22.1 论文的概念与写作要求
22.1A 什么是论文
1） 论文与一般写作练习不相同。一般的写作练习指书评、各种文体（描写、叙述、辩论、说明）的段落或篇章练习，各种应用文的练习，等等，通常是教师讲解了有关的范文以后布置给学生的课堂作业，时间紧、篇幅短、针对性强。这里所说的论文则是一种要求较高的综合作业，由写作者在教师指导下选题，学习研究后写出文章。
2） 写一篇论文通常要经过如下6个步骤：
a. 初步选题，并提出总体设想；
b. 初步查阅有关资料，考虑文章的对象，并将选题具体化；
c. 尽可能阅读和收集资料，作出笔记或卡片；
d. 对收集到的资料进行整理；
e. 写出论文提纲，并继续收集所需资料；
f. 起草和修改论文
22.1B 论文的写作要求
1） 论文应充分地占有资料。除了尽可能广泛地查阅可能得到的图书资料（包括报纸杂志文章），有时还需从调查、访问中收集第一手资料。
2） 论文应有明确的观点。论文作者必须在大量材料的基础上提出自己的看法，即文章的主题，并系统地加以论证或说明。总之，论文应有一种学术研究意味，甚至具有一定的学术水平。
3） 论文应有一定的格式，如：封面上除了论文题目，还应有论文作者姓名（Written by ...），指导教师姓名（Supervised by ...），写作时间、地点等。又如注释和参考书目须按一定的要求列出（参见22.3D）。
22.2 论文的写作过程
22.2A 论文的写作准备
1） 在论文的酝酿过程中，要抓住3个基本问题：
a. Who will be my readers?
b. What do I want to accomplish?
c. What shall I write about?
论文的对象、目的和主题是三个密切相关的方面。一个人的脑子里一旦有了这样几个问题，思维活动就会自动进行，并会及时迸发出思想火花，使思维活动向纵深发展。
2） 在考虑上述问题过程中，会使自己的写作目标逐渐明朗化，是要说明问题，分析情况，开展辩论，还是为了劝说？此刻，可从下述4个方面审题：
a. It should be narrow enough to be developed fully.
如果说，我若想在一篇论文里论述我国教育制度的历史、现状和改革设想，而篇幅只有5000字左右，时间一个星期，那显然是写不好的，为此，就宜集中论述自己的设想，只需在开头部分对现状加以简要描述，作为提出设想的依据。
b. It should be a topic that you can research and consider objectively.
有的题目范围过窄，如My Father's Hobbies，通常找不到文字资料去证实自己的观点，不宜去写；有的问题是人们争论的热门话题，如Is Tyson's Sentence Fair Enough？大家各执一词，难以说个清楚明白，弄不好囿于某种偏见，还易提出误论，为此，对这类论题也不应轻易去写。
c. It should be a topic that you are curious about but not thoroughly familiar with.
通过写一篇论文，你应能进入一个新的知识园地或研究领域，在查阅和收集资料的过程中，你应有一种新鲜感，为新的发现感到兴奋，对新发现的问题感到好奇，更有兴趣钻研下去。这个过程通常是苦乐相伴，先苦后甜。如果是图方便，把以前在某门课中写过的东西再写一遍，不是为了更进一步钻研，而是拿熟材料应付新作业，那是不会有什么收获的；如果是抄别人的东西，就更是大错特错了。
d. It should be within your scope.
