英语短文写作（五）
三、短文写作的主要文体
研究生英语入学考试短文写作的方式有：命题作文、看图作文、情景作文、给出提纲（或段首句）等。主要文体有：论说文（argumentation）、说明文（exposition）、描写文（description）、记叙文（narration）、应用文（practical writing）、图表作文、情景作文。
1. 论说文
1）概述：议论是讲道理，论是非。议论文的作用就是论证某一观点、看法或主张。作者通过事实和逻辑推理来阐明自己的观点，表明赞成什么或反对什么，以达到影响读者的思想和行动。一段完整的议论是由论点、论据和论证组成的。论点是作者的观点或主张，一般情况下一篇文章只有一个论点（即所谓的中心论点）；论据是作者用来证明论点的理由和事实（具体的事例、统计数据、名人的理论或科学公理等）；论证是作者用一系列的论据来证明自己的观点或反驳别人的论点的推理过程。写议论文时考生必须注意其论点要明确，论据要充分、恰当，推理要逻辑性强，文章层次要分明。
2）写作方法：论说文的写作方法主要有归纳法、演绎法、类比法等。
A) 归纳法（induction）是指从若干个别事例和现象中综合它们的共同本质，总结出普遍的道理、观点或看法。如：Americans feel proud of themselves for working hard, but they feel equally proud of themselves when they sit and do nothing over weekends. As a matter of fact, some Americans measure success in terms of the length and frequency of their vacations. The man who gets a month’s vacation each year considers himself more successful than the man who gets two weeks. Many people become teachers because teachers get a three-month vacation every year. Some college teachers who teach three classes consider themselves less successful than one who teaches only one or two or none at all. In brief, the less work Americans do, the more successful they consider themselves.
这一篇短文列举了美国人如何看待工作和成就的种种自相矛盾的态度，最后得出一个看法：某些美国人认为，工作干得越少，就越成功。
B) 演绎法（deduction）是指从一般论断（公认的、众所周知的原理或道理）来推断出一个观点。如：The “Band Wagon” is a device to make us follow the crowd, to accept the propagandist’s program en masse（全体、整个地）. Here his theme is: “Everybody’s doing it.” His techniques range from those of the medicine show to dramatic spectacle. He hires a hall, fills a great stadium, marches a million men in parade. He employs symbols, colors, music, movement, all the dramatic arts. He appeals to the desire, common to most of us, to “follow the crowd”. Because he wants us to “follow the crowd” in masses, he directs his appeal to groups held together by common ties of nationality, religion, race, environment, sex, vocation. Thus propagandists campaigning for or against a program will appeal to us as Catholic race or as Negroes; as farmers or as school teachers; as housewives or as miners. All the artifices of flattery are used to harness the fears and hatreds, prejudices and biases, convictions and ideals common to the group; thus emotion is made to push and pull the group on to the Band Wagon. In newspaper article and in the spoken word this device is also found. “Don’t throw your vote away. Vote for our candidate. He’s sure to win.” Nearly every candidate wins in every election before the votes are in.
C) 类比法（analogy）是把两种相同或相似的事物加以比较，最后得出一个结论。如：Some old people are oppressed by the fear of death... The best way to overcome it so at least it seems to me is to make your interests gradually wider and more impersonal, until bit by bit the walls of the ego recede, and your life becomes increasingly merged in the universal life. An individual human existence should be like a river small at first, narrowly contained within its banks, and rushing passionately past rocks and over waterfalls. Gradually the river grows wider, the banks recede, the waters flow more quietly and in the end, without any visible break, they become merged in the sea, and painlessly lose their individual being. The man who, in old age, can see his life in this way, will not suffer from the fear of death, since the things he cares for will continue...
这里作者把老人的生活比作河流，由于大家对河流比较熟悉，故通过类推的方法来解释老年人的晚年生活。
2. 说明文
1）概述：说明文是说明客观事物的一种文章，它主要是介绍和说明事物的状态、性质、特点、构造、功能、类别，以及解释某种现象的原因和结果，产品的制作过程，事物的运动、变化、产生、消亡过程、原理、规律等。说明文与记叙文、描写文的主要区别在于：记叙文写的是在特定情况下事物的发生与发展；描写文写的是一件事物的外在形态；说明文主要叙述一件事物的内因及其变化。
说明文应该写得条理分明，层次清楚，语言简洁而有逻辑性。只有掌握说明顺序，说明文才能条理分明。常用的说明顺序有：时间顺序、逻辑顺序、空间顺序、认识顺序。时间顺序是指从先到后的顺序；逻辑顺序是指先因后果或先果后因的顺序；空间顺序是指从整体到局部、从上到下、从外到内、从前到后的顺序；认识顺序是指由此及彼、由表及里、由浅入深、由局部到整体、由现象到本质、由具体到抽象的顺序。在写作时，考生一定要注意，一篇文章集中讲一个主题；例证要充分而具体；用词要直接明了。
2）写作方法：
A) 定义法（definition） 在说明事物的过程中，必须交代清楚事物的种类、特征，使读者对事物的特点有一个全面深刻的了解。如：Ambition means the goal in our life. To have one’s ambition does not necessarily mean to become the chief state leaders. This is not in the real sense of the word. The ambition is the goal that encourages us always to look forward and not to lose hope because of failure. Ambition differs from person to person and everyone has his own ambition. Yet not everyone of us can succeed in what we desire to do.
B) 举例法（illustration）通过举例来说明需要阐述的内容。如： Since different people like to do so many different things in their spare time, we could make a long list of hobbies, taking in everything from collecting matchboxes or raising rare fish, to learning about the stars or making model ships. Some hobbies are very popular: stamp collecting, painting and cycling, for example, while others are quite unusual, like collecting insects or traveling on all the trains in one country.
C) 比较与对比法（comparison and contrast）一般来说，比较是对人或事物之间的共同点进行分析；对比是对他们之间的不同点进行分析。在很多情况下，这两种方法可以混合使用。如：It is easy to be a winner. A winner can show his joy publicly. He can laugh and sing and dance and celebrate his victory. People love to be with winners. Winners are never lonely.
Unlike winners, losers are the lonely ones of the world. It is difficult to face defeat with dignity. Losers cannot show their disappointment publicly. They cannot cry or grieve about their defeat. They may suffer privately, but they must be composed in public. They have nothing to celebrate and no one to share their sadness.
