2023年经济学人 简明写作的好处

 

    Culture

    文艺版块

    Johnson

    约翰逊专栏

    How to write well

    如何练就好文笔

    A new book lays out the data in favour of sharp, simple writing.

    一本新书用数据证明了简练明晰的写作风格的好处。

    Do you edit text messages carefully before sending them?

    在发送短信之前，你会仔细编辑吗？

    If so, you may be the kind of person who takes pride in crafting even the simplest message.

    如果会，那么你可能是那种发最简单的信息也要字斟句酌并以此为荣的人。

    If you do not, you may see yourself as a go-getter for whom verve and speed outrank care: get it done decently now rather than perfectly¹ later.

    如果不会，那么你可能是有实干精神的人，对你来说，干劲和速度比谨慎更重要：宁愿立刻把事情做到九十分，不要慢吞吞地把事情做到一百分。

    A new book makes the argument for being the careful kind of writer, even in informal, throwaway messages.

    一本新书论证并提倡下笔谨慎的写作风格，即使是写非正式的、只读一遍的信息。

    Todd Rogers and Jessica Lasky-Fink are behavioural scientists, both at Harvard.

    托德·罗杰斯和杰西卡·拉斯基-芬克都是哈佛大学的行为科学家。

    Their “Writing For Busy Readers” is cleverly titled: all readers are busy nowadays.

    他们的《为忙碌的读者写作》一书的标题就很巧妙：如今所有的读者都很忙碌。

    People are bombarded constantly with messages, from the mailbox to the inbox to the text-message alert.

    人们不断地被信息轰炸，从家里的收件箱和电子邮箱再到短信提示。

    (They can also be distracted by TikTok or “Candy Crush” at any moment.)(他们也可能随时被TikTok或糖果消消乐分散注意力。)What to read, what to skim and what to ignore are decisions that nearly everyone has to make dozens, or even hundreds, of times a day.

    读什么、略读什么、忽略什么，几乎每个人每天都要做出几十次甚至数百次这些决定。

    The authors present well-established principles that have long been prized in guides to writing including The Economist’s style book (which Johnson helped update): cut unnecessary words, choose those that remain from the bedrock vocabulary everyone knows and keep syntax simple.

    两位作者提出了一些经典原则，这些原则一直受到各种写作指南的推崇，其中包括《经济学人》风格指南(本文作者也做一些更新工作)：删掉不必要的单词，选择所有人都认识且沿用的基本词汇，保持句法简单。

    But “Writing for Busy People” brings evidence.

    但《为忙碌的读者写作》还提供了支持这些原则的证据。

    Take “less is more”.

    以“少即是多”为例。

    Most books on writing well preach the advice to omit needless words.

    大多数写作书都建议人们省略不必要的词。

    The authors, however, have tested the notion.

    然而，两位作者还对这一理念进行了测试。

    For example, in an email to thousands of school-board members asking them to take a survey, cutting the length from 127 to 49 words almost doubled the response rate (from a paltry² 2.7% to 4.8%).

    例如，给数千名学校董事会成员写电子邮件并邀请他们参加一项问卷调查，当电子邮件的长度从127个字缩短到49个字时，回复率几乎翻了一番(从微不足道的2.7%增加到4.8%)。

    The researchers found that a longer message makes recipients³ think the task (such as filling out a survey) will take longer, too.

    研究人员发现，消息的篇幅越长，收件人就会以为完成消息提出的任务(如填写调查问卷)会花费更长时间。

    The same applies to text messages.

    同样的道理也适用于短信。

    In another experiment, a pandemic-era message to parents first included a few sentences acknowledging the difficulties of home-schooling, then asked them to take a survey.

    在另一项实验中，疫情期间给家长发送了一条短信，开头几句话对在家辅导孩子学习的不易之处表示理解，然后邀请家长参加一项问卷调查。

    A shorter message inviting⁴ them to take the survey got more responses.

    结果是短信越短，家长进行调查的回复率就越高。

    Writers must sometimes opt⁵ for being brusque but effective instead of sympathetic but ignored.

