2009年6月29日 星期一

關於英文寫作

美國的同學,談到英文寫作的問題,對我這麼說:

Writing is half-art, half-science. I am still struggling with it when I write papers. The grammar part is easier to fix. I either ask my kids to proofread my writing or pay a professional English teacher or writer to do it. I believe you can find help in Taiwan, too, if it is an important paper to be submitted or published. As for the style, vocabulary use, tone, etc., it takes time and experience, even for academic papers in business.

If you need help, I can give a quick look but cannot promise a detailed word-by-word editing. To be honest, I am not sure my grammar is better than yours. After those English classes we took in college or graduate school, if we did not fix some problems then, most likely we would continue with these problems until one day we were told they were wrong and have a chance to correct them. Many of my students (EMBA, MBA, UG), even Americans born here, cannot write well! Their reports read like American English, but easy to find grammar errors. I hope you feel better now!

又說:

As long as you do not reveal my true name, you can post my email on your blog. It is well known that many Americans do not care much about their writing until they get to the most important things. With the advent of technology and media today, fewer and fewer people have patience to write or can even appreciate good writing. The culture today is to have straight talk, through email, blog, twitter, or explicit photos whether sexy or not. I say this because I see this “deficiency” very often, even in my own kids. They can score high in the reading section of SAT or ACT exams, but still don’t write well.