《On writing well》在英文世界里被称为写作圣经，整本书的核心只有一个：简洁

（Simplicity）。该书并非只针对专业作家，而是面向每个有写作需求的人，也不是只针
对文学写作，演讲稿、工作报告、邮件信函也都可参照，普通人遵循着书中的写作指南，
反复打磨，都可写出干净、漂亮的小文。
注：括号中内容为原书的上下文。

Chapter 1 Principles

1.The transaction 交易
Writing wasn't easy and wasn't fun. It was hard and lonely, and the words seldom
just flowed.
写作并不容易也并不好玩，它是艰难而又孤独的，它也并非是语言的自然流淌。
Rewriting is the essence of the writing.
修改才是写作的本质。
The professional writer must establish a daily schedule and stick to it.
专业作家会建立每天的写字计划并严格执行。
If your job is to write every day, you learn to do it like any other job.
如果你的工作就是每天写作，那么你得学会像其他工作一样做好它（而无论你是否在状态，
开心或沮丧）。
Writing is craft, not an art.
写作是门手艺，而非艺术。
The problem is to find the real man or woman behind the tension. Ultimately the
product that any writer has to sell is not the subject being written about a topic,
but who he or she is.
（当你坐下来时，你会不安，你正尝试着把自己真实的一部分通过文字跃然纸上，它并不
容易。）问题就是要找到这种不安背后那个真实的人。其实，最终每个人的作品并非关于
他谈论的主题，而是关于“他是谁。”
2.Simplicity 简洁
The secret of good writing is to strip every sentence to its cleanest components.
Every word that serves no function, every long word that could be a short word,
every adverb that carries the same meaning that’s already in the verb ,every
passive construction that leaves the reader unsure of who is doing ,what---these
are the thousand and one adulterants that weaken the strength of a sentence.
好的写作其秘密就是要剥离整个句子只留下最干净的构成部分。没有功用的词、可以用短
句代替的长句、和动词同义的副词、让读者不明主语的句子，各种杂物都在削弱一个句子
的表达力量。
The answer is to clear our heads of clutter. Clear thinking becomes clear writing.
（我们如何写作出如卢梭《瓦尔登湖畔》般简练的文字？）答案就是要剔除我们头脑中的
杂乱，只有清晰的思考才有清晰的写作。
If the reader is lost, it’s usually because the writer hasn’t been careful
enough……Faced with such obstacles……readers blames themselves and they go
back over the mystifying sentence, or over the whole paragraph……making
guesses and moving on ……Writers is making them work too hard, and they will
look for one who is better at this craft.
Writers must therefore constantly ask: what am I trying to say? Surprisingly often
they don’t know.
(现在有太多东西在争抢读者的注意力，新闻、老婆孩子、电视、手机、游戏，还有睡眠)

如果读者在阅读中迷失了，通常是因为作者不够小心。
（是不是句子中有太多废话让读者不知道在说什么？是不是时间线错乱？是不是句子前后
没有因果关系？这些都会打断句子前后的连接性，让读者迷失其中。）
读者面对这些障碍，常会责怪自己，然后再往回看尝试弄懂作者在说什么。长此以往，读
者就会去找那些说得清道理，让阅读更容易的作者。
所以我们要经常自问：我正在尝试要说的是什么？

Writing is hard work. A clear sentence is no accident. Very few sentences come
out right the first time, or even the third time. Remember this in moments of
despair. If you find that writing is hard, it’s because it is hard.
写作是辛苦的。一个清晰简练的句子并非偶然得之，很少有第一次就很好的句子，甚至第
三次也不是。所以深处绝望时要记住：如果你发现写作是艰难的，那是因为它本来就不容
易。
With each rewrite I try to make what I given written tighter, stronger and more
precise, eliminating every sentence that’s not doing useful work. Then I go over
it once more, reading it aloud, and am always amazed at how much clutter can
still be cut.
该书每次再版校订时(第 6 版)，我仍会尽量使其更紧凑、更有力、更精准，删除掉没有用
处的词。然后我会再回顾一遍，大声朗读出来，还总能惊讶地发现有那么多杂乱的东西可
以删掉。
3.Clutter 杂乱
I would put the brackets around every component in a piece of writing that
wasn’t doing useful work.
(有没有什么方法第一眼就识别出哪些是多余的呢？)我会把看上去没有用处的词或句子用
括号括起来，尝试着跳过他们去看文章原意是否受到影响。
Most first drafts can be cut by 50 percent without losing any information or
losing the author’s voice.
大多数人的初稿删减掉 50%是不会影响文章的大意的。

