Summary

Chapter 14 (Writing About Yourself—The Memoir):?We need to narrow our focus and write something true but unique to show our personalities in memoir.

Words and Expressions

Now he can hardly believe what a liberating journey he is embarked on how much he is discovering about his father that he never understood,...

1 embarke on 從事，著手

I embarked on reading On Writing Well two weeks ago.

,and this chapter is not intended as a license to prattle just for therapy.

2 prattle v. 東拉西扯

The teacher likes prattling in the class.

Nobody but a Chinese-American woman could have made me feel what it's like to be a Chinese girl plunked down in an American kindergarten...

3 plunk down 砰地一聲掉下來 （這里形容中國女孩突然移民到美國，念美國的幼兒園，給人一種因?yàn)樘蝗凰砸幌伦鱼碌舻母杏X。）

The accident plunked down in his life and he lost everything.

What Virginia Woolf intimately wrote during her lifetime has been immensely helpful to other women wrestling with similar angels and demons.

4 wrestle with 與...搏斗

He keeps wrestling with the lung cancer.

Thoughts

The best gift you have to offer when you write personal history is the gift of yourself. Give yourself permission to write about yourself, and have a good time doing it.

看到這段話，我想起學(xué)生剛剛結(jié)束的期中考試。語文的作文題目是“快樂的童年”。令人沒想到的事，要求600個(gè)字，有些同學(xué)40分鐘內(nèi)都憋不出400個(gè)字。他們竟然在十二年的人生中找不出一個(gè)快樂的點(diǎn)。因?yàn)樗麄冋J(rèn)為作文是為老師而寫，寫作要考慮老師的要求。他們從沒有想過為自己寫點(diǎn)什么。他們也許所有經(jīng)歷過的寫作都是作業(yè)和考試中出現(xiàn)的。哪怕是日記也是家長要求并檢查的。這些學(xué)生似乎從來沒有想過寫一些自己想寫的，屬于自己的，有關(guān)自己的。而這個(gè)寫作過程中是一件愉悅的事。他們不能說，不敢說的是可以在文字中為自己發(fā)聲的。也許學(xué)生們還太小，希望不久的將來，他們會發(fā)現(xiàn)自己是personal history中最好，最豐富的禮物。