1.較多使用表達(dá)委婉語氣的詞語和句子
與英語說明文相比，英語議論文不僅需要說明自己的觀點，而且還要讓讀者接受自己的觀點，因此，在詞語表達(dá)上除了客觀之外，還必須注意委婉。在英語中，常用虛擬語氣，讓步狀語從句和情態(tài)動詞can，could，may，might，would，should等。請看下面兩組有關(guān)“面試在招生過程中的重要性”的文字：
（1）No one should be admitted into（招收進(jìn)）college without a personal interview（面試）.What can admissions people（招生人員）tell from a piece of paper？They can tell nothing.Only when they see a student face to face，can they decide what kind of a person he is.
�。�2）Though admissions people can learn some things from a piece of paper，such as how well a person writes and what he is interested in，there may be many other things that an application （申請表）can not tell but can only be seen in a personal interview.The way a person talks，the way he thinks about and answers questions，the way he reacts（反應(yīng)），are all important facts of a person which can not be found on a piece of paper.
兩段文字都強調(diào)“大學(xué)生入學(xué)必須面試”，但相比之下，例（2）用了情態(tài)動詞，though引導(dǎo)的讓步狀語從句等表達(dá)方式，語氣較為委婉，更容易為讀者所接受。
2.使用有辯論、推理等含義的連接詞和過渡詞等詞語結(jié)構(gòu)
英語議論文講究辯論推理的條理性和邏輯性，因此，往往較多地使用這類性質(zhì)的過渡詞和連接詞，常用的包括：since （既然），now that（既然）， therefore（因而），consequently（因此），accordingly（因此），hence（因而），in that case（在那種情況下），because（因為），so（所以）。另外，還有些句型也常出現(xiàn)在英語議論文中，比如： It follows that…（因而……），If…，we may conclude that…（如果……，我們可以這樣下結(jié)論……）， Should it be the case（如果是這樣的話……），Idon't want to…，but…（我并不想……，但是……）， If you admit…，then…（如果你承認(rèn)……，那么……），It is true that…，but…（誠然……，但是……）， Even if…（即使……）等。
下面這篇學(xué)生作文較好地使用了上述這些英語議論文常用的連接詞和過渡詞等詞語結(jié)構(gòu)，從而使文章的辯論和推理條理清晰，富有說服力：
Some people say that they will not give up smoking because they have the right to do what they want to do since smoking is not against the law.Yes，it's true that smoking does not violate （違反）the law and therefore they can do as they like，but what is equally true is that they have to be responsible for what they do at the same time. Now I don't want to bring fears to anyone，but here are some statistics（統(tǒng)計數(shù)字）I've just got from newspaper：Over seventy percent of the people who died of lung cancer were heavy smokers. More than thirty-five percent deformed（畸形的）babies have smoking mothers. Even if those chain smokers （一支接一支抽煙者）are not afraid for themselves，shouldn't they be afraid for their family members if they have got any？
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