一声再见，万千新篇——“一带一路”青少年英语演讲比赛亚军陈麒羽的“退役感言”

The Great Truth is Simple

Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen. I struggled greatly with my academic writing. There seems as there’s an endless journey before I can produce something that is being both appreciated by myself and my professors. 

I loaded my paper with fancy words, complex syntax, and surprising ideas, only to find that words were awkward, the sentences were problematic, the ideas were far-fetching. I even imitated great authors, trying to embody the sense of aesthetic beauty of their sentences. But again, my paper sounded clunky. I also offered a long list of works cited at the end of the paper, but very few of the articles I cited are really pertinent to my main argument. 

In order to improve my writing, I visited the office hour of my teaching assistant very often. Both in the inline annotations and the face-to-face paper editing, I learned that the three questions I encountered the most are: “What do you mean by saying this?” “How do you define that?” and “Could you please break down your longer sentences?” One of my TAs told me that in writing, the great truth is simple. Those beautiful words and forms are only façades; but still the most important thing of your building is your structure, logic and clarity. In the past, I never prioritized “simplicity” in my writing. It was from that day, I learned the true nature of writing and the magic of simplicity. 

What I learned from academic writing is also applicable to public speaking. Nowadays, it is unlikely for novice speakers to value simple speeches and arguments because they are so eager to impress their audience with how big they can think and how good they can orate. And they focus too much on the exterior factors – like the audience, the spotlight, the questions come from the question masters; but they lose sight of the most important thing which is  themselves, in other words – the speakers and the content of their speeches.

I think academic writing and public speaking are aimed for conveying ideas effectively. But if the great truth is hidden in a long chain of profound words and cloaked by a tapestry of rhetorical devises, how can the truth be revealed, transmitted and shared with your audience. If you want to show your great love for your mother in a speech, don’t have like a delicate description of the present you offered your mother last mother’s day. Just simply end the speech with a powerful, maybe short sentence, “mother, I love you.” It is okay for you to talk about the abstract philosophical idea in your speech. But it is also better for you to paraphrase it with your own language and possibly talk about your daily encounters of this theory. Right? It is understandable that you want to quote those great thinkers and stand on the shoulders of these giants. But it is also good for you to have your own voice. 

Last week, I was very lucky to be a teaching assistant for an English writing class in my university. Interestingly and surprisingly, the questions I left for my students were exactly the same questions I had received from my teaching assistants several years ago. “What do you mean by saying this? How do you define that? Could you please break down those long lines?” I received an English paper written in almost colloquial English language. But interestingly, that paper was written though with a plain and unadorned language was actually quite concise with clarity. I offered him a high score and commented below as : I like your lucid logic and clear structure. These two elements are the most important thing for a successful writer because the great truth is simple. Thank you!