英语写作修辞手法_FIGURES_OF_SPEECH.doc

英语写作修辞手法(2010-2011学年第一学期)
课堂笔记（复习资料）
笔者：大二学生 就读于宁波工程学院
大学课程：英语写作
任课老师：黄忠伟
§Figures Of Speech
▲Simile.
○What is it?
·Clarify and enhance an image.
○Patterns.
·Tenor + comparative word + vehicle.
·Subject + comparative word + reference.
·A is to B what C is to D.
○Examples.
·Reading is to the mind what exercise is to the body.
·What sculpture is to a block of marble, education is to the soul.
·A home without love is no more than a body without a soul.
·Love and cough can not be hid.
·Truth and roses have thorns about them.
·Who is to blame but her tyrant of a father.
·A doctor must have the heart of a lion and a hand of a lady.
▲Metaphor.
○Pattern.
·A is B.
○Examples.
·Education is not the filling of a pail, but the lighting of fire.
·The boy wolfed down the food.
·Some books are to be tasted.
·The policeman moved me out of the snack of traffic.
▲Metonymy.
○What is it?
·One thing for another; association.
○Examples.
·What it learned in the cradle is carried to the grave.
·She has the eye for the fair and the beautiful.
·Scepter and Crown.
·Scythe and Spade.
▲Parody.
○Examples.
·I have no outlook, but an uplook. My please in the society was at the bottom.
·A friend in need is a friend to be avoided.
·Fall in love.
·Walk in love.
·Where there is a will, there is a reality. (Original: Where there is a will, there is a way.)
· To lie or not to lie------the doctor's dilemma.
▲Personification.
○Examples.
·The rain to the wind said. / "You push and I'll pelt."
·Slang is a language that takes off its coat, spits on its hands, and goes to work.
▲Onomatopoeia.
○Examples.
·Dais started laughing.
·Dais started gigging.
▲Euphemism.
○Examples.
·Under the weather.
·Join one's ancestors.
·Advanced in age.
·Run one's races.
▲Hyperbole/Overstatement.
○Examples.
·A sea of troubles.
▲Understatement.
▲Parallelism.
○Examples.
·So was it when my life began. / So is it now I am a man. / So be it when I shall grow old.
▲Contrast.
○Examples.
·Let us never negotiate out of fear, but let us never fear to negotiate.
▲Antithesis.
○Examples.
·Give me liberty, or give me death.
·The life of the wolf is the death of the lamb.
▲Oxymoron.
○Examples.
·Painful pleasure.
·Living death.
·Poor rich guys.
·Falsely true.
·Shine darkly.
·Love-hate relationship.
▲Pun.
○Examples.
·We must hang together, or we shall hang separately.
·Seven days without water make one week.(week------weak)
·Make your every hello a real good-buy.(good-buy------good-bye)
▲Zeugma.
○Examples.
·She opened the door and her heart to the homeless boy.
▲Allusion.
○Examples.
·The heel of Achilles.
·Open sesame.
·Cinderella.
·Fig leaf.
·Tower of Bible.
▲Irony.
▲Transferred Epithet.
○Examples.
·A sleepless bed.
·A dizzy height.
·A sweet voice.
·A icy look.
▲Climax.
○Examples.
·I came, I saw, I conquered.
▲Anticlimax.
○Examples.
·For God, for America, and for Yale.
▲Alliteration.
○Examples.
·Money makes the mare go.
·Pride and prejudice.
§Sentence
▲Unity.
○One central idea.
▲Coherence.
○Subject-Verb Agreement.
○Run-on Sentence.
○Sentence Fragment.
○Dangling Modifier.
○Faulty Parallelism.
▲Conciseness.
○Unnecessary words.
○Unnecessary repetition.
○Sentence structure,
▲Emphasis.
○Short sentence.
○Balanced sentence.
·Negative-positive statements.
·Rhetorical questions.
·Climactic sequence.
·Subordination.
·Emphatic words or phases.
·Repeating.
·The use of verbs.
▲Variety.
■连贯性
○主、从句主语一致.
○单复数.
○时态.(in tense.)
○语气(主、被动).(in voice.)
○虚拟语气.
○祈使句：一般省略的主语是YOU.改错时应注意主语.
○Emphasis:the use of verbs.(in the active voice;short------strong.)
·Make a decision; at the sight of.
·Decide; see.
○写作：长短句相间.appeal to men’s senses.
▲Loose,Periodic and Balanced Sentences.
○She decided to study English though she was interested in music.(松散句)
○Although she was interested in music, she decided to study English.(圆周句)
§Paragraph
A paragraph is a unit.
▲The form.
○首行缩进.
○纸张左右空白
○Do not begin with every sentence.
○段落长短由内容决定.
▲Kinds.
○topical
○special
·introductory
·transitional
·conclusion
