From VOA Learning English, this is the Education Report.
这里是美国之音慢速英语教育报道。
Many secondary and university students have returned to classes, or soon will. And some of you have told us that you worry about academic writing – writing for school. We know that writing papers can be hard – even a little frightening. And we know it can be especially hard if you are not writing in your first language.
许多高中生和大学生都已经或即将回到学校上课。其中有些人告诉我们，他们担心学术论文写作。我们知道，写论文很难，甚至有些可怕。我们也知道，如果不是用你的第一语言来写会尤其难。
So we have asked some writing experts in the United States for advice. Our experts are professors and professional writers. From time to time as part of the Education Report, we will share some of their suggestions with you in their own words.
所以我们咨询了美国一些写作专家的建议，这些专家都是教授或专业作家。作为教育报道的一部分，我们将不时地用他们的原话来分享一些他们的建议。
Today we hear from Mary Ann Allison, she is with the department of journalism, media studies and public relations at Hofstra University in New York. She is also a poet and a writer. She says starting a paper is often the most difficult part of writing for school.
今天我们将听到玛丽·安·艾莉森（Mary Ann Allison）的建议。她就职于纽约霍夫斯特拉大学的新闻、媒体研究和公共关系系。她还是一位诗人和作家。她说，写论文最困难的就是开头。
"Mary Ann Allison, suppose the teacher or professor gives you a choice of a topic, a subject, within a given field."
“艾莉森，假设老师或教授在一个特定范围内给你一个主题。”
"Well, I have a couple of thoughts. The first, if you have any choice at all of a topic, is to do something that you're really interested in, because the more you're interested in it naturally, the better you'll write and the easier it'll be."
“嗯，我有一些想法。首先，如果有选择余地，那就选择你真正感兴趣的主题。因为你对它越感兴趣，就越好写，越容易写。”
"After you have found a subject you think you would like to write about, what comes next?"
“当你找到自己想写的主题，下一步怎么做？”
"Once you've decided on something, another consideration would be how much information you can find. So, often if I'm starting something, I'm considering a topic, I do, oh, 10, 15 minutes' worth of looking at information to see if there's enough for me to be able to easily research and write what I want to write. And if there's not, then I might choose something else to write on. So those two things, I would say, sort of balance your interest and information availability. And then the next thing that I would do is what I call a back-of-the-envelope outline."
“一旦做好决定，下一个考虑就是看你能找出多少信息。所以通常如果我开始写开始考虑一个主题，我就会用10到15分钟的时间来审阅信息，看看是否有足够信息让我能够轻松探讨并写出我想写的东西。如果没有，我就会选择其它主题来写。所以我要说的是，要在兴趣和可用信息方面找到某种平衡。然后接下来我要做的是勾画轮廓。”
"Back of the envelope, and what is that?"
“Back of the envelope是什么意思？”
"So that's when I sit down, maybe not at my desk, not at my computer, maybe even at a café, or with a cup of coffee, but where I sit. And I just kind of think about it, and I think about the topic like, what would I say to a friend? And I just write down short notes about whatever – whatever comes to mind. What would I say to a friend about this? Or, what do I want to know about this? And when I have - oh, I don't know - anywhere between five and 10 points, I stop."
“意思是当我坐下来，可能不是在办公桌前不是在电脑上，可能是在一家咖啡厅或喝着咖啡，反正就是我坐下来的地方。我会简单考虑一下，例如考虑一下就这个主题，我会给朋友说些什么？我会在便签上写下大脑中的任何想法。就此我会给朋友说些什么呢？或者，就此我想要知道些什么呢？然后当我想出5到10个要点，我就会停下来。”
"Then, do you start to write?"
“然后你就开始写？”
"And then I wait a whole day, so I sleep on it, because your brain will work on it while you're sleeping. And then I take those notes and I make an outline. And then I take the outline and again check how much information is there. Is there easy information on all these points? And if the signals are all ‘yes', then I might start writing."
"然后我会等上一整天，这样我会带着它入眠。因为当你睡着时大脑还会进行这项工作。然后我会做一些笔记，拟出一个大纲。然后我拿着大纲再次检查它包含了多少信息。所有要点是不是都有可用信息？如果答案是确认，那么我可能就会开始写作。”
"So a lot of your preparation is preparation?"
“所以你的大量准备工作就是准备？”
"It's preparation, and it's doing preparation, but it's also letting your unconscious do a lot of work for you. Because if you sit down and try to write it right now, you don't give your unconscious any time to organize things (or to) bring together other ideas."
“就是做准备，但它还会让你的潜意识帮你做很多工作。因为如果当你现在坐下来试图开始写作，你不会给你的潜意识任何时间来组织东西或整合其它观点。”
"So do some research, which gives your subconscious something to think about. Right? Then let it rest for a night. You'll often find that it's much easier. Also, the more rested you are, the better it will be."
“所以做一些研究，让你的潜意识就此开始思考，对吗？然后休息一晚上，通常你就会发现它变得更容易。此外，你精力越充沛就会做得更好。”
And that's the VOA Learning English Education Report. I'm Jeri Watson.
以上就是本期美国之音慢速英语教育报道的全部内容。我是杰里·沃特森（Jeri Watson）。(51VOA.COM对本文翻译保留全部权利，未经授权请勿转载，违者必究！)