一个论文题目是否太专或太难，取决于写作者的知识面和兴趣大小。例如对非理工科的学生来说，就不适宜写Free Electron Lasers，而缺少语言学知识的学生，就不宜论The Great Vowel Shift。这就是说，注意不要钻到与自己知识领域不相干的题目里去。
22.2B 收集和整理资料
1） 阅读。首先根据可得到的图书资料——包括馆际借阅和从私人处借阅的书籍、杂志、报纸等各种文字或有关资料，制订阅读书目和进度表。接着是分批浏览图书资料，确定重点和非重点阅读的书目，作出简要的浏览笔记。第三步是阅读重点书目，并做笔记或卡片。由于从图书馆借书的数目和时间有限，应有计划地分批借阅，能借到的尽量多借几本，抓紧时间快速阅读，尽快把不需要的书归还，对重点书则续借；如有别人急需和图书馆催还时，设法协商，争取把重点书再借到手，或最好在还之前抓紧读完或复印部分内容。
2） 写读书笔记或电脑储存。首先，对重点书目要记录好作者姓名、书的标题、出版时间、地点、版本等。可对重点书目加以编号，以后另外做内容卡或电脑储存时，则只需记上编号和页码。每张内容卡或软盘段落前面可加上几个字说明内容要点，以便归类整理。还应注意，电脑资料盘应备一式二份，以防坏了时失掉资料。
3） 安排好必要的调查访问。这项活动可穿插进行。Questionnaire和电话访谈的形式也可考虑，有时安排Research Project还需得到有关部门和人员的允许和帮助，更应尽早着手。从这类活动中常常可以获得书本上得不到的知识和启发，对写好论文大有好处。对所获的资料和心得体会，也要做好记录。
4） 整理资料和列出提纲。在整理资料过程中，一方面可以加深印象，使观点更明确、更系统，另一方面也可以看到哪些资料最重要，哪些不一定需要，哪些有待补充，并设法通过查阅或专访加以弥补。同时，在整理、分析的基础上可列出初步论文提纲，为起草做好准备。
22.2C 论文的起草与修改
1） 关于论文的提纲、起草、修改等全过程，都和第三章讨论的文章写作的基本步骤和要求一致。
2） 论文要求使用较为正式的文体，在择语和句式上应注意力求简练、直接、准确，例如：
a. 不要多余的字。既然有never, after, when, because, probably, despite, approximately, locally, before等单词，就不要去用表示同样意义的介词短语at no time, at the conclusion of, at the time that, due to the fact that （或for the reason that）, in all likelihood, in spite of, on or about, on the local level, prior to the time that等。
b. 避免用带歧视或偏见的词语。如用chairperson, representative, letter carrier, humanity, artificial, a demanding job, reporter, police officer, sales clerk （或salesperson）, forecaster （或meteorologist） 等代替chairman, congressman, mailman, mankind, manmade, a man-sized job, newsman, policeman, salesman, weatherman等。又如尽量在句中用she/he, all, each或复数形式代替第三人称代词单数：
A broker must keep all customers informed of investment opportunities. （用all, 不用his）
A kindergarten teacher must know each pupil by name. （用each，不用her）
A student pilot is always terrified on the first solo flight.
或：
A student pilot is always terrified when she/he solos for the first time. （避免用“... when he ...”句式）
Serious scholars should keep accurate records of their sources in case they need to consult them again. （避免用第三人称单数代词）
c. 避免使用行业性的术语，如charisma, continuum, optimize, ergonomic, interface, undelete，等。像下面这样一种专门术语和缩略语过于集中的句式也不适当：
Referring to his paper on T. E. F. L. presented at the 93 N. C. O. T. E. at Pitts., PA, USA, he ...
d. 被动结构能给人一种“客观”（叙述）的印象，但用词较多，而且有时显得转弯抹角，甚至影响句式连贯，故应尽量避免。例如下面的被动句都不及主动句，试比较：
（1a） It has been indicated by higher gold prices that inflation was imminent.
（1b） Higher gold prices indicated that inflation was imminent.
（2a） Innocents Abroad was written by Mark Twain after returning from an excursion to Europe and the Holy Land.
（2b） Mark Twain wrote Innocent Abroad after he returned from an excursion to Europe and the Holy Land.
22.3 有关论文格式的几个问题
22.3A 论文格式的几个主要方面
1） 前面3.2B所讲到的一般文章规范和本章22.1B提到的论文格式，都是基本要求。
2） 注释和参考书目是论文的两个重要组成部分，引文多是论文的一个特色，而这些也都有其规范要求。鉴于文科英语论文都遵循MLA （Modern Language Association of America） Style, 我们仅参照MLA的有关规定作些简要介绍，详细内容应查阅MLA Handbook。
22.3B 摘引
1） 摘引必须准确无误，对原文不可改动，但在不歪曲原意的前提之下可以省去一些词语或句子，例如：
“Various headings can be used for this listing — Bibliography, References ..., but Works Cited is recommended.”
2） 摘引内容达到或超过四行时则称之为Block Quotation. MLA Handbook要求这种摘引左边缩进4个字母，右边不缩，隔行排印，不加引号（原文有时则不变）。例如：
The dog has advantages in the way of uselessness as well as in special gifts of temperament. He is often spoken of ... as the friend of man, and his intelligence and fidelity are praised. The meaning of this is that the dog is man's servant and that he has the gift of an unquestioning subservience and a slave's quickness in guessing his master's mood ...”
（Veblen）
“Your tempers are by no means unlike. You are each of you so complying that nothing will ever be resolved on; so easy, that every servant will cheat you; and so generous, that you will always exceed your income.”
（ibid）
3） 引进引语的几种常见方式。冒号是引进引语的一种较为正式的形式，例如：
Emerson bluntly stated his faith in self-reliant individuals as follows:“An institution is the lengthened shadow of one man.”
动词said, wrote等加上逗号，是引进引语的常见形式：
Emerson wrote, “An institution is the lengthened shadow of one man.”
介词短语“according to ...”也可引进引语，并且该引导部分可置句首或插入句中，在句中时前后用逗号相隔。例如：
According to Emerson, “An institution is the lengthened shadow of one man.”
