It's almost time for your final exams! Now's a good time to improve your writing so that you can get a better score.

“萬眾期待”的末考試時間又要到啦！現在正是提升寫作水平順便用成績驚艷小伙伴們的絕佳時機。

After grading students' essays in last semester's final exam, I found mistakes that many people made. If you don't want to make the same mistakes, read through these points carefully.

看了很多學生之前期末考試的作文之后，我覺得有必要在新一輪的考試開始之前為大家總結一些過往學生作文中常見的錯誤和問題。希望大家能幫助大家順利避坑。

01Double. Check. Your. Writing.

好好檢查你的作文

特別是空格

Plan to finish your essay early. Give yourself 2-3 minutes to edit your work. Read your essay once more before submitting. If you don't think you have enough time, pick one paragraph and read through it carefully. Check for spacing mistakes because are very easily noticed.If you need to write 200+ words, writing fewer than 200 means you will lose points.

預留2-3分鐘時間好好修改你寫好的作文。如果你覺得可能不夠時間通讀全文，那么就選擇一個你覺得最重要的段落，好好閱讀修改保證質量。另外一個需要特別注意的是空格問題。看不見摸不著的空格其實遠遠比你想象的要更加顯眼，也更加重要。

Take a look at this example.

我們一起來看一個例子吧！

下面兩段文字只有標點符號后邊的空格有區別，其余部分完全相同。

例

正確書寫空格

Large international companies play an important role in people's lives. Some of them can do things that governments can't. On the one hand, some experts think profits are more important than social responsibility. On the other hand, others believe that…

錯誤書寫空格

Large international companies play an important role in people's lives.Some of them can do things that governments can't.On the one hand,some experts think profits are more important than social responsibility.On the other hand,others believe that…

Repeat this several times, and your final word count might be 190 instead of 215. The graders can see your word count. Some of them might even look at it before they even read your essay. Making careless spacing mistakes means you might lose points – and you can EASILY avoid this. But also keep in mind that the quality of your writing is important as well. Having a high word count does not guarantee a good score.

如果在標點符號后邊不寫空格，那么字數統計時會把標點前后的單詞默認為同一單詞。多漏掉幾次，你好不容易湊上的215字很容易就變成190字了。閱卷老師每天都要看非常多的作文，他們中的很多人會選擇在評判你的作文之前先看字數。這些看似不起眼的空格很有可能會因為影響字數統計而嚴重影響你的分數。最重要的一點是，空格問題是你能最快速，最徹底改掉的問題。順便再強調一句，雖然字數不夠對作文分數來說是致命的，但是寫滿字數并不能保證作文能得高分，寫作的質量才是分數的保障。

02Don't Write About Both Sides

不要從正反兩方面都進行論述

The reason why you want to avoid doing this is because you run the risk of repeating yourself. In an essay, every sentence is important; you don't want to waste space saying the same things again. 

很多同學都喜歡從正反兩方面入手論述一個問題。雖然在生活中這樣思考是一個好習慣，但是在寫作中卻是一個致命傷。因為作文的字數有限，你的每一句話都很重要。從正反兩方面論述理論上沒問題，但是實際操作起來，很多學生都會掉入重復自己的觀點的深坑。

03Advantages and Disadvantages

論述利弊類型的作文

Write the side you don't agree with first. You don't have to list the advantages first.

不管是覺得利大于弊還是弊大于利，你都應該把主要想論述的那部分放在后邊具體說明。不是一定要按照題目敘述的順序先寫利再寫弊。

以下題為例

Prompt: What are the advantages and disadvantages of traveling to remote areas?

Let's say you think people should travel to remote areas.

我們姑且假設你認為人們應該去遠方旅行。

那么比較合理的安排應該是：

Body paragraph 1

Some disadvantages of traveling to places like the South Pole include…

Body paragraph 2:

However, the advantages outweigh the disadvantages. One advantage is…

The second paragraph's points often outweigh the ones in the first paragraph. They are also more likely to stay in the reader's mind.

通常在安排文章時我們會把重心更偏向主體段落中的第二段。同樣的，閱卷人也會把閱讀評判的重點放在這一段。因此把你的主要論點放在后邊反而能給人留下更深刻的印象。

04Explain Your Thoughts

詳細解釋你的觀點

Don't just state your opinions. Explain your reasons in 3-4 sentences. Listing a bunch of points with no support is an easy way to get a low score.

不要只是陳述你的觀點，還應該用三四個句子作為論據簡單地論述。只一味地羅列觀點，而沒有事例相佐是寫作的大忌。

Pretend your reader is a child and you have to explain everything. Your thoughts may seem obvious to you, but they might not be so clear to others.

雖然你的論點對你來說可能是順理成章的，但是閱卷人需要的是你更清晰明確的說明和解釋。你可以當閱卷人是一個小朋友，耐心為他解釋你的所有論點。

How？

Student: “This will reduce the aging of the population”

Like what？

Student: “If we share too much information, maybe someone will do something bad”

Get in the habit of asking yourself “how” and “why” while writing. Answer those questions to make your writing more substantive.

像上邊示范的一樣，養成常常向自己提問“為什么”和“怎么樣”的習慣。在你寫下的每一個觀點后充分的寫明為什么會這樣，以及怎么樣解決這個問題 ，這樣才會讓你的文章更加言之有物。