[0846]《英语写作》
第一次作业
[论述题]
Define the following writing terms
1 Outline
2 Thesis sentence
3 Narration 4Description
参考答案：
1.
a general explanation or description of the content of a discourse; the details being omitted. Roughly speaking, there are three types of outlines: the topic, the sentence and the paragraph outlines. All entries in a topic outline are nouns, noun phrases, gerund phrases or infinitive phrases. All entries in a sentence outline, however, are complete sentences. These two types must not be mixed. A paragraph outline provides something like the topic sentences of the paragraphs of the discourse. A few rules must be observed when one writes an outline. (1) The thesis must be a complete declarative sentence. It is general and objective.
(2) Do not use single subdivisions. If "I” appears, "II” or "III” must also appear. If there is an "A,” there must be a "B” at least. (3) Do not mix a topic outline with a sentence outline. (4) A formal outline follows a strict parallelism. The following is the skeleton of a possible sample outline.
Thesis statement: (a sentence stating the controlling idea of the discourse)
I. Introduction
II. Main idea
Sub-idea
Sub-idea
Supporting detail
Supporting detail
Fact 1
Fact 2
III. Main idea
Sub-idea
Sub-idea
Supporting detail
Supporting detail
Supporting detail
Sub-idea
IV. Conclusion
2. the sentence that states the main thought of the whole essay
3. one of the four major types of writing, the other three being description, exposition, and argumentation. Narrative writing gives an account of events or experiences in chronological order; that is, in the order in which they occurred. A writer can also use the flashback method of
story-telling, starting with an important point in the sequence of events to be narrated and then going back in time. A story can be narrated from the first person point of view or from the third person point of view. Two kinds of narration are discriminated: the straight or simple narrative and the plot narrative. The former records a series of events without introducing complications and solutions. The latter makes use of suspense and climax, stresses cause and effect, and is usually fictional. In its broad sense, narrative writing includes stories, biographies, histories, news items, and narrative poems. Narration does not work alone. It goes hand in hand with description.
4. one of the four major forms or types of discourse. It means painting in words a picture of a person, place, object, scene or setting. It enables the reader to see, hear, taste or feel in imagination. Description is seldom used for its sake. It goes hand in hand with narration, exposition or even argumentation. While narration follows time order, description makes use of space order. Scientific description is objective while literary description is impressionistic, and journalistic description is a combination of the two. In literary description, figurative language abounds. Metaphor, simile and personification are the most commonly used figures of speech.
第二次作业
[论述题]
Define the following writing terms
1 Exposition 2Argumentation
3 Style 4Induction
参考答案：
1 one of the four major types of writing. Its function is to explain, explore or expound. Ways of development used in expository compositions include: definition, illustration, comparison, contrast, classification, analysis, cause and effect, and generalization.
2 one of the four main types of writing, the other three being narration, description, and exposition. An argumentative essay aims to convince or persuade the reader that something is true or false.
3 the distinctive and unique manner of expression in prose or verse. It is a writer's characteristic manner of arranging words to achieve certain effects. "Style is,” in the words o f the French naturalist and critic Buffon, "the man himself.” A twentieth century American poet Robert Frost said, "I am not satisfied to let it go with the aphorism that style is the man…Rather, his style is the way he carries himself toward his ideas and deeds”
4 The term is employed to refer to one of the two basic kinds of reasoning in argumentation, the other being deduction. Induction is a process of logical reasoning which moves from the specific to the general, while deduction begins with the general and ends with the specific.
第三次作业
[论述题]
Define the following writing terms
1Summary 2Deduction
3Book Report 4fallacy of composition
5Post hoc fallacy 6Syllogism
参考答案：
1a type of writing by which the writer restates the main ideas and facts of the original passage or work. To write a summary is to omit the details, reduce the examples, simplify the descriptions, and eliminate the repetitions of the original work. The writer is not supposed to judge or evaluate.
2one of the logical reasoning processes, the other being induction. Deduction is the process of drawing a conclusion through reasoning from general premises to a specific premise. Deduction is usually presented in the form of syllogism:
Major premise: All mammals are animals.
