先蹲下，后起跳——淺談留學(xué)文書中欲揚先抑的寫作方法

谷約

每年中國都會有大批學(xué)生出國留學(xué)，其中高中升本科，本科升碩、博的居多。在申請海外高校時，申請者往往會遇到向申請學(xué)校提交留學(xué)文書這一環(huán)節(jié)。留學(xué)文書是出國留學(xué)申請準備材料中重要的組成部分，其主要作用是申請人向所申請的學(xué)校介紹或者說“推銷”自己。在文書中，申請人既要展現(xiàn)自己的綜合實力（如學(xué)習(xí)成績、社會實踐、公益活動、榮譽獎項、興趣愛好），還要表現(xiàn)出自己鮮明、獨特的個人形象；既要展現(xiàn)自己的思維邏輯（對某問題的看法），又要直觀地反映出自己的英語功底。這就要求申請者對豐富龐雜的素材進行取舍、串聯(lián)和加工，并用流暢、地道的英語將其組織成文。于是，如何寫出一篇漂亮的留學(xué)文書就成了一門大有學(xué)問的技術(shù)活。從本期開始，筆者將陸續(xù)給讀者介紹一些留學(xué)文書的寫作方法。本期先為大家介紹的是文書寫作中欲揚先抑的寫作方法。

文書類型簡介

留學(xué)文書主要由個人陳述（Personal Statement/PS）、推薦信（Recommendation Letter）、個人簡歷（Resume）和短文（Essay）組成。

個人陳述

申請去國外大學(xué)留學(xué)的學(xué)生要按照自己所申請學(xué)校的要求，寫一篇有關(guān)個人背景、學(xué)術(shù)成就、未來研究和職業(yè)目標的文章。一篇好的個人陳述不僅要主題鮮明、內(nèi)容真實、語言流暢、邏輯嚴謹、層次分明，還要充分顯示出申請人的才華，要讓招生人員一看便被吸引了。在英文中，個人陳述還被稱為Statement of Purpose/SOP、Statement of Intent、Statement of Objectives、Academic Statement等，一般簡稱PS或SOP。PS側(cè)重點在personal上，目的是讓招生人員充分了解申請人的個人經(jīng)歷、品行和素質(zhì)。申請人要力求在個人陳述中最大限度地展現(xiàn)自己，陳述內(nèi)容可以包括個人成長環(huán)境、受教育情況、社會實踐經(jīng)歷、興趣愛好，也可以包括個人如何面對挑戰(zhàn)、克服困難或?qū)ι鐣F(xiàn)象的思考等。個人陳述沒有固定格式，但申請者千萬不能將其視為個人的表揚狀或決心書。SOP側(cè)重點在purpose上，也就是申請人要表明自己留學(xué)的目的，內(nèi)容主要包括申請者在自己的專業(yè)領(lǐng)域內(nèi)的研究經(jīng)驗和所提出的想法。

推薦信

在出國留學(xué)申請過程中，海外院校通常會要求申請者提供2～4封推薦信。推薦信是申請文書中非常重要的組成部分。推薦信是從第三者的角度對申請人的學(xué)習(xí)成績、能力、潛質(zhì)和性格特點等進行評價，較為客觀，所以推薦信的分量直接關(guān)系到申請者能否被錄取、能否獲得獎學(xué)金等。

個人簡歷

申請者提供個人簡歷的目的是讓所申請院校全方位、清晰地了解自己的情況。申請者應(yīng)力求在真實、全面、簡明的基礎(chǔ)上準確寫明自己的受教育程度、實踐和從事專業(yè)工作的經(jīng)歷、曾發(fā)表過的文章或論文等。申請者沒有必要提供性別、婚姻狀況、相貌等信息，這些都會被視為干擾中立判斷的因素。

短文

很多美國高校都會要求申請者寫一篇短文。短文要圍繞申請人自己的特點來寫，內(nèi)容包括對過去的成就、經(jīng)歷、技能、思想等進行總結(jié)，并對未來進行規(guī)劃。在寫作過程中，申請者千萬不要照搬照抄別人的范文，要寫出具有鮮明個人特色的文章。

接下來，我們就結(jié)合實例和文書范文具體談?wù)勎臅鴮懽髦杏麚P先抑的寫作方法。

欲揚先抑在文書寫作中的應(yīng)用

如果最出色的跳遠運動員兩腿直直地起跳，恐怕跳出的距離也不會超過一米。想要跳得遠，必須先蹲下。蹲下這一動作是為跳得更遠積蓄力量，先蹲后跳正如寫作中的欲揚先抑。欲揚先抑是一種常見的寫作手法，指先從負面角度切入，盡量貶低文章所談的對象或話題，之后筆鋒一轉(zhuǎn)，從正面、積極的角度談起，與前文的“抑”形成鮮明對比，突出真正的主旨。這種寫作手法可用于人物描寫、景物描寫、事件描寫等。例如在楊朔的散文《荔枝蜜》中，其開篇寫“蜜蜂是畫家的愛物，我卻總不大喜歡”，還交代了小時候自己被蜜蜂蜇過，留下心理陰影，但之后作者的態(tài)度開始慢慢轉(zhuǎn)變，到最后發(fā)出了“多可愛的小生靈啊”的感嘆，全文可謂是欲揚先抑的典范。

