章节：

Part 1 | Principles

1. The Transaction

2. Simplicity

3. Clutter (Writing clean English Sentence)

4. Style (Preserving your identity)

5. The audience (Who am I writing for)

6. Words

...

Words and Expressions:

1. My own attachment to the hen dates from 1907.

date 的小词用法，date from 也可以表达为go back，但date 更表现出一种年代感。

【释义】

date from something (also date back to something)

to have existed since a particular time in the past； belong to an earlier time

【补充例句】

These masterly cantatas date from different periods in Bach's life

2.Many college students write as if they were desiccated alumni 30 years out.

  alumni (校友) 这个词前几章也出现过，是alumnus的复数形式，在北美比较常用。

表示 “a former student of a school,college etc"，但必须是"received a diploma or degree from a school"。

3.The secret of his popularity—aside from his pyrotechnical use of the American language—was that he was writing for himself.

aside from = apart from, except from, as well as, 在北美比较常用。

之前在雅思范文中看到过这个词，当时觉得很新鲜，看来作者来自北美，又增加一项新技能 。

4. He didn’t kowtow to the reader or curry anyone’s favor.

curry 通常认为和 咖喱相关，但作为动词表示"讨好，奉承，拍别人马屁"。

【释义】

If one person tries to curry favour with another, they do things in order to try to gain their support or co-operation, used to show disapproval.

【补充例句】

▶ He's always trying to curry favour with the boss.

▶.Politicians are eager to promote their 'happy family' image to curry favour with voters.

5. Also bear in mind, when you’re choosing words and stringing them together, how they sound.

"string sth together" 表示 "to combine words or phrases to form sentences"。

【补充例句】

▶I can barely string two words together in Japanese.

▶He managed to string together a few words of thanks

Thoughts：

写作中要不断问自己这个问题：

Q： “Who am I writing for?”

A：“You are writing for yourself.”

可是如果writer只为自己而写，吸引不了读者怎么办？

要做到以下两点，把写作作为一种手段，不断需要改进的手段，去真实的表达自己：

Craft : mastering a precise skill. Simplify, prune and strive for order.

Attitude: how you use that skill to express your personality.

关于用词:

Remember that words are the only tools you’ve got.

Learn to use them with originality and care.

And also remember: somebody out there is listening.

最重要的一点，要学会判断什么是正确的或者"好“的”words ，能知道自己" in the hands of a hack, and know it right away. Then stop reading."。

换句话说提高英语的辨识和鉴赏能力，先知道什么是好，才能努力去写好。

但作为英语非母语的人，这一点很难，漫天的英语素材，哪些是精华，哪些是糟粕？

作者的建议是 "The only way to avoid it is to care deeply about words".

Make a habit of reading what is being written today and what was written by earlier masters.

Writing is learned by imitation. By reading the men and women who were doing the kind of writing I wanted to do and trying to figure out how they did it. But cultivate the best models. Don’t assume that because an article is in a newspaper or a magazine it must be good.

Also get in the habit of using dictionaries.

If you have any doubt of what a word means, look it up. Learn its etymology and notice what curious branches its original root has put forth. See if it has any meanings you didn’t know it had. Master the small gradations between words that seem to be synonyms.

To use Roget’s Thesaurus.

The Thesaurus is to the writer what a rhyming dictionary is to the songwriter—a reminder of all the choices—and you should use it with gratitude.

(Roget's thesaurus is a popular reference book, originally written by Peter Mark Roget (1779–1869) and first published in 1852. It contains English words or phrases arranged together in groups according to their meaning, and is still used today by people looking for the most appropriate word or phrase to use in a piece of writing. New editions of Roget are published regularly.)

Also bear in mind, when you’re choosing words and stringing them together, how they sound.

Therefore such matters as rhythm and alliteration are vital to every sentence.

Good writers of prose must be part poet, always listening to what they write.

Such considerations of sound and rhythm should go into everything you write.