Reexamine each sentence you put on the paper. Is every word doing new work?
Can any thought ne expressed with more economy? Is anything pompous or
pretentious or faddish? Are you hanging on to something useless just because
you think it’s beautiful?
重新检查每个句子，每个词都起到作用了么？有没有更简约的表达方式？是否有些词过于
花哨或者赶时髦？是否坚持要使用某些没用处的词只是因为你觉得它很美？

Simplify, simplify.
简洁，简洁。
4.Style 风格
If you give me an eight-page article and I tell you to cut it to four pages, you’ll
howl and say it can’t be done. Then you’ll go home and do it, and it will be
much better. After that comes the hard part: cutting it to three.
如果你给我八页的文章，我会告诉你拿回去改到四页，你愤怒地说做不到。然后你会回到
家里，改到四页，嗯，好多了。接下来，才是最难的部分：你要改到三页。
This is the problem of writers who set out deliberately to garnish their prose .You
lose whatever it is that makes you unique. The reader will notice if you are putting
on airs. Readers want the person who is talking to them to sound genuine.
Therefore a fundamental rule is: be yourself.
（尽量去塑造风格就像戴假发，看上去不错，但人们称赞的并不是你整体看上去多么漂亮
而只会称赞做假发的师傅手艺是多么独到。）这就是写作人的问题---当他们打算刻意打
扮自己的文章时，就会失去自己的独特性。如果作者在装腔作势，读者是能注意到的。读
者想要的是一个能和他们对话的真实的人。因此一个基本原则是：做你自己。
They must relax, and they must have confidence.
写作者必须放松并且保持自信。
I can only offer the consoling thought that you are not alone. Some days will go
better than others. Some will go so badly that you’ll despair of ever writing
again. We have all had many of those days and will have many more.
(有没有方法可以让人不再紧张并保有自信呢？并没有)

