我們生活中常見的英文寫作如 e-mail、學術論文，或是工作場域中會碰到的報告及契約備忘錄等，都是由段落和不同篇幅的文章組成，根據主旨所寫的一連串文句構成段落，而圍繞核心主題的多個段落則形成文章。下面我們將提供你三大心法，讓你的英文寫作更上一層樓！
Most of the writing that we do like e-mail messages, work reports, college papers, memorandums, and other writings is made up of paragraphs and essays. A paragraph is a series of related sentences developing a central idea, called the topic. They can stand-alone or they can be part of a longer work such as an essay. An essay is a series of paragraphs that are about one central idea. There are boundless topics for writing essays. Personal knowledge, experience, and researched facts will help find topics and develop ideas when you write your essay.
There are things to consider when you write an essay. In this blog article, we will help you with how you will improve your essay writing.
掌握主旨 Know your Topic
首先是文章的主旨，也就是你想談論的人事物，不論是既定的題目或由你自己發想的主題，主旨力求精確。如同中文所說的「起承轉合」，「起」的部分不僅帶出文章的主旨，更是激起讀者興趣的重要元素，千萬別忘了舉幾個例子來支持你的主旨，讓你的文章更有力喔！
Your topic is who or what you will be talking about. There some cases where you are given a topic for your essay, or in some cases you may need to think of your own. In either case, you need to make your topic more specific. To make a specific topic you can use some exploring methods like questioning or brainstorming.
Once you have your topic it will be easier for you to develop a thesis statement that introduces the topic of the essay and excites the interest of the reader.
For an essay to be more effective you should also develop supporting ideas, make sure that they focus on the central point that you are making in your essay.
掌握讀者 Know your audience
英文寫作的第二個重點是了解你的讀者，根據讀者調整文章的語氣和措辭不僅可以激發讀者閱讀的興趣，也可以幫助他們了解你想傳遞的概念，因此寫作時記得別忘了停下來思考一下：這篇文章的讀者是誰？他們是否具備相關的背景知識？是一份正式的文件嗎？不管是寫給教授看的研究報告還是寫給上司的 e-mail，正確的文法和適當的用字都是不可或缺的！
Your audience is your intended reader, If you want your audience to understand what you are writing, you have to write it in such a way that they will get it. You can keep your readers interested by adapting your voice or tone and vocabulary to suit them. Voice or Tone is your general attitude or feeling toward a topic.
It depends on who will read your essay, for example, you might write in a tone that is humorous, serious, formal, informal or friendly. You need to ask yourself questions like who will read my essay? Do my readers have a lot of knowledge about my topic? Will the readers expect me to write a formal letter?
Of course, for those students who are writing a research paper or assignments, your audience is generally your instructor or other students. On the other hand, employees usually use a formal tone on their emails and reports where their audience expects them to use correct grammar and proper words.
掌握目標 Know your Purpose
第三個英文寫作的核心是文章的目標，時時提醒自己寫這篇文章的目的是什麼可以幫助你在寫作的過程中避免離題。目標可以分為兩種：大方向的目標和特定的目標，大方向的目標決定文章的用途，如說明、說服，又或是提供娛樂及消遣；特定的目標則是寫這篇文章的主要理由，像是解釋說明的事項就是其中一個例子。一篇文章可能會有多個目標，在這種情況下，掌握好寫作的目的便可以讓你的文章讀起來更順暢喔！
In an essay, you should know the reason for writing. Keeping your purpose in mind will help you focus on your topic. Are you going to entertain and tell a story? Are you going to persuade and convince the reader on your point of view? Or is your goal to inform and explain something or give pieces of information about a topic? There are times that you may have more than one purpose. For example, telling a story in an entertaining way where you also want to inform the readers with some interesting facts.
In determining your purpose you should know your general-purpose if you are going to entertain, to inform or to persuade. But you should also have a specific purpose where it should be a more precise reason for writing. Your general purpose may be to inform while your specific purpose may be to explain how.
以上三個英文寫作的心法不知道大家都學會了嗎？什麼？還想要知道更多有關如何寫出讓教授稱讚的 papers 或是職場英文書信的寫作技巧嗎？趕快報名 English Shark 線上英語課程，讓你的英文寫作突飛猛進！