主题句的特点如下：
1 、紧扣文章的主题思想，用来支持主论点；
2、表达一个可辩论、待展开的观点，而不仅仅是一个基于事实的描述；
3、能全面、准确涵盖全段主要立场和观点，否则需要修改该分论点；
4、控制全段组织结构，提示下文论证脉络。
第一、三点是出于连贯性（coherence）的要求，如果主论点没有覆盖主题句，则要么修改主论点，要么修改主题句；如果主题句没有覆盖支持句，则要么修改主题句，要么修改支持句。
例1：“Such nonmainstream areas of inquiry as astrology, fortune-telling, and psychic and paranormal pursuits play a vital role in society by satisfying human needs that are not addresd by mainstream science.”
试译：一些非主流的研究领域，比如占星术、算命以及通灵和超自然的探索，在社会中发挥了至关重要的作用，因为他们满足了人们无法从主流科学得到的需求。
Position: Despite of their nonmainstream nature, at current stage, the areas of pursuits are indispensible in ensuring the stability of the society and completeness of our culture. However, they must be cloly monitored and meticulously guided to have their negative influences checked and ensure they do not go off the track. Moreover, we should aim to reduce people’s reliance on them in the long run.
Admittedly, most of our needs are satisfied by our attention and progress in the areas of mainstream science. ...However, the nonmainstream inquiries are no less important than science studies mention above in that they have their unique niche in our society.
Firstly, the areas of inquiry satisfy many aspects of human needs not addresd by mainstream science inquiries.
0S econdly, the studies are elements that are deeply routed in our traditional culture and reflect our traditional val ues,
beliefs and rituals.
On the other hand, the damage and infliction the avenues of inquiry may cau cannot afford to b
sympathye i gnored. ...And we should work to rai the awareness of science and reduce people’s reliance on the inquiries.
In sum, the “superstitious” inquiries do have multiple positive roles to rve in our modern societ y and thei r contri buti ons are undeniable when properly controlled. However, I agree that they are double-edged swords and can easily po negative influences to people. Therefore, as well-educated and informed citizens of the modern society, we should reduce our reliance on the inquiries to avoid possible damage.
这提纲的主要问题出在连贯性上：
A. Thesis statement 不明确，倒来倒去，首段结尾又突然冒出一个should。如果我们的主论点不能用一句话来概括，那说明它需要修改得跟明确一点。
B. 段落关系非常凌乱：让步段先肯定mainstream，结尾冒出一个however来否定nonmainstream，而后面两段都是围绕这句话展开的；第四段又否定nonmainstream，并在结尾提出should。结果，全文结构成了否定——肯定——否定，三回九转，山路十八弯啊，叫人怎么不迷糊？！
不是很切题：题目问非主流“是不是”发挥了至关重要的作用，“是不是”满足了主流无法满足的需求。文章似乎想说“非主流是双刃剑，现代公民应该减少对其依赖”，这些显然是文不对题啰。0
第二、四点要求与第三讲的主论点一样，不再赘述。
需要指出的是，尽管主题句可以放在论证段落的任何位置，但在学术英语写作中一般放在段落开头。在考试中，放在开头也有利于阅卷人找到你的观点。
如何写分论点？我给大家提供几个建议：
1、在审题过程中，先思考所有可能支持、反对原题目的分论点。然后挑选最有说服力、最好写的一个立场，据此写出分论点。也就是说，顺序不是先主论点，后分论点；而是先分论点，后主论点。
2、如果想不出分论点，不妨尝试如下几个简单的套路。
A．完全同意或完全反对的，分论点可以是“两正一升华”或“两反一升华”，即先写两个明显支持或反对原题目的论点，然后用更深刻的论点升华一下。
例2：Issue152 "The only responsibility of corporate executives, provided they stay within the law, is to make as much money as possible for their companies."
