1 Interesting Language Points
1.1 emulate
His was the seemingly effortless style...that I wanted to emulate(from Introdution)
verb. to do something or behave in the same way as someone else, especially because you admire them
--emulation n.
e.g. I am keeping emulating the nature of mathematical instinctive I ought to have since that is what I major in.
1.2 verbose & verbiage
Bad writer bacame even more verbose because writing was suddenly so easy...(from Introdution)
adj. using or containing too many words
--verbosity n.
e.g. It seems verbose to describe such a simple proposition yet it is not if you think mathematically.
Perhaps a sentence is so excessively cluttered that the reader, hacking through the verbiage, simply doesn't know what it means.(from Chap.2)
n. speech or writing that has many unnecessary words in it
1.3 drudgery & drudge
Good writers welcomed the gift of being able to fuss endlessly with their sentences...without the drudgery of retyping(from Introduction)
n. hard boring work
--drudge n.,v.
SYN. labor, toil, travail, grind, lucubration(hard and difficult study)
I said that professional writers are solitary drudges who seldom see other writers.(from Chap.1)
SYN. recluse
e.g. A mathematician shall not, the lecturer said, be a drudge in seclusion.
1.4 one long burst
Some people write their first draft in one long burst, and then revise(from Chap.1)
It means do it at one time in great effort.
e.g. A proof should be done in one long burst or you will do it from the beginning every time.
1.5 air raid
Such preparations shall be made as will completely obscure all Federal buildings and non-Federal buildings occupied by the Federal gevernment during an air raid for any period of time from visibility by reason of internal or external illumination.
n. an attack in which bombs are dropped on a place by planes
The sentence written by Roosevelt demonstrates exactly what simplicity and complexity are.
e.g. The proof of Fermat's Last Theorem by Wiles is an air?raid targeted on the Mathematical field.
2 Good words
2.1
Good writers welcomed the gift of being able to fuss endlessly with their sentences-pruning and revising and reshaping-without the drudgery of retyping. Bad writers became even more verbose because writing was suddenly so easy and their sentences looked so pretty on the screen.
2.2
...I was asked if I would come and talk about writing as a vocation.
It reminds me of the famous speeches addressed by Max Weber, Science as a vocation?and Politics as a Vocation, and the first one is just as astonishing as the situation a professional writer is facing written in Chapter 1.
2.3
This is the personal transaction that's at the heart of good non-fiction writing. Out of it come two of the most important qualities that the 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 a question of using the English language in a way that will achieve the greatest clarity and strength.
3 Summary in Chinese
第一次很認真地去讀原版書，而且選擇了這本應用類型的“寫作圣經(jīng)”，很希望自己能夠順暢讀完并學到很多知識叽躯，就像前段時間一直在讀“韋小綠”一樣。
讀完導論和前兩章贮庞，發(fā)現(xiàn)作者William Zinsser似乎很喜歡用一個具象化的描寫作為開頭，然后將作者帶入情景，再很清晰地點出問題，進入自己的論述菱涤。第一段描述大作家E.B.White是這樣，第二段用很長很有戲劇性甚至有些幽默的排比式對比洛勉，也是這樣粘秆。
對于導論，似乎一切都圍繞“變與不變”這四個字坯认。變的是周遭的時代翻擒，是日新月異的技術與環(huán)境氓涣，也是作者這本三十年來一改再改的書牛哺；然而不變的，就像是E.B.White所著的boathouse所代表的一個真正用心靈去寫作的人用以專心寫作的態(tài)度劳吠。所謂“非寧靜無以致遠”即使如此引润。
第一章點出了作者所強調(diào)的兩個關鍵詞：人性與溫暖。作者舉了《瓦爾登湖》的例子（也許是作者崇拜的作家痒玩？）淳附，告訴我們什么叫將“文如其人”。文章所要傳達的正是作者的思想蠢古，而這種思想奴曙，作為一個真正的作家，應當是人性的光輝與對人類的愛草讶。至于那些瑣碎的寫作習慣洽糟，作者當然認為是不重要的。
第二章寫出了作者所堅持的語言原則：簡潔。作者開頭兩端對clutter類型的語言的列舉使其丑陋與低效不言自明坤溃。（一時聯(lián)想起老友記里面錢德勒所說的WENUS拍霜。）后面作者也利用羅斯福的文章進一步展示了何為簡潔的英語（充滿大量的日耳曼源詞匯）。最后作者闡明了一個道理：“A clear sentence is no accident.”就像作者在前面的部分所反復強調(diào)的薪介，修改很重要祠饺。
讀到這里，我真的十分感慨汁政。作為一個大二的學生道偷，我只能抽出極少數(shù)的時間去寫作（此處指漢語寫作），而每一次寫完记劈，讀者（大多是我的同學）都會問我：“你在寫什么试疙？”我常常會說：我的小說寫的是我的情緒，我的情緒噴薄而出我才會有動力去寫抠蚣。寫完也很少再去修改祝旷。說到這里，你可能已經(jīng)發(fā)現(xiàn)嘶窄，我就是作者批判的對象怀跛。我現(xiàn)在才幡然醒悟，文學化的內(nèi)容要通過大量的修改和訓練創(chuàng)造柄冲，而所謂“個性化的表達”吻谋，實際上是一個人的積淀，而非突然之間的“才思泉涌”现横。接下來進行英語寫作訓練的時候當然也要貫徹這個原則了漓拾。
