“This is the problem of writers who set out deliberately to garnish their prose. You lose whatever it is that makes you unique. The reader will notice if you are putting on airs. Readers want the person who is talking to them to sound genuine. Therefore a fundamental rule is: be yourself. “No rule, however, is harder to follow. It requires writers to do two things that by their metabolism are...
2018-08-07 04:071人喜欢
“This is the problem of writers who set out deliberately to garnish their prose. You lose whatever it is that makes you unique. The reader will notice if you are putting on airs. Readers want the person who is talking to them to sound genuine. Therefore a fundamental rule is: be yourself.
“No rule, however, is harder to follow. It requires writers to do two things that by their metabolism are impossible. They must relax, and they must have confidence.”
On the leaking battleship Arizona sunk by the Japanese on December 7, 1941 that a bureaucratic fiat prohibiting children under 45 inches tall from visiting the Arizona Memorial:
“I don’t think children are too young to appreciate what that ship represents,” Magee told me. “They’ll remember it if they see the leaking oil — if they see that the ship is still bleeding.”
2015-01-14 17:201人喜欢
On the leaking battleship Arizona sunk by the Japanese on December 7, 1941 that a bureaucratic fiat prohibiting children under 45 inches tall from visiting the Arizona Memorial:
“I don’t think children are too young to appreciate what that ship represents,” Magee told me. “They’ll remember it if they see the leaking oil — if they see that the ship is still bleeding.”
MOUNT RUSHMORE: “In the afternoon when the sunlight throws the shadows into that socket,” one of the rangers, Fred Banks said, “you feel that the eyes of those four men are looking at you, no matter where you move. They’re peering right into your mind, wondering what you’re thinking, making you feel guilty: ‘Are you doing your part?’ ”
2015-01-14 17:201人喜欢
MOUNT RUSHMORE: “In the afternoon when the sunlight throws the shadows into that socket,” one of the rangers, Fred Banks said, “you feel that the eyes of those four men are looking at you, no matter where you move. They’re peering right into your mind, wondering what you’re thinking, making you feel guilty: ‘Are you doing your part?’ ”
A reporter once asked Joe DiMaggio how he managed to play so well so consistently, and he said: "I always thought that there was at least one person in the stands who had never seen me play, and I didn't want to let him down.
2015-01-12 21:061人喜欢
A reporter once asked Joe DiMaggio how he managed to play so well so consistently, and he said: "I always thought that there was at least one person in the stands who had never seen me play, and I didn't want to let him down.
纯粹因为太好笑了……
Take a class of writing students in a liberal arts college and assign them to write about some aspect of science, and a pitiful moan will go around the room. "No! Not science!" the moan says. The students have a common affliction: fear of science. They were told at an early age by a chemistry or a physics teacher that they don't have "a head for science."..;.
2013-04-09 15:561人喜欢
纯粹因为太好笑了……
Take a class of writing students in a liberal arts college and assign them to write about some aspect of science, and a pitiful moan will go around the room. "No! Not science!" the moan says. The students have a common affliction: fear of science. They were told at an early age by a chemistry or a physics teacher that they don't have "a head for science."
Take an adult chemist or physicist or engineer and ask him or her to write a report, and you'll see something close to panic. "No! Don't make us write!" they say. They also have a common affliction: fear of writing. They were told at an early age by an English teacher that they don't have “a gift for words”.
Nobody can write a book or an article "about" something.
one man pursuing one whale. Every writing projected must be reduced before you start to write.
therefore think small. decide what corner of the subject you are going to bite off, and be content to cover it well and stop. an unwieldy writing is a drain on your enthusiasm.
as for what point you want to make, every successful piece...
