Unit 2: Audience, Thesis, and Supporting Evidence
AP English Language and Composition Topic 2 5:54 English narration · English + 中文 subtitles burned in
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Transcript
Here is a test you can run on your own drafts in about ten seconds.
有一个检验， 你大约十秒钟 就能在自己的草稿上跑一遍。
Read one paragraph and ask: would this read identically to a completely different audience?
读一个段落，然后问： 如果换成一群完全不同的受众， 这段话会一模一样吗？
If yes, it has not been shaped by one.
如果会，那它就没有被受众塑造过。
Unit 1 established that a text has an audience.
第一单元确立了 文本有受众这一点。
Unit 2 makes that audience the engine of every choice a writer makes — which means a paragraph that could go to anybody was written for nobody.
第二单元 把受众变成作者每一个选择的引擎， 这意味着 一个谁都可以看的段落， 其实是为谁都没写。
Writers' perceptions of an audience's values, beliefs, needs and background guide the choices they make.
作者对受众的价值观、信念、 需求与背景的认知， 引导着他所做的选择。
Note the word perceptions: what steers the writing is the writer's picture of the audience, which may be accurate or not — and a rhetorical analysis can say so.
注意"认知"这个词： 引导写作的是作者 对受众的想象， 它可能准确，也可能不准确， 而修辞分析可以指出这一点。
To achieve a purpose, writers make choices in an attempt to relate to an intended audience's emotions and values.
为了达成目的， 作者所做的选择 试图与目标受众的情感与价值观 发生关联。
So before drafting, decide three things.
所以动笔之前先决定三件事。
What does this audience already believe about the subject?
这群受众对这个话题 已经相信什么？
What do they need — information, reassurance, a reason to act?
他们需要什么， 信息、安心，还是行动的理由？
And what do they value, and which of those values can honestly be connected to my position?
他们看重什么， 其中哪些价值 可以诚实地与我的立场连接起来？
Arguments seek to persuade or motivate action through appeals, the modes of persuasion — and naming the appeal is worth nothing on its own.
论证通过诉求， 也就是说服方式， 来劝服或促使行动， 而单说出诉求的名称 是不值分的。
Naming what it reaches for is the analysis.
说出它所触及的东西 才是分析。
Unit 2 deepens Unit 1's treatment of evidence with three claims about how evidence works.
第二单元 用关于证据如何起作用的三条说法， 深化了第一单元对证据的处理。
Writers use evidence strategically and purposefully to illustrate, clarify, set a mood, exemplify, associate or amplify.
作者有策略、有目的地使用证据， 用以举例、澄清、营造氛围、 示范、关联或放大。
Evidence does a job, and naming that job is analysis.
证据在做一件事， 而说出它在做什么，就是分析。
Strategically selected evidence strengthens the validity and reasoning of the argument, relates to an audience's emotions and values, and helps establish the writer's credibility.
经过策略性挑选的证据， 增强论证的有效性与推理， 与受众的情感和价值观相关联， 并帮助确立作者的可信度。
And an effective argument contains sufficient evidence — sufficient when its quantity and quality provide apt support for the line of reasoning.
而有效的论证包含充分的证据， 当它的数量与质量 为推理线索提供恰当支持时， 才算充分。
That third point is often misread as "more is better".
第三点常被误读成"越多越好"。
Sufficiency is quantity and quality together: three well-chosen pieces of evidence that bear directly on the claim beat six that only touch it.
充分是数量与质量的结合： 三条直接切中主张的精选证据， 胜过六条只是沾边的证据。
Applying that to your own writing gives a small discipline with a large effect.
把这一点用到自己的写作上， 会得到一个很小、 但效果很大的做法。
Choose each piece of evidence for a stated reason.
每一条证据都要有说得出的选用理由。
In practice, be able to finish the sentence: I am using this piece because it — illustrates a claim that would otherwise stay abstract; or establishes my credibility on a subject where readers may doubt it; or connects my position to a value the audience already holds.
具体来说， 你要能把这句话说完： 我用这一条，是因为它 让一个原本会停留在抽象层面的主张具体化； 或者在读者可能怀疑我的领域 确立我的可信度； 或者把我的立场 与受众已经持有的某个价值连接起来。
Evidence chosen this way produces commentary almost automatically, because you already know what the evidence is doing.
