On writing Well 7-8

Chapter 7 Usage 

Chapter8 Unity

字词

1.sloppy 

But guardians of usage are doing only half their job if they merely keep the language from becoming sloppy.

 not done carefully or thoroughly SYN careless:

例：sloppy work

仿：His homework is incredibly sloppy.

2.jargon[ˈdʒɑrɡən]

What is good usage? One helpful approach is to try to separate usage from jargon.

words and expressions used in a particular profession or by a particular group of people, which are difficult for other people to understand – often used to show disapproval ⇨ argot:行业术语

例：Keep it simple and avoid the use of jargon.

technical/scientific/legal/medical etc jargon

3.advent

Before the advent of computers it wasn't needed; now it is.

the advent of something the time when something first begins to be widely used（重大事件、发明或情况的）出现，问世，到来 

SYN coming:

例： The leap forward in communication made possible by the advent of the mobile phone.

手机的问世带来了通讯业的迅猛发展

仿：The advent of the computer totally changed our way of life.

4. drain

An unwieldy writing task is a drain on your enthusiasm.

a drain on something something that continuously uses a lot of time, money etc:

例The war was an enormous drain on the country’s resources.

以前学过的 brain drain 人才流失

5 ebb

When your zest begins to ebb, the reader is the first person to know it.

(also ebb away) to gradually decrease:

例：Linda’s enthusiasm began to ebb away

本意潮落的意思，让我想起了Peak里学到的单词wane表示兴趣减少

随想

第八章里作者主要说的是在写作时需要有一个中心，比如写旅游的文章，要么着重写旅游的各项准备，要么着重写各个景点介绍，要么着重写形成感受。自己的文章需要有一个重点。先确立这个中心再围绕他来写。

但是我们经常会而且会写着写着就跑偏了，这时候该怎么办呢？

作者建议我们跟随着自己的感觉走，写完以后再来看最初的部分和之后的部分哪一个更好，那时候也就知道该如何修改了。

这两个说法似乎有些自我矛盾，但其实万事都是这样把，物极必反，我们荧光灵活应对。刚开始是需要列个提纲，要大概想好该写什么。然后跟着灵感尽情发挥，最后进行修改。说不定会达到比最初计划更美好的目的地。