On Writing Well

Q1 Style Good writers are visible just behind their words. If you aren’t allowed to use “I,” at least think “I” while you write, or write the first draft in the first person and then take the “I”s out. It will warm up your impersonal style. Sell yourself, and your subject will exert its own appeal. Believe in your own identity and your own opinions. Writing is an act of ego, and you might as well admit it. Use its energy to keep yourself going.

Q2 The Audience Who am I writing for,It’s a fundamental question, and it has a fundamental answer: You are writing for yourself. Don’t try to visualize the great mass audience. There is no such audience—every reader is a different person. Don’t try to guess what sort of thing editors want to publish or what you think the country is in a mood to read. Editors and readers don’t know what they want to read until they read it. Besides, they’re always looking for something new. This may seem to be a paradox. Earlier I warned that the reader is an impatient bird, perched on the thin edge of distraction or sleep. Now I’m saying you must write for yourself and not be gnawed by worry over whether the reader is tagging along. I’m talking about two different issues. One is craft, the other is attitude. The first is a question of mastering a precise skill. The second is a question of how you use that skill to express your personality. First, work hard to master the tools. Simplify, prune and strive for order. Think of this as a mechanical act, and soon your sentences will become cleaner. The act will never become as mechanical as, say, shaving or shampooing; you will always have to think about the various ways in which the tools can be used. But at least your sentences will be grounded in solid principles, and your chances of losing the reader will be smaller.

Q3 Words Don’t let yourself get in this position. The only way to avoid it is to care deeply about words. If you find yourself writing that someone recently enjoyed a spell of illness, or that a business has been enjoying a slump, ask yourself how much they enjoyed it. Notice the decisions that other writers make in their choice of words and be finicky about the ones you select from the vast supply. The race in writing is not to the swift but to the original. Make a habit of reading what is being written today and what was written by earlier masters. Writing is learned by imitation. If anyone asked me how I learned to write, I’d say I learned by reading the men and women who were doing the kind of writing I wanted to do and trying to figure out how they did it. But cultivate the best models Also get in the habit of using dictionaries And don’t scorn that bulging grab bag Roget’s Thesaurus Also bear in mind, when you’re choosing words and stringing them together, how they sound. This may seem absurd: readers read with their eyes. But in fact they hear what they are reading far more than you realize. Therefore such matters as rhythm and alliteration are vital to every sentence

Q4 Usage Good usage, to me, consists of using good words if they already exist—as they almost always do—to express myself clearly and simply to someone else

...and whatever form the sentences take will reflect the writer at his most natural.

...rewriting is the essence of writing

"What do you do on the day when it isn't going well?" Dr. Brock was asked. He said he just stopped writing and put the work aside for a day when it would go better. I then said that the professional writer must establish a daily schedule and stick to it. I said that writing is a craft, not an art, and that the man who runs away from his crafts because he lacks inspiration is fooling himself. He is also going broke.

...professional writers are solitary drudges who seldom see other writers.

As for students, anyone might think we left them bewildered. But in fact we gave them a broader glimpse of the writing process than if only one of us had talked...There are all kinds of writers and all kinds of methods, and any method that helps you to say what you want to say is the right method for you.

But all of them are vulnerable and all of them are tense. They are driven by a compulsion to put some part of themselves on paper, and yet they don't just write what comes naturally. They sit down to commit an act of literature, and the self who emerges on paper is far stiffer than the person who sat down to write. The problem is to find the real man or woman behind the tension.

...the most important quilities that this book will go in search of: humanity and warmth.

Good writing has an aliveness that keeps the reader reading from one paragraph to the next, and it's not a question of gimmicks to "personalize" the author. It's an question of using the English language in a way that will achieve the greatest clarilty and strength.

地点： Connecticut 美国康乃迪克州（位于美国东北部）

avocation vs vocation 业余爱好&业余爱好

easy,fun, words flow vs. not easy, not fun,hard, lonely, words seldom flow

absolutely not to rewrite vs. rewriting is the essence of writing

When it's not going well, just stop it. vs. writing is a craft not an art, and that the man who runs away from his craft because he lacks inspiration is fooling himself. He is also going broke.

circulate in the literary world vs. professional writers are solitary drudges are seldom see other writers

panel ：A panel is a small group of people who are chosen to do something, for example, to discuss something in public or to make a decision. 专门小组

bohemian: An artist well-known for wearing filthy coveralls, or a musician who shares a cheap apartment with eight roommates and a pet monkey might be described as bohemian---that is, willfully unconventioal and nonconformist in both appearance and lifestyle.

A nonconformist lifestyle 一个不属于英国国教的生活方式，即一个与众不同的生活方式

arduous 艰辛的

gusto 热情

on the side: 作为兼职 Maybe I should take up surgery on the side.

aliveness 活力

gimmick 噱头

This is the personal transaction that's at the heart of good nonfiction writing. Out of it come two of the most important qualities that book will go in search of : humanity and warmth人性与温度

Good writing has an aliveness that keeps the reader reading from one paragraph to the next, and it's not a question of gimmicks to "personalize" the author. It's a question of using the English language in a way that will achieve the greatest clarity and strength.