【每天一篇经济学人】How to write well 如何写得好（2023年第
文章来源：《经济学人》Sep 30th 2023 期 Culture 栏目 How to write well 如何写得好
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Do you edit text messages carefully before sending them? If so, you may be the kind of person who takes pride in crafting even the simplest message. 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 perfectly later.
你在发短信之前会仔细编辑吗？如果会，你可能是那种乐于打磨文字的人。如果不会，你可能认为自己是一个雷厉风行的人，活力和速度比细心更重要：先完成，再完美。
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A new book makes the argument for being the careful kind of writer, even in informal, throwaway messages. Todd Rogers and Jessica Lasky-Fink are behavioural scientists, both at Harvard. Their “Writing For Busy Readers” is cleverly titled: all readers are busy nowadays. People are bombarded constantly with messages, from the mailbox to the inbox to the text-message alert. (They can also be distracted by TikTok or “Candy Crush” at any moment.) 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.
一本新书提出这样的观点：即使在非正式的随笔短信中，也要做一个细心的写作者。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。他们的《忙碌读者的写作》书名很巧妙：现在所有的读者都很忙。人们不断受到各种信息的轰炸，例如来自信箱、收件箱、短信提醒等。（他们也可能随时被TikTok或《糖果传奇》分散注意力。）该读什么、该略读什么、该忽略什么，这些几乎都是每人每天都要作出的决策，可能达到几十次，甚至上百次。
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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. But “Writing for Busy People” brings evidence.
作者们详尽阐述了一些早已在写作指南中备受推崇的既定原则，包括《经济学人》的专栏文章（约翰逊帮助更新该专栏）：删掉不必要的词语，从大家所熟知的核心词汇中选词，使用简单的句法结构。但《忙碌读者的写作》一书提供了证据支持。
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Take “less is more”. Most books on writing well preach the advice to omit needless words. The authors, however, have tested the notion. 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 paltry 2.7% to 4.8%). The researchers found that a longer message makes recipients think the task (such as filling out a survey) will take longer, too.
采取“少即是多”的原则。大多数写作指南都提倡删掉不必要的词语。然而，作者对这一观念进行了验证。例如，在一封发给数千名学校董事会成员的电子邮件中，要求他们参加一项调查，将邮件长度从 127 个字减少到 49 个字，回复率几乎翻了一番（从可怜的 2.7% 提高到 4.8%）。研究人员发现，较长的信息会让接收者认为任务（如填写调查问卷）也需要较长的时间。
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The same applies to text messages. 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. A shorter message inviting them to take the survey got more responses. Writers must sometimes opt for being brusque but effective instead of sympathetic but ignored.
这一原则同样适用于短信。在另一项实验中，给家长们发出的一条关于疫情时代的信息，首先肯定了在家上学的困难，然后请他们参加一项调查。一条更简短的调查邀请信息获得了更多的回复。作者有时必须选择简单粗暴但有效的写作方式，而不是富有同情心但被忽视的方式。
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Often it is not just what you say but how briskly you say it. The value of brevity applies even when asking people to donate money, such as to political candidates. It is plausible that potential donors would be more likely to open their wallets if they could understand as many reasons as possible to do so. 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). Even political obsessives do not want to read endless self-justification.
很多时候，关键不在于你说了什么，而在于你说得有多干脆。即使是在要求人们捐款的时候，简洁也同样重要，比如给政治候选人捐款。如果潜在捐款人能够了解尽可能多的捐款理由，他们就更有可能慷慨解囊，这一点是有道理的。但在一项为美国候选人进行的实验中，仅仅删除了筹款电子邮件中的每个段落，捐款就增加了 16%（尽管这样做会导致信息不连贯）。即使对于政治狂热者来说，他们也不想阅读无休止的自我辩护。
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Word-count is not the only thing to cut. Keeping messages to a single idea—or as few as absolutely needed—helps ensure that they will be read, remembered and acted on. 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.
削减字数并非是唯一的改进之处。将信息集中在一个主题上--或者只写必要的内容--有助于读者阅读信息、记住信息并采取行动。同样地，减少行动选择也会产生相同的效果：一封电子邮件中的链接（来自《行为科学家》杂志）在单独发送时，点击率增加了50%，而与第二个“额外”的链接一起发送时，点击率就低。
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Syntax and word-choice matter, too. Short and active sentences, with common words that everyone uses, are best. From Facebook posts to online-travel reviews, even brief, informal pieces of writing that follow these rules get more likes, shares and so on.Serious writers should also take note. A study of the ethics codes of 188 public companies found that those using long sentences and complicated words were seen as less moral and trustworthy.
句法和选词也很重要。使用简短而有力的句子，使用大家都常用的通俗词语是最佳选择。无论是Facebook帖子还是在线旅行评论，甚至是简短的非正式文案，只要遵循这些规则都能获得更多点赞、分享等。严肃的写作者也应该注意这一点。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道德和可信度较低。
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The authors’ other points are less about writing than about design and informational packaging. Organisation matters: a redesigned summons issued by New York City police (for small offences on the street) reduced court no-shows by 13%. Bullet points, headings and formatting for emphasis are good—when used judiciously. 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”.
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。结构设计很重要：纽约市警察重新设计的传票（用于处理街头轻度违规事件）将不出庭率降低了 13%。列123要点、标题和强调的格式是好的——但是要适度使用。但是，如果把不同形式的强调（如高亮、加粗和斜体）混在一起，就“相当于香蕉面包上加花生酱、火腿和高乐斯奶酪三明治：各种成分加在一起，就是一个令人不悦、令人反感的混合怪物”。
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If everyone is a busy reader, everyone is a busy writer, too. That may make it tempting to fire off as many messages as quickly as possible and hope for the best. But from essays to text messages organising dinner plans, devoting time to the needs of readers has provable benefits. 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.
如果每个人都是忙碌的读者，那么每个人也是忙碌的写作者。这可能会导致人们尽可能快地发送尽可能多的信息，并希望能得到最好的结果。但事实证明，无论是写文章还是发送短信组织晚餐计划，花时间关注读者的需求是有好处的。如果你忙得不可开交，写出的内容毫无章法，读者只会扫视一眼、忽略掉并删除掉，那你还不如不写。