试译：公司高管的唯一职责是为他们公司尽可能地多地挣钱，只要他们在法律允许范围之内。立场：同意
正：公司高管是为股东服务的，其天生职责是帮助股东实现公司利润最大化；
正：只要在法律允许的框架之下，企业追逐利润对员工、对企业、对社会（经济增长、税收）而言都是多多益善；
升华：虽然公司高管也可以承担其他责任如慈善捐助、公益事业等等，但这些本应该是**的责任，并且企业这么做也是为了树立良好形象，为在更长时期内利润最大化打下基础。
灶神之妻B．同意但有所保留的，分论点可以是“小反大正加升华”，即先小让步反驳命题，再证明命题的合理性，最后用更深刻的观点来支持命题；反对但有所保留的，分论点可以是“小正大反加升华”，即先小让步承认命题合理性，再反驳命题，最后用更深刻的观点来反驳命题。
例3：Issue51 "Education will be truly effective only when it is specifically designed to meet the individual needs and interests of each student."
题目：唯有当教育是专门为满足每个学生独特的需要和兴趣而设计的时候，它才是真正有效的。0
立场：反对但有所保留
正：承认对个人而言，专门设计的教育可以挖掘个人真正的兴趣和隐藏的天赋，而这些在传统教育下很可能被掩盖。反：然而，对社会而言，这种教育即不可行也无必要。
升华：实际上，现代教育的基本目的就是通过培养大量人才，来满足社会对标准化人才的渴求。
购书C．平衡观点的，分论点可以是“一正一反一综合”，即先支持命题，再反对命题，最后说明这两者其实并不矛盾。
例4：Issue110 "When we concern ourlves with the study of history, we become storytellers. Becau we can never know the past directly but must construct it by interpreting evidence, exploring history is more of a creative enterpri than it is an objective pursuit. All historians are storytellers."
试译：当我们从事历史研究时，我们变成了说书人。因为我们不能直接了解过去而只能通过阐释证据来构想过去，探索历史与其说是一种客观的工作，倒不如说是一项创造的事业。所有的历史学家都是说书人。立场：平衡
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正：的确，资料欠缺、个人观点都会影响历史研究的客观性；
反：但是，历史研究还是要基于事实和证据，不能胡编乱造，另外像时间、人物之类的史实都不带什么主观性；
综合：实际上，主观性和客观性并非完全相斥，而是相互依存，all historians are both storytellers an
d fact-recorders. D．分类讨论的，分论点可以是“一A一B一标准”，即讨论在A情况下如何如何，在B情况下如何如何，最后给出这些差别的原因——分类标准。
例5："No one can possibly achieve success in the world by conforming to conventional practices and conventi onal ways of thinking."
试译：在这个世界上，没有人能通过遵循传统习惯和思考方式来获得成功。
这种题目本身比较绝对化，所以很多同学都喜欢用ca by ca（如分领域或分情形）的方法讨论。这样做无可厚非，但结果往往是泛泛而谈，上不了档次。要知道，一个命题在一万种情形下都成立，仍难以证明其绝对成立，只要我们发现该命题在一种情形下不成立，就推翻它了。证伪的道理一样。那么如何在“具体情况具体分析”的基础上更上一层楼？记得初等数学就学过的分类讨论吧，分类的标准是一个或多个参数的不同取值，从而使整个讨论统一在一个框架之内。如果我们能找到区分或界定ca的“标准”，并根据以标准为纲展开分析，则作文的思想性可以上一个台阶。立场：分类讨论
A、在东方国家，人们往往需要循规蹈矩才能获得成功；近墨者黑
B、在西方国家，人们获得成功确需要离经叛道；0
C、实际上，判断成功与否要看社会的价值标准：当一个社会崇尚传统时，个人想要成功就不能离经
叛道；当一个社会崇尚创新时，个人想要成功就不能循规蹈矩（When we say some people succeed, we mean that their behavior is accepted and highly valued by other members of the society, whereas the evaluation is bad on, whether explicitly or implicitly, some standards which can vary enormously in different societies.）
3、写好分论点后，要检查分论点与主论点是否一致、分论点是否容易展开，然后做一些必要的修改。
4、恰当地使用连词，组织好分论点的逻辑顺序，使其更有条理。
例6：Issue50 “In order to improve the quality of instruction at the college and university level, all faculty should be required to spend time working outside the academic world in professions relevant to the cours they teach.”0
试译：为改善教学质量，大学应当要求所有的教员花时间到校外去参加与他们所教科目相关的工作。【提纲】（1）反对观点。0