Minor premise: All sharks are mammals.
Conclusion: Therefore, all sharks are animals.
3a type of writing practiced by student writers after they have read a book. A typical book report consists of three parts: a brief introduction to the original author's name, life and publications; a summary of the main ideas and facts in the original work, or a summary of the story in a work of literature; and the student writer's analysis or evaluation.
4Also known as "garbled syllogism,” it is a fallacy in logical reasonin g. It happens when a distributive and individual characteristic is confused with a collective characteristic; it is the attribution of individual characteristic to the class. An example is as follows:
Every teacher of the university is rich.
Therefore the university is rich.
5a fallacy in logical argumentation. It is the logical fallacy of believing that temporal succession suggests a causal relation. When one confuses correlation with causation, one commits the post hoc fallacy. This happens when one asserts that if one thing happens after another, the first must be the cause of the second. It is the assumption that because one thing follows another that the one thing was caused by the other. A post hoc fallacy is usually in the following form:
A occurs before B.
Therefore A is the cause of B.
6in deductive reasoning, a method of presenting a logical argument that derives its conclusion from two premises or propositions. In its most basic form, the syllogism consists of three divisions: a major premise, a minor premise, and a conclusion. An example of a syllogism is:
Major premise: When it rains, the streets get wet.
Minor premise: It is raining.
Conclusion: The streets are wet.
第四次作业
[论述题]
Give brief answers to the following questions.
1.What is a complete composition?
2.What is the difference between paragraph development by
comparison and by contrast?
3.What is the difference between coherence and unity?
4.Can you name three ways of beginning a composition? And what are
they?
5.What are the two major logical reasoning methods? Explain them. 参考答案：
1. an essay that has a beginning paragraph, some developing paragraphs ans a concluding paragraph. The four major types of composition are narration, description, exposition and argumentation.
2. comparison paragraphs aiming at the similarities; and contrast paragraphs aiming at differences
3. coherence being concerned with form, order and structure; unity with idea and meaning
4. by asking a question; by telling a story; and by having a quotation
5. induction and deduction; explanations being ommitted
第五次作业
[论述题]
Give brief answers to the following questions.
1.Can you explain simile and metaphor, please?
2.Can you name three ways of essay development?
3.What's the difference between exposition and argumentation?
4.What is the order to be used in narration?
5.What is the order to be used in description?
参考答案：
1
Simile: A figure of speech in which an explicit comparison is made between two distinctly different things. The comparison is made explicit by the use of such words as "like” and "as.” Sometimes, similes are even introduced by words like compare, liken, resemble, than, appears, and seems. A metaphor differs from a simile in that it is without the word "like” or "as.” It is a compressed simile. But the use of "like” or "as” in a sentence or line does not always indicate there is a simile in it. For example, there is no simile if one says "The child looks like his father.” Though comparison does exist here, it is not made between two essentially dissimilar things. Familiar instances of similes are "as stubborn as a mule,” "as clear as a bell,” "as fast as the wind,” "as timid as a hare,” "as cool as a cucumber,” and "He smokes like a chimney.” The following example is taken from Robert Burns's "A R ed, Red Rose”:
O my Luve's like a red, red rose,
That's newly sprung in June.
O my Luve's like the melodie,
That's sweetly play'd in tune.
A metaphor is a figure of speech in which one thing is described in terms of another. In a metaphor there is an implicit comparison between two things which are essentially different. There is, however, a common quality shared by the two things compared. A metaphor, unlike a simile, is without such words as "like” or "as.” A metaphor can be used for emphasis, ornament, defamiliarization, and the like.
2. by time; by comparison; and by contrast
3. Exposition: one of the four major types of writing. Its function is to explain, explore or expound. Ways of development used in expository compositions include: definition, illustration, comparison, contrast, classification, analysis, cause and effect, and generalization.
Argumentation: one of the four main types of writing, the other three being narration, description, and exposition. An argumentative essay aims to convince or persuade the reader that something is true or false.
4 time order
5 space order