bring down the house last straw
burn the candle at both ends lay one’s card on the table change horse in midstream finger in the pie little frog in a big pond green with envy
These phrases may still be used in news reporting or on TV but rarely in formal technical writing. On some occasions, however, special effect can be achieved by using these stock phrases creatively.
For example:
(1) When John graduated from the Wharton School of Business – the most prestigious business school in the country – and got hired as an assistant manager of a local grocery store, he literally felt like a big frog in a small pond. (a small frog in a big pond)
(2) John got a coupon（优惠券）from a barber‘s school that would entitle him to a precision cut for just one dollar. When the apprentice finally finished messing with his hair, John had a glance at himself in the mirror and knew right away that he looked like a million pennies. (look like a million dollars看上去很发福)
Practice
See your Handout Exercise 3: 1. 2.
2. Economy/Brevity 择语的鲜明度
前面讲到的准确度是鲜明度的前提，也是提高鲜明度的基础。但是，鲜明度，更多与简练相关。
莎士比亚的名言：―Brevity is the soul of wit‖ (言贵简洁)
?Try to use the smallest number of words necessary to say what you want to say.
An English sentence can be noun-oriented or verb-oriented in structure. The latter is usually more economical. Compare the following pairs of sentences:
(1a) Our target must be a concrete ceiling. (1b) Let‘s aim high but realistically.
(2a) There has been persistent instability in numbers of staff. (2b) The staff has continually varied in number.
(3a) There exists a considerable lack of knowledge of the competition mechanism in the socialist marketing system.
(3b) We do not know much about the competition mechanism in the socialist marketing system.
(4a) The unavailability of imported foods was simply beyond their expectations. (4b) They never thought that they were unable to get imported foods.
It is obvious that Sentence B is shorter than Sentence A and the idea is more clearly expressed, which indicates that it is usually more economical and more effective to use a notional verb as the information center.
?Avoid redundancy and cross out the words or expressions that make little sense.
Some words and expressions used in oral English to clear the throat (or to fill the blanks in thinking) should be omitted in written English. Expressions commonly used in oral English: kind, actually, particularly, really, certain, various, virtually, individually, basically, generally, given, particularly.
Compare the rhetorical effect of the following two sentences:
(1) Productivity actually depends on certain factors that basically involve psychology more than any particular technology.
(2) Productivity depends on psychology more than on technology.
-- Stock expressions should be dropped. Such as: all things considered in a manner of speaking as far as I am concerned in my opinion
for all the intents and purpose last but not least
for the most part more or less
– Cross out unnecessary repetition. Careful and skillful use of repetition help to emphasize main ideas or give coherence. However, unnecessary repetition makes a sentence wordy and an idea confusing. E.g.
Many unskilled workers without training in a particular job are unemployed and do not have any work.
-- Many unskilled workers are unemployed.
Practice
Cross out the unnecessary words: mutual aid to each other;
an entirely complete confidence; repeat the question again; return back from abroad.
–Contracting or shortening phrases is also a form of economy. The following are some effective ways: 1) Replace clause with phrase and phrase with word. E.g.
-- The tunnel, which was drilled for twenty-three miles, runs through a bed of solid chalk under the English Channel.
-- The twenty-three-mile tunnel runs through solid chalk under the English Channel.
Rewrite the following sentence more concisely:
At the point in time, the software is expensive due to the fact that it has no competition.
Many phrases can be replaced by single words for the purpose of conciseness. E.g.
at all time always at the present time now
at this point of time now in the nature of like for the purpose of for in order to to until such time as until for the reason that because due to the fact that because because of the fact that because by virtue of the fact that because in the event that if, when by means of by in the final analysis finally
2) Use verbs like slice, bicker, stroll instead of is, has, make. 使用强势动词使句子具有活力，向前展开；弱势动词常带有附加成分，会拖延句子，使句子失去活力。 E.g.
The driller made slow advancement, and costs were over 45 million a day. The slow progress was worrisome for some backers.
-- The driller advanced slowly, and costs topped ＄5 million a day. The slow progress worried some backers.
3) Use active voice rather than passive voice. Passive voice is often more wordy because it needs an auxiliary and sometimes a by prepositional phrase. E.g.
As many as fifteen feet of chalk an hour could be chewed through by the blades. -- The blades could chew through as many as fifteen feet of chalk an hour.
4) In most cases there is and it is are wordy, for they delay the appearance of subject. E.g.
There are more than half a million shareholders who have invested in the tunnel. It is they and the banks that expect to profit.
-- More than half a million shareholders have invested in the tunnel. They and the banks expect to profit.