（2）首先这样会使教员分心，有可能面外的工作占用很多精力，而忽略了教学任务，这样反而会降低教学质量。比如，现在计算机行业很热门，有很多计算机系的老师在外面的公司兼职做项目，导致上课质量下降，很多只是应付任务。（可以举自己身边的例子）
aldosterone（3）有些学科发展很快，确实需要多了解外面的发展，但也不一定非要让教员出去工作，因为还有很多渠道的，比如参加学术讨论会议、通过网络了解最新动态等等。
（4）此外，有些学科，比如基础研究学科数学、物理的发展是需要在实验室里的，不需要到外面工作，且短期内这些都不会有太大变化，这些老师更不需要必须花时间去外面工作。
如果将后三段顺序调换为（3）——（4）——（2），逻辑可能更清晰一些。
总论点：Sometimes, the better choice for scholars and rearchers is to work for the whole society rather than pursuing their unusual individual interests.
分论点1：Admittedly, the individual interests, no matter how strange, are the best impetus, which inspires the scholars and rearchers to conquer all the difficulties they meet in the process of exploration.
分论点2：Nevertheless, in some cas, they are forced to consider their social contribution first rather than their own interests.
分论点3：In fact, social responsibility and individual interests are not a pair of contradictory concepts for scholars and rearchers, both of which are indispensable to guarantee the harmony and progre
ss of the society.
逻辑问题有两个：一是分论点3与主论点不一致：你到底想一边倒还是搞平衡？必须想清楚，然后看应该修改分论点还是主论点。如果不知道怎么下手的话，可以看看讲解的四个套路。二是分论点2不合适，题目说的是individual interests比contribution更重要，而你说的却是“人们不得不考虑contribution而不是individual interests”。不得不做不一定代表它就重要啊，毕竟重要性不等同于必要性。
下面看一下语言问题。总论点：rather than是副词而不是代词，前后需要对称，其后应该是to pursue而不是pursuing。另外，不要用sometimes，这样太弱了，放之四海而皆准。
分论点1：which前的，应该去掉，不是非限定性定语从句。meet前最好加may。0
分论点3：are not a pair of contradictory concepts非常累赘、抽象，没有必要，直接说are not contradictory 就可以啊。be indispensable后面应该接for doing sth，而不是to do sth。
总论点：Although the individual interest is crucial for scientists in pursuing their scientific goal, they should always count the benefit of their achievements to the society at the first place.
意思可以。语言上的问题比较多：1、the individual interest改为individual interests，因为兴趣不是一
个人的，每个人也不一定仅仅只有一个，第一次出现也不用the；2、类似的，goal应为goals；3、be crucial for sb in doing sth这个结构可能是不规范的，可以改为：Although the individual interests of scientists are crucial in/to pursuing their scientific goals；Although individual interests are crucial for scientists' pursuring their scientific goals；Although the individual interests of scientists are crucial for the pursuit of their scientific goals等等；4、count在此处不对，它的每一个词义都不合适（做“计算”时指的是“加总”）。此处你想表达的是“考虑”还是“计算”？两者均可用calculate，前者可用consider 或take into account；5、benefit应为复数，其前应加potential或possible，在研究之前（the first place）我们根本不知道它有没有收益；6、achievements为“成就”，应该换成中性的results，因为完全有可能研究结果根本就不是成就啊；
7、at the first place应为in the first place。
分论1：Individual interest has a significant influence on one’s scientific career, for it can makes you immersing yourlf in the monotonous calculation and tedious experience.