我能提供的只是些安慰：你并不孤独。有时候会感觉良好，有时候会很坏，让你绝望到不
会再次拿起笔。我们都曾经历过那些日子，以后也会经历更多。
Paragraph 1 is a disaster ---a tissue of generalities that seem to have come out of
a machine. No person could have written them. Paragraph 2 isn’t much better.
But paragraph 3 begins to have a somewhat human quality, and by paragraph 4
you begin to sound like yourself. You’ve started to relax.
第一段就是个灾难，大多数就像从生硬的机器中蹦出来一样。第二段并没更好，第三段才
开始有了点样子，直到第四段你才开始像自己，你才放松开来。
Writers are obviously at their most natural when they write in the first person.
Writing is an intimate transaction between two people, conducted on paper, and
it will go well to extent that it retains humanity. Therefore I urge people to write
in the first person: to use “I” and “me” and “We” and “us”.
写作者采用第一人称时才是最自在的。写作是两个人之间的亲密对话，只不过是以纸上文
字的方式但仍然保留了沟通时的人性。因此我劝人们写作时用第一人称“我”“我们”。
I don’t want to meet “one”---he’s a boring guy. I want a professor with a
passion for his subject to tell me why it fascinates him.
（在文章的表述中）我不想见到“一个人”的说法，因为“这个人”无趣。我想要的是一
个满怀热情的教师告诉我为什么这个主题使他如此着迷。
Sell yourself, and you subject will exert its own appeal. Believe in your own
identity and your own opinions. Writing is an act of ego, and you might as well
admit it. Use its energy to keep yourself going.
去展示自己，你的文章主题会自然发挥其魅力。相信你自己的独特性和观点，写作是自我
的展现。利用它的能量去保持自己前行。
5.The Audience 受众
You are writing for yourself. Don’t try to visualize the great mass audience.
There is no such audience---every reader is a different person. Don’t try to
guess what sort of thing editors want to publish or what you think the country is
in a mood to read. Editors and readers don’t know what they want to read until
they read it. Besides, they’re always looking for something new.
你是为自己而写作。不要去想普罗大众。每个读者都是不同的，也不要去猜测编辑们想要
出版什么以及这个国家正适合读什么。编辑和读者并不知道他们要读什么直到他们读到它。
而且，他们总是寻求些新的东西。
One is craft, the other is attitude. The first is a question of mastering a precise
skill. The second is a question of how you use that skill to express your
personality.
（有人可能会问，之前提到过我们写作时应尽力抓取读者注意力，现在又说要为自己而写，
不是自相矛盾么？）但并不是，一个是手艺，一个是态度。抓取读者的注意力比如保持文
章流畅易懂，这些是写作的技巧，这是为了读者的阅读体验。而怎么用这种技巧来表现自
己的个性、观点就关乎写作的态度：你不是为愉悦别人而写。
But on the larger issue of whether the reader likes you, or likes what you are
saying or how you are saying it, or agrees with it , or feels an affinity for your
sense of humor or your vision of life, don’t give him a moment’s worry. You
are who you are, he is who he is, and either you’ll get along or you won’t.
（如果由于文字呆板乏味，或者技术细节没解释清楚，读者在阅读中打盹儿了，那就是你
的失误。）但在更大层面上，读者是不是喜欢你、喜欢你所谈论的东西、你谈论的方式，
是否对你的幽默感抱有好感、赞同与否你的生活视角，对此不要有一刻的担心。你是你，
他是他，也许你能与他和睦相处，也许不能，都不要在意。
6.Words 语言
If you find yourself writing that someone recently enjoyed a spell of illness, or
that a business has been enjoying a slump ,ask yourself how much they enjoyed it.
如果你在描写某个最近正罹患疾病的人，或者一个生意受挫的商人，问问你自己：他们多
大程度上感受到了。
Make a habit of reading what is being written today and what was written by
masters. Writing is learned by imitation. If anyone asked me how I learned to
write, I’d say I learned by reading the men and women who were doing the kind
of writing I wanted to do and trying to figure out how they did it.
养成习惯：读一读今天人们正在写什么，过去那些大师又在写什么。写作是可以通过模仿
学习的。如果有人问我怎么学会写作的，我会说是通过读那些我想要模仿的人的文章，并
尝试弄懂他们是怎么做到的。
Also bear in mind, when you’re choosing words and stringing them together,
how they sound. This may seem absurd: readers read with their eyes. But in fact
they hear what they are reading far more than you realize. Therefore such matters
as rhythm and alliteration are vital to every sentence.
要记住，当你选词造句时，注意他们听起来怎么样。这个听起来也许挺怪：读者是用眼睛
去读的。事实上，人是用耳朵来“听”他们在读的东西，所以像押韵、音节对句子就很关
键。
Such considerations of sound and rhythm should go into everything you write. If
all your sentences move at the same plodding gait ,which even you recognize as
deadly but don’t know how to cure, read them aloud.
对于所有的写作，你都应该考虑其韵律或听起来怎么样。如果你所有的句子读起来都是同
样的干瘪乏味，但是不知道怎么解决，那就大声读出来。（反复读就会知道问题所在，比
如重新调整词语的顺序、用鲜活的词替换掉老词、删减长句成短句等。）
Remember: somebody out there is listening.
记住：远处有人正在听。

7.Usage 词语的用法
One helpful approach is to try to separate usage from jargon.
一个有益的技巧是尽量不要使用行话术语。
Good usage, to me, consists of using good words if they already exist---as they
almost always do---to express myself clearly and simply to someone else.
（词语的用法，没有固定的好坏之说）于我而言，只要能尽可能地清楚、简洁地表达自己
的意思并传达给对方，而无论这些是新词还是老词，就是好词。

Chapter 2 方法(Methods)

本章部分吸取了《The Elements of Style》中关于副词、时态、转折词的使用方法，比

如尽量少用副词，这些原则在中文里同样适用，值得每个人反复斟酌。
8.Unity 一致性
You learn to write by writing.

只有写才能学会如何写。
All writing is ultimately a question of solving a problem.

所有写作最终都是为了解决一个问题。(阐述事实、表明态度)

One choice is unity of pronoun.