2012-03-19 12:041人喜欢
Nobody can write a book or an article "about" something.one man pursuing one whale. Every writing projected must be reduced before you start to write.therefore think small. decide what corner of the subject you are going to bite off, and be content to cover it well and stop. an unwieldy writing is a drain on your enthusiasm.as for what point you want to make, every successful piece of non-fiction should leave its reader with one provocative thought that she or he didn't have before.not two thoughts, or five- just one. so decide which single point you want to leave in the readers' mind. it will not only give you a better idea which route you should follow and what destination you hope to reach. it will affect your decision on tone and attitude.don't become the prisoner of a preconceived plan.有舍才有得吧，不可能做到一丝不漏的全面，于是也不需要太过急切。
One (*my note:simplification for the readers)is craft, the other(*my note: writing for yourself) is attitude. The first is a question of mastering a precise skill; the second is a question of how you use the skill to express your personality.
2012-03-08 19:571人喜欢
One (*my note:simplification for the readers)is craft, the other(*my note: writing for yourself) is attitude. The first is a question of mastering a precise skill; the second is a question of how you use the skill to express your personality.
Ch7 - Usage "They are cheap words, and we don't need them." (p.38) "I don't want to give anybody my input and get his feedback, though I'd be glad to offer my ideas and hear what he thinks of them. 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. You might say it's how I verbalize the interpe...
2018-06-18 01:26
Ch7 - Usage
"They are cheap words, and we don't need them." (p.38)
"I don't want to give anybody my input and get his feedback, though I'd be glad to offer my ideas and hear what he thinks of them. 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. You might say it's how I verbalize the interpersonal." (p.45)
Ch12 - Writing about people: The Interview
"Get people talking. Learn to ask questions that will elicit answers about what is most interesting or vivid in their lives. Nothing so animates writing as someone telling what he thinks or what he does - in his own words." (p.100)
"His own words will always be better than your words, even if you are the most elegant stylist in the land. They carry the inflection of his speaking voice and the idiosyncrasies of how he puts a sentence together: They contain the regionalisms of his conversation and the lingo of his trade. They convey his enthusiasms. This is a person talking to the reader directly, not through the filter of a writer. As soon as a writer steps in, everyone else's experience becomes secondhand." (p.100)
"Interview is one of those skills you can only get better at. You will never again feel so ill at ease as when you try it for the first time, an probably you'll never feel entirely confortable prodding another person for answers he or she may be too shy or too inarticulate to reveal. But much of the skill is mechanical,The rest is instinct - knowing how to make the other person relax, when to push, when to listen, when to stop. This can all be learned with experience." (p.104)
Ch13 - Writing about Yourself - The Memoir
"Of all the subjects available to you as a writer, the one you know best is yourself: your past and your present; your thought and your emotions." (p.132)
On students are afaid of writing themselves:"They can't. They don't think they have permission. I think they get that permission by being born." (p.133)
"To have a decent career in this country it's important to be able to write decent English." (p.134)
"But on the question of who you're writing for, don't be eager to please. If you consciously write for a teacher or for an editor, you'll end up writing for anybody." (p.134)
"If you write for yourself, you'll reach the people you want to write for." (p.134)
For the nonfiction writer, the simplest way of putting this into a rule is: when you’re ready to stop, stop. If you have presented all the facts and made the point you want to make, look for the nearest exit.
2018-03-06 22:35
For the nonfiction writer, the simplest way of putting this into a rule is: when you’re ready to stop, stop. If you have presented all the facts and made the point you want to make, look for the nearest exit.
[已注销]
2013-11-02 08:06 5人喜欢
苏诺 (Keep things rolling.)
2018-08-07 04:07 1人喜欢
YZ (Let's rock from the bottom!)
2015-01-14 17:20 1人喜欢
YZ (Let's rock from the bottom!)
2015-01-14 17:20 1人喜欢
YZ (Let's rock from the bottom!)
2015-01-12 21:06 1人喜欢
任娣 (不系之舟)
2013-04-09 15:56 1人喜欢
tangerine (like a warrior)
2012-03-19 12:04 1人喜欢
[已注销]
2012-03-08 19:57 1人喜欢
假蚁 (illiterate)
2018-06-18 01:26
Adler
2018-03-06 22:35