I. Words and express

1. They will trot out the hard-won words of their college education.

trot out ? to bring forward, as for approbation or admiration, esp repeatedly?

hard-won ??achieved only after a lot of effort and difficulty

2. Criticism is the stage on which journalists do their fanciest strutting. It's also where reputations for wit are born.

strutting ? ?someone who struts walks in a proud way, with their head held high and their chest out, as if they are very important.

"It's also where reputations for wit are born" （評論文體）同時也是智慧展示聲望的地方

3. The reader deserves a movie buff who will bring along a reservoir of knowledge, passion and prejudice.

a movie buff ? 電影迷 ?

reservoir ? 原義是“蓄水池”，此處比喻為作者的知識儲備

4. A final caution is to aviod the ecstatic adjectives that occupy such disproportionate space in every critic's quiver----words like "enthralling" and "luminous".

ecstatic ? feeling extremely happy and excited

5. Obviously I'm now assuming a more urbane body of readers.

urbane ? behaving in a relaxed and confident way in social situations

6. But even in this world of evanescent notes a good critic can make sense of what happened by writing good English.

evanescent ?something that is evanescent does not last very long

II. Summary

Criticism is a kind of nonfiction which appraise an art work, evaluate a performance, recongnize what is good and which is bad. The critic need a special set of skills and a special body of knowledge. However, there are more things to prepare before writing. Critics should figure out the purpose of their writing. If they were the readers, what they would like to know?

Zinsser told us four conditions that apply to good criticism. Fistly, write something you like. Critics are also normal people. You should know everything you want to write, but you don't need force yourself like everything. Secondly, don't give away too much of the plot, or you'll destory reader's enjoyment. Thirdly, use specific detail, you can cite some examples. The last, avoid ecstatic adjectives, use a lean and vivid style to express what you observed and what you think. What's more, criticism is one person's opinion, so the writer should dare to express themselves.

III. Thoughts

相比其他文體，評論文體具有高度個人化的特點。首先，評論針對的對象就是主觀的存在，比如電影、音樂、文學等等，個人審美不同，做出的喜好判斷自然有頗多差異，并沒有一致的優(yōu)劣標準。其次，評論文體要求作者直抒己見，展現(xiàn)一己之好惡，這顯然是十分主觀化的寫作。最后，讀者在閱讀評論文章時，想要得到的并不是客觀的再現(xiàn)電影場景、音樂節(jié)奏與小說情節(jié)，畢竟作者的描寫是無法與原著媲美的，他們想要在閱讀中收獲作者的個人觀點?；蛘哒f，當他們面對電影中的某些費解而包含隱喻的情節(jié)，希望有人能夠給出某種解釋。

但是，評論文體的主觀性并非意味著作者可以任意發(fā)表觀點。他們在寫作時，要有預設的讀者群體，設身處地的為讀者考慮，他們想要從評論中得到些什么。另外，在評論作品的好壞時，要有理有據(jù)，立足與事實，而不是一味主觀臆測。畢竟，評論文體的價值是引發(fā)讀者對原著的興趣，讓讀者一讀再讀，而不是主觀地向讀者灌輸自己的觀點。事實上，我們現(xiàn)在接觸的評論文體，主觀臆測、歪曲事實的居多，比如，于丹解讀的《論語》、《莊子》，毫無憑據(jù)，盡是主觀猜測；再比如像安意如之流，其筆下的宋詞與納蘭，也僅此是存在于在她的主觀想象之中，不過是編一些故事來奪人眼球罷了。對此，我們還需謹記Zinsser對待評論文體的態(tài)度——評論是一種嚴肅的寫作。