It is said that routines are vulgar, but routines are helpful to you.

This is Xiaobian's writing routine. The book starts with structure, style and readability, and tells 20 principles to help you write. If you have tried writing, you will find that every principle in the book is worthy of your careful scrutiny, and then adjust it according to your writing habits. For me, this is the main reason why this book is worth savoring.

Principle 1 adopts the "top-down" writing method. Write a summary first and get to the point. Especially when writing expository articles, it is not appropriate to play the trick of "I have a secret" with readers.

Principle 2: break things down. Break down the topic into two or four main parts, and then use leading sentences. Consider building your article around three key ideas or concepts. The following structure can be adopted-introduction, text and conclusion. Among them, the body part should be written in three paragraphs. This is the classic "five paragraphs" writing method.

Principle 3: Use morphemes. Turning words are called the traffic lights of language, which have four functions: comparison, example, continuation and summary. Use inflection words to indicate the writing direction. Words indicating explanation include first, second, such as, such as, etc. So prompt summary; However, it implies contrast; Tips are progressive.

Principle 4 Review six basic writing structures. Use six basic writing structures to arrange the sequence of ideas properly. To a great extent, writing is to arrange the order of ideas and emphasize them. In terms of order, views should be logically expanded, which usually means that the most important views should be seen first. As far as the key points are concerned, the most important points should be elaborated in the most detail. The six most commonly used structures are category structure, evaluation structure, time structure, comparison structure, linear structure and causal structure.

All structures emphasize or focus on ideas. The more you write about an idea or topic, the more important it is. Order is also important. Several structures with important order include: time structure, comparative structure and causal structure of linear structure. In terms of time structure, the earliest events are discussed first, and then advanced according to time; In the comparative structure, say the most important point first; In a linear structure, it starts from the first item and ends at the last item in sequence; In the causal structure, the cause is usually determined and discussed first, and then the result is discussed.

Principle 5: Integrate similar things. Let's finish the discussion on one topic first, and then move on to other topics. When we write, we should combine the ideas of description, and it is best to finish the discussion of one topic before discussing other topics.

Principle 6 supports what is said. The biggest difference between good works and ordinary works lies in whether you use accurate and specific examples. When people finish reading an article, what they can remember for a long time is often the example sentences and details. Choosing accurate and descriptive words will make the article more powerful. Sometimes you have to use more words than usual in order to be accurate and specific. It is important to cut off superfluous words, but it is more important to fully demonstrate what is said.

There is a valuable skill in drafting, which is to add "such as" immediately after writing to emphasize the point you want to express to support your statement. In writing, don't just say "what", but also say "why". The mention of "why" not only provides support for writing, but also implies the author's writing reasons.

Principle 7: Personalize your example. Add personalized examples to make the article more memorable. Personalized examples are usually closely related to the use of the pronoun "I". Don't be afraid to use this pronoun, it will force the author to relate to the topic in a personalized and accurate way. Readers are willing to know a situation through personal experience and get in touch with the author.

The style of writing should be carefully crafted, but this is not the most important aspect. The most important writing principle is to make the viewpoint fully demonstrated, and the details make the article more credible and unforgettable.

Principle 8: Keep it simple. Express your views in simple words. This principle expresses the view that authors should use simpler words in their daily writing. This is not to say that more accurate words are not used in writing, but that the author should think about what kind of words are suitable for specific readers at any time.

Principle 9: cut long sentences. Make the article clearer by splitting long sentences. One way to keep the content clear is to limit the use of long sentences. However, the key to using short sentences is not that all sentences should be short. The combination of long and short sentences creates a fluctuating style, which is also where the art of writing needs to play a role.

Rule 10 Delete unnecessary words. Cut off redundant sentences, too many restrictions and unnecessary self-references. Occasionally using determiners will make readers feel that you are rational, but using determiners too frequently will weaken the meaning of the article, showing that you are hesitant in writing and increase the length of the article without increasing the content. Unnecessary self-reference means "I believe", "I feel" and "in my opinion" ... Explanatory writing usually does not need to remind readers that you are writing your point of view.