    写作者有时必须简短有效，哪怕失之无礼也好过委婉体贴，但被人忽视。

    Often it is not just what you say but how briskly you say it.

    通常，重要的不仅仅是你说了什么，而且是你说得有多快。

    The value of brevity applies even when asking people to donate money, such as to political candidates.

    简洁的价值甚至适用于请求人们捐款的场合，比如向政治候选人捐款。

    It is plausible⁶ that potential donors⁷ would be more likely to open their wallets if they could understand as many reasons as possible to do so.

    如果潜在捐赠者能够理解尽可能多的理由，那么他们更有可能打开钱包，这似乎是有道理的。

    But in an experiment for an American candidate, simply deleting every other paragraph in a fundraising email increased donations by 16% (though it resulted in a disjointed message).

    但在对一位美国候选人进行的实验中，只需每隔一段就删除一段筹款电子邮件中的内容，捐款就会增加16%(尽管这会导致信息不连贯)。

    Even political obsessives do not want to read endless self-justification.

    即使是痴迷于政治的人也不想读到无休无止的自我辩护。

    Word-count is not the only thing to cut.

    需要删减的不只是字数。

    Keeping messages to a single idea—or as few as absolutely needed—helps ensure that they will be read, remembered and acted on.

    将信息内容限制在一个中心思想--或尽可能少的几个思想--有助于确保人们会阅读并记住这些思想，并采取行动。

    Reducing the number of possible actions has the same effect, too: a link in an email (from, appropriately enough, Behavioral Scientist magazine) attracted 50% more clicks when it was solo than when it was sent alongside a second, “bonus” link.

    减少可能的动作也有同样的效果：电子邮件中只有一个链接(恰当地引用《行为科学家》杂志)比同时还有一个“附带”链接时，点击量要多50%。

    Syntax and word-choice matter, too.

    句法和选词也很重要。

    Short and active sentences, with common words that everyone uses, are best.

    短小生动的句子，加上所有人都使用的常用词，这就是最好的搭配。

    From Facebook posts to online-travel reviews, even brief, informal pieces of writing that follow these rules get more likes, shares and so on.

    从Facebook帖子到网上的旅游评论，遵循这些规则的简短、非正式的文字也会获得更多的赞和转发等等。

    Serious writers should also take note.

    严肃写作者也应该注意。

    A study of the ethics⁸ codes of 188 public companies found that those using long sentences and complicated words were seen as less moral and trustworthy.

    一项对188家上市公司的道德准则的研究发现，那些使用长句和复杂词语的公司被认为不那么道德和值得信赖。

    The authors’ other points are less about writing than about design and informational packaging.

    两位作者的其他观点与其说是关于写作，不如说是关于设计和信息包装。

    Organisation⁹ matters: a redesigned summons issued by New York City police (for small offences on the street) reduced court no-shows by 13%.

    组织方式很重要：纽约市警方重新设计了传票(针对街头轻微违法行为)，就将缺席法庭的人数减少了13%。

    Bullet points, headings and formatting¹⁰ for emphasis are good—when used judiciously¹¹.

    分条标注的圆点、小标题和表强调的格式都很好，只要使用得当。

    But mixing up different forms of emphasis like highlighting, bolding and italics are the “equivalent of a peanut butter, ham and Gorgonzola sandwich on banana bread: a combination of ingredients that add up to an unpleasant, off-putting whole”.

    但是，将文本高亮、粗体和斜体等不同的强调形式混在一起，就相当于用香蕉面包加花生酱、火腿和戈贡佐拉奶酪三明治：各种配料混在一起构成了一个令人讨厌的大杂烩。

    If everyone is a busy reader, everyone is a busy writer, too.

    如果每个人都是忙碌的读者，那么每个人也都是忙碌的写作者。

    That may make it tempting¹² to fire off as many messages as quickly as possible and hope for the best.

    这可能会让人忍不住想尽可能快地发送更多消息，然后希望一切顺利。

    But from essays to text messages organising dinner plans, devoting time to the needs of readers has provable benefits.

