今天說寫作。
一個人的外語水平乃至語言水平的最切實體現，不在於說的如何、講得如何、考試考得如何，而在於：給她/他足夠的時間，讓她/他充分思索、查證後，她/他所能寫出來的東西的水平。（大一入學時梅仁毅老師講的）
之前提出過英語寫作、尤其是英語應試寫作中的兩個誤區，一個是喜歡搞長難句（能用複雜句就不用簡單句），一個是喜歡用繁複辭藻（能用短語就不用單詞、能用「高級」詞就不用「low」詞之類）。舊文見下：
別老拽複雜句，拽不好不如不拽
從一篇考研作文範文說起：脫褲子放屁不是高級
我在從一篇考研作文範文說起：脫褲子放屁不是高級中抨擊了某書的考研作文範文，有人說我的回答「專業到沒用，人家是學工科的，考研作文就糊弄，寫的如此專業反而有種炫技感」。
我只好說：
首先，我說的不算「專業」——寫議論文首先是為了「講理」，這是常識。
更重要的是，這種範文難道就能幫助工科同學寫好作文、通過考研考試？它標榜的是類似「牡丹+玫瑰+鬱金香」的、繁複到無以復加（且不說美不美）的語言，這是不是更算炫技？
最重要的是，大家回過神來一想，就會明白：這種使用華麗語彙的策略，恰恰是在外語寫作中最難做到的一點啊。一些書把這種做法稱作所謂「替換策略」，就讓它顯得好簡單了：對呀，去替換呀，把簡單句換成複雜句，把low詞換成高級詞兒——可是臣妾不知道那麼多詞兒、那麼多句式，臣妾做不到啊。
其實，就算為了糊弄通過考試，從語彙上下手反而是最慢的。需要大量的背誦、記憶，沒有捷徑。快的反而是老老實實保證語法沒錯、時態沒錯，行文邏輯清晰；用詞上，求穩妥，不要用自己不確定的。
附上一篇我大二上學期（2009年秋）的議論文作業，我覺得基本展現了我所認為的議論文該有的樣子：
有觀點，且要論證的觀點本身必須有爭議性，也就是得有靶子（有別人不認同你的觀點），有讓你去論證、去說服人的理由；反之，「做慈善是好事」、「社交網絡是有效的傳播手段」等，本身就不值得論證。
有論據，且論據有出處。
論據和觀點之間有有效銜接，即論證的過程。
從語言和行文的角度，要清晰、簡練、流暢。不要clogged（堵塞），要flow（流淌）。
大家可以感受一下閱讀過程中是不是可以很容易跟上文章思路、對文章所講的話題產生興趣、知道文章在說什麼、最好還會被文章說服。（這不是應試作文，切不可以此作為應試標準）
Nothing Wrong With Having Cosmetic Surgery
With the development of technology, there are more and more surgical procedures available to an increasing number of people who want to improve their physical looks. This has come to be severely criticized. Detractors argue against cosmetic surgery mainly on the grounds that seeking to be physically attractive is superficial and vain, that beauty achieved from cosmetic surgery is 「unnatural,」 and that cosmetic surgery is dangerous. But none of these arguments effectively proves that cosmetic surgery is undesirable. In fact, there’s nothing wrong with people having cosmetic surgery, because cosmetic surgery makes physical beauty available to those born without it and improves people’s self-esteem and quality of life.
Plastic surgery makes physical beauty available to those born without it. One thing detractors of plastic surgery frequently bring up is that no one is perfect and everyone is beautiful 「in his own way,」 and that it is the media that have set unrealistic beauty standards which drive people to do cosmetic surgery. It is true that the media are taking beauty standards to extremes, but the very existence of beauty standards has nothing to do with the media. Although fashion and style vary from culture to culture and era to era, researches have found a variety of commonalities in people’s perception of beauty. Dr. Stephen Marquardt, an active member of the Societies of Maxillofacial Surgeons and a Diplomate of the American Board of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery, performed cross-cultural surveys on people’s perceptions of facial beauty and analyzed the generally acknowledged 「beautiful faces」 from ancient times to the modern day. He discovered that facial beauty in all cultures and times can be defined with a same beauty mask made up with pentagons and decagons. The attractiveness of a face can be rated based on its conformity to the mask and the 「beautiful faces」 of all cultures and times are those that most closely match the mask (「Human Beauty」). This means that people share common perceptions as to what kind of faces are beautiful, but people who are born with such beautiful faces are not many. Studies of sculptures and paintings across time and culture have shown that from the dawn of human civilization, women, slim or plump, with 「hourglass」 body shape, and men, tall or short, with V-shape torso, are considered beautiful (「Physical Attractiveness」). But only 8% of women have hourglass body shape (「Female body shape」). Obviously, we do have standards for physical beauty and these standards are inherent in our nature, not set by the media. We cannot say that everyone is beautiful 「in his own way,」 because people up to these beauty standards are always considered more beautiful. The sad thing about physical beauty is that it is inborn and cannot be cultured like inner beauty. This is where cosmetic surgery comes in. For people with unattractive face shape, too big a nose, or unproportioned body, cosmetic surgeries are the only way to alter these genetic-determined physical features and add to their physical attractiveness.
