如何有效提高英语写作能力？

最近在知乎上看到魏剑锋老师的一片文章，关于英语写作，写的非常有深度，摘抄分享给大家
知乎上曾经有人问“怎样提升一个人的文笔？”，最高票的答案是“阅读、模仿与失恋”。
我深以为然。其实对于英文写作训练也是如此，失恋可遇而不可求，阅读和模仿却是每个人都能做到的。写作能力的提升一定离不开大量的阅读和模仿(写作练习)。在英文听说读写四项基本技能里面，写作是最难掌握和精进的一项。它也是一个人综合英语能力的体现，通常来说，写作水平高的人，其他听说读三项的水平也不会低。

严格来讲，我们所说的写作其实可以分为Creative Writing 和Academic Writing 两种，Creative Writing 会偏文学类一点，应用会相对少一些，而Academic Writing 则几乎是所有英语学习者都必需用到的技能，比如从四六级到托福雅思的考试作文，学术论文，日常邮件，陈述讲稿等，我们接下来要说的也是Academic Writing 这一类型的写作。

Nowadays,with the rapid development of society, purpose of education being changed.There are some people who think that competition in children should be made .Others believe that children who are taught to cooperate as well as become more useful adults.There are advantages and disadvantages for both of the arguments.
To begin with, what is good if a sense of competition in children is made? They can develop themselves more and more as they learn and study a lot to win from the competition.To prove this, in my country it is popular and common to have a tutor who come to students' house to teach extra pieces of study with paying a lot of money. ...

EMPLOYEES are often said to be a company’s biggest resource. It is equally true that they are its biggest liability.Scarcely a week goes by without a company falling victim to employees-turned-enemies-or-embarrassments. On July 20th Ashley Madison, a website for married people looking to have an affair, announced that it had been hacked. Noel Biderman, the company’s chief executive, says that he thinks the attack was “an inside job”. On July 6th HSBC fired a group of employees when it emerged that they had filmed themselves engaged inan “ISIS-style mock beheading” of an Asian colleague dressed in an orange jumpsuit.

The most familiar type of enemy within is the fraudster. The Economist Intelligence Unit, a sister organisation of The Economist, conducts a regular poll of senior executives on the subject of fraud committed by insiders. In 2013 the poll discovered that about 70% of companies had suffered from at least one instance of fraud, up from 61% in the previous survey. Fraud is often petty: a survey of British employees for YouGov in 2010 found that a quarter of staff eligible for expenses admitted to inflating claims. But fraud can also be more audacious and more harmful: think of former employees setting up rivals using stolen technology and purloined client lists.

从上面的文章中我们可以学到什么？
4个写作时可以用上的句式：
1....are often said to...it is equally true that...
2.Scarcely a week/month/year goes by without...
3....when it emerged that...
4.discovered that about 70% ...up from 61%...

10个词汇和短语：
1.liability
2.fall victim to
3.have an affair
4.behead
5.fraudster
6.eligible for
7.inflate (to make a number or price higher than it should be)
8.audacious
9.set up
10.purloin

这仅仅是两小段而已，整篇文章能学到的东西更多。你可以有意识地将上面学到的单词和句式应用到你的写作中去，比如第一个句型"...are often said to...it is equally true that..."可以用来说明事物具有两面性，这个句式不知道比那句蹩脚的 "there are advantages and disadvantages..." 要高到哪里去了。

写作中容易出现的另外一个问题是：文章空洞无物，整篇文章翻来覆去都是在表达同一个意思，而且论证不够有力，缺乏逻辑性，这样的文章即使辞藻再华丽也是没有灵魂的。怎样让文章有内容有灵魂？看看经济学人是怎么做的：

经济学人的文章除了出色的语言表达技巧之外，最大的亮点其实它能够提出一套解决方案。怎么理解？举个例子，比如美国发生了严重的枪击案，其他的报刊一般这样报道：美国又发生枪击案了，这次又造成了多少伤亡，凶手是什么什么背景，末了可能还会吐槽下枪支制度不合理，发几张照片煽煽情。

如果换做是经济学人的话，它除了报道基本新闻事实之外还会提出一个解决方案：大家别忙着悲伤了，冷静一下，既然现在已经发生枪击案了，为了防止悲剧再次发生，我们需要 a.修改枪支管理法律 b.个人要加强枪支安全意识 c.回收部分管制枪支 d...... 有理有据地跟你摆事实，讲道理。而我们要学习的就是经济学人对新闻事件的解读分析思路，关注从新闻推断事物的逻辑过程，从而提高在写作时发散论点的能力以及论证的力度。

The weaker sex 这篇文章就很好地体现了从发现问题到提出解决方案的过程。文章的背景是富裕国家男孩的表现正在落后于女孩。我们来看看经济学人是怎样分析问题提出解决方案的：
1. What can be done? Part of the solution lies in a change in cultural attitudes. 解决方案1
2. Policymakers also need to lend a hand, because foolish laws are making the problem worse. 解决方案2
3. Even more important than scrapping foolish policies is retooling the educational system, which was designed in an age when most men worked with their muscles. 解决方案3
4. More generally, schools need to become more boy-friendly. 解决方案4

四个段落总起句提出了四种解决方案，并在每一段详细展开，论点发散充分，论证过程也非常有力度，整个解决问题的思路非常清晰。写作的时候多体会这种发现问题-解决问题的思路，像经济学人一样去论证你的观点。

两个神器：搭配词典与同义词典
大家小学写作文的时候一定用过那种造句手册或者词语搭配手册吧？搭配词典就是一种类似的词典。它可以告诉你各种英语单词的用法，比如名词，它会告诉你可以用什么形容词来修饰，还可以告诉你什么动词后面可以接这个名词，以及它的固定搭配等等