这样挑出来的证据 几乎会自动产生评述， 因为你已经知道 这条证据在做什么。
Evidence chosen because it was available produces the blank space where commentary should be.
而因为"手边正好有" 才用的证据， 产生的是评述本该在的那片空白。
A thesis is the main, overarching claim a writer seeks to defend or prove by using reasoning supported by evidence.
论点是作者 试图通过有证据支持的推理 去辩护或证明的 主要的、统摄性的主张。
And on the reading side, a writer's thesis is not necessarily a single sentence or an explicit statement, and may require a thorough reading to identify.
而在阅读一侧， 作者的论点 不一定是单独一句话或明确的陈述， 可能需要通读全文才能辨认。
On a rhetorical-analysis passage it may be distributed across the text or implied by its structure, so do not assume the first sentence of the second paragraph is the thesis just because that is where you would put yours.
在修辞分析的文段里， 它可能散布在全文， 或由结构暗示出来， 所以不要因为你自己会 把论点放在第二段第一句， 就假定那里就是它的论点。
On the writing side the objective is precise: write a thesis statement that requires proof or defence and that may preview the structure of the argument.
在写作一侧，目标很明确： 写出一个需要证明或辩护、 并且可以预告论证结构的论点句。
Two independent requirements sit in that sentence.
这句话里有两个各自独立的要求。
It must require defence — apply the Unit 1 test again, could a reasonable person disagree?
它必须需要辩护， 再用一次第一单元的检验： 一个讲道理的人会不会不同意？
And it may preview the structure, which is optional but useful.
而它可以预告结构， 这是可选的，但很有用。
On the exam the thesis point is one of six and it is the cheapest point on the rubric: a defensible thesis in response to the prompt earns it, and a restatement of the prompt does not.
在考试中， 论点这一分是六分中的一分， 也是评分表上最便宜的一分： 针对题目给出一个可辩护的论点 就能拿到， 而复述题目则拿不到。
Compare two openings for a Question 3 argument prompt asking you to take a position on the value of a proposed practice.
比较第三题论证写作的两个开头， 题目要求你 对一项提议做法的价值表明立场。
First: "There are many arguments both for and against this practice."
第一个： "关于这一做法， 支持与反对的理由都有很多。
That earns nothing, because nobody could disagree with it.
" 这拿不到分， 因为没有人会不同意它。
Second: "Because the practice rewards visible effort rather than actual improvement, it produces the appearance of progress while removing the incentive to seek it."
第二个： "由于这一做法奖励的是看得见的努力 而不是实际的进步， 它制造出进步的表象， 同时抽走了追求进步的动力。
That earns the point.
" 这一句能拿到分。
It is arguable, it is specific, and it previews the reasoning the essay will develop — which is the optional half doing real work.
它可争议、具体， 并且预告了这篇文章将要展开的推理， 也就是那个可选的一半 在真正起作用。
A thesis that states a fact cannot be defended, only repeated.
陈述事实的论点无法辩护，只能重复。
That is why restating the prompt earns nothing: it is true by definition.
这就是为什么复述题目拿不到分： 它从定义上就是真的。
Previewing your line of reasoning in the thesis is optional, but it makes the rest of the essay easier to organise, because the body then has named jobs to do.
在论点里预告推理线索是可选的， 但它会让后文更好组织， 因为正文于是有了点名的任务。
Each appeal reaches for something different in the audience, and each can fail in its own way.
每一种诉求触及受众的不同部分， 也各有各的失败方式。
Naming the appeal itself is still worth nothing on its own.
单说出诉求的名称，依然不值分。
Five things to carry out.
带走五件事。
First, if a paragraph would read the same to any audience, it has not been shaped for one.
第一，如果一个段落 对任何受众读起来都一样， 它就没有为某一群受众而写。
Second, name what the evidence does — illustrate, clarify, associate, amplify.
第二，说出证据在做什么， 举例、澄清、关联、放大。
Third, sufficiency is quantity and quality, not volume.
第三，充分是数量与质量，不是数量。
Fourth, a thesis in a passage may be implied or distributed, so read the whole text.
第四，文段中的论点 可能是隐含的或分散的， 所以要通读全文。
Fifth, your own thesis must be arguable — restating the prompt earns zero.
第五，你自己的论点必须可争议， 复述题目得零分。