對就讀美國高中的學生來說，最常遇到的英文寫作體裁大致可分為五種。其中，描寫文與記敘文在表達方式上有異曲同工之妙，兩者皆鼓勵作者以具創意的形式傳遞觀點；說明文與議論文則更重視資訊的清晰傳達與論點的有力論證；至於分析性作文則要求作者有系統地闡述觀點，以加深讀者對主題的理解，這類寫作與旨在說服讀者接受某種觀點的說服文有所不同。
在這篇文章中，睿雅將會詳細介紹每種作文類型的特色，幫助你在動筆前正確判斷所需文體，並掌握相應的寫作要點。
1. 描寫文－高中階段（Descriptive high school essays）
描寫文要求作者生動地刻畫某個對象——可能是一個人、物品、地點、經驗、情感，或是某種情境。其中較常見的主題包括抽象概念，例如一種情感、一段經歷，或是超出日常經驗的事物。
這類作文鼓勵學生自由發揮創意、大膽表達，尤其當主題與個人經歷或關心的議題相關時（像是最愛的美食、成長中的文化傳統等），更能引發真切的共鳴。雖然描寫文的寫作聽起來簡單，但實際上非常考驗作者的用字遣詞與想像力。寫作者需要透過文字，讓讀者能在腦中具體勾勒出所描繪的畫面。
通常，描寫文會從簡單的總體印象開始，接著逐步深入細節的描寫。若能靈活運用不同的敘述觀點（詳見文章Guide to Point of View in Writing），更能提升描寫的層次感，透過多角度的呈現帶給讀者更豐富的閱讀體驗。
以下是一篇來自Yourdictionary的描寫文範例：
I watched a thunderstorm, far out over the sea. It began quietly, and with nothing visible except tall dark clouds and a rolling tide. There was just a soft murmur of thunder as I watched the horizon from my balcony. Over the next few minutes, the clouds closed and reflected lightning set the rippling ocean aglow. The thunderheads had covered up the sun, shadowing the vista. It was peaceful for a long time.
I was looking up when the first clear thunderbolt struck. It blazed against the sky and sea; I could see its shape in perfect reverse colors when I blinked. More followed. The thunder rumbled and stuttered as if it could hardly keep up. There were openings in the cloud now, as if the sky were torn, and spots of brilliant blue shone above the shadowed sea.
I looked down then, watching the waves. Every bolt was answered by a moment of spreading light on the surface. The waves were getting rough, rising high and crashing hard enough that I could hear them.
Then came the rain. It came all at once and in sheets, soaking the sand, filling the sea. It was so dense I could only see the lightning as flashes of light. It came down so hard the thunder was drowned. Everything was rhythmic light and shadow, noise and silence, blending into a single experience of all five senses.
In an instant it stopped. The storm broke. The clouds came apart like curtains. The rain still fell, but softly now. It was as if there had never been a storm at all, except for a single signature. A rainbow, almost violently bright, spread above and across the water. I could see the horizon again.
2. 記敘文（Narrative Essay）
記敘文與描寫文有不少相似之處，但更側重於「講述故事」，而非單純描繪一個對象。這類作文可以圍繞作者的親身經歷、某個事件、一段往事，甚至是一則虛構的故事情節進行撰寫。記敘文常見於需要展現個人特質與成長歷程的場合，例如高中生在申請大學時撰寫的個人陳述，就是一個典型的例子。
記敘文的核心，不僅在於把故事講清楚，更重要的是突顯這段經歷背後的意義與啟發。想要寫出一篇精彩的記敘文，必須巧妙融合以下五個要素：背景設定，事件緣由，情節推進，高潮部分，故事結局。
以下是一篇學生習作，曾發表於 People’s Republic of Creativity 部落格：
Glup, glup.
I sat watching the plunger slowly make its way down the tube and into Miriam’s body. Inside the tube was a clear unknown liquid that would soon be injected into my own body. This was the third time this week, the twelfth time this month, and who knows how many times since we have been trapped in this hell on earth. Each day, we have only been given the bare minimum of food, water, and sleep. I don’t know how much longer we can survive before deemed useless by him.
Miriam fell out of her chair and onto the cold concrete floor, screaming in pain. She scrambles for something she can grasp onto to prop her malnourished body up. Then the piercing sound just suddenly stopped. Her thin arms that look only of bones and skin drop to the ground and she lay still on the floor, as if she were…dead. Please don’t tell me she’s dead! No, she couldn’t be; we promised each other to live until the day of liberation.
She needs to live.
Tap, tap.
It was my turn. He walked over with a syringe full of what had just been injected into Miriam. I try to focus on the red, black, and white badge on his left arm instead of letting the fear crawl in and take over my brain. But the unsettling tension stirs my thoughts around and around.