Principle 1 1 Use the active voice. Use more active sentences and less passive sentences. Because active voice pays more attention to behavior, is more direct and concise, and reduces the necessary vocabulary. Students in writing classes usually ask to avoid using the passive voice. However, it is not good to avoid the passive voice at any time, and sometimes it is even necessary, for example, the author has to decide to expose or hide the identity of the actor.

Principle 12 uses more verbs than nouns. Do not nominalize verbs and adjectives. Nominalization of words is an important concept in writing, which describes the process of transforming verbs and adjectives into nouns. Nominalization will weaken the content of an article in writing for many reasons, mainly making sentences longer and making it more difficult for readers to extract the meaning of sentences. Therefore, it is best to write "reducing cost", "making five-year plan", "data reliability", "measurement accuracy" and "personal creativity" as "innovative individuals".

Principle 13 uses parallel sentence patterns. Parallelism in writing means that similar parts in a sentence should be expressed in the same way, thus making the sentence more clear and powerful. When listing a series of things, we should strictly follow the principle of using coordinate structure, that is, either the words before each item are repeated or only the words before the first item are repeated. So the treatment of the second series of things determines the form of all subsequent series of projects.

Principle 14 uses sentence variation. Not all sentences should be in the order of "subject, predicate and object". You can change the length and beginning of the sentence to avoid the boring of the article. This book introduces 10 ways to change the beginning of a sentence: starting with a theme, starting with a phrase, starting with a clause, starting with an article, starting with a verb, starting with an adverb, starting with an adjective, starting with a gerund, starting with an infinitive and starting with a related word.

Principle 15 Choose the right tone. Tone is a difficult thing to describe, and some people define it as the author's attitude. In most writing, it is more appropriate to use a positive and personalized tone. One way to control writing tone is to choose positive words and avoid negative words. Try to use positive words in any case, because readers are instinctively more willing to accept them. In addition, most writing tends to be informal (with personal pronouns), because formal tone is like formal dress, which keeps the author and the reader at a distance.

Principle 16 Keep the article neutral. Avoid masculine gender. Generally speaking, masculine gender refers to only using the pronoun "he" when it comes to both sexes. Be sensitive when greeting both sexes, because any reader group may have 50% women. Avoiding the use of masculine general reference can not only avoid gender sensitivity, but also be fair and just.

Principle 17 uses typesetting and design. Add more space around the text to enhance readability. The easiest way to improve the readability of an article is to increase the margins of the document. Similarly, separating paragraphs with blank lines to avoid a large paragraph sticking to the edge of the page can make the article easier to read.

Principle 18 uses readability tools to highlight keywords and phrases. Writing is a balanced art. The author tries to keep the big factors that can best define the article, while looking for small decorations to enhance its appearance and readability. In the writing stage, this modification may include bold, italics, dashes, item numbers, lists and shadows.

Principle 19 Use title or abstract. Structure is usually very important for long academic writing, and time and money are very important for business writing. Titles and abstracts help to convey these information efficiently. Abstract is similar to title, but the difference between them lies in length and function. The title is usually only a few words, while the abstract is only one or two lines. Titles are used to distinguish chapters, and abstracts are used to summarize or relay the following.

Principle 20 Review and revise articles. You can't say that your article is finished until it has been revised beyond correction. When it comes to writing, the word "finish" should really be enclosed in quotation marks, because this process will never really be finished. Even published books can be modified and edited. After a book has been published for weeks, months or even years, the author will definitely want to revise it.

The above are the routines given in this book, among which 1, 6, 7 impressed me the most. It is not that I didn't understand these three principles before. On the contrary, I was already familiar with them when I was in primary school. But until today, I think there is still too much emphasis on these three points, whether it is for primary school students or adults. At that time, several classmates and I were about to take part in the composition competition in the district (remember to look at pictures and write words), and the most annoying math teacher was actually responsible for tutoring us before the game. Regarding my poor performance in math class, the teacher took me as an example to explain in detail the three-step composition: what do you want to say (theme), how do you make people believe (example), and how do you impress people on the basis of letters (unique example).

Thank you for your "little red book", which reminds me of Miss Liu. Although he is only a math teacher, he has inspired me a lot in writing. There is no doubt that writing needs creativity-talent, accumulation, routines and creation are indispensable.