在留學(xué)文書寫作中，這一寫作手法可用于人物描寫。一般而言，就是先寫主人公的缺點，繼而筆鋒一轉(zhuǎn)，開始突出其優(yōu)點。或者，先對某事表達厭惡之情，繼而轉(zhuǎn)為對其的由衷喜愛，這也是欲揚先抑的一種表現(xiàn)手法。需要注意的是，“抑”是配角，“揚”是主角，切不可主次顛倒?！耙帧钡眠^度，掩蓋了“揚”的部分，就會適得其反。下面我們通過實例來看一篇個人陳述是如何運用欲揚先抑這一寫作技巧的。

個人陳述案例

Z同學(xué)本科就讀于中國某大學(xué)計算機系，同時修了金融專業(yè)的雙學(xué)位，要跨專業(yè)申請密歇根大學(xué)經(jīng)濟學(xué)碩士。他的父親是國內(nèi)一本經(jīng)濟學(xué)學(xué)術(shù)雜志的主編，也是國內(nèi)知名的經(jīng)濟學(xué)家。在父親的幫助下，Z同學(xué)參加了不少含金量較高的學(xué)術(shù)研究和實習(xí)活動。家庭背景的影響和之前的實踐經(jīng)歷對Z同學(xué)申請美國大學(xué)非常有幫助，但是如果Z同學(xué)根據(jù)這些情況平鋪直敘地完成個人陳述，寫出來的文章一是較呆板，可讀性差，二是會讓父親的名望喧賓奪主，反而不利于表現(xiàn)Z同學(xué)的個人才華。我們在與Z同學(xué)溝通交流過程中，了解到在高考選擇專業(yè)時，他的父親曾讓他學(xué)習(xí)經(jīng)濟專業(yè)，但是他選擇了自己比較喜歡的計算機專業(yè)，兩人各執(zhí)己見，誰也不退讓，甚至有段時間兩人都不理對方。知道這一情況后，我們便建議Z同學(xué)的個人陳述以父子矛盾為主線。這樣一來，欲揚先抑的手法就派上用場了。

個人陳述范文

With great trepidation， I pushed open the heavy mahogany （紅木） door to the office of the general manager of Chinatrust Commercial Bank， XX Branch. My mission was to raise 10，000 yuan （an equivalent to US$ 1700） as part of the fundraising campaign to support “Challenge Cup，” the national academic science and technology “Olympics.” I had met economists， bankers and corporate executives before—thanks to my father， who was and still is the president of the Economic Research Journal， a leading scholarly publication in China but I had never asked any of these people for money before. There I was， an 18-year old freshman， trying to talk the man into writing a six figure check. I seriously doubted I could do it， and I was prepared to take my leave （告別） empty-handed. I did not know whether it was because the general manager took a genuine interest in what I had to say or because he was himself a XX University alumnus （校友）； I did not know whether it was pure luck； I simply could not believe my ears when he agreed to pledge （許諾） the money on behalf of his branch. I was so excited， I almost jumped up and down. I said to myself， “I love these banks.”

I did not always love banks. Not that I hated them， but I did not think I was going to have anything to do with the banking industry or the financial world in general， more than having a father who was an expert in economics. In fact， I refused to take my fathers suggestion about majoring in economics at college and signed up for software engineering instead. I remember I stopped talking to my father for almost a year just because he thought I was going to waste my precious time in college playing all sorts of computer games， like I did as a child， and now all in the name of a computer science degree.

To prove my father wrong， I did quite well living an independent life away from home. I was one of the top students in academic performance， especially in math， C Language and C++classes. I was also a leader of the soccer team， having led my team to win the second place in a campus-wide tournament. As time went on， I started to feel a bit guilty for having ignored my father. I actually missed him. So I started calling him more often. I shared with him what was going on at school and he talked about his speech engagements on the use of reference and double blind1） reviewing system and his project creating one of the most sophisticated economic databases in China. I found， to my surprise， that I was rather drawn to my fathers take on the global economic situation， the subprime crisis （次貸危機）， the fall of Lehman Brothers and Chinas position on the currency debate. My father， while careful not to put too much pressure on me， indicated to me that there were projects and internship （實習(xí)崗位） opportunities available to me within his organization and elsewhere where I could put my programming， statistical and quantitative skills to use. I told him I was not only interested， I was very interested. I also told him that I was going to go for a double undergraduate program by adding finance—much to his delight.

