2. 外语
  3. In the past few years, I’ve taught nonfiction writing to undergraduates and graduate students at Harvard, Yale, and Columbia’s S

In the past few years, I’ve taught nonfiction writing to undergraduates and graduate students at Harvard, Yale, and Columbia’s S

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问题    In the past few years, I’ve taught nonfiction writing to undergraduates and graduate students at Harvard, Yale, and Columbia’s School of Journalism. Each semester I hope, and fear, that I will have nothing to teach my students because they already know how to write. And each semester I discover, again, that they don’t.
   The teaching of the humanities has fallen on hard times. So says a new report on the state of the humanities by the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and so says the experience of nearly everyone who teaches at a college or university. Undergraduates will tell you that they’re under pressure — from their parents, from the burden of debt they incur, from society at large — to choose majors they believe will lead as directly as possible to good jobs. Too often, that means skipping the humanities.
   In other words, there is a new and narrowing vocational emphasis in the way students and their parents think about what to study in college.
   There is a certain literal-mindedness in the recent shift away from the humanities. It suggests a number of things.
   First, the rush to make education pay off presupposes that only the most immediately applicable skills are worth acquiring. Second, the humanities often do a bad job of explaining why the humanities matter. Third, the humanities often do a bad job of teaching the humanities.
   What many undergraduates do not know — and what so many of their professors have been unable to tell them — is how valuable the most fundamental gift of the humanities will turn out to be. That gift is clear thinking, clear writing and a lifelong engagement with literature.
   Maybe it takes some living to find out this truth. Whenever I teach older students, whether they’re undergraduates, graduate students or junior faculty, I find a vivid, pressing sense of how much they need the skill they didn’t acquire earlier in life. They don’t call that skill the humanities. They don’t call it literature. They call it writing — the ability to distribute their thinking in the kinds of sentences that have a merit, even a literary merit, of their own.
   Writing well used to be a fundamental principle of the humanities, as essential as the knowledge of mathematics and statistics in the sciences. But writing well isn’t merely a utilitarian skill. It is about developing a rational grace and energy in your conversation with the world around you.
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答案 近几年来，我在哈佛、耶鲁和哥伦比亚大学新闻学院给本科生和研究生讲授非文学写作。每个学期我都希望，但同时也担心没有东西可以传授给学生，想着他们应该已经知道如何写作了。而每个学期我都一再发现，他们仍然不知道如何写作。 人文学科的教学已经陷入困境。美国文理科学院最近发表的关于人文学科现状的报告得出了上述结论，而几乎所有学院或大学教师的教学经历也与此结论不谋而合。本科生会对你说，他们面临来自父母的压力、来自负债的压力，以及来自社会的压力，去选择他们所认为的最有助于找到好工作的专业。在大多数情况下，这实际上意味着不选择人文学科的课程。 换言之，现在学生和家长们在考虑上大学要学什么课程时，有一种越来越窄的、偏重职业技能的新倾向。 近年来，这种偏离人文学科的趋势在一定程度上有追求实用性的考虑。它说明了几个问题。 第一，急于使教育产生回报，这是因为人们事先就认为，只有适用性最强的技能才值得学。第二，人文学科往往不善于说明其重要性。第三，人文学科教学本身存在问题。 人文学科最基本的馈赠中究竟蕴含着多大的价值，这点本科生一无所知，而老师也从没告诉过他们。这种馈赠就是清晰的思路、流畅的文笔，以及对文学的终生兴趣。 个中道理，也许需要有一定的生活阅历之后才能领悟。我发现，我教的年纪较大的学生，无论是本科生、研究生还是年轻教师，都深感需要掌握这种没能早一点学到的技能。这种技能，他们既不称之为人文学科，也不称之为文学。他们称之为写作，即可以将自己的思考用句子表达出来的能力，这些句子有其自身的价值，乃至文学价值。 良好的写作能力曾是人文学科最基本的一项要求，其重要性不亚于数学和统计学知识对自然科学的重要性。然而较强的写作能力也不仅仅是一种实用技能。它能让你在与人交流时，展现个人的理性优雅和活力。
解析    本文作者基于自身在顶尖高校教授非文学写作的经历，指出美国高校现存的轻视人文学科的现实状况。随后，文章结合美国文理科学院最新报告和一线教师在教学中的感悟，分析内在原因：社会状况以及多重因素造成学生对人文学科的轻视。在此背景下，进一步分析了高校人文学科没落背后更深层次的原因。文章层层递进，步步深入，逐步过渡到论点：人文学科不仅实用，而且可以让人终身受益。
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