Cosmetic surgery improves people’s self-image and then their quality of life. Detractors of plastic surgery argue that instead of pursuing physical attractiveness, people should seek to build their intelligence, personality, and in a word, inner beauty. This view is based on the preconception that physical beauty is of no significance and the pursuit of it is out of sheer vanity. But the truth is that appearance affects people’sself-image and quality of life. Unattractive appearance leads to low self-esteem and also lowers other’s perception of a person. Evidence such as people with unsatisfactory appearance have lower self-esteem, 「ugly」 children tend to be isolated in school, and appearance discrimination exists in employment has long been established. Two separate studies presented at the American Society of Plastic Surgeons 2006 conference in San Francisco show that by having cosmetic surgery, people get not only beauty but also a better life. One study was carried out among 362 men and women, most of them middle-aged women, who had undergone cosmetic surgeries such as facelifts, breast augmentation, breast reduction, and tummy tucks. It was found that the number of patients taking antidepressant medications dropped by 36% six months after the surgery (Doheny, Kathleen).This shows that cosmetic surgery can eliminate depression, therefore improve mood and mental state. In the other study, women who had surgery to correct asymmetrical breasts reported a better quality of life and higher self-esteem six months after the surgery, says Elvio Bueno Garci'a, MD, PhD, a professor at the Federal University of Brazil, who led the study (Doheny, Kathleen). More importantly, cosmetic surgery improves quality of life in many other respects besides mentality. In a study evaluating the quality of life of 110 patients undergoing breast reduction surgery, 95 percent of the patients』 physical and psychological health greatly improved after the surgery. In particular, significant improvements were identified before and after the surgery in physical function, social function, and general health (Sadick). Physical beauty may not be as important as inner beauty, but it does play a big part in people’s life, and cosmetic surgery can better people’s life a lot by bettering their appearance.
Detractors of cosmetic surgery protest that only natural beauty is real beauty and physical beauty gained from cosmetic surgeries is unnatural. But people may hold different views as to whether beauty has to be natural. When an individual decides to go for cosmetic surgery, s/he has decided to settle for that physical beauty, knowing that it is unnatural in the first place. Others don’t have to agree, but should respect their choice. Another thing detractors of cosmetic surgery are so concerned about is that those surgeries are dangerous. It is true that cosmetic surgeries can be highly risky and sometimes do more harm than good to our body, but all surgical procedures involve risks to some extent and that doesn’t mean they should all be discarded. Rather, developments in techniques and skills can lead to improvement in procedure safety. What’s more, if one individual is willing to run the risk in order to get a better image, his/her choice should be respected.
Therefore,there is nothing wrong with taking cosmetic surgery. Though subjected to various criticisms, cosmetic surgery does make physical beauty available to people born without it, and does improve people’s quality of life by bettering their appearance. Above all, it is a personal matter. Everyone has the right to pursue physical beauty through cosmetic surgery and this right shouldn’t be denied.
Works Cited
Doheny, Kathleen. 「Cosmetic Surgery can Boost Mood」. <Cosmetic Surgery Can Boost Mood General Health>.
「Female body shape」. Wikipedia. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Female_body_shape#cite_note-shape_study-0>.
「Human Beauty」. <http://goldennumber.net/beauty.htm.>
<http://www.beautyanalysis.com/index2_mba.htm>.
「Physical Attractiveness」. Wikipedia. <Physical attractiveness>.
Sadick, Neil S, MD. 「The impact of cosmetic interventions onquality of life」. <The impact of cosmetic interventions on quality of life [eScholarship]>.
TuaTua英語——沒有謬言、沒有妄言、沒有謊言