编者按：论文写作迟迟抬不起笔怎么办？写作论文真的要万事俱备才开始吗？如何打破完美主义的心理暗示？只会复制粘贴的我真的能达到论文发表的水平吗？今天要分享的是肖汉宇老师在论文写作中提到的一篇文章，专“治”写作畏难综合症。
没有理想的人不伤心 新裤子 - 乐队的夏天 第11期
10 Tips on How to Write Less Badly
By Michael C. Munger
Rachel Toor and other writers on these pages have talked about how hard it is to write well, and of course that’s true. Fortunately, the standards of writing in most disciplines are so low that you don’t need to write well. What I have tried to produce below are 10 tips on scholarly nonfiction writing that might help people write less badly.
写作是一种练习，你可以通过练习变得越来越好以及进步的越来越快。
1. Writing is an exercise. You get better and faster with practice. If you were going to run a marathon a year from now, would you wait for months and then run 26 miles cold? No, you would build up slowly, running most days. You might start on the flats and work up to more demanding and difficult terrain. To become a writer, write. Don’t wait for that book manuscript or that monster external-review report to work on your writing.
基于输出设定目标，而不是输入。
2. Set goals based on output, not input. “I will work for three hours” is a delusion; “I will type three double-spaced pages” is a goal. After you write three pages, do something else. Prepare for class, teach, go to meetings, whatever. If later in the day you feel like writing some more, great. But if you don’t, then at least you wrote something.
找到一种声音，但不仅仅是为了发表。当你对你所写的内容感兴趣的时候，写作成为了一件容易的事。
3.Find a voice; don’t just “get published.” James Buchanan won a Nobel in economics in 1986. One of the questions he asks job candidates is: “What are you writing that will be read 10 years from now? What about 100 years from now?” Someone once asked me that question, and it is pretty intimidating. And embarrassing, because most of us don’t think that way. We focus on “getting published” as if it had nothing to do with writing about ideas or arguments. Paradoxically, if all you are trying to do is “get published,” you may not publish very much. It’s easier to write when you’re interested in what you’re writing about.
给你自己时间。不要想着在deadline的前一天晚上可以写出深刻的论文，写作的过程需要时间的积累。
4. Give yourself time. Many smart people tell themselves pathetic lies like, “I do my best work at the last minute.” Look: It’s not true. No one works better under pressure. Sure, you are a smart person. But if you are writing about a profound problem, why would you think that you can make an important contribution off the top of your head in the middle of the night just before the conference?
只有头脑中的伟大设想而没有书面的文字表达，再伟大的想法都是虚无的，需要动手。
5.Everyone’s unwritten work is brilliant. And the more unwritten it is, the more brilliant it is.We have all met those glib, intimidating graduate students or faculty members. They are at their most dangerous holding a beer in one hand and a cigarette in the other, in some bar or at an office party. They have all the answers. They can tell you just what they will write about, and how great it will be.
找到一个问题。用你的文章来描述如何解决这个问题的。
6.Pick a puzzle. Portray, or even conceive, of your work as an answer to a puzzle. There are many interesting types of puzzles:“X and Y start with same assumptions but reach opposing conclusions. How?”“Here are three problems that all seem different. Surprisingly, all are the same problem, in disguise. I’ll tell you why.”“Theory predicts [something]. But we observe [something else]. Is the theory wrong, or is there some other factor we have left out?”
写作的时候，不要挤入其他的事情，把你的写作任务放在其他事情之前。
7.Write, then squeeze the other things in. Put your writing ahead of your other work. I happen to be a “morning person,” so I write early in the day. Then I spend the rest of my day teaching, having meetings, or doing paperwork. You may be a “night person” or something in between. Just make sure you get in the habit of reserving your most productive time for writing. Don’t do it as an afterthought or tell yourself you will write when you get a big block of time. Squeeze the other things in; the writing comes first.
不要认为你所有的想法都必须深刻。从小的事情入手，就像是一段走了很长时间的爬山之旅，你只需要看向脚下，一步一步的精进到具体的话语体系。
8.Not all of your thoughts are profound. Many people get frustrated because they can’t get an analytical purchase on the big questions that interest them. Then they don’t write at all. So start small. The wonderful thing is that you may find that you have traveled quite a long way up a mountain, just by keeping your head down and putting one writing foot ahead of the other for a long time. It is hard to refine your questions, define your terms precisely, or know just how your argument will work until you have actually written it all down.
让你得到深刻体会或想法的往往来自于错误的事情，至少，它们是不完全正确的。从错误的事情中去学习，需要你的探索精神和自学能力，而这往往成为profound的部分。
9.Your most profound thoughts are often wrong. Or, at least, they are not completely correct. Precision in asking your question, or posing your puzzle, will not come easily if the question is hard.
一遍又一遍的修改论文。可以询问导师、同门或者有经验的同学，得到他们的修改意见能够事半功倍。
10.Edit your work, over and over. Have other people look at it. One of the great advantages of academe is that we are mostly all in this together, and we all know the terrors of that blinking cursor on a blank background. Exchange papers with peers or a mentor, and when you are sick of your own writing, reciprocate by reading their work. You need to get over a fear of criticism or rejection. Nobody’s first drafts are good. The difference between a successful scholar and a failure need not be better writing. It is often more editing.
最近关于写作的问题一直萦绕在我耳边，硕士期间的写作训练好像全部失忆了一般，而博士阶段的培养更为规范和系统，当然在论文发表上，也更为严苛，很长一段时间我都难以适应这种学科领域的变化，也有何时才能开始提笔写作的畏惧，但好在，一步一步摸索，看到很多前辈们谈到的博士写作经验，偷偷取经也挖到了宝藏，重建自信的这条路需要通过写作进行加持，希望看到文章的你，和我，都能在觉得写作艰难或者尚未有所进展的时候，稍稍豁然开朗。