    但无论是写文章，还是写短信安排晚餐，花时间去满足读者的需求有可被证明的好处。

    If you are so busy that you write an undisciplined message that readers scan, ignore and delete, then you might as well have not written it at all.

    如果你因为太忙，而写了一封杂乱无章的邮件，读者匆匆浏览后就将其遗忘并删除，那么你还不如从一开始就不要写这封邮件。

1 perfectly   

adv.完美地，无可非议地，彻底地

参考例句：

• The witnesses were each perfectly certain of what they said.证人们个个对自己所说的话十分肯定。
• Everything that we're doing is all perfectly above board.我们做的每件事情都是光明正大的。

2 paltry   

adj.无价值的，微不足道的

参考例句：

• The parents had little interest in paltry domestic concerns.那些家长对家里鸡毛蒜皮的小事没什么兴趣。
• I'm getting angry;and if you don't command that paltry spirit of yours.我要生气了，如果你不能振作你那点元气。

3 recipients   

adj.接受的；受领的；容纳的；愿意接受的n.收件人；接受者；受领者；接受器

参考例句：

• The recipients of the prizes had their names printed in the paper. 获奖者的姓名登在报上。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The recipients of prizes had their names printed in the paper. 获奖者名单登在报上。 来自《现代英汉综合大词典》

4 inviting   

adj.诱人的，引人注目的

参考例句：

• An inviting smell of coffee wafted into the room.一股诱人的咖啡香味飘进了房间。
• The kitchen smelled warm and inviting and blessedly familiar.这间厨房的味道温暖诱人，使人感到亲切温馨。

5 opt   

vi.选择，决定做某事

参考例句：

• They opt for more holiday instead of more pay.他们选择了延长假期而不是增加工资。
• Will individual schools be given the right to opt out of the local school authority?各个学校可能有权选择退出地方教育局吗？

6 plausible   

adj.似真实的，似乎有理的，似乎可信的

参考例句：

• His story sounded plausible.他说的那番话似乎是真实的。
• Her story sounded perfectly plausible.她的说辞听起来言之有理。

7 donors   

n.捐赠者( donor的名词复数 )；献血者；捐血者；器官捐献者

参考例句：

• Please email us to be removed from our active list of blood donors. 假如你想把自己的名字从献血联系人名单中删去，请给我们发电子邮件。
• About half this amount comes from individual donors and bequests. 这笔钱大约有一半来自个人捐赠及遗赠。 来自《简明英汉词典》

8 ethics   

n.伦理学；伦理观，道德标准

参考例句：

• The ethics of his profession don't permit him to do that.他的职业道德不允许他那样做。
• Personal ethics and professional ethics sometimes conflict.个人道德和职业道德有时会相互抵触。

9 organisation   

n.组织，安排，团体，有机休

参考例句：

• The method of his organisation work is worth commending.他的组织工作的方法值得称道。
• His application for membership of the organisation was rejected.他想要加入该组织的申请遭到了拒绝。

10 formatting   

n.格式化v.使格式化( format的现在分词 )；规定…的格式（或形状、大小、比例等）；安排…的格局（或规格）；设计…的版面

参考例句：

• Select the block of text and-click and choose Default Formatting. 选择目标文字块，点击鼠标右键，选择默认格式。 来自互联网
• There are emerging conventions about the content and formatting of documentation strings. 这里介绍文档字符串的概念和格式。 来自互联网

11 judiciously   

adv.明断地，明智而审慎地

参考例句：

• Let's use these intelligence tests judiciously. 让我们好好利用这些智力测试题吧。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• His ideas were quaint and fantastic. She brought him judiciously to earth. 他的看法荒廖古怪，她颇有见识地劝他面对现实。 来自辞典例句

12 tempting   

a.诱人的, 吸引人的

参考例句：

• It is tempting to idealize the past. 人都爱把过去的日子说得那么美好。
• It was a tempting offer. 这是个诱人的提议。