通常我们写英语作文，老师都会让我们写成三段论，每段通常第一句是主题句。这种英文八股应付各种考试通常都很有效。也许你会质疑这种写作方法的应用性。读了本篇文章，你也许就会和沪江小编一样发现，原来这种格式还是挺有效挺实用的。本文的两位作者都曾是原副总统戈尔的演讲撰稿人，也许他们会对我们英文应用文体的写作有很大的帮助。另外从本文我们也可以发现总统竞选也是有它的套路的，要想成功，是有前人的经验可以借鉴的。

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The Tonight Show with Jay Leno is an unlikely place to launch a bid to become leader of the free world, but the former Tennessee senator and Law and Order star Fred Thompson isn't the first 2008 presidential candidate to kick off his or her campaign in a non-traditional setting.

谁也想不到《Jay Leno 今夜脱口秀》会成为一个让人宣布参选要成为自由世界的领袖的地方，但是田纳西州前参议员、《法律与秩序》的演员弗雷德·汤普森并不是第一个在非惯例场合宣布参选的08总统候选人。

Rudy Giuliani announced his candidacy on Larry King Live; Mike Huckabee did it on Meet the Press; Hillary Clinton formally threw her hat in the ring via a short web video; and John Edwards made his intentions known with off-the-cuff remarks in the front yard of a devastated house in New Orleans' Ninth Ward.

鲁迪·朱利安尼在《拉里·金现场秀》宣布参选；麦克·哈克比在《会见新闻界》；希拉里·克林顿通过一小段网络视频宣布参选，而约翰·爱德华兹则在新奥尔良九区一个残破的房屋前的小空地上发表的即席演说中宣布参选。

But while the medium used to announce candidacies may be changing, the message is about the same as it was the day humans began rejecting clubbing in favor of persuasion as a way to seek positions of leadership. For the most part, it always includes three key points:

但是尽管宣布参选的媒介可能会改变，但从人们放弃棍棒通过说服别人来寻求领导者地位的那天开始，他们所传递的信息却是大体相同的。在大部分的场合，演说的内容主要包括以下三点：

1) Here's my story.
2) My story is our nation's story.
3) Here's what I think the next chapter of that story should be.

1）我的故事
2）我的故事是我们国家的故事
3）我想这个故事的下一章应该如何书写

Thompson wasn't subtle in hitting points one and two: "My story is an American story," he began. He then proceeded to chart his life from teenaged father of three and minimum-wage worker to lawyer, Watergate counsel, senator, actor, and now new-father of two small kids. In this, the Tennessee Senator follows a well-worn rhetorical path.

汤普森在演说的第一点和第二点上并没有花太多心思，他以“我的故事是一个美国的故事”为开头。然后按照顺序阐述了他从十几岁时成为三个孩子的父亲，同时也是低收入的工人到律师、参与水门事件的调查、参议员、演员，现在是两个小孩子的新爸爸。这位田纳西参议员选择了一条俗套的路线。

This year, Barack Obama recounted in his announcement speech how he ended up taking a job as a community organizer in inner-city Chicago, and from there went on to the Illinois State Senate, underscoring his outsider credentials and institutional accomplishments. Hillary Clinton re-introduced herself to voters as someone who "grew up in a middle-class family in the middle of America" — not inside the Beltway — and quickly recapped her accomplishments in Arkansas, the White House and the Senate. Mitt Romney — successful businessman, head of the 2002 Olympics and former Massachusetts governor — structured his whole speech around the notion that American needs "innovation and transformation" and explained how "throughout my life, I have pursued innovation and transformation."

今年，巴拉克·奥巴马在他的演讲中详细叙述了他如何结束了在芝加哥的平民地区得到的社区组织者的工作，从那到伊利诺斯州的参议员，强调他的草根和成就。希拉里·克林顿向选民重新介绍了自己，说自己“从美国中部——不在环线以内——的一个中产阶级的家庭成长起来”却迅速的翻身取得成就，从阿肯色州到白宫到参议院。米特·罗姆尼，这个成功的商人也曾是2002年冬奥会的主席、前马萨诸塞州州长，围绕着一个概念——美国人需要“改革和变化”，并且阐述他将如何“用我的一生来追求这种改革和变化”来建构他的演讲稿。

In years past, former New York Knick and New Jersey senator Bill Bradley talked about being a "small-town boy" from Missouri; Gary Hart launched his 1984 bid by describing himself "as the son of dust bowl farm parents who never finished high school"; and in the opening paragraph of his announcement in 1974, Jimmy Carter said "I am a farmer, an engineer, a businessman, a planner, a scientist, a governor and a Christian." In this approach, biography is destiny.

