Chapter 5: Brilliant and Dazzling (1)
The composition of the essay is relatively better than the multiple-choice questions, at least the time is sufficient, but the materials provided are too many and the scope is too broad. After Xu Wei finished writing, he couldn't even remember what content he had written, his state of mind can be compared to Han Yu's imperial examination in those years.
A person's writing level is like their body temperature, except for when they are ill and it fluctuates greatly, most of the time it remains relatively stable. Improvement is not something that can be achieved overnight. Xu Wei had no other choice but to spend money inviting Li Zhiyuan out for a meal, and borrow his experience from training classes for reference.
Li Zhiyuan was infected by the famous teacher, speaking fluently and quoting classics: "So-called 'Shen Lun', originated from Confucius' 'Shen Er Lun Zhi', evolved from the policy essays of ancient imperial examinations, fully reflecting the profoundness of our country's national learning..."
Xu Wei interrupted him: "Get to the point, Comrade Zhiyuan."
Li Zhiyuan then repeated what the teacher of the training class said, that writing policy essays is just a matter of applying formulas, extremely simple. Take the "proposing countermeasures" section for example, there are specialized formulas, called the "Eight Magic Bullets", also known as "The Eight Magic Bullets may not be magic bullets, but without them, it's absolutely impossible". Specifically:
Leaders attach great importance and raise awareness
Strengthen publicity and create atmosphere
Education and Training, Improving Quality
Sound policies and regulations, improve the system
Organizational coordination and formation of mechanisms
Increase investment and rely on science and technology
Strengthen supervision and fully implement
Summary and Reflection, Drawing on Experience
Li Zhiyuan immediately took out the review materials, which included specific sentence patterns attached to the "Eight Magic Words", such as "Leaders attach great importance to it and raise awareness" paired with "Put... on the agenda", "Strengthen investigation and research on the issue, clarify the origin of... from the source", while "Strengthen propaganda and create an atmosphere" was paired with "Television, newspapers, networks and other media should publicize... through various forms to enhance the awareness of the broad masses of people about...", "Create a good cultural atmosphere about... in the whole society". When answering questions, you only need to fill in the relevant subject in the ellipsis, and it will be written quickly and comprehensively. The service industry in China today is almost as good as this. Li Zhiyuan asked Xu Wei to remember these formulaic sentence patterns and use them fluently, and add a few linking words, and the argumentative essay would be done!
Xu Wei had been studying for a long time, and it was the first time he heard such an open-minded remark. He thought that China's test-oriented education system had developed so rapidly and its formulaic approach had become so sophisticated, far beyond people's imagination. In ancient times, scholars spent generations of hard work to develop the eight-legged essay formula. Nowadays, people have obviously surpassed their predecessors. The civil service examination is a new thing that has only existed in recent years, and scholars have already summarized the new eight-legged formula from actual combat and use it to teach classes, which is really admirable.
However, Xu Wei studied the training class materials for a night and still decided to take a critical attitude of inheritance, applying some and reserving some. The argumentation is a comprehensive examination of writing, generally divided into three parts: summarizing materials, proposing countermeasures, and argumentative statement. The first two parts are multiple-choice questions, which can be answered directly using the formulas provided by the training class, while the third part, argumentative statement, still relies on one's own strength.
What is called argumentation expression is actually writing, which is the focus of Shendan. If the composition follows a formula, the written work will be uniform and suspicious of plagiarism.
Our country's plagiarism culture has a long history, from the ancient "Nine Arguments" by Song Yu plagiarizing Qu Yuan's works to modern times with Guo Caizi's "How Many Flowers Fall in Dreams" plagiarizing Zhuang Gongniang's "Inside and Outside the Circle", it can be said that they are all connected, inheriting the past and opening up the future, truly plagiarizing out of tradition, style and level, and even gaining a specialized term in the industry - "Shanzhai". With many predecessors leading the way, Xu Wei naturally doesn't fear plagiarism. Moreover, as Shenyi is for taking exams, it completely takes scores as its goal, extremely utilitarian. For utilitarian things, using utilitarian means is also normal.
However, plagiarism should be done with caution, respecting the wisdom of the examiner, understanding their taste, and having one's own characteristics. The eight-legged essay pattern is now popular in various training classes, everyone follows a fixed pattern to write essays, what they produce is like a mold-printed cookie, the examiner may find it tasty at first, but after eating several times, they will definitely vomit. This approach obviously doesn't work.
