Senior High School English Composition Step by Step

Author: Jiang Fabing
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2005-04-01
Features: Teaching high school English writing is time-consuming and slow to yield results, which has been a long-standing complaint among many teachers and students. There are numerous books on English writing available on the market, some of which are meticulous "encyclopedias," while others offer innovative techniques that can enlighten both teachers and students. However, there are few guidebooks that truly address the "soft weaknesses" of writing, and even fewer that provide students with operationally meaningful rules for writing practice. Such rules should enable students to see and learn, apply what they have learned, and achieve tangible results. The emphasis on operability and effectiveness has given rise to this book, A Step-by-Step Guide to Writing for Senior Students.
The "step-by-step" in the book title refers to how to achieve three stages of progress in writing: from "conventional" and "coordinated" to "artistic." These three stages can also be described in lay terms as "form," "appropriateness," and "subtlety." "Form" is the foundation, "appropriateness" is the standard, and "subtlety" is the pursuit—three levels, ranging from easy to difficult. "Form" and "appropriateness" primarily belong to the realm of models and grammatical knowledge, making them relatively easy to understand and grasp. However, "subtlety" in writing involves language usage habits, linguistic thinking, and even national culture, making it the most elusive.
This book is grounded in teaching practice and provides a thorough collection of topics such as advanced vocabulary, Chinese English, and idiomatic English expressions. These materials are detailed and targeted, not piecemeal or trivial, and are capable of delivering a strong visual impact to readers while helping them build a stable model for "artistic" writing. Moreover, the book's focus on "subtlety" is reflected in the creation, selection, and analysis of model essays. The editors have invited American teachers to write model essays for nearly 20 national college entrance examination writing prompts, and these are combined with the model essays provided in the exam papers to analyze the characteristics of high-scoring essays. Through this meticulous analysis, the editors have summarized some intrinsic principles that can break through the bottleneck of high school English writing and transformed these principles into operationally meaningful rules for students to imitate and apply.
Additionally, the book includes dozens of practice essays written by middle and high school students from English-speaking countries. These essays are filled with innocence, vivid language, and a strong modern feel. Readers can not only gain insights into the thoughts of their foreign peers but also immerse themselves in authentic English by reading these model essays aloud. Although this book is a guide to writing, it can also serve as a book for reading and appreciating foreign cultures in this sense.
The completion of this book is owed to the accumulation of classroom practice. I am particularly grateful to my students from previous graduating classes. It was their inspiration, content enrichment, and practical application of the book's ideas that brought this book to life. Their opinions, suggestions, and desires are directly reflected in the book's structure and viewpoints. What gives me great satisfaction is that after students used the manuscript, the results were remarkable, exceeding initial expectations. Therefore, it is reasonable to believe that this book, guided by the specific requirements of the college entrance examination writing prompts, is neither populist nor overly esoteric, making it highly accessible to a broad student audience.