。

嚴格來講,我們所說的寫作其實可以分爲Creative Writing 和Academic Writing 兩種,Creative Writing 會偏文學類一點,應用會相對少一些,而Academic Writing 則幾乎是所有英語學習者都必需用到的技能,比如從四六級到託福雅思的考試作文,學術論文,日常郵件,陳述講稿等,我們接下來要說的也是Academic Writing 這一類型的寫作。

對於英文寫作提升,我們要解決的有兩個主要問題:閱讀和模仿。

先說閱讀。

一個現實情況是,有不少人雖然學了好幾年英語,但學習過的資料大部分是爲了應付考試,比如四六級的詞彙書、作文書,或者各種習題資料,終歸沒脫離開考試的範圍,除此之外讀過的原版書幾乎一個手指頭都能數得過來了。如果沒有足夠的素材儲備,他們寫出來的作文可能會是這樣的:

Nowadays,with the rapid development of society, purpose of education being e are some people who think that competition in children should be made rs believe that children who are taught to cooperate as well as become more useful e are advantages and disadvantages for both of the arguments.

To begin with, what is good if a sense of competition in children is made? They can develop themselves more and more as they learn and study a lot to win from the prove this, in my country it is popular and common to have a tutor who come to students' house to teach extra pieces of study with paying a lot of money. ...

上面的這兩段是我從一篇學生習作中選的,其文風和錯誤應該都非常典型:生硬套用作文模板,中式英語,語法錯誤,內容空泛...造成這種問題的一個主要原因就是讀英語讀得太少了,腦子裏幾乎沒有什麼地道的英文儲備,寫出來的東西也不會高明到那裏去。

因此,提高英文寫作水平的第一步是:大量閱讀,閱讀是一個量變引發質變的過程,在你讀到一定量的時候,可能會在某一瞬間突然發現虛擬語氣原來是這種感覺,動詞搭配原來是這麼回事...當你提筆寫作的時候,你會在腦海裏重現類似的例句。新手可以從泛讀開始,選擇一些生詞較少,內容簡短且情節精彩的小說,慢慢培養閱讀的習慣,有條件的可以去買個kindle, 閱讀體驗會更好。大量的閱讀會帶來詞彙量的提升,通過閱讀積累的詞彙理解最爲深刻,記憶效果也最好,最容易轉化爲積極詞彙從而應用到寫作中去。

在泛讀的同時還要注意一點:強化語法。語法有多重要?舉個例子,現在分詞過去分詞及各種從句的靈活運用,主動被動的轉換,虛擬語氣表達的特殊感情,這些都是寫作的基本技巧。語法不好,寫作水平也不會高到哪裏去,具體表現爲通篇語病,只會用簡單句型,不會寫漂亮的長短句,偶爾憋出個長句還是錯的。不會運用高級語法,比如獨立主格,虛擬語氣等,句式的多樣性和表達的靈活性受到很大的影響。因此我們有必要強化一下語法。基本思路是先通讀一兩本語法書,建立起基本的語法框架,然後通過大量的閱讀和聽力練習不斷鞏固完善語法。目前市面上的語法書非常多,但內容其實都大同小異,挑選好一兩本認真啃下去就是,推薦《賴世雄語法》 或者劍橋的語法在用系列。

寫作進階:品經濟學人,習上乘佳作

在大量閱讀,強化語法的基礎上,相信你現在寫作時已經能夠做到少犯或不犯語法錯誤,寫出來的英文還算湊合了,這個時候如果需要進一步提高文筆應該怎麼做?可以採用精讀經濟學人以及使用英英詞典和搭配詞典的方法。以Academic Writing 爲例,一篇漂亮的文章至少要做到以下幾點:句式豐富多變,長短句靈活應用,用詞準確出彩,論點豐富,論證有力,邏輯嚴謹。而經濟學人就滿足這種“漂亮”文章的標準,是非常好的閱讀和模仿素材。好的文章是模仿出來的,要學會模仿閱讀時遇到的優美的詞彙用法、句型結構、巧妙的比喻、幽默的風格等等,慢慢化爲自己的熟練表達。

比如很多人習作中出現的一個問題是句式單一,用詞平庸。我們可以學習一下經濟學人文章的寫法,增加語言的張力。舉個例子,下面的這一段節選自上週的經濟學人文章 The enemy within:

EMPLOYEES are often said to be a company’s biggest resource. It is equally true that they are its biggest cely a week goes by without a company falling victim to employees-turned-enemies-or-embarrassments. On July 20th Ashley Madison, a website for married people looking to have an affair, announced that it had been hacked. Noel Biderman, the company’s chief executive, says that he thinks the attack was “an inside job”. On July 6th HSBC fired a group of employees when it emerged that they had filmed themselves engaged inan “ISIS-style mock beheading” of an Asian colleague dressed in an orange jumpsuit.

The most familiar type of enemy within is the fraudster. The Economist Intelligence Unit, a sister organisation of The Economist, conducts a regular poll of senior executives on the subject of fraud committed by insiders. In 2013 the poll discovered that about 70% of companies had suffered from at least one instance of fraud, up from 61% in the previous survey. Fraud is often petty: a survey of British employees for YouGov in 2010 found that a quarter of staff eligible for expenses admitted to inflating claims. But fraud can also be more audacious and more harmful: think of former employees setting up rivals using stolen technology and purloined client lists.