■An introductory paragraph introduces the subject, narrows it down, and states the essay’s thesis.
■Introduction Dos.
·Ask a question.(One question.)
·Relate an incident.
·Use a vivid quotation.
·Provide background.
■We can begin in the introductory paragraph with
·Observation.
·Quotation.
·An analogy contrast.
·A question.
·A relevant story or anecdote.
·An interesting factual statement or point of view.
·A definition.
■Functions of Concluding Paragraph.
·summarize.
·concise.
·well developed.
■Conclusion Dos.
·Strike a note of hope or desire.
·Give a symbolic or powerful fact or detail.
·Recommend a course of action.
·Use a Quotation.(no research.)
·Reflect on the implications of the thesis.
·Draw a conclusion based upon the evidence of the essay.
■We can end in the concluding paragraph with
·A significant quotation which supports the thesis.
·A question.
·A prophecy or a warning.
·A forceful restatement of the thesis through the use of balance,emphsis or other rhetorical devices.
·A generalization.
§Narrating An Event Or A Routine
▲What is it?
○To narrate means to tell an event or a routine as a story.
○The narrative may be purely fictional or an account of some real experience.
▲Following chronological order.
▲Different characteristics of the two kinds of narrative writing.
○A routine paragraph covers a series of activities without having to go into details of each. And one activity may not be related to the next one. But the paragraph dealing with only one event concentrates on one story and we provide a lot details for it. Besides, there is usually a causal connection between one detail and another detail.
○Since a routine paragraph describes what people regularly do everyday or every weekend or Sunday, the present tense should be used unless it is a past routine, but a one-event paragraph talks about something that happened in the past, so the past tense is used.
▲Topic sentence.
○Show the writer's attitude.
○Arouse readers' curiosity.
○Can be developed with one incident.(for one-event paragraph)
▲Select relevant details.
▲Order of organization and verb tense.
○To achieve a coherent organization, we should use time connectors such as "when," "before," and "after" to put sentences together.
§How To Write Biography
▲What is it?
○A life story of an individual by another author.
○Third person.
○Autobiography.
▲Kinds?
○Encyclopedia.
○Directory of famous people.
○Authorized biographies.
○
○Non fiction books.
○Unauthorized biographies.
▲Biographies analyze and interpret the events in a person's life.
▲Biographies use primary and secondary sources.
▲Requirements.
○Start with the encyclopedia and almanac.
○Think about what you want to know./Interview------prepare some questions.
·What makes this person famous or attractive?
·What kind of effect did he or she have on the world (or other people)?
·What are the adjectives you would mostly use to describe the person?
·Examples from their lives illustrate those qualities.
·Events.
·Obstacles? Risks? Lucks?
·Would the world be better or worse without him/her?
▲Typical features.
○Past tense.
○Third person.
○Key incidents of the persons' lives are counted.
○Chronological order also contain other people' views.
○Pictures.
○A beginning/opening paragraph------summarize, impressive.
○A middle------highlights.
○An ending------further influences.
▲Guidelines for planning and revising your work..
○Establish an appropriate voice.
○Build a conflict.
○Place the reader in a particular setting.
○Provide descriptive and sensory language.
○Deciding on a focus.
§Describing A Person, An Object, A Place [VOCABULARIES]
▲Good description can do.
○Readers can reproduce the image in their mind.
○Readers can relive the experience as if they were there.
○Therefore, they can be affected emotionally by the descriptive words.
▲Describing people.
○Two major aspects: appearance and personality.
○The topic sentence shows the writer's attitude or impression of the person.
○The topic sentence must contain an idea to be developed in a paragraph, rather than sentence of facts.

