INTRODUCTION

Many people from many corners of my life---** writers and aspiring writers** , ** students and former students**---have seen that picture.

存疑：加粗

Since then writing has gone electronic. Computers have replaced the typewriter, the delete key has replaced the wastebasket, and various other keys insert, move and rearrange whole chunks of text. But nothing has replaced the writer. He or she is still stuck with the same old job of saying something that other people will want to read.

賞析：這段話太值得背誦了！寫作從紙筆為工具演化成為electronic，什么變了什么沒變呢？工具變了，但是作者一直都是“人”。這時(shí)我在想，“人”到底有什么不一樣呢？只有作家（而非機(jī)器）才能知道what other people want to read。所以從這里開始，我就知道writing must have something with thinking.

仿寫: Since then communication has gone instant. Emails have replaced the old paper-and-ink letters, the short text-messages have replaced the telegraphs, and various social websites have enjoyed increasing popularity among the public. But nothing has replaced real interaction. You are still "talking to" or "hearing from" a human being.

I had long considered him as my model as a writer. His was the ** seemingly effortless style--- achieved, I knew, with great effort**---that I wanted to emulate, and whenever I began a new project I would first read some White to get his cadences into my ear.

賞析：1. 插入語。2. “拼命努力才能看上去毫不費(fèi)力” 3. get his cadences into my ear，一定要去讀一些White的作品去“找節(jié)奏”。

My purpose is to make myself and my experience available. If readers connect with my book it's because they don't think they are hearing from an English professor. They are hearing from a working writer.

賞析：我在此處學(xué)到的是一個(gè)人的identities。所做之事取決于某個(gè)特定的角色。

仿寫：If you connect with my story it's because you are not hearing from a single women. You are hearing from a hard-working mother of two little children. 造這個(gè)句子是因?yàn)樗鼤?huì)有比較強(qiáng)的場(chǎng)景感，比較夸張，好記。不知道用的是不是正確。

I had no inkling of the electronic marvels that would soon revolutionalize the act of writing.

賞析：學(xué)習(xí)inkling的用法。

On one level the new ** torrent** is good news.
But, as always, there's a catch.
Nobody told all the new computer writers that the essence of writing is rewriting. Just because they're writing fluently doesn't mean they're writing well.

賞析：喜歡這幾句話的邏輯。experience≠expertise；catch的用法也值得學(xué)習(xí)。

Two opposite things happened: good writers got better and bad writers got worse. Good writers welcomed the gift of being able to fuss endlessly with their sentences---prunting and revising and reshaping---without the drudgery of retyping. Bad writers became even more verbose because writing was suddenly so easy and their sentences looked so pretty on the screen. How could such beautiful sentences not be perfect?

賞析：Zinsser 是怎么做到把話說得這么清楚而且筆墨使用恰到好處的。

That will still require plain old hard thinking---what E.B. White was doing in his boathouse---and the plain old tools of the English language.

賞析：

Principle 1 the Transaction

Whatever form the sentences take will reflect the writer at his most natural.

賞析：這個(gè)意思我用中文都可能表達(dá)不好。當(dāng)時(shí)的心境由當(dāng)時(shí)的語言來呈現(xiàn)，改變一絲一毫都不是那一刻的我。

There are all kinds of writers and all kinds of methods, and any method that helps you to say what you want to say is the right method for you.

賞析：適合自己的才是對(duì)的。

Good writing has an aliveness that keeps the reader reading from one paragraph to the next, and it's not a question of gimmicks to "personalize" the author. It's a question of using the English language in a way that will achieve the greatest clarity and strength.

賞析：HUAMNITY & WARMTH

Summary

我徹底入坑，從沒想到幾十年的一本書能讓我看的這么舒服。語言清晰中還透著智慧。The Transaction的一章中，身為職業(yè)作家的Zinsser和業(yè)余作家Brock每一組對(duì)立的回答，互相都不能理解彼此，Zinsser說maybe I should take up surgery on the side。我沒忍住，笑出了聲音。