“Twin A1387, let’s hope what happened to your sister doesn’t happen to you.” He smirked. The needle pierced through my skin and my body was suddenly aflame. The raging blaze spread through every one of my veins, until I was shrouded in darkness.
When I opened my eyes again, I found myself in an empty confinement. The space next to me, the space for Miriam, was empty too. Where was everyone? Most importantly, where was Miriam?
I got up and set my bare foot onto the dirty, wooden floor. Suddenly, my head started spinning and along with it, the world spun too. I fell to the ground, and when I could finally lift my head, what I saw above me terrified me. It was him, death in human form, and beside him were four of his helpers. They grabbed my arms and forced me to stand up.
“Good morning A1387. I am afraid your dear twin sister couldn’t handle the injections from yesterday. Let’s hope your fragile little limbs can endure those chemicals. I wonder how many more injections it will take for you to meet your pathetic sister,” he said, patting my head. His tone was playful, but deadly.
I froze. What? Miriam…dead? That one word, “twins”, has taken away everything of what feels like my past life, and now my last hope? I felt a surge of anger, hatred, sadness, fear, devastation swirling inside me like boiling lava in a volcano, ready to erupt. I wanted to scream, to shout, to kill him, but I couldn’t. My soft limbs felt as if they would collapse merely by trying to stand up. They would be harmless and defenceless against the Angel of Death. When he saw the hatred on my face, he started laughing hysterically and simply said, “What a shame; she was only 13. I cannot wait to see how long it will take for you to fall apart!”
3. 說明文（Expository Essay）
根據美國普渡大學（Purdue University）的定義，說明文是一種要求學生圍繞特定主題展開研究、評估相關論據、闡述觀點，並以清晰且簡潔的方式呈現論證的寫作體裁。為了達成這個目標，作者常會運用多種方法，包括比較與對比、定義說明、舉例說明、因果分析等。
說明文寫作的核心在於呈現客觀的事實與數據，而非表達個人觀點或進行主觀的論證。
正如其名稱所示，說明文的目的是透過充分的信息來「說明」（expose）特定的主題。這類文章提供的是資訊，要求對主題進行全面且平衡的分析，所有內容必須基於事實與數據，而非個人見解。因此，說明文常被用作高中及大學階段的重要寫作任務，用以檢驗學生對特定議題的熟悉度以及資訊組織與傳達能力。
以下是一篇取自 College Board SAT 寫作考題的說明文範例：
In response to our world’s growing reliance on artificial light, writer Paul Bogard argues that natural darkness should be preserved in his article “Let There be dark”. He effectively builds his argument by using a personal anecdote, allusions to art and history, and rhetorical questions.
Bogard starts his article off by recounting a personal story – a summer spent on a Minnesota lake where there was “woods so dark that [his] hands disappeared before [his] eyes.” In telling this brief anecdote, Bogard challenges the audience to remember a time where they could fully amass themselves in natural darkness void of artificial light. By drawing in his readers with a personal encounter about night darkness, the author means to establish the potential for beauty, glamour, and awe-inspiring mystery that genuine darkness can possess. He builds his argument for the preservation of natural darkness by reminiscing for his readers a first-hand encounter that proves the “irreplaceable value of darkness.” This anecdote provides a baseline of sorts for readers to find credence with the author’s claims.
Bogard’s argument is also furthered by his use of allusion to art – Van Gogh’s “Starry Night” – and modern history – Paris’ reputation as “The City of Light”. By first referencing “Starry Night”, a painting generally considered to be undoubtedly beautiful, Bogard establishes that the natural magnificence of stars in a dark sky is definite. A world absent of excess artificial light could potentially hold the key to a grand, glorious night sky like Van Gogh’s according to the writer. This urges the readers to weigh the disadvantages of our world consumed by unnatural, vapid lighting. Furthermore, Bogard’s alludes to Paris as “the famed ‘city of light’”. He then goes on to state how Paris has taken steps to exercise more sustainable lighting practices. By doing this, Bogard creates a dichotomy between Paris’ traditionally alluded-to name and the reality of what Paris is becoming – no longer “the city of light”, but moreso “the city of light…before 2 AM”. This furthers his line of argumentation because it shows how steps can be and are being taken to preserve natural darkness. It shows that even a city that is literally famous for being constantly lit can practically address light pollution in a manner that preserves the beauty of both the city itself and the universe as a whole.