The double major program meant that I had more study to do and longer hours in the library. What helped me tremendously was the fact that， in economics， many theoretical frameworks and research methods are based on mathematical models and quantitative analyses： something I was good at. To date， I have maintained an average 3.5 GPA in both software engineering and economics. I scored a high grade of 96 in econometrics， a class that enabled me to learn and apply forecasting and simulation tools such as Matlab2） and Eviews3）.

I should count myself fortunate because I have already had substantial firsthand appreciation of the world of work and have participated in and contributed to some rather high-profile projects outside my classroom education. One such project， in early 2009， involved helping Economic Research Journal to design a “working paper” database and to dramatically improve the journals online research experience by creating or inserting visual elements such as graphs， tables and charts. I followed the leading experts in software engineering every step of the way： we carefully studied American NBER4） and SSRN5） databases from design and retrieval （檢索） system perspectives； we compared notes on various proposals and solutions. And after 6 months hard work and repeated tests， the database went live and the website itself received many favorable comments on the visual improvements.

I also had the opportunity to work for Dr. XXX， a young and capable scholar of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences， as his research assistant. I joined him in the summer of 2009 in his multiple field trips to Chinas Zhejiang Province where we interviewed three small non-governmental， or some say， regional banks. Specifically， we studied the operational models of these banks， their dynamic relationship with the local government， their customers and creditors and the tremendous risk management challenges they faced. I not only took notes and collected data in the process but also sifted （細查） through and analyzed the numbers and wrote the summary. I was the proud co-author of Dr.XXXs published paper on the structures and governance of micro financial institutions and their contribution to the agricultural and township manufacturing sectors， which appeared in Chinese Review of Financial Studies， June 10， 20XX edition （ISSN1674—XXXX）.

When I told my father recently that I had made up my mind to pursue a masters degree in applied economics and management at the University of Michigan， he was thrilled. But honestly， I made the decision not so much out of the desire to please my father as out of the realization that computer skills are a good stepping stone to build my future career in economics， especially in agricultural economics， a field with critical importance to my country as it transforms from an agrarian society to an industrial powerhouse.

1. double blind：雙盲，研究對象和研究者都不了解試驗分組情況，而是由研究設(shè)計者來安排和控制全部試驗。

2. MatLab：一種用于數(shù)學(xué)計算的程序，在線性代數(shù)的計算中應(yīng)用尤為廣泛。

3. Eviews：Econometrics Views的縮寫，通常稱為計量經(jīng)濟學(xué)軟件包。

4. NBER：國家經(jīng)濟研究局，全稱是National Bureau of Economic Research，是美國較權(quán)威的經(jīng)濟研究機構(gòu)。

5. SSRN：社會科學(xué)研究網(wǎng)，全稱是Social Science Research Network，致力于快速地在世界范圍內(nèi)傳播社會科學(xué)的研究成果。

例文點評

文章開篇講述了Z同學(xué)獨自成功說服銀行經(jīng)理為大學(xué)籌款的小故事。第二段自然承接，寫出了自己對銀行（即金融領(lǐng)域）的看法——I did not always love banks，這便是典型的“抑”。第三段是從“抑”轉(zhuǎn)“揚”的關(guān)鍵段，Z同學(xué)上大學(xué)后對父親的愧疚感日益加深，所以便主動跟父親聯(lián)系。之后，金融危機爆發(fā)，Z同學(xué)開始反思，并逐漸對經(jīng)濟學(xué)產(chǎn)生了興趣。自此，文章從“抑”轉(zhuǎn)“揚”，Z同學(xué)從一個對經(jīng)濟學(xué)沒有興趣的門外漢慢慢轉(zhuǎn)變?yōu)榻?jīng)濟學(xué)方面的探索者，并且步步加深，直到熱愛經(jīng)濟學(xué)并將其作為畢生的職業(yè)目標來追求。

這篇個人陳述讀起來生動有趣，轉(zhuǎn)折自然，可讀性強，信息量非常大。文章中除了運用欲揚先抑的寫作手法外，在描寫Z同學(xué)不愛好經(jīng)濟學(xué)的同時，還將他成績優(yōu)秀、參加課外活動等信息“偷偷”傳遞給讀者。這種巧妙的描述方式不僅沒有使Z同學(xué)的優(yōu)秀程度有絲毫減少，反而更突出了他有主見、有追求等優(yōu)點。父親的影響和幫助雖然被淡化成背景信息，但是招生工作人員依然會因為Z同學(xué)獨特的家庭環(huán)境而對他的申請材料刮目相看。文章引導(dǎo)招生人員關(guān)注的是Z同學(xué)自己的亮點，這樣比大肆宣揚父親對自己的影響造成喧賓奪主的效果要好得多。