在早些年，前纽约尼克队员、新泽西参议员比尔·布拉德利谈到过自己是一个来自密苏里的“小城男孩”；1984年盖瑞·哈特宣布参选时把自己描述成“来自沙尘带地区、高中都没有毕业的农民的儿子。”1974年，吉米·卡特在宣布参选演讲的开头说“我是一个农民，一个工程师，一个商人，一个计划者，一个科学家，一个州长和一个基督徒。”从这个角度说，传记不过是命运。

After reminding the audience that he was as actually a lawyer and didn't just play one on TV, Thompson demonstrated what seems to be the key reason politicians procreate, so they can ask the question: "What kind of country are our children and grandchildren going to grow up in?" Having small children is also what apparently motivates Chris Dodd to run for President, who announced he's running "not just as a public servant, but as a parent, the father of two young daughters — ages five and 22 months." In this sense, both are lucky to have fathered two small children late in life, because it just doesn't pack the same emotional punch to ask what kind of world we're going to create for my son, the stockbroker, or my daughter, the research chemist. But bringing up children is also a useful and frequently used way to get to point three: what should the next chapter in our nation's history look like.

在提醒观众他的确是一名律师并且不只参演了一部电视剧后，汤普森集中在政治家层出不穷的原因上，他们可以问这个问题：“我们的孩子和孩子的孩子将生活在什么样的国家里？”家有幼子似乎同样也是克里斯·多德竞选总统的动力，他在竞选时宣称他的竞选“不只作为公仆、也是两个小女儿——一个五岁一个22个月的爸爸。”从这个角度说，这两个人老来得子是很幸运的，因为这不仅能够激情洋溢的提问，我们将要为我们的儿子，一个股票经纪人，或女儿，一个化学家创造一个怎样的世界，而且抚养孩子长大也是一个有用的话题可以顺理成章的过渡到第三点：我们国家历史的下一章节应该如何书写。

It's at this point that candidates face a choice — to go the thematic or programmatic route.

这是一个候选人们要面对选择的阶段——主题路线或者纲领路线

Some candidates choose the latter and embark on a whirlwind tour of the policy world, weighing in on just about every issue and offering specific, programmatic details. It's what John Kerry did in 2004, John McCain and Al Gore did in 2000, and Dick Gephardt did in 1988 — to just name a few. It's not a coincidence that all these candidates were legislators, and none of them won.

一些候选人选择了后者，从政治世界的漩涡着手，提出每一件事情的特别的纲领式的操作方法。2004年的约翰·克里，2000年的约翰·麦凯恩和阿尔·戈尔和1988年的迪克·盖哈德都是这么做的——我们只是提几个名字，所有这些候选人都是立法者，他们都失败了，这并不是巧合。

Thompson took a different — and generally more successful — tack, delivering an announcement speech that was built on a thematic framework. Mentioning but offering no specifics on the major issues of the day, Thompson instead pledged his fealty to "sound conservative First Principles," and articulated the principles that would guide his campaign: "security, prosperity, and the unity of our country."

汤普森做了不同的通常更成功的选择，他的演说建立在主题框架上，提及主要问题但不提出具体的方法。汤普森并没有把保证忠诚作为“保守的首要原则”，而是清晰的提出了引导他的竞选的原则“安定团结、繁荣富强。”

This approach echoes Bill Clinton's announcement speech in 1992, which also was built around three themes: opportunity, responsibility and community. And like Clinton and Ronald Reagan in 1980, Thompson also explicitly offered his views on the proper role of government and his theory of governing. In fact, his may be the only announcement speech this year to offer a view on the wonky topic of federalism.

这其实是模仿比尔·克林顿在1992年的演讲，克林顿也用了三个主题：机遇、责任和社会。也像克林顿和1980年的罗纳德·里根一样，汤普森明确提出他对政府职能的看法和管理理论。事实上，他的演说可能是今年唯一就联邦体制的动摇这一话题发表看法的。

Whether Thompson ultimately makes it to the office those two held is an open question. But what we do know is that no matter how much he, or any other candidate, uses late-night TV or YouTube, there are time-tested templates — like the announcement speech — that will never change.

汤普森最终能否像克林顿和里根一样入主白宫是一个未知数。但是我们知道的就是，无论他或者其他候选人如何利用晚间电视节目或Youtube，都有经过时间检验的样板存在——就像宣布参选的演说词一样——这是永远不会改变的。