Finally, Bogard makes subtle yet efficient use of rhetorical questioning to persuade his audience that natural darkness preservation is essential. He asks the readers to consider “what the vision of the night sky might inspire in each of us, in our children or grandchildren?” in a way that brutally plays to each of our emotions. By asking this question, Bogard draws out heartfelt ponderance from his readers about the affecting power of an untainted night sky. This rhetorical question tugs at the readers’ heartstrings; while the reader may have seen an unobscured night skyline before, the possibility that their child or grandchild will never get the chance sways them to see as Bogard sees. This strategy is definitively an appeal to pathos, forcing the audience to directly face an emotionally-charged inquiry that will surely spur some kind of response. By doing this, Bogard develops his argument, adding gutthral power to the idea that the issue of maintaining natural darkness is relevant and multifaceted.
Writing as a reaction to his disappointment that artificial light has largely permeated the presence of natural darkness, Paul Bogard argues that we must preserve true, unaffected darkness. He builds this claim by making use of a personal anecdote, allusions, and rhetorical questioning.
4. 議論文（Argumentative Essay）
議論文與說明文有許多相似之處，兩者都要求作者基於證據提出論點。寫作過程中，作者需要明確陳述中心論點，系統性地搜集並評估相關論據，最終確立並支持自己的立場。
因此，許多人容易將議論文與說明文混淆，但事實上，議論文對研究深度的要求更高。說明文通常出現在 SAT 考試中，考生只需依據題目展開分析與說明；而議論文則多用於畢業設計或結業專案，通常需要更詳實的研究資料支撐，且篇幅也較長。
一篇標準的議論文包含三個主要部分：
引言：明確提出主題，並提出中心論點（論文陳述）。
主體段落：透過具體論據展開論證，支持中心論點。
結論：總結主要論點，並可提出未來研究或探討的方向。
以下範例摘自美國教育考試服務中心（ETS）GRE寫作的參考答案：
Prompt: The best ideas arise from a passionate interest in commonplace things
Discuss the extent to which you agree or disagree with the statement above and explain your reasoning for the position you take. In developing and supporting your position, you should consider ways in which the statement might or might not hold true and explain how those considerations shape your position.
Answer:
Passion is clearly necessary for a truly great idea to take hold among a people—passion either
on the part of the original thinker, the audience, or ideally both. The claim that the most lucrative
subject matter for inspiring great ideas is “commonplace things” may seem initially to be counterintuitive. After all, aren’t great ideas usually marked by their extraordinary character? While this is true, their extraordinary character is as often as not directly derived from their insight into things that had theretofore gone unquestioned. While great ideas certainly can arise through seemingly pure innovation… say, for example, Big Bang cosmology, which developed nearly all of its own scientific and philosophical precepts through its own process of formation, it is nevertheless equally true that such groundbreaking thought was, and is, still largely
a reevaluation of previous assumptions to a radical degree… after all, the question of the ultimate nature of the universe, and man’s place in it, has been central to human thought since the dawn of time. Commonplace things are, additionally, necessary as material for the generation of “the best ideas” since certainly the success among an audience must be considered in evaluating the significance and quality of an idea.
The advent of Big Bang cosmology, which occurred in rudimentary form almost immediately upon Edwin Hubble’s first observations at the Hooker telescope in California during the early 20th century, was the most significant advance in mankind’s understanding of the universe in over 400 years. The seemingly simple fact that everything in the universe, on a very large scale, is moving away from everything else in fact betrays nearly all of our scientific knowledge of the origins and mechanics of the universe. This slight, one might even say commonplace, distortion of tint on a handful of photographic plates carried with it the greatest challenge to Man’s general, often religiously reinforced, conception of the nature of the world to an extent not seen since the days of Galileo. Not even Charles Darwin’s theory, though it created more of a stir than Big Bang cosmology, had such shattering implications for our conceptions of the nature of our reality. Yet it is not significant because it introduced the question of the nature of what lies beyond Man’s grasp. A tremendous number of megalithic ruins, including the Pyramids both of Mexico and Egypt, Stonehenge, and others, indicate that this question has been foremost on humankind’s collective mind since time immemorial. Big Bang cosmology is so incredibly significant in this line of reasoning exactly because of the degree to which it changed the direction of this generally held, constantly pondered, and very ancient train of thought.
Additionally, there is a diachronic significance to the advent of Big Bang cosmology, which is that, disregarding limitations such as the quality of optical devices available and the state of theoretical math, it could have happened at any point in time. That is to say, all evidence points to roughly the same raw intellectual capacity for homo sapiens throughout our history, our progress has merely depended upon the degree of it that a person happens to inherit, a pace that has been increasing rapidly since the industrial revolution. Yet this discovery had to happen at a certain point in time or another—it cannot have been happening constantly or have never happened yet still be present—and this point in time does have its own significance. That significance is precisely the fact that the aforementioned advent must have occurred at precisely the point in time at which it truly could have occurred—that is to say, it marks the point in our history when we had progressed sufficiently to begin examining, with remarkable substantiated acuity, the workings of the universe across distances that would take millions of human lifetimes to reach or to traverse. The point for the success of this advent must necessarily have been, additionally, the point at which the audience concerned was capable and prepared to accept such a radical line of reasoning.