意思上，主要要时时刻刻要与主论点照应起来，这一句末尾可以加上一个分句：which can help he or she pursue the scientific goals；the monotonous calculation and tedious experience是你自己的主观看法，实际上很多研究者也许认为自己的研究是很有趣的，所以这么写是不合适的。语法上，make sb do sth，immersing应为immer；前面是one's，后面变成了you和yourlf，应该保持一致。
总论点：The author’s asrtion ems ostensibly表面上justifiable可证明为正当的 at first glance, but we may find it indefensible不可争辩的after a careful analyze. It offers an arbitrary decision by saying pragmatism实用主义is the only way to gain success. Nevertheless, the viewpoint of being idealistic is by no means to be ignored. Only by combining pragmatism and idealism together can we achieve success.
你看，第一句话就是废话嘛，N篇文章都可以用同样的一个句子，但它实际上并没有透露你这篇习作的独特信息。后面的观点还是有点乱，第二句实际上否定了pragmatism（arbitrary贬义词啊），第三句是肯定idealism，因此这两个句子之前并没有转折，用nevertheless不恰当。如果你把三句这样组合起来，可能更有逻辑：P很重要；但I也不赖；实际上，只有结合P和I才能成功。但你下面的分论点并没有谈第二句。
分论点2：Yet we can never overlook the effect that idealism made on that account.（In the area of art, great ideas and works always come from tho who thoughts run ahead of his era. We can come to the conclusion without sweat that being idealistic gives them the wings of imagination and innovation thus makes impossible possible. Such examples may be finding in the inventions which have changed the world like plans of Wright Brother and the submarine of Verne's novel. Furthermore, being idealistic means holding dreams in our life journey. And dreams can undoubtedly
give us hope and lead us to the bright future.）
这段的主题句不够清晰，意思比较模糊。参考下文，你想表达的意思似乎是：Idealism can play an important role in achieving success.
htr再看展开，谈了两个支持观点：imagination、dream，但实际上这两者有很大的差别吗？此外，组织得不是很好，语法上也有很多问题。你应该先讲一个支持观点，然后举例；再讲一个支持观点，然后举例。不妨简单给你改一改：Firstly, idealism often gives people a wing of dream which helps them to fly to the ideal destination. For example, the Wright Brothers had an idealistic view of flying like birds, and finally they succeeded in making a plane after many failures. Secondly, idealistic views also inspire people to work out innovative way to success. Such examples may be found in the process of many inventions. When rearchers had difficulty in inventing submarine, Verne's science fiction helped them to find novel solutions to some technical problems.
."Such nonmainstream areas of inquiry as astrology, fortune-telling, and psychic and paranormal pursuits play a vital role in society by satisfying human needs that are not addresd by mainstream science."
I agree with the speaker insofar as that such nonmainstream areas as astrology, fortune-telling and s
o on help satisfy human needs in some extent. However, the vitality of one thing does not only depend on whether it satisfies someone but also whether it is recognized by mainstream ideology and whether it contributes to the evolution of human.
It is no denying that modern science sometimes brings complexity rather than simplicity to our lives, and areas like astrology timely fill the confusions by giving a t of explanations created by themlves. And thus people are likely attempting to resort to the kinds of explanations if they cannot find a proper answer given by science. In ancient times, the prevalence of astrology even led to the establishment of astronomy. Today, though their living space has been greatly squeezed by the leaping development of modern science, areas like astrology, fortune-telling still help bring psychological comfort to mollify the anxiety brought by the unknown world to which science has not given a definite conclusion, such as whether ghosts really exist and whether there will be any supernatural power existing in the world.
However, the lubricant role of areas like astrology does not, and perhaps never, entitles them an honor of vital role in society. The vital role to the evolution of society must satisfy, in my view, two significant conditions: it must be recognized by the mainstream ideology and it must propel the prosperity of our society, which are all satisfied by sc ience but not by areas like astrology.
First, the recognition by mainstream ideology means the given explanation on natural phenomenon must be logically compatible and can be proved by experiment. This is the basis of science while the theories given by as trology, psychic or paranormal pursuits do not satisfy. For example, the scientific explanation on the event that many planets in solar system array in a line is just a normal and coincident astronomic phenomenon and will result in no bad effect on te earth, while the version given by astrology is that it is a sign of destruction of world. The fact that nothing had happened during and after that day is evident enough to rule out astrology from the recognition by mainstream ideology. And science founded on strict logical deduction and repeatable experiments, once more demonstrated its reliability.
