要说学英文最难学的是什么，我觉得听说读写的排序应该是 写 > 说 > 听 > 读，基本就是越需要自己主动的就越难...尤其是英文作为这么一门规则乱七八糟的语言（反正中文也没好哪儿去），很多东西是需要看到了知道了记住了...没太多规律什么。到后面其实也有超越语言本身的一些问题：比如如何遣词造句、如何安排段落、如何构建整个的文章结构。到这里基本就和语言无关了，用中文我也没有做的很好。所以觉得还是需要花一些时间在写作上面。
最近跟了edx一门课：English Grammar and Style, 以及在看一本书 The Elements of Style。其实这门课是给英语母语的人开的、而不仅仅是非母语者（English as a foreign language, EFL)。很多英语母语的人不知道音标、不知道语法，我跟他们聊linguistics 的时候他们也会听的一愣一愣的。但是跟一些英文写的很优雅的人聊天，就会发现他们其实对英文语法也是有很深入的了解的，我想这也是为什么他们写出来可以那么优雅的缘故吧。想想惭愧的是我也不知道中文的语法应该是什么，到底是中文没有什么语法规则呢（不太可能），还是我写的不够好呢（我觉得是我写的不够好吧....）？
第一课基本就是在说一些非常基本的英文语法。说来惭愧，我从来分不清什么时候用the 什么时候不用....也其实不太拎的清楚什么时候用that 什么时候用which...看了无数的规则教程什么还是脑子里没概念（语感），囧。
这里抄录一下一些原则：如何在单词的阶段构建文章的可信度。看完之后觉得真的好难啊！尤其像我这么喜欢啰哩啰嗦的人....
| Words to use 需要用词 | Words to avoid 避免用词 |
|---|---|
| Concrete, specific 具体 | abstract (resource, aspect, item, facility) 抽象 |
| Concise, economical 简洁 | verbose (scintillate, scintillate, globule vivific) redundant (recur again, cooperate together) 啰嗦重复 |
| Clear 清楚 | ambiguous (as/since, and/or) 模糊 |
| Current 现在的 | archaic (we deem it advisable, we hereby acknowledge, amongst, whilst, perusal) 古英语 |
| Formal 正式 | abbreviations (eg, etc, ie, viz) colloquialisms (a stint with, in the throes of) contractions (I’d, it’s, we’d, you’ll, don’t) 缩写、俗语、缩略 |
| Dictionary 词典上的 | coined words (crowdsourcing, criticality, biosimilar, relatable) 连接词 |
| initialisms and COIK acronyms (clear only if known to the reader) 大写字母简写 | |
| Original 原生的 | buzz expressions/clichés (synergy, ballpark figure, gameplan, revenue driven, going forward, at the end of the day) 陈词滥调、啰嗦的口语表述 |
| Simple 简单的 | pompous (Sedulously eschew all polysyllabic profundity.) 浮夸 esoteric (quotidian) 艰涩 |
| Appropriate jargon 适当的术语 | unnecessary/unfamiliar jargon (to the arboreal primates) 不必须的术语 |
| Consistent terminology 用词一致 | ‘thesaurus syndrome’ (firm, company, organisation, corporation; program, project, job, assignment) 同义词不断替换 |
| Authoritative 权威、确定 | apologetic (due to time constraints) 道歉 equivocal (tends to stem from) 模棱两可 defensive (After reading this report, I hope you find it satisfactory) 自我让步 |
| Sincere 真诚 | presumptuous (I presume you will do me the courtesy of a reply.) 专横 |
| Measured 准确 | hyperbolic (Those statistics have been around for decades.) 夸张 |
| Impartial 无偏客观 | biased (Obviously, we prefer to use our own experts.) 有偏向的 polemic (Everyone should be able to read statistics.) 有争议的 |
| Positive 积极 | negative (bar, fail, decline, reject, exclude) 消极 |
| Correct 正确 | incorrect spelling, confusable words (affect/effect; lead/led; principal/principle, stationary/stationery) 错误拼写和混淆 |
| Familiar 熟悉的 | foreign (modus operandi, quid pro quo, fait accompli, chutzpah) 外来词 |
| Inclusive 包含所有 (Every employee enjoys their time off. All employees enjoy their time off.) | discriminatory (the generic ‘he’ or ‘she’) 有歧视的 (Every employee enjoys his time off. Every employee enjoys her time off.) |
| weasel (‘crutch’) words (absolutely, actually, apparently, as it were, basically, certainly, clearly, definitely, essentially, frankly, fundamentally, generally, highly, literally, merely, naturally, obviously, quite, really, simply, to be honest, very, virtually, with all due respect) 含糊其辞 |
One reply on “英文写作的用词原则”
圆猪大人，写得不错啊。