PART 1 Gist
Writers are not writing for the mass audience or editors but rather themselves. They should be upfront about their own feelings and avoid pretentiousness.?
Journalese which is full of cheap words, made-up words and clichés, is the enemy of good writing. A writer must develop a respect for words and a curiosity about their shades of meaning. Three suggestions are given by William Zinsser. First, make a habit of reading. Second, get in the habit of using dictionaries. Third, consider rhythm and alliteration while writing.?
PART 2 Expressions
1. Now I'm saying you must write for yourself and not be gnawed by worry over whether the reader is tagging along.
gnaw: [n?:] to keep biting sth hard
A rat had gnawed a hole in the box.
gnaw (away) at sb/sth: to make sb feel worried or frightened, over a period of time.
Something was gnawing at the back of his mind.
Doubt was gnawing away at her confidence.
gnawing: (a.) ? eg. gnawing doubts
Born a Crime里的類似表達(dá): rattle
用rattle改寫: Not get/be rattled by worry over whether the reader is tagging along.
2. If they doze off in the middle of your articule because you have been careless about a technical detail, the fault is yours.
doze: 打盹? doze off: 打瞌睡珍语；睡著? SYN drop off, nod off
Grandud was dozing in his chair.
I must have dozed off.?
3. But at least your sentences will be grounded in solid principles.
be grounded in/ on sth: be based on sth
Lewis' ideas were grounded in his Christian faith.
4. Other old writers ramble and repeat themselves.
ramble: (v.) to talk for a long time in a way that does not seem cleary organized so that other people find it difficult to understand of find boring
She's getting old and she tends to ramble a lot.
ramble on about sth
My father kept rambling on about the war.
(n.) a speech or piece of writing that is very long and does not seem to be clearly organized
In a ten-page ramble, Barre explains why he wrote the book.
5. But mainly what I like is that this is a man telling me unabashedly about a love affair with poultry that goes back to 1907.
unabashed: [??n??b??t] not ashamed or embarrassed, especially when doing sth unusual or rude 不害臊的果元；不加掩飾的天吓；滿不在乎的
She stared at him with unabashed curiosity.
He seems unabashed by his recent defeat.
6. He didn't kowtow to the reader tor curry anyone's favor.
kowtow: [?ka??ta?] 叩頭瓦阐； to be too eager to obey or be polite to someone in authority 順從;唯命是從
According to the local custom, he had to kowtow three times.?
We will not kowtow to the government.
7. It allows for a rich vein of humor and common sense.
a vein of humor/ malice etc: a small amount of humor etc
In voicing our fear of old age, Rivers has discovered a rich vein of comedy.
in a ... vein: in a particular style of speaking or writing about sth
in the same vein/ in a similar vein
There was more humor, in much the same vein.
poems in a serious/ light-hearted etc vein
8. These dreary phrases constitute writing at its most banal.
dreary: [?dr??ri] dull and making you feel sad or bored? 陰沉的岭接；枯燥的
the same dreary routine
a dreary winter's day
banal: [b??n?l] ordinary and not interesting because of a lack of new or different ideas 平庸的箱亿；陳腐的
conversations about the most banal subjects
9. Notice the decisions that other writers make in their choice of words and be finicky about the ones you select from the vast supply.
finicky: [?f?n?ki] too concerned with unimportant details and small things that you like or dislike
挑剔的逛犹；過分關(guān)注細(xì)節(jié)的? be finicky about
She's vey finicky about what she eats.
SYN be fussy about sth
Sue was fussy about her looks.
10. I try to surmise how in rewriting the sentence he reassembled it to end with a phrase that will momentarily linger.
surmise: [s??ma?z] (n./ v.) 推測
When she came in, he didn't look up, so she surmised that he was in a bad mood.
Charles was glad to have his surmise confirmed.
PART 3 Thoughts
Master the small gradations between words that seem to be synonyms. What's the difference between “cajole,” "wheedle," "blandish" and "coax"? Get yourself a dictionary of synonyms.
我非常贊同作者的這個(gè)觀點(diǎn)气笙。確實(shí)舱呻， 對(duì)語言的駕馭與對(duì)近義詞的辨析能力有很大關(guān)系醋火。我有一個(gè)在中國待了近四年的韓國朋友，中文水平非常高箱吕，甚至口音都很地道芥驳，很多時(shí)候都讓人忘了她是韓國人。有一次她上一門中文系的選修課茬高，她問我“驚奇”兆旬、“驚異”、“驚訝”怎栽、“吃驚”有什么區(qū)別丽猬，分別放在哪個(gè)句子最合適。我當(dāng)時(shí)愣了一下熏瞄，想了半天也找不到一個(gè)可以說清楚的答案脚祟。然而確實(shí)這四個(gè)詞是存在差異的，如果用一個(gè)替換另一個(gè)會(huì)感覺有些別扭强饮。比如由桌，“他的突然到來讓我很驚訝∮史幔” 用其他三個(gè)詞替換都感覺不妥行您。這種辨析能力對(duì)于母語人士以外的人是很難學(xué)習(xí)和掌握的。在學(xué)習(xí)英語上我也常常會(huì)遇到這樣的問題剪廉。上兩個(gè)月從Elon Musk的傳記中學(xué)到了ramification這個(gè)詞娃循，我有意識(shí)地在英語寫作中用ramification來替換result和consequence。最近讓一個(gè)外教幫我修改一下申請(qǐng)的自薦信妈经，他修改的部分中就有一處是把我文中的ramification改回了result, 他的解釋是"I can understand what you want to say, but it's just we don't use this word here"淮野。我和室友常常嘲笑外教的放之四海而皆準(zhǔn)的解答方式“我們就是這么說的”捧书，然而現(xiàn)在想想吹泡，確實(shí)很多近義詞很難解釋清楚它們間的差異，很多時(shí)候只可意會(huì)不可言傳经瓷，而要掌握這種辨析能力絕不是一朝一夕所能實(shí)現(xiàn)的爆哑。
