写作方法2017muckrock.com编辑精选
来自 CIA 机密写作指南的写作课
Lessons from the CIA’s classified guide to good writing
导读
这篇文章介绍中情局一份内部写作指南的要点：情报文本要摆脱公文腔，用简明、直接的英语把来之不易的信息讲清楚。对写作者的价值在于，它把"写得含糊"当成一种真实的损失——信息被浪费、判断被误读，而不只是文风问题。
可以直接用的写作要点
- 01
先砍掉"The trouble with X is much the same trouble that there is with..."这类绕圈子的开场，把主语和结论直接摆到第一句。
- 02
写不确定的判断时，为不同置信程度准备一套固定、统一的措辞（如"几乎肯定/可能/不太可能"），让读者能校准你的把握有多大。
- 03
把写作当成需要编辑的协作活儿：写完先请人挑一两句最臃肿的句子改写，往往比独自打磨更有效。
- 04
自查弱词、冗余修饰、行话和被动语态——它们常常是掩盖"其实没想清楚"的烟幕。
- 05
复杂局势要压缩成短篇时，先保住各要点的不确定性刻度，再做整体简化，别为了流畅把话说满。
HN 评论精选
批评原文自身文风臃肿，同时指出好写作必须靠编辑协作完成。
作者认为这篇指南本身的文字就很糟，比如开篇"中情局写作的问题，与美国其他政府写作、乃至美国一般写作的问题大同小异"，可以改成"中情局的文字让读者困惑。我们和政府其他部门、和整个美国共享这个问题"。又如那句绕来绕去的"中情局的问题只在我们的职业与写作的关系上是独特的……"，其实只需说"在中情局，我们写的是千辛万苦得来的信息；写得不好，我们就丢失这些信息、浪费机构的工作"。不过他强调：挑一两句改得漂亮很容易，当好编辑比当作者容易；真正的问题是，好写作不是一个人的活儿，既需要作者也需要编辑，就像软件既需要程序员也需要测试员。
OliverJones查看英文原文
My grad school teachers would kick my butt for writing like that. Look at this lede. "The trouble with CIA writing is much the same trouble that there is with other governmental writing and with writing generally in the United States." How about "CIA writing baffles our readers. We share this problem with other parts of government and the United States at large." Check out this sentence. "CIA's problem is unique only in the relation of our profession to our writing but this relation is important, for it lends itself to bad writing and if we do not write well we risk losing valuable information and wasting dangerous effort." WTF? I think this writer means "At CIA we write about hard-won information. We lose that information and waste our agency's work when we write badly." Look, it's easier to be an editor than a writer. Everybody knows that. It's always easy to cherrypick a sentence or two and make them better. The point is this: good writing isn't a solitary job; it takes editors as well as writers. It's like software, which takes coders and testers.
写不确定的事，要用统一的概率措辞保住各要点的置信度。
推荐同年代的姊妹篇《估计概率的词语》：它总结如何用一致而有意义的方式在文字里传达不确定性。设想分析员要给总统写两页纸，用来决定某项秘密行动是否启动，材料里混着高度确信的判断、有依据的猜测和纯粹的推测——把这些综合成更简单的东西是写作的艺术，而在简化时不丢掉各具体议题的不确定性刻度，则是更独特的技能。评论者本人做安全风险评估，多年来常翻这篇参考。
jjguy查看英文原文
For many years, I have used "Words of Estimative Probability" - a similar CIA "on writing" piece: https://www.cia.gov/library/center-for-the-study-of-intelligence/csi-publications/books-and-monographs/sherman-kent-and-the-board-of-national-estimates-collected-essays/6words.html Also written in the 60s, it reflects upon their experience with how to convey uncertainty in prose, in a meaningful and consistent manner. Imagine an analyst writing a two pager for the President, who is going to use it to decide go/no go on a covert action. It's a big, ugly and complex situation - with a mixture of highly confident assessments, educated guesses and total speculation. Synthesizing it into something simpler is The Art of Writing; doing so while not losing the anecdotal quantification of uncertainty of the discrete issues is a more unique skill. If you are in a position where you write about uncertain situations, it's worth the read. I'm a security guy and frequently find myself in that role (think annual risk assessments and estimating the likelihood of a successful attack). It's been a go-to reference for many years to refresh my thinking.
用工具自动标出弱词、冗余和被动语态等写作病灶。
推荐 Vim 插件 vim-wordy，可自动提示文中提到的许多毛病：软弱空洞的词、冗余、浮夸行话、to be 句式和被动语态、口语化表达与明喻滥用等。
rawland查看英文原文
https://github.com/reedes/vim-wordy by @reedes (Reed Esau) is my favorite tool to automatically help me with many of the mentioned points. Spell-corrects/warns you about: * Weak and lazy words * Redundancies * Puffy & Jargon * To be and passive voice * Colloquialisms, idioms, and similies * Lots more..
同类还值得读
被低估的工程技能：把文章写好
Undervalued Engineering Skills: Writing Well
这篇文章讨论为什么“写得好”是被低估的工程能力，以及它如何在团队协作、系统设计和职业发展中持续带来回报。
写作方法2019 · 1,109 分 · 371 评4 条写作要点编辑精选每行只写一句话：让写作和修改都更轻松的排版法
Writing one sentence per line
这是 Derek Sivers 的一篇短文，主张写作时每行只放一个句子，而不是按段落排版。
写作方法2022 · 849 分 · 297 评4 条写作要点编辑精选书面沟通是远程工作的超级能力
Written communication is remote work super power
这篇文章讨论远程工作中书面沟通的价值，评论区则补充了异步与同步沟通的适用场景，并提醒读者：备忘录、结论先行、结构化命令格式等书面沟通传统早已有之。
写作方法2020 · 831 分 · 190 评4 条写作要点编辑精选如何写出有用的文字
How to Write Usefully
保罗·格雷厄姆在这篇文章里给"有用的写作"下了一个可操作的公式：有用≈重要×新颖×正确×清楚，任一项为零，整篇文章就等于零；他还主张敢下确定判断、删掉让自己心虚的句子。
写作方法2020 · 821 分 · 285 评4 条写作要点编辑精选如何写得更清楚、想得更清楚，并学会复杂材料（PDF）
How to write more clearly, think more clearly, and learn complex material [pdf]
这份 PDF 讨论如何把文章写清楚、把思路理清楚，并用写作来学习复杂材料。
写作方法2022 · 779 分 · 153 评4 条写作要点编辑精选