写作方法2022inference.vc
东欧式推荐信写作指南
Eastern European Guide to Writing Reference Letters
导读
作者在剑桥工作，他写了一份给东欧背景推荐人的指南：为什么平实、克制、不堆形容词的推荐信，在英美评审眼里会被自动读成“评价不高”。值得写作者一读，因为它谈的是同一个问题：你的措辞标尺和读者的解读标尺可能并不一致。
可以直接用的写作要点
- 01
动笔前先弄清读者默认的评价标尺：同一句“这是个好学生”，在不同推荐人、不同文化语境里的分量完全不同。
- 02
慎用最高级：如果每封信用尽溢美之词，最高级就会贬值，读者会自动打折，甚至把所有人看成差不多。
- 03
用可比较的具体参照代替空泛赞美，比如“在我带过的学生里排前 5%”“这是我近五年最推荐的两个学生之一”。
- 04
克制不等于无力，但要意识到跨文化读者读不出你的克制；如果想让对方接收到评价，就得把分寸显性化。
HN 评论精选
评价语言的含义取决于推荐人的身份和语境，要求所有人套用同一种“英美式热情”未必合理。
我感谢作者的好意，但受不了他那种“我在剑桥，所以我偏好的写法就是唯一正确、普遍接受的写法”的姿态。诚实的、不绕弯子的推荐信有什么问题？为什么一定要用奉承和正面措辞？作者肯定能分辨“你做得非常出色”出自他母亲还是出自领域内顶尖研究者，并作出不同解读；同理，是什么妨碍他根据推荐人身份来解读“这是个不错、有潜力的学生”？另一点我同意：读推荐信是种折磨——不习惯说善意谎言的人写起来同样痛苦；对学生来说，尤其在师生权力距离远大于西方高校的院校里，拿到一封推荐信也是折磨。
udev查看英文原文
I appreciate the author's intention to help. But I can't but be annoyed by his stance that "I am at Cambridge", therefore the way I prefer things to be formulated is the correct, universally accepted way. What's wrong with honest, no-nonsense recommendation letters? Why is flattering and positive language a requirement? I am sure the author knows how to differentiate "you are doing brilliant work" coming from his mother vs coming from the leading researcher in his field, and interprets each version accordingly. Similarly, what stops him interpreting "this is a good, promising, student" differently, depending of where it comes from? -- And I agree on another point with the author, yes it is "excruciating" to read recommendation letters, and also, it is "excruciating" and soul-crushing to write them if you are not used to telling white lies, and it is also "excruciating" as a student to deal with getting one, especially in institutions where the professor-to-student power distance is much higher that in western universities.
最高级通货膨胀会毁掉区分度，读者会整体打折。
反过来也成立：一份美式简历从东欧视角看可能“过于正面”，于是被直接忽略。也就是说，你连着读十份简历，每一份都把最高级用到了顶，结果你要么全都不信，要么觉得所有候选人差不多、都平庸。
arka2147483647查看英文原文
This also has the other side that an American style cv, for example, might be seen as "too positive" from eastern European perspective, and thus be ignored. That is; you read 10 CV's, all go through the roof of your superlative scale, therefore you ignore all of it, or consider all candidates as more-or-less equal and/or mediocre.
克制的“暗贬”式措辞在跨文化阅读中极易被误读。
谈到推荐信与文化冲突，有个经典例子：“总而言之，是一位非常优秀的二流数学家。”
Tomte查看英文原文
Re: reference letters and cultural clashes: "all in all a very good second-rate mathematician" https://mathoverflow.net/questions/53122/mathematical-urban-legends/53914#53914
写作中做文化概括要小心，笼统的“某地人都怎样”往往站不住脚。
“东欧”这个说法如今是很糟糕、没什么用的概括。这个地区民族和语言极其多样（斯拉夫、波罗的海、芬兰-乌戈尔、罗曼语族的罗马尼亚，还有阿尔巴尼亚和希腊），宗教也多样（天主教、新教、东正教、伊斯兰教，甚至捷克和爱沙尼亚这种无神论堡垒）。文化差异很大，内敛的北方（芬兰、波罗的海）与情绪外放的南方（巴尔干，甚至乌克兰部分地区）尤其不同；经济差距也大；连地理定义都不统一。很多概括对这个庞大而多样的地区根本不成立。
rmind查看英文原文
I have to say "Eastern European" is a quite poor and unhelpful generalization nowadays. It is ethnically and linguistically diverse: Slavic, Baltic, Finno-Ugric, Romance (Romania) as well as Albanian and Hellenic. It is religiously diverse: Catholic, Protestant, Orthodox, Muslim and even the bastions of irreligion/atheism (Czechia and Estonia). There are significant cultural differences, especially comparing the more reserved north (Finland and Baltics) with the more emotional south (Balkans or even parts of Ukraine). There are also major economic differences, with central/north east being more or less high-income economies compared to the south and east-east. It even has inconsistent geographic definitions, e.g. whether it includes "Central Europe", whether it extends to Turkey or even Caucasus, etc. Many generalizations really don't work for such a vast and diverse region.
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