Both factors, a radical, passionate interpretation of the commonplace and the preparedness to accept such an interpretation, are necessary for the formulation of a truly great idea. If the passion is absent from an inquiry by the thinker or by the bulk of an audience, the idea will die out if it comes to fruition at all. If the material is not sufficiently commonplace to be considered by an informed audience of sufficient size, the same two hazards exist. Given these two factors, the idea must still be found palatable and interesting by the audience if it is to hope to gain a foothold and eventually establish itself in a significant fashion.
5. 分析性作文（Analytical Essay）
分析性作文是一種對特定主題進行深度剖析的寫作體裁，研究範圍涵蓋藝術、音樂、文學作品，甚至政治、科學、哲學等多元領域。這類文章不僅能提升作者的寫作技巧及對主題的全面理解，也幫助讀者深入掌握重要議題的多面向。
與說服性寫作不同，分析性作文的核心目標不是要說服讀者接受某一觀點，而是提供多維度、系統化且客觀的分析。這類文體常見於 GRE 考試的寫作部分。
一篇優秀的分析性文章應包含明確的核心論點，並圍繞該論點進行層層剖析與論證。我們曾介紹過一篇文章，詳細說明如何寫作文學分析論文的七個步驟（7 Steps to Write a Literary Analysis Essay）。
以下為一篇學生針對基因編輯技術 CRISPR 撰寫的分析性論文節選（全文可點擊此處查閱）：
No matter how much money people are willing to pay for health care, they may still suffer terribly from incurable diseases such as AIDS and cancer because of the underdevelopment of medical technology. However, today, the advancement in human knowledge has led to the introduction of human gene-editing, turning impossibility to possibility. In particular, the recent technology for genome editing called CRISPR has been having a groundbreaking impact on research in genetic science. This is due to its remarkable potential to simply cure genetic diseases in an embryo before they have a serious effect on further developmental progression. Although currently, there have been numerous debates regarding its extension in research for widespread uses, CRISPR is a completely promising technology because of the benefits it brings to people.
CRISPR, or Clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats, is the newest innovation in genetic engineering. The way CRISPR works is similar to “the scissor-like action of Cas 9 to target… any specific DNA sequence” (Baylis and Rossant). By making cuts in specific locations in DNA, CRISPR can cure diseases and make alterations in an embryo’s DNA, which prevent diseases from being passed down to following generations (Baylis and Rossant). Throughout the history, governments and researchers came up with different approaches politically and scientifically in attempt to control population. They hoped to encourage the “richest, wisest and healthiest to breed like rabbits” and the “sick, stupid, and poor to take one for the empire and remain childless” (Comfort 28). The second attempt happened during the 20th century, when the U.S government passed the law preventing marriage and immigration that would threaten a perceived core American “stock.” Another more extreme example was when Nazi sterilization law further advanced this population control approach. Later in the century, a biotechnological approach was established as a safer and more humane way to manage population health (qtd in Comfort 28). “Gene surgery,” which is similar to CRISPR technology, was established and followed by contentious debates regarding ethical issues between disease treatment and human trait enhancements. Currently, there has been a halt in the use of CRISPR because of the increase in concern from the public about the pros and cons of this technology.
進一步閱讀：
- Where to Submit Your Writing Works: 5 Main Platforms
- 6 Differences between High School and College Writing
- 20 Tips to Improve Your Writing
- Guide to Point of View in Writing
- 10 Mistakes High School Students Make in Creative Writing
- 5 Common Types of High School Essays (With Examples)
- How to Overcome Writer’s Block in High School Writing Competitions
Aralia 睿雅寫作類課程
此課程每年夏季開課，針對 13 至 18 歲、渴望學習如何將英文寫作打磨成有效且可發表的創意作品的學生設計。 課程將透過多種工具，幫助學生掌握有目的性和技巧性的寫作精髓，包括：運用修辭手法、有效的結構設計以及特定的寫作形式，並將這些技能應用於他們的創作中。
本課程旨在幫助學生發展並提升寫作能力，為高等教育階段做好準備。教學方法強調批判性閱讀、批判性思考與批判性寫作能力。學生將學習資訊性、敘述性、描寫性、創意性及說服性寫作技巧。
課程內容涵蓋如何進行頭腦風暴、架構文章大綱、形成論點並進行論證、整合學術資源，以及培養清晰且有力的寫作風格。重點還包括寫作流程、目標讀者分析、一致的時態與視角運用、正確語法、詞彙積累、恰當文體風格，以及規範的研究與引用方式。
