哈佛、牛津、剑桥、斯坦福……这些世界顶尖的名校构成了全球各地无数学子的梦想。许多人甚至会花费高昂的价格来购买一些申请成功者的经验技巧，却全然不知，在这些名校的官方网站上都有供在校生与申请者一对一问答交流的免费途径。
拿哈佛举例。在哈佛大学的官方网站上，在首页“Life at Harvard”板块中，找到“Student Voice”板块，就可以找到许多在校生极其珍贵的经验分享，也可以通过关键词搜索找到自己感兴趣的内容。
今天，在分享这个珍贵且鲜为人知的学习交流途径之外，小编希望分享一篇自己私藏多年的，来自哈佛官网，介绍Essay论文写作技巧的文章。作者Halie Olson用简单幽默的文字和仅仅500字的篇幅，就成功向完全不熟悉Essay写作的小白们勾勒出了论文写作的大框架和目标，文章可以有效地帮助论文初接触者们熟悉论文写作流程，形成正确扎实的认识基础。
小编挑选了一些精华内容做了对照翻译和讲解，让我们一起来看看吧！
While the personal essay is a great opportunity to infuse your voice into the application,I think some people(cough,me,cough)can get overwhelmed by it to the point where they don’t know how to begin.What do I write about?What makes me stand out?How can I explain all of this in only a few hundred words?
Well,as someone who eventually managed to get some words down on that blank document and turn out a decent college essay,here are a few words of advice.
虽然论文是一个很好的机会，把你的声音注入到申请中，但我认为有些人(咳咳，就是我咳咳)可能会被它弄得不知所措，甚至不知道如何开始。我写些什么?是什么让我脱颖而出?我怎么能用几百个字来解释这一切呢?
好吧，就像有些人最终成功地在那份空白文件上记下了一些单词，并写出了一篇不错的大学论文一样，这里有一些建议。
1.Start by writing something.
I know,that sounds really obvious.But sometimes the hardest part of writing is just getting started–if you spend too much time criticizing your ideas before you write anything down,you won’t get anywhere.Write a few sentences,jot down some random ideas,note a couple anecdotes that might be interesting…just get something on paper that you can look back to.Maybe one of those ideas will catch,and BOOM you have an essay–or maybe you’ll look back to this list after a few weeks and think of something else that you would rather write about.That’s fine!The beginning of the creative process involves coming up with ideas,judging them comes later.Trust me,I took a class on this(really:it was a psych class called“Creativity:Madmen,Geniuses,and Harvard Students.”)
1.从写点东西开始。
我知道，这听起来很明显。但有时候写作最困难的部分是刚刚开始——如果你在写下任何东西之前花太多时间纠结于你的想法，你将一事无成。写下一些句子，随意写下一些想法，记下一些可能有趣的轶事……只是在纸上记录一些你可以回顾的东西，也许其中一个想法会抓住你，然后你就有了一篇文章。或者也许你会在几周后回头看看这个列表，然后想一些你更愿意写的东西。这很好!创造性过程的开始包括提出想法，然后再对其进行评判。相信我，我上过这方面的课(真的:那是一门叫做“创造力:疯子、天才和哈佛学生”的心理学课)。
Essay写作
2.Think about something that has some significance to you.
Many students feel like they have to write about some huge,life-changing,important event in their lives.If you have something like this that you want to write about,that’s great!However,you can also write an awesome essay about something other than The Most Important Thing Ever.It can be the littlest things,if you explain their significance well,that actually stand out.In my case,somewhere in my essay I mentioned that I got up at 5:37am(rather than 5:30 or 5:45)because I liked prime numbers–and the first thing my admissions officer said when I walked into the room for my interview was,“So,prime numbers,huh?”That being said,remember that this is a college essay,so keep this audience and goal in mind as you write.When they finish reading,what do you want the admissions officers to know about you?Does this essay demonstrate something about who you are and what you care about?If not,you might want to go back to the drawing board.
2.想一些对你有意义的事情。
许多学生觉得他们必须写一些重大的、改变人生的、重要的事件。如果你想写这样的东西，那太棒了!然而，你也可以写出一篇不是写最重要的事情的很棒的文章。如果你能很好地解释它们的重要性，它们可能是最微小的事情，却能脱颖而出。以我为例，我在文章的某个地方提到我早上5点37分起床(而不是5:30或5:45)，因为我喜欢质数——我的招生官在我进入面试房间时对我说的第一件事是，“所以，质数，对吧?”话虽如此，请记住这是一篇大学论文，所以在写作时要记住你的读者和目标。当他们读完之后，你想让招生官了解你什么?这篇文章是否说明了你是谁，你关心什么?如果没有，你可能想要回到写作的起点。
3.Don’t be afraid to start over.
After finishing my first draft,I was glad to have something,but I wasn’t completely happy with it either.A week or two later,as I was reading over my essay again,I had an idea for a totally different topic-so I opened another document and completely started over.The second attempt was so much better,and I felt happy with how it turned out.It can be hard to scrap an initial attempt after spending so much time on it,but think of that time as just part of the process of getting to what you really want to write about.
3.不要害怕重新开始。
在完成我的第一稿后，我很高兴写完了，但我也不是完全满意。一两个星期后，当我再次阅读我的文章时，我有了一个完全不同主题的想法——所以我打开另一个文件，完全重新开始。第二次尝试好多了，我对结果很满意。在花了这么多时间之后，很难放弃最初的尝试，但是把那段时间当成你真正想写的东西的过程中的一部分。
Essay格式
4.Get an outside perspective.
One of the most useful things I did while working on my college essay was asking a couple people to read it over.At the time,I had two drafts that I was choosing between,and I wasn’t sure which one captured“me”better.When I asked my parents and teacher what they thought,they unanimously picked one option over the other.In the end,it’s important to have an essay that you are happy with–but sometimes having a fresh set of eyes can help you see what that is.
4.从外部角度看问题。
写大学论文时，我做过的最有用的一件事就是请几个人读一遍。当时，我有两份草稿需要在其中选择，但我不确定哪一份更适合我。当我问父母和老师他们的想法时，他们一致选择了其中一个。最后，写一篇自己满意的文章是很重要的——但有时候，换个视角可以帮助你了解自己满意的文章是什么。
5.Edit.
This is an important step!Both you,and perhaps someone who knows you well,should read over your essay and make sure it is in tip-top shape before you turn it in.There should be no grammatical or spelling mistakes–that gives the impression that you did not take your time on it.I know you’ve spent a long time on it by this point,but those last edits are super important!
5.编辑。
这是很重要的一步!你自己，也许还有熟悉你的人，都应该把你的文章通读一遍，确保在上交之前它是最佳状态。简历中不应该有语法或拼写错误——这会给人留下你没有花时间写简历的印象。我知道你已经花了很长时间在这一点上，但最后的编辑是超级重要的!
文章的最后，希望这篇哈佛学霸的经验分享贴对同学们的论文写作有所帮助。祝同学们论文顺利完成，成功升入理想的大学！