Today we continue our series of expert suggestions for academic writing. Our guest is Jennifer Ahern-Dodson, assistant professor of the Practice in Writing Studies at Duke University in North Carolina.
今天我们继续我们的学术写作专家建议系列。今天的嘉宾是来自北卡罗来纳州杜克大学的写作研究实践助理教授珍妮弗·埃亨-多德森。

Ms. Ahern-Dodson starts a conversation with both students and professors planning to write a paper or essay. She asks about their earlier writing experiences. Were they negative or positive?
埃亨-多德森女士与计划写论文或文章的学生和教授们展开对话。她询问他们早期的写作经历，是积极的还是消极的？

She advises that you are not alone if you have had problems with your writing. She says everyone struggles with writing.
她建议，如果你在写作中遇到问题，你并不孤单。她说每个人都会在写作中挣扎。

“Writing is hard. All writers struggle at some point. And even if writing has come easily for you, at some point in your work as a student, that eventually you’re going to hit a roadblock. And so part of what I like to get folks thinking about is -- besides writing’s hard for everybody – is to really take a moment to think about their past writing experiences. And when the writing is going well, what was happening? When the writing wasn’t going well, what was happening?”
“写作是困难的。所有作家都会在某个时刻挣扎。即使写作对你来说一直很容易，但在你作为学生的某个时刻，你最终会遇到障碍。因此，我希望大家思考的不仅仅是写作对每个人都很难，还要真正花点时间思考一下他们过去的写作经历。当写作顺利时，发生了什么？当写作不顺利时，又发生了什么？”

She says most people’s negative writing experiences happened because a very specific formula is required for a paper including an exact length.
她说，大多数人的消极写作经历是因为论文需要一个非常具体的格式，包括确切的长度。

“And so they primarily focus on, and worry about, what the final product has to look like, like how many pages for a research essay? Or if it is in the second or third language, you know, punctuation and grammar, like whether it gets communicated in the right language.
“所以他们主要关注并担心最终的成品应该是什么样子，比如研究论文要多少页？或者如果是用第二或第三语言写作，你知道的，标点和语法，比如是否用正确的语言表达。

“And so focusing on the end makes it really hard to get started.”
“因此，专注于最终结果会让人很难开始写作。”

Another problem can arise when the need to do well on a paper is extremely important.
当论文表现好与否变得极其重要时，可能会出现另一个问题。

“…like a timed essay exam, or a college application essay, or a research paper that is at the end of the semester, and it’s tied to the entire grade for the class. So worrying about what will happen if they don’t do well – get bad grades, don’t get into college -- creates, of course, significant anxiety. And that can make it harder to get the writing done.”
“…比如计时作文考试，或大学申请文章，或学期末的研究论文，这些都与整个课程的成绩挂钩。所以担心如果表现不好会发生什么——成绩差，不能上大学——当然会产生很大的焦虑。而这会让写作变得更加困难。”

Then she and the people she’s helping move to more positive projects. She says usually when writing comes easily, the writers feel they have something important to say.
然后，她和她帮助的人转向更积极的项目。她说，通常当写作变得容易时，作者会觉得他们有重要的事情要说。

The teacher advises asking yourself questions. What personal understanding of the subject can you bring to your paper? Why is this subject important? For whom is it meaningful? Who will be reading it?
老师建议问自己一些问题。你对这个主题有什么个人理解可以带到论文中？为什么这个主题很重要？对谁有意义？谁会阅读它？

“…Think about who your audience is, and what it is that you really want to say to them. And what that can do is help you switch from the final product and what it can look like (to) really more on what you have to offer, your particular perspective.”
“…思考一下你的读者是谁，你真正想对他们说什么。这样做可以帮助你从关注最终成品及其外观转变为更关注你能提供的内容和你独特的视角。”