写作方法2012learning.blogs.nytimes.com编辑精选
写作守则:《纽约时报》关于如何写好文章的建议
Writing Rules: Advice From The Times on Writing Well
导读
这是《纽约时报》学习博客汇总的一组写作建议(帖子正文未附),请多位时报作者谈怎么把文章写得清楚有力。从评论里能看出两个最实用的点:警惕把动词变成名词的"僵尸名词",以及靠大量日常写作练出自己的"声音"。值得写作者读,是因为它把抽象的"好文风"拆成了马上能动手改的句子级问题。
可以直接用的写作要点
- 01
把"进行讨论""做出决定"这类名词化还原成动词,句子就重新有动作、有具体的人。
- 02
用旅行日记、博客、邮件这类低压力的大量写作练"自己的声音",先写出来,再回头编辑。
- 03
删掉行业里的时髦行话和套话,同时盯紧拼写、语法、用词这些基本功,它们比风格更早暴露问题。
HN 评论精选
名词化会抽掉句子的动作和生气,应尽量还原为动词。
由其他词类转化来的名词叫"名词化"。学者爱用,律师、官僚和商务写作者也爱用。我管它们叫"僵尸名词":它们吞掉主动动词,吸干形容词的血,用抽象实体替换掉活生生的人。
tptacek查看英文原文
Nouns formed from other parts of speech are called nominalizations. Academics love them; so do lawyers, bureaucrats and business writers. I call them “zombie nouns” because they cannibalize active verbs, suck the lifeblood from adjectives and substitute abstract entities for human beings. \o/
声音不是靠守规矩得来的,而是靠大量日常写作和对他人文字的接触练出来的。
要是高中和大学老师当年给我这样的建议就好了。我们那时只能遵守斯特伦克与怀特那套爱德华时代的规矩,老师普遍看不起任何非正统的文学,包括我当年在读的科幻小说——沃尔夫、德拉尼、勒古恩、吉布森(那是八十年代末)。文章说"跟着脑子里的声音写",我是九十年代大量写旅行日记学会的,后来又靠写博客把它练出来。我也在想电子邮件的普及对写作有什么影响:我觉得邮件帮我练出了自己的声音和编辑能力——九十年代中期刚开始用邮件时,我每月的写作量大概涨了十倍(在那之前我都是手写书信)。它还让我接触到朋友、同事和陌生人的"文字声音"。
ilamont查看英文原文
If only my high school and college teachers had given advice like this. Instead, we were forced to follow the Edwardian rules of Strunk & White and teachers generally looked down upon any non-standard form of literature, including the science fiction I was reading at the time -- books by Wolfe, Delany, LeGuin and Gibson (this was in the late '80s). As for the suggestion in the article to follow the voice in your head, I learned to do this by writing extensive travel journals in the 1990s and further developed it through blogging. I also wonder how the introduction of email has impacted writing. I believe email helped develop my own voice and editing skills -- when I first started using it in the mid-90s, it probably increased my monthly written output as much as 10x (I had written letters in longhand before then). It also exposed me to the written "voices" of friends, colleagues and strangers.
基本功(语法、拼写、用词)和流行行话是文风的两大敌人,套话常常掩盖错误。
这帖子讲文风讲得很好。让我沮丧的是,在一个句法渗透一切的行业里,我们在基本语法、拼写和词汇上有多差。还有那些让人起鸡皮疙瘩的时髦行话——"加我好友/给我发短信"、"本地部署"、"ping 我一下"、"你太聪明了"(该写 you're 却写成 your)、"这影响到了我"(该用 affects 却用 effects)。实用的建议其实网上就有。
Spearchucker查看英文原文
It's a really good post that speaks to good style. What bleaks me out about an industry in which syntax permeates everything, is how much we tank at basic grammar, spelling and vocabulary. And then there're the hipster buzzwords that makes many cringe - Friend me/text me. On premise. Ping me. Your very clever. That effects me. Practical advise is out there. http://www.wittenburg.co.uk/Blog.aspx?id=4b6816fd-ca1d-4e46-9c8b-729dff3b41ab http://www.plainenglish.co.uk/free-guides.html
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