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Second, the prosperity of our society relies on the instructions given by theories. The theories propounded by science have been examined by facts or theoretical deduction and are implicative to offer guidance on the social development including the guidance on economy from economics, on industries from electronics and mechanics, on health from biologics and medicine and so on. On the contrary, areas like psychic or fortune-telling just draw an imaginary picture to satisfy the needs such as to touch parents who have been dead or to know what will happen in the future, which cannot been proved by themlves nor rai any practical advices.
In conclusion, mainstream science plays a vital role in society by propounding reliable theories to explain natural phenomenon and giving practical guidance on the evolution of world. Areas such as astrology, fortune-telling and psychic, to
some extent, help to smooth the psychological needs brought by the insufficiency of science by establishing some imaginary explanations, which indubitably will not dominate the progress of society.
Social Activities on Campus
1）参加校园中的社会活动对大学生的好处。
2）参加校园中的社会活动对大学生的坏处。
3）我应当如何对待校园中的社会活动。
开头段：校园中有各种各样的社会活动，这些活动有利也有弊。
中心段1：大学生可以从校园活动中受益很多。
1．1可以接触更多的人。they can meet more people
1．1.1大学生学习繁重，没有机会与更多的人打交道
1．1.2校园活动能把许多人聚集在一起，可以交朋友。The activities will bring the schoolmates, even students from other schools together. They may talk to each other and make friends.
1.2 可以学习与人合作，学习处理事情Moreover, they learn how to work with people and how to work things out.
1.2.1 活动有各种人参与，为合作办事提供了机会As so much of their time are spent on class, homework and other activities concerning study, most of them do not have many opportunities associating with people.
1.2.2 大学生可以学习如何合作There are many people involved when the activities are organized. The students shall work together to make things go smoothly.
1.2.3 活动中会出现各种问题There is much work awaiting and many problems arising. So they will learn a lot in the organization of activities.
1.2.4 学生需要努力在组织活动中学习处理产生的各种问题。
1.3 可以给学生带来快乐及表现自己的机会。What’s more, the activities will give them pleasure, relaxation and chances to prove themlves.
1.3.1 多数活动能让学生享受快乐并表现自己的特长Most of the activities allow the students to enjoy themlves and show their specialties to others. They can have much fun and become more confident.
1.3.2 学生可以玩得愉快同时变得自信。
中心段2 但也要注意认真对待校园中的社会活动，否则会出现问题。However, we must treat the campus social activities correctly.Otherwi, problem may ari..
2.1学生太过在意这些活动，认为比学习更重要。Many students are much too fascinated by the activities in that they believe the activities will bring them more than class and textbooks.
2.2 因为社会活动放弃或忽略了学习。They neglect their study assignments and have too many activities in the name of so-called cultivation of abilities.protest
2.3 毕业时成绩不好/ In the end, they get poor grades and even have great trouble graduating.
2.4 在求职时受到质疑，社会活动并没有带来就职优势。When they apply for a job, the interviewers are suspicious not only of their knowledge, but also of their abilities. Their activities give them no help in competition in society
街尾段：学校中学习是主要任务。In my opinion, colleges are mainly places for study.
1 社会活动应当受到一定限制Participation in social activities ought to be limited to a certain extent so that the tasks in study can be completed carefully and timely.
2 这样，活动才有助于学生的自我发展。Thus, the activities will help in students’ lf-development.
Social Activities on Campus
1．College students can benefit a lot from social activities on campus.
suits2．However, we must treat the campus social activities correctly.
3．In my opinion, colleges are mainly places for study.
There are various kinds of social activities on campus, such as English corners, dancing parties and
speech contests and so on. Generally speaking, college students are encouraged to participate in the activities. However，it is also necessary that they be careful not to have their study affected by social activities.
