学过多年英语的大学生写百来字的四六级英语小作文，照理应该不难。可实际情况是，每年总有50%以上的考生作文不及格。究其原因：死背单词、语感全无；语法烂熟，语病百出；只练默记功，不练活用功。如何写好大学英语四六级作文呢？诀窍无他，下面三点当记取：
一、四六级作文最忌汉语造句、英语表达。不妨想一想，非英语专业的学生怎么可能用英语写出完全由汉语组句构思的锦绣文章呢？
二、英语单词背得越多未必越管用。记住：用活二千，胜背一万!
三、切勿迷信“英文写作技巧”之类华而不实的说教。无数事实证明，考生愈是关注写作技巧，愈容易眼高手低，其作文就愈可能扦格难通。
对于广大英语基础尚不扎实的大学生，提高英语写作水平的最佳途径不是盲目背单词、背语法。相反，应该从最基本英语词汇和表达式入手，努力熟练使用它们。请看笔者所写两篇四六级英语作文，从头到尾没有一个单词和表达式超出高中英语范围，它们分别是2008年6月大学英语四级和2008年12月大学英语六级作文试题：
Recreational Activities
With the development of Chinese economy, we can choose from all kinds of recreational activities today, such as singing, dancing, sports and online games, which make our life really colorful.
But every coin has two sides. Recreational activities may bring about benefits and harms at the same time. For sure, taking such activities after hard work can help people relax and get refreshed, and some activities, especially sports, can also make people better in communication and cooperation. However, things will bear good results only when they’re done within a certain limit. When we have too much fun, we are no longer relaxed but become tired instead, and we won’t have enough time and vigor for the incoming work or study.
Therefore, in my opinion, recreational activities should be taken in a proper way, especially for us college students, who should learn to strike a balance between study and fun. We all know that “All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy”, but Jack would not be a better one when things go so far as to become “No work and all play”.
How to improve student’s mental health
As you may have noticed from the press, there is an increasing number of university students who commit suicide because they are unable to handle obstacles in their life. For sure, that’s chiefly because of their mental weakness. Thus, it’s now an urgent task of the whole society to help students improve their mental health.
As far as I’m concerned, I believe this can be achieved with efforts of both the university and the students themselves. From the part of the university, firstly, courses related to mental health should be opened to students so that they can learn more about how mentality can impact their life and how to improve their mental health in scientific ways; secondly, related university departments should appoint professional mental staff to serve students when they find it hard to cope with mental difficulties, so that the university can keep track of students’ negative thoughts and timely clear them up.
And as we students play the vital part in improving our own mental health, we have to seek out some ways to stay optimistic and confident. We must remember that without the bitterness of failure, we will never know how sweet the success is; we must remind ourselves that it’s not trouble itself that troubles us, but we make ourselves troubled by it. To achieve success, we must believe in ourselves in the first place.
In a word, since mental health is important for the future of university students, related departments and students should strive together for better mentality of students, who are the tomorrow of our nation.
以上两篇作文在完成试题规定的要求方面，可以说无可挑剔。其所使用的词汇、句型和语法知识均未超出高中英语课本的程度。细心的读者或许注意到，这两篇简笔英语作文中没有一个大词，没有一个难词。一些较难又是关键性的词汇，比如“纵情玩乐”、“物极必反”、“适可而止”、“心理咨询医生”、“抑郁症”、“心理承受能力”，等等，在这两篇作文中都被巧妙地以英语基本词汇表达出来了，而且丝毫没有影响对主题的阐述。
大学英语四六级作文最忌写得生涩滞重，许多人之所以无法写得轻松，不是不愿意写，而是因为自己心理词汇网络中根本就没有可供驱遣的有用表达。其实，区区百来字的英语小作文别说使用高中英语，就是使用初中英语来写，也不是一件太难的事。不妨再来看看笔者前几年所写的一篇四六级真题作文：
A Letter to the University President about the Canteen Service on Campus
January 10th, 2005
Dear Mr. President,
I am lucky to be a student of this famous university. But I don’t think I am happy with the canteen service on campus. Firstly, the quality of the dishes is poor. They taste bad. The cooks often forget to put salt. Sometimes, however, they put too much salt. One of my classmates even found a dead fly in the soup yesterday. I really don’t want to go to the canteen for meals. Secondly, the price is too high. Most of my classmates are complaining about it. We pay more money there but we don’t get better food. That’s not fair. Finally, it’s dirty and noisy in the canteen. Tables are dirty. Chairs are dirty. Dishes look ugly. We find it hard to enjoy meals there. By the way, the canteen workers are not very polite. Some of them are even rude. Can our university do something to improve the canteen service? Thank you!
Yours sincerely,
Li Ming
该文中涉及食堂饭菜质量、价格、环境、服务的所有抱怨均采用不超出初中英语程度的基本词汇和句型表达，比如：poor, taste bad, forget to put salt, put too much salt, the price is too high, tables are dirty, chairs are dirty, dishes look ugly, not polite，等等；而它们的表达效果比起装腔作势的大词长句来，一点也不逊色。
立足基本词汇写作文，看似小道理，实际上蕴含着对语言本质属性的深刻认识。许多接受过简笔英语作文训练的学生都惊喜地发现，现在下笔再不像从前那样脑子里一片空白。而更让人惊喜的是，立足基本词汇所形成的语感，极大地提高了他们表达英语的自信和欲望。你不妨也试一试。
作者：张传彪