字神帝國英語天地

例1：Do you agree or disagree with the following statement? Advertising is the only main cause for people's unhealthy eating habits.

看到這個題目，同學們立刻會開始想，有沒有other reasons for unhealthy habits，想出三條如：1. People's tight schedules do not allow them to eat at regular hours; 2. Sometimes people are eager to lose weight or to keep fit so that they go on "endless diets"; 3. Bearing heavy burden both physically and mentally, some consider eating constantly as their most effective stress reliever. 綜上所述，advertising is not the only cause.

這個寫法看起來非常完備，但其實犯了一個不起眼卻嚴重的錯誤--題目不是要我們證明it is not the only cause，而是要我們去證明it is not the only main cause。多一個"main"，意思是很不一樣的。如果我們只需要證明it is not the only cause，那麼找出other causes即可即例1中的寫法。但是，如果我們要證明it is not the only main cause，就需要證明other causes that we mentioned are also main causes，這就需要在每一段中加上一些專門的說明。或者，更簡單的辦法是去證明advertising is not even a cause, 直接在每段的末尾加上advertising與該段所論述的unhealthy eating habit無關的論述即可。If it is not a cause, how can it be the onlymain cause? 這樣一來，就不用通過證明還有其他main cause來反駁了，事實上，證明某種cause是main cause還是挺有難度的，因此筆者推薦同學們用後一種方式進行論述。因此，文章還是disagree，而三段的主題句分別應該是：1、1. People's tight schedules do not allow them to eat at regular hours, and it is obvious that they are too busy to be influenced by advertising; 2. Sometimes people are eager to lose weight or to keep fit so that they go on "endless diets", and this is more like a result of human nature, the pursuit of beauty, but not advertising; 3. Bearing heavy burden both physically and mentally, some consider eating constantly as their most effective stress reliever, and it is quite clear that no advertising encourages them to do so.

例2：Do you agree or disagree with the following statement? Colleges and universities should offer more preparation for student before they start working.

看到這個題目，很多同學會可能會這樣寫：Agree. 1. Students should take morespecializedcourses(專業課)in order to be knowledgeable and skillful enough for their future careers(接著開始論述being knowledgeable and skillful的重要性); 2.Participating in internships helps students to have a clearer picture of their vocational development in the future(接著開始論述，如果沒有實過習，在工作的時候是多麼地feel so unprepared); 3. Attending more club activities is an effective way to improve social skills, which are crucial for success both in life and at work(接著開始論述good social skills對職業和生活的幫助).如果不看括弧裡的內容，僅看主題句，這篇文章是沒有任何問題的。然而，括弧中的論述從嚴格意義上來講，是不能支援"more"這個關鍵字的。舉個簡單的例子："我們需要錢"和"我們需要更多錢"在證明的時候重點是不一樣的。如果證明"我們需要錢"，應該詳細闡述錢的"不可或缺性"，比如生活、學習、教育都需要錢;但是如果證明"我們需要更多錢"，重點則應該放在"錢不夠"的論述上，證明在學習、生活、教育方面的預算都很緊張。同樣地，上面的題目中僅僅證明Knowledge for careers, field experience and social skills are important是不夠的，事實上，這些根本不需要證明，需要證明的事情是graduates today are not well prepared in the three aspects. 因此這篇文章應該是一篇"抱怨型"的文章，詳細地去論述學校工作的不足。參考思路如下：Agree. 1. Many students today complain that they cannot learn practical skills and up-to-date information, for some of their teachers are not qualified enough to teach specialized courses; 2. Since many students are not allowed enough time to participate in internship programs before graduation, they know very little about what their future jobs like; 3. Joining clubs is possible for every college student, yet not every club provide is capable of offering enough opportunities for students to practice their social skills.

同學們在寫文章的時候一定要注意，學術論文寫作不是句型和辭藻的堆砌，整篇文章一定是一個well-organized system，這個system中很重要的原則之二就是，

1、每個中間段的topic sentence是用來支持main idea的;

2、topic sentence後面的每句話都是用來支持該topic sentence的。在上面的兩個例子中，大家會發現例1的錯誤主要是main idea沒有很好地被topic sentence支持;而例2的錯誤在於topic sentence雖然看起來是支持main idea的，但是論述的內容可能跟關鍵字"more"無關，從而不能有力地支持topic sentences。這些錯誤的起因，則是對題幹中關鍵字的忽略。