“An institution,”according to Emerson,“is the lengthened shadow of one man.”
当引语是整个句子的一个成分（通常是主语、表语或宾语）或用that连接时，不用逗号。例如：
“All the Way with MLA” was their slogan.
They followed the principle of “All the way with MLA.”
They maintained that “All the way with MLA is our principle.”
22.3C 注释
1） 注释的功能主要有两种，一种是对论文中的某个要点或词语加以说明，称为Explanation note，另一种是引导读者参阅论文的其他某个部分或其他某个文件，这种叫做Reference note；有的注释兼有上述两种功能。
2） 从注释所处的位置看，主要有脚注（Footnote）和尾注（Endnote）两种。
如果使用脚注，在文中需在注释部位的右上方加上编号，并须把某页的注释安排在该页的下方，为此，脚注对读者方便，但会给排印者带来一定的麻烦。下面的例子是文章某页的最后几行，该页有两条脚注：
... At their first meeting Elizabeth and Darcy are both guilty of the faults expressed in the title of the novel1. He is proud of his social position, and she is proud of her “fallible perceptions”2 — her faith is her ability to judge.
尾注较好安排，只需对论文的注释按先后次序编号，在文章的最后（可另起一页）排印上所有的注释。
还有一种题注（Title note），可按脚注办法处理，或在文章标题和正文之间，这是一种较突出的题注，并通常用“*”代替数码标号。
3） 同一个文件在一篇论文中再次提到时，第一次注释（Primary note）必须明确和完整，便于读者查对，而再次提及（Secondary note）时则可简略。试比较下面的1号注释和7号注释，前者全，后者略：
1. I. F. Stone, The Trial of Socrates （Boston: Little, 1988） 102.
...
7. Stone, Trial 118.
22.3D 参考文献
1） MLA Handbook关于参考文献的格式规定得相当详尽，共计40多项，这里仅就几个最常见方面加以简略介绍。MLA认为，论文参考文献的英文表示方法可以有好几种，如Bibliography, Literature Cited, References, Sources,等，但以Works Cited为最好，因为论文的参考材料除书之外，还有其他材料在内。
2） 书的标准排列：
Stone, I. F. The Trial of Socrates. Boston: Little, 1988.
说明：
a. 首行缩进5个字母，第二行再缩进5个，第三行与第二行齐。
b. 作者姓名应同标题页一致，不同作者均以其姓的字母先后为序，姓后加逗号，后空一个字母；名后加句号，后空两字母。
c. 书名同标题页一致（不同封面一致），加下横线（斜体），书名后加句号，各空两个字母。若有副标题，则以逗号同正标题相隔，亦须加下横线（斜体），后同样空两个字母。
d. 若有几个出版地名，只需标出第一个，后加冒号，接出版商。
e. 出版商名用简化式，如用Little代表Little, Brown & Co.,用Macmillan代表Macmillan Publishing Company, 用Norton代表W. W. Norton and Co. Inc., 用Penguin代表Penguin Books, Inc.,等，MLA Handbook有详载。出版商后加逗号，空一字母，后接出版年份，最后句号。
3） 期刊的标准排列：
Kekes, John. “Understanding Evil.” American Philosophical Quarterly 25 （1988）: 13－24.
说明：
a. 期刊有季刊、月刊、周刊等不同类别，但标准排列的基本次序相同：作者，标题，出版年份，页码。
b. 作者的标法与书同。
c. 标题部分先是作者的文章题目，用引号，内有句号，然后是期刊标题，下横线（斜体），后空一个字母，接期刊号，再空一个字母，加括号于出版年份，再加冒号，空一字母，接着是文章所在页码，最后句号。
4） 如有两个作者（或编者）时，应按标题页的次序排列，其中首位作者姓在前，名在后，加逗号，再加and，后接另一位作者，其署名方式（名+姓）照标题上的次序不变；若有3个作者，则在第三位作者前加and。例如：
Abramson, Jill, and Barbara Franklin. Where They Are Now: The Story of the Women of Harvard Law 1974. Garden City: Doubleday, 1986.
McMahon, Elizabeth, Robert Funk, and Susan Day. The Elements of Writing about Literature and Film. New York: Macmillan, 1988.
若超过3名作者，只标首位，后以et al.表示之：
Elliot, Emory, et al., eds. Columbia Literary History of the United States. New York: Columbia UP, 1988.
5） 同一个作家的几部作品，只需在第一部作品前面署作者姓名，第二部前面则以3个连字号代替。例如：
Irving, John, The Cider House Rules. New York: Morrow, 1985.
... The Hotel New Hampshire. New York: Dutton, 1981.
6） 对于翻译作品，通常是将译者姓名放到书名之后。例如：
Machado, Antonio. Trans Selected Poems. Alan S. Trueblood. Cambridge: Harvard UP, 1988.