Practice
See your Handout Exercise 3: 3, 4
3. Vividness and gracefulness/Variety 择语的生动感
生动也可以叫做优美感（graceful），建筑在准确性和鲜明度的基础上，否则，单纯追求生动或者优美，就回出现辞藻华丽（flowery）而内容空洞的文风。
In order to make your writing not only readable but also interesting and attractive, you should write in a vivid way. This is what we call vividness or gracefulness. Compare the following two passages:
(a) For several days snow fell heavily in the south of England. It lay many inches thick on the ground. The roofs of houses were white; walking through the streets was difficult; driving was dangerous.
(b) It was the coldest winter for forty-five years. Heavy snow blankets swallowed everything on earth: Villages in the English countryside were cut off and the Thames froze over. Cars crawled along while
pedestrians trudged through the deep snow. Horns hoarsened; road accidents shot up. People told jokes about how it was more risky to drive by day than to go boating on the sea at night. The two passages were both written to describe the same snowy day，but the first is not so vivid as the second, which can be viewed in terms of the following three aspects:
First, many general, vague words and phrases are used in Passage (a), e.g. several days, heavily, walking, difficult, driving, dangerous, whereas in Passage (b), more concrete expressions are used, e.g. forty-five years, trains, cars, pedestrians, and cut out, freeze over, crawl along, trudge, horns, which/all go together to give the reader a vivid picture.
Also, several figures are used in the second passage, e.g. blankets, swallowed, hoarsened, shot up, which have intensified the vividness.
Finally, sentence patterns are varied in the second passage which consists of five different sentence structures, whereas in Passage (a), the five sentences are all simple Subject + Predicate patterns. This difference demonstrates how true the saying is: ―Variety breeds vividness.‖
4. Appropriateness/propriety
Take into account the subject matter, the reader and the purpose of your writing, and see that your wording is in harmony with these factors. This is what we may call \ See李鑫华《英语修辞格详论》PP18-20 E.g.
(1) On what occasions the speaker may choose to say the following: A.
\test. Hope the old guy lets me take a makeup.― B.
―Excuse me, sir. I have to be in court next Tuesday and so I must be absent from the biology test. Would it be possible for me to take it at some later time?‖
（2）请看一则新闻：
昨天两车亲吻，五人当场死亡。
(3) What do you know from the following?
Sincerely yours, Laura John
Affectionately yours, Laura
Your Laura
Yours truly, Laura J.
Yours fondly, Laura
Laura
从一个女子恋爱书信结尾款式可见恋人关系发展过程。
Practice
See you Handout: Exercise 3: 5 P.S for diction 1.得体与创新
得体： 譬之如穿衣， 因人、宜时、配场合、懂流行；
创新： 别人未讲清的，你讲清了；别人已讲过的，你讲得另有一番意味。
例如：
slip 和slide是英语中两个常见的词，但在下面的句子中，用来比喻人们说话难免出错，就颇为新鲜
Even with the most educated and most liberate, the King's English slips and slides in conversation .
2.\创新词语\与?生造词语‘
前者是特殊词语， 后者是乱造错词
A. 创新词语(neologism)：来自合成法，用连字符把几个词甚至整个短语构成一个单词。通常由作者或者演说家根据需要创造出来，主要分为―拟声‖（onomatopoeic）和―特殊合成 ‖ （nonce compounds）两种。
例如：―拟声‖（onomatopoeic）
英国作家Thomas Hardy在某长篇小说中惟妙惟肖依照声响模拟的词语：―Ho-ho-ho‖―Heu-heu-heu‖―Hee-hee-hee‖分别表现中年女人、牙漏风老太、醉酒女人的笑。
―特殊合成 ‖（nonce compounds） Lawrence Durrell:
It was a ―groan-making‖ thing to do and only an archeologist could have thought of it
Max Shulman:
She just has a logic-proof head.
B. 生造词语（Coinage: 既不守常规，也不属于创新，随意乱造的词，自己道不出使用目的， 别人也莫名其妙。 是既无知，又不负责任的表现，被斥之为：―Barbarism‖, 所以写作老师常说：―Do not coin words and expressions that nobody can understand!‖
例如：
Americans used to pay more attention to ―idealness‖.
This ―signing‖ the document is ―uneligible‖.
No average man is ―conscience‖ of the ―predictableness‖.
C. 对两者的态度 1.―创新词语‖：词典上查不到，但从上下文一看，就明白了，切颇有新意，词典学家也乐于接受，留心收集进supplement, 再版时收用。
2.对别人的穿心词语采取乐于接受的态度，自己若使用它们，应当谨慎，看是否有价值，是否适合自己的上下文。
3. 自己创造新词语，更应当谨慎，绝对避免一失足成―生造（词语）‖恨。
More practice See your Handout Exercise 3