英语学了很多年，
但写出来的东西依旧是Chinglish？
雅思刷了千百遍，写作单项依然是短板，
达不到dream school的要求？
毕业论文的英文序言翻译不出来，
要到处找英专童鞋帮忙？
为了拯救同学们的英语写作（也为了拯救小U自己的……），小U这几天四处向英语母语人士取经，这不，历经千山万水，小U今天联系到了土澳名校的歪国小哥哥——墨尔本大学萌萌哒Korey Kavadias师兄！
对于目前在澳大利亚排名第一的墨尔本大学，同学们一定已经耳熟能详了。那么Korey Kavadias师兄是谁呢？嗯，他就厉害了！
Korey Kavadias
墨尔本大学应用语言学专业大三学生，一个精通英语、中文、日语、意大利语、希腊语的小哥哥。
作为一个在多语言环境中长大的小哥哥，Korey不仅精通多国语言，而且十分喜欢以不同语言为载体，研究各国文化。目前，Korey的主要的学习和研究集中在语言学领域，研究语言的小哥哥一定对写作也有很多心得体会啦~
经过沟通，在Korey小哥哥给我们的第一封信中，他不仅谈到了自己在学习英文写作时的心路历程，也给同学们提出了宝贵的建议。下面，就让我们一起跟随Korey小哥哥的来信，看看他是怎么拯救我们的英语写作的吧！
小哥的烦恼
Dear U粉儿，
How's your study going? I bet you've got a tonne of essays to do this semester, maybe a few reports, a textual analysis? I don't know about you, but I absolutely hate all the writing I have to do at uni, it sucks. I never know what to write, or how to write it. I feel like I'm not structuring anything right, like I'm not answering the questions effectively. Sometimes it's like I know what I'm supposed to do but I just don't have the tools to do it.
It can be a bit overwhelming, and then throw on top of that doing it in a different language like English for you or Chinese for me, and it's a whole new challenge in and of itself. All of sudden I'm not only unsure of the essay or report, but I'm also unsure of the language I'm using, whether it's appropriate, if I've understood the information well enough, or collected the data in the right way.
原来Korey小哥哥也有英语写作的烦恼呀！
不仅如此，他用中文写作跟我们用英文写作的烦恼是一样一样的：不仅要担心文章本身，还要担心使用的语言是否准确。
熟能生巧
But these aren't issues just for second language speakers. Even I struggle with my English writing, and it's my native language! I need loads of practice, looking up new words, checking my grammar, fine tuning all those sentences and phrases that just don't sound quite right. I think we all need to be continuously practicing our language, whether it's our first or our second, or our third or fourth. You can't become proficient without it. Even if you're great at speaking and talking, writing is different. We don't write the way we speak, so it's a different skill to be able to write proficiently and effectively in any language you speak.
Like any other skill, that requires practice, and practice, and practice, and practice, and practice! There are so many ways to practice too, exercises from text books, reading books and other literature, and now with the advent of the modern world there are even more options to help you out. There are even fully functional online courses, like a class at university, to help you practice and get to the level you want to be at. This is something we do here at Unipus, something we're very proud of if we're being honest.
怎样才能练就英语写作？
练习！练习！练习！以各种方式练习！
实例分析
One time, I was given the practice question:
The chart below gives information about Southland's main exports in 2000, 2017, and the future projections for 2025. Summarise the information by selecting and reporting the main features, and make comparisons where relevant.
This question was accompanied by a bar graph showing the figures:
这是一道经典的雅思OG题哦~Korey的老师课上从雅思取材，给歪国小哥哥小姐姐们练练手！
Originally I had no idea how to organise my information or structure it. So I just jumped right in and said:
"From the graph below it looks Southland has three export areas. Over the years in question they have all changed in terms of quantity".
What？这就结束了？
小哥哥的原始作品好像也不那么尽如人意呢……
I'm sure anyone can see that this was a terrible response. My supervisor from uni then taught us various strategies regarding writing, the "Three Elements" approach being one of them. It is used to organise the data before I started writing, and make a better response like this one:
"The graph below shows a glimpse at the changing nature of Southland's main three exports, International tourism, Daily products, and Meat products, over a period of 25 years. As we can see there has been a consistent rise in the quantity of exports in billion for international tourism, and a steady decline for Meat products. Daily products on the other hand had an initial increase up until 2017, but are projected to decrease by 2025, while still staying higher than the original export amount in 2000."
Korey的老师建议采用“三要素”的写作技巧，改进后的作品“三要素”都齐了！
插播一下，“三要素”是什么？
◇ 要素一：清晰描述对象；
◇ 要素二：注意数据单位；
◇ 要素三：准确使用时态。
I know we can all agree that this response is just so much better than the original. It's more detailed, comprehensive and it is also more academic in nature.
This IELTS writing is essentially academic writing as well; it has an in-depth focus on graphs and analysis — there was no way I couldn't get better without this "Three Elements" approach. This is also true for any possibility you may come across in your IELTS and English writing in general.
Korey小哥哥的新作品受到了好评：
更详细、更综合、更学术；“三要素”不仅对于雅思考试作文管用，也是日常英语写作的利器！
后续发来的第二封信：
这个“三要素”小U突然觉得似曾相识，好像暑假里在U讲堂上听亚琳老师讲过……
于是小U翻出了那门课，连夜发给Korey小哥哥求鉴定……然后，精通中文的小哥哥也连夜看完了课程……（赞不赞？）于是，第二封信也就连夜到了！
第二封信
We actually have a course that is designed specifically for IELTS writing as well as writing in general on the Unipus website. It's built around the Academic IELTS and discusses a variety of things ranging from in-depth looks at the types of media you may be given as prompts, to broader explanations of each task in the test and how they are marked. It provides detailed explanations of the possible prompts you can be given, how to interpret the information, approach the collection of it and how to structure your response. There are lessons that focus exclusively on writing a conclusion, and lessons that discuss an overview of the tasks, giving a variety of examples and sample responses to give you a standard to aim for.
Because of this, the course isn't only suitable for IELTS, but it's also a great way to improve your English writing in general. The detailed analysis on data interpretation, response structuring and information collection, as well as all the amazing sample responses and helpful hints, are lessons and skills that are transferable to all your English writing, both at school, in the workplace or in general life. They are skills that I, as a native speaker, use every day in my work, in my writing, and at school. Going through these courses even I learnt new things that I've been able to apply in my day to day life. They are very comprehensive and detailed, I give them 5 stars, hands down.
让我们一起努力！
At the end of the day, doing anything in a second language is going to be difficult. There is an added level of stress and difficulty when it comes to writing even the simplest piece of work. You are always second guessing your understanding, whether your grammar is right, if that word can even go where you've put it! Doing things like our IELTS course can help give you the peace of mind to know that what you're doing is right, that you're on the right track. Having skills and processes in place that you can apply to all situations you find yourself in are invaluable. It means you can organise your thoughts, have a clear head and actually do well, because at the end of the day that's all any of us want to do.