○Specific and descriptive details rather than just general remarks.
▲Describing an object.
○The appearance of an object usually covers its shape, measurements, color, smell, material, texture of surface, etc.
○Besides the appearance of an object, we also describe its value, quality, and use.
○Can be either with or without personal feelings.
○The topic sentence shows the writer's attitude or impression of the person.
○The topic sentence must contain an idea to be developed in a paragraph, rather than sentence of facts.
○Specific and descriptive details rather than just general remarks.
○Sentences are to be organized in spatial order.
▲Describing a place.
○Tone.
·Objective: without much of persinal feelings.
·Subjective: with strong feelings.
○The topic sentence indicates what is going to be described, what the writter’s attitude is, and what dominant impression the paragraph is to make.
○Use descriptive details.
○When we describe a place, we should not only make clear where things are located, but also what they are like.
○Only when these objects are presented in proper apatial relationship to each other, does the description achieve coherence.
○To begin with, we should choose our standpoint first, and then decide whether to move from right to left or vise versa.

§Comparing and Contrasting Two Things

▲Comparison.
○Comparison illustrates the similarities between two things.
▲Contrast.
○Contrast shows the differences.
■In a comparison or contrast paragraph, the topic sentence should make clear what is to be discussed and since any two objects can be compared or contrasted in several different areas, the topic sentence should also show in what area the comparison or contrast is to be carried out.
■Parallelism of categories in compariso/contast.
·When we compare two things, the areas being compared should be the same.
■The supporting details of comparison/contrast paragraphs are basically organized in either of the two methods: point-by-point method and block method.
■Effective comparison/contrast paragraph relies heavily on the proper use of connecting words or transitional words.

§Demonstrating the Causes/Effects of an event

▲Cause and effect paragraph demonstrate the causal relationship between two sets of things.
▲In a paragraph we analyze either the causes or the effects rather than both.
▲The topic sentence of a cause-effect paragraph should tell what to be discussed in this causal relationship; and by doing so, it should also indicate whether the focus of the paragraph is on the cause or in the effect.
▲Methods of development.
·Details.
·Examples.
·Statistics.
▲Sub-topic sentences are used in order to achieve better organization.

§Explaining a Process
▲The purpose of the process paragraph is to teach people the method or the right way to perform an activity.
▲The topic sentence lets the reader know the nature and subject of the paragraph and sometimes it also shows the writer’s attitude.
▲The topic sentence should be placed at the first one.

§Classifying an Object/a Concept

▲With classification, we find it easy to create order out of confusion and provide a clear overview for the information we offer.
▲We need decide which principle to follow in our classifying procedure.
▲Apart from a clear subject, the topic sentence for a classification paragraph should indicate the areas and sometimes the number of categories into which we are going to classify our topic.
▲There are three orders: equal order, ascending order and descending order.

§Defining an Idea/a Term

▲Kinds.
○Dictionary-based Definition.
·Characteristics: Objectivity; Credibility.
○Stipulated Definition.
·Characteristics: Define from our own point of view.
▲The topic sentence of a definition paragraph includes.
○The term to be defined.
○The class or category to which a thing belongs.
○The features that make it different from others.
▲A stipulated definition paragraph may not always strictly follow this way of composition.
▲In the body part.
○Physical features.
○Functions.
○Behavioral characteristics.
○Symptoms.
○Details and examples.
○Origins.
▲Methods of development.
○Classification.
○Comparison/Contrast.
○Negation.
▲Common Problems in Writing a Definition.
○The circular definition.
○The overextended definition.
○The over-restricted definition.

§Persuading by Argument

▲To persuade is to convince other people by reasoning.
▲Reader consideration: appeal to people’s reason, character and feeling.
▲We should know what the purpose of our persuasion is, whether to influence the reader’s thinking or to induce others to do what we have proposed.
▲Proper attitude: Display confidence; Avoide self-importance.
▲Topic Sentence: Subject and Attitude.
▲Supporting Details: Evidence and logic; Argumentative method.