Writing an Article
IGCSE English Topic 6 7:49 English narration · English + 中文 subtitles burned in
Chapters
Transcript
Two students write an article about sleep for the school magazine.
两位同学为校刊写一篇关于睡眠的文章。
Here is one opening: <slow>Sleep is very important for students.
第一个开头是：睡眠对学生非常重要。
In this article I will discuss the topic of sleep.</slow> And here is the other: Have you ever tried to sleep with a phone glowing beside your pillow?
在这篇文章里我将讨论睡眠这个话题。 另一个开头是：你有没有试过枕边亮着手机入睡？
Most of us have — and most of us wake up tired.
我们大多数人都有过—— 而我们大多数人醒来都很疲惫。
Your reader can stop reading at any moment, and the first one gives them every reason to.
你的读者随时可以不读了，而第一个开头给了他所有停下的理由。
That is the whole difference this lesson is about.
这就是这节课要讲的全部差别。
An article.
文章。
You write it for a magazine, a newspaper or a website — so for a general reader, and for many of them at once.
你是为杂志、报纸或网站写的——面向的是大众读者，而且是很多人同时在读。
Its purpose is to inform or to entertain that reader, usually with your own view and your reasons for it.
它的目的是告知或娱乐这位读者，通常还要带上你自己的看法和理由。
It is the one task on this paper where personality earns marks, and today you will learn exactly how to spend that freedom: the title, the hook, the shape, and the ending that makes the whole thing worth reading.
这是整张卷子上唯一一道"个性能得分"的题；今天你就来学这份自由该怎么用： 标题、开头的钩子、结构，以及那个让整篇文章值得一读的结尾。
Start with the reader, because this reader is unlike every other one on the paper.
先看读者，因为这个读者和这张卷子上其他所有读者都不一样。
In a letter you write to one named person who has to read you.
写信时，你写给一个有名有姓、必须读你的人。
In an article you are writing to many people at once, and you do not know a single one of them.
写文章时，你同时写给很多人，而且你一个也不认识。
More importantly, they can stop at any line. Nobody is making them finish. So your job is different.
更重要的是：他们随时可以停下不读，没有人逼他们读完。
In a letter your job is to be clear.
所以你的任务不同了。
In an article your job is to be clear and to engage them — to catch their interest and keep it — every paragraph has to earn the next one.
写信的任务是把话说清楚； 写文章的任务是既说清楚、又留住人——每一段都要为下一段赢得机会。
That work begins before your first sentence, with the title.
这份工作在你的第一句话之前就开始了，从标题开始。
A flat title describes the topic: An Article About Sleep.
平淡的标题只是描述话题：《一篇关于睡眠的文章》。
It is accurate, and nobody will read on.
它很准确，但没人会往下读。
A catchy title promises something: Why You Are Always Tired. Sleep: The Cheapest Medicine. The Six Hours That Change Your Day.
吸引人的标题给出一个承诺：《你为什么总是这么累》《睡眠：最便宜的良药》 《改变你一天的那六个小时》。
Keep it short — five or six words at most — and give it its own line at the top.
标题要短——最多五六个词——并且单独占一行放在最上面。
It takes ten seconds to write and it is the first thing the examiner sees.
写它只要十秒钟，而它是考官看到的第一样东西。
Then the first line, and there are three moves that reliably work.
接着是第一句话，有三种做法几乎总是有效。
Ask the reader a question.
第一，向读者提问。
Have you ever fallen asleep in a lesson?
你有没有在课上睡着过？
It puts them in the article immediately, because now they are answering.
这会立刻把读者拉进文章，因为他已经在回答了。
Or open with a surprising fact.
第二，用一个令人意外的事实开头。
Three out of five students in our school get less than six hours of sleep.
我们学校每五个学生里有三个睡不到六小时。
A number is hard to ignore.
数字是很难被忽略的。
Or start with a small moment.
第三，从一个小片段开始。
Last Tuesday I fell asleep during maths, and I was not the only one.
上周二我在数学课上睡着了，而且不止我一个。
Pick one. Never all three — a first paragraph that asks a question, then quotes a statistic, then tells a story is not a hook. It is a traffic jam.
挑一种用，绝不要三种一起上。
Underneath the personality, an article has a plain and dependable structure.
在个性之下，文章有一个朴素而可靠的结构。
The introduction names the topic and points forward — after the hook, one line telling the reader where this is going.
引言点明话题并指出方向——在抓住读者之后，用一句话告诉读者文章要去哪儿。
The middle carries your points, one idea per paragraph, each made real with an example.
中间承载你的观点，一段一个想法，每个都用例子落到实处。
Two or three paragraphs is right.
写两三段就合适。
The ending leaves them thinking — a question, a punchline, or something to go and do.
结尾要让读者继续想——一个问题、一句妙语，或者一件可以去做的事。
Hook, point forward, develop, land.
抓住、指路、展开、收尾。
Four moves, and you can plan them in a minute.
四步，一分钟就能规划好。
Here is the freedom this task gives you, and students under-use it. You may speak to the reader directly. That is lively language, and so is variety: use varied words and varied sentence lengths.
这道题给了你一种自由，而同学们往往用得太少：你可以直接对读者说话。
The word you changes the temperature of a sentence.
"你"这个词会改变一句话的温度。
Students should sleep more is a rule. You already know you should sleep more is a conversation.
"学生应该多睡"是一条规定； "你其实早就知道自己该多睡了"是一次对话。
Be honest — how many of you checked a phone last night?
说实话——你们昨晚有多少人看了手机？
We all know that feeling.
我们都懂那种感觉。
You might think an hour makes no difference.
你可能觉得一小时没什么差别。
But there is a limit. Friendly, not chatty.
但也有限度：亲切，不是闲聊。
No slang, no emojis, and never more than one exclamation mark in the whole article.