练习二十二 （Exercise Twenty-Two）
I. Preview Questions:
1. Can you call thesis writing just an ordinary written exercise?
2. Do you think the three basic requirements cited in 22.1B are all important in writing a thesis?
3. Which three questions you'd bear in mind when you are preparing a thesis?
4. Do you think it necessary to make an outline for the thesis you are writing?
5. Why is it important to revise one's draft?
6. Do you know what MLA stands for?
7. Can you tell one of the ways to introduce a quotation?
8. How many kinds of notes do you usually use in the thesis?
9. Do you know how to cite a reference book by two authors according to MLA system?
II. Revise the following according to the rhetorical principles you have learned:
When you come right down to it, there is no law that says you have got to make use of big words when you write or talk.
There are large numbers of small words, and good ones, that can be made to say all the things you want to say, which can function quite as well as the big ones. A bit more time may be taken to find them at first. But it can be well worth it, for everyone of us knows what he means. Some small words, more than you might conceive, are lavish with just the right feel, the right taste, as if made to assist you say a thing the way it should be said.
Small words can be crisp, brief, laconic — go to the point, like a knife. They have a charm all their own. They dance, twist, turn, sing. Like sparks in the night they light the way for the eyes of those who read. They are the grace notes of prose. You know what they say the way you know a day is bright and fair at first sight. And you find, in the process of your reading, that you like the way they say it. Small words are gay. And they can catch large thoughts and hold them up for all to see, like rare stones in rings of gold, or joy in the eyes of someone in his childhood.
III. Read the following and then mark whether each of the statements is true （T） or false （F）.
When you learn to drive a car, you study dozens of separate skills, from turning the ignition key to applying the brakes. Yet driving a car is not merely the sum of those skills, like adding up shifting+steering+acceleration + braking. Although you learn all of these skills independently, you still must be able to combine them into one over-riding skill: the ability to pilot a 3,000-pound machine even when it is hurtling down an expressway at 55 miles per hour. Furthermore, when you are on that expressway and some idiot outs right in front of you, there is no time to say to yourself, “Now I must push hard on my brake and then I must check the mirror to see if I can change lanes and then I must steer to the left.” People become accident statistics that way. Instead, you must be able to use your skills instinctively and simultaneously.
So, too, with the complex skill of writing. We have talked about many separate skills in this book. But good writing is not just the sum of those skills, it's not a matter of good words+good sentences+good paragraphs+appropriate forms. Instead you need to combine, to integrate those skills. This means learning to use them instinctively and simultaneously, as you confront the challenges every writer must meet in paper writing.
When you are writing a short paper, usually five pages or so, the process can be divided into four stages:finding a topic, planning the paper, writing the paper, and revising it. Of course, you should not think of this division into four stages as you would a recipe. This composing process should be regarded as a series of continuous actions that bring about a certain result. In fact, many of these actions go on simultaneously.
Writing long papers, however, involves a lot more work. For instance, after you have chosen your topic, you might draw up a sketchy outline and start finding sources, taking notes;then convert your rough outline into a final outline before you start writing, or drafting. When the draft is finished, you have to revise, or rewrite it until you are satisfied. There the final manuscript will be ready and now you should turn your attention to proofreading.
Statements:
1. The four stage process can be applied to any paper writing, which includes finding a topic, planning the paper, writing the paper and revising it. Although a short paper covers usually five pages or so while a long paper covers many more pages and it goes without saying that it takes much more time and efforts.
2. Driving a car requires that the driver acquire not only the knowledge of the separate skills but also the ability to combine them into one overriding skill and use separate skills instinctively, simultaneously and appropriately under different circumstances.
3. Writing a long paper is different from writing short ones in that besides topic finding, paper planning, drafting and revising, the writer has to do a lot more work, i. e. the writer has to find sources, take notes, drawing up an outline before he/she starts writing or drafting.
4. As driving includes the whole set of skills ranging from turning the ignition key, shifting, steering, accelerating to braking and stopping, writing can be viewed as good words + good sentences + good paragraphs + appropriate forms. Both writing and driving are necessary to the society, though one can be more complicated and needs more time to learn.
IV. Arrange the following materials according to MLA style:
1. The title of the book is The Norton Guide to Writing, published in 1992 by W. W. Norton & Company, in New York. The author is Thomas Cooley.
2. Origins of the English Language by Joseph M. Williams was printed in 1986 by Collier Macmillan publishers, London.
3. The book entitled Readings for Composition, A Writer's Anthology edited by Adrienne Robins and Steven Robins, was published in 1992 by St. Martin's Press, Inc., New York.
4. John Kekes's article “Understanding Evil”was published in 1988 in the 25th issue of the periodical American Philosophical Quarterly from page 13 to page 24.