不用俚语，不用表情符号， 整篇文章的感叹号绝不超过一个。
Now the habit that keeps a reader through the middle: make every idea real.
接下来是让读者读完中段的关键习惯：把每个想法写实。
A bare claim slides straight past: Not sleeping enough affects your schoolwork.
光秃秃的论断会被一滑而过：睡眠不足会影响你的学业。
True, dull, forgettable.
真话，但乏味，转头就忘。
Now the same point with a moment attached: Last term I read the same page of a history book four times and remembered none of it.
现在给同一个观点配上一个片段：上学期我把历史书的同一页读了四遍， 结果一点也没记住。
Give each middle paragraph one small picture — a moment, a person, a place.
给中间的每一段配一幅小画面——一个瞬间、一个人、一个地方。
It costs you two lines and it is what the reader will still remember at the end.
它只花你两行，却是读者读完之后唯一还记得的东西。
Numbers do the same job in a different way: they make an article feel true.
数字以另一种方式做同样的事：它让文章显得可信。
Many students are tired says nothing a reader can hold on to.
"很多学生很累"没有给读者任何可抓住的东西。
Three out of five students in our year sleep less than six hours — now it is real, and the reader believes the sentence after it as well.
"我们年级每五个学生里有三个睡不到六小时"——现在它落地了， 读者连下一句也更愿意相信。
You may invent them, as long as they are believable.
数字可以自己编，只要合乎情理。
Two or three small facts across the whole article is plenty; a page of statistics turns an article back into a report.
整篇文章用两三个小数据就足够； 满页统计数字会把文章又变回报告。
One more thing separates a lively article from a flat one, and it is not vocabulary. It is rhythm.
还有一样东西把生动的文章和平淡的文章分开，而它不是词汇，是节奏。
Listen to this: Sleep is important.
听这一段：睡眠很重要。
Students need sleep.
学生需要睡眠。
Phones stop sleep.
手机妨碍睡眠。
Sleep helps memory.
睡眠有助记忆。
Every sentence is the same length, and the reader starts to drift.
每句话都一样长，读者开始走神。
Now break the pattern: Sleep is the one thing every student says they want more of, and the one thing they give away first.
现在打破这个模式：睡眠是每个学生都说想要更多的东西， 也是他们最先放弃的东西。 每一个晚上。
Every night. A short sentence after a long one lands like a full stop you can hear.
长句之后的一个短句，落下来就像一个听得见的句号。
Use it once or twice — not on every line.
用一两次就好，不要每行都用。
Now some useful language — keep a small bank of article phrases ready.
准备一小套写文章的常用表达。
To open with energy: Have you ever…?
有力开头：Have you ever……？
Imagine you… Last week, something odd happened to me.
Imagine you…… Last week， something odd happened to me。
To move between ideas: What's more… On the other hand… The truth is… And to end memorably: So next time you… Perhaps the real question is… Eight phrases. They cover the hook, the joins and the landing — the three places where an article is usually lost. Learn two from each group and you will always have one that fits.
在观点之间过渡：What's more…… On the other hand…… The truth is…… 让结尾令人难忘：So next time you…… Perhaps the real question is…… 一共八句，覆盖开头、衔接和收尾——文章最常"垮掉"的三个地方。
Then the last line, which readers remember far out of proportion to its length.
最后是结尾的那一句，读者对它的记忆远远超过它的长度。
A weak ending summarises: In conclusion, sleep is very important for students.
差的结尾是总结：总之，睡眠对学生非常重要。
The reader has already read that.
这句读者早就读过了。
Here are three endings that work.
有三种结尾很好用。
A question: so what would you give up for an extra hour?
提问：那么，为了多睡一小时，你愿意放弃什么？
A call to act: tonight, leave the phone in another room.
号召行动：今晚，把手机放到另一个房间。
Or a punchline: it turns out the cheapest medicine in the world is free.
或者一句妙语：原来世界上最便宜的良药，是免费的。
Pick one and stop there.
选一种，然后就停。
Do not add a sentence after it.
不要在它后面再加一句。
Let's take one real opening apart.
我们来拆解一个真实的开头。
Three sentences, three jobs.
三句话，三项任务。
The This is a model opening, and it does three jobs. The first sentence pulls them in: Have you ever tried to sleep with a phone glowing beside your pillow?
第一句把读者拉进来：你有没有试过枕边亮着手机入睡？
A question, and one they can answer.
一个问题，而且是他能回答的问题。
The second keeps them there: Most of us have — and most of us wake up tired.
第二句把他留住：我们大多数人都有过——而我们大多数人醒来都很疲惫。
That is honesty, and it makes the reader feel seen.
这是坦诚，它让读者觉得被看见了。
The third points forward: this article asks a simple question — could a good night's sleep be the cheapest way to feel happier?
第三句指出方向：这篇文章问一个简单的问题—— 好好睡一觉，会不会是让人更快乐的最便宜的办法？
Three sentences. Hook, honesty, direction.
三句话：抓住、坦诚、指路。
That is a great deal of work for about forty words.
四十来个词，做了非常多的事。
Three habits to carry in.
带三个习惯进考场。
First, give it a title and a hook before anything else — those two lines decide whether the rest of your work gets read.
第一，先写标题和开头钩子，再写别的—— 这两行决定了你后面的努力会不会被读到。
Second, put one example or one number in every middle paragraph; that is what turns opinions into an article.
第二，中间每一段都放一个例子或一个数字；正是它把观点变成文章。
Third, end on a line worth remembering, and then stop writing.
第三，用一句值得记住的话收尾，然后就停笔。
Do those three, and this becomes the task where you can genuinely enjoy yourself and score at the same time.
做到这三点，这道题就会成为你既能写得开心、又能拿到分的题。