前后人称要尽量一致（第一人称“我”和第三人称“他”不要随意切换）。

Instead of controlling his materials, his materials is controlling him. That

wouldn’t happen if he took time to establish certain unities.
（前文为一个游记）我们不应该被写作材料牵着鼻子走，而是要花时间好好组织素材，让
文章有连贯性。
Nobody can write a book or article about something. Tolstoy couldn’t write a
book about war and peace, or Melville a book about whaling. They made certain
reductive decisions about time and place and about individual characters in that
time and place---one man pursuing one whale. Every writing project must be
reduced before you start to write.
没人可以就某事写本书或文章。托尔斯泰无法写本书来描述战争与和平，麦尔维尔也无法
写出一本关于白鲸的书。他们只是对时间和空间做了些简化，只描写了在那个具体时间和
具体地点下一个追逐白鲸男人的性格。在你开始写之前，你的主题必须要有删减。
Therefore think small. Decide what corner of your subject you’re going to bite
off, and be content to cover it well and stop.
因此，想小一点。决定好你要写主题的哪一小块，然后把它说透了，就停笔。

As for what point you want to make, every successful piece of nonfiction should
leave the reader with one provocative thought that he or she didn’t have before.
Not two thoughts, or five--- just one. So decide what single point you want to
leave in the reader’s mind.
对于你想表达的观点，每个成功的非虚构作品应该在读者心中有且只留下一个有触动的想
法，这个想法是他从来没有过的。不是两个也不是五个，只有一个，所以你要想好给读者
头脑中留下什么样的观点。

9.The leading and the Ending 开头和结尾

The most important sentence in any article is the first one. If it doesn’t induce
the reader to proceed to the second sentence, your article is dead. And if the
second sentence doesn’t induce him to the third sentence , it’s equally dead.
任何文章中最关键的就是第一句。如果它没能吊起读者的胃口往下读第二句，那么你的文
章就挂了，如果第二句不能引起读者往下继续第三句，你还是挂了。

Your lead must capture the reader immediately and force him to keep reading. It
must cajole him with freshness, or novelty, or paradox, or humor, or surprise, or
with an unusual idea, or in interesting fact, or a question. Anything will do, as
long as it nudges his curiosity and tugs at his sleeve.
你的开头必须迅速俘获读者，并能推着他继续。开头要以新奇、自相矛盾、幽默、惊喜、
不寻常的观点、有趣的事实，或者一个问题来钓住读者。任何只要能调动读者好奇心并拴
住他们的方法，都可以使用。

But take special care with the last sentence of each paragraph---it’s the crucial
springboard to the next paragraph.
要小心处理每段的最后一句话，因为它是到下一段的关键跳板。
You Should collect more material than you will use. Every article is strong in
proportion to the surplus of details from which you can choose the few that will
serve you best.
你收集的素材应远大于你文章所要使用的量，文章的力度很大程度上跟你所能提供服务于
文章主题的细节数量成正比。
Another moral is to look for your material everywhere, not just by reading the
obvious sources ad interviewing the obvious people.
另一个启示就是要随处搜集你的素材，而不仅仅是通过大家都熟知的书或人作为信息来源。
（路边的广告牌、玩具上的包装说明、药品上的声明等）
Another approach is to just tell a story. It’s such a simple solution, so obvious
and unsophisticated, that we often forget that it’s available to us. But narrative
is the oldest and most compelling method of holding someone’s attention;
everybody wants to be told a story.
另一个方法就是开头讲个故事。它如此简单明了，也不高深以至于我们经常忘了用。叙事
其实是最古老也最引人入胜的抓住读者注意力的方法，人人都想听个故事。
Sometimes you can tell your whole story in the first sentence:
In the beginning God created heaven and earth. ---The BIBLE
有时候你可以在第一句中讲述整个故事：
起初，上帝创造了天地。----圣经
The perfect ending should take your readers slightly by surprise and yet seem
exactly right. They didn’t expect the article to end so soon, or so abruptly, or to
say what is said. But they know it when they see it. Like a lead, it works.
完美的结尾应该带给读者以小惊喜却又不唐突，读者没预料到文章会那么快结束，或者已
说完了它该说的，但是当他们看到，他们就知道要结束了。

For the nonfiction writer, the simplest way of putting this into a rule is : when
you’re ready to stop, stop. If you have presented all the facts and made the
point you want to make , look for the nearest exit.
对于非虚构类作者，最简单的原则就是：当你准备好结束时，就结束。如果你已经呈现了
所有想表达的事实和观点，寻找最近的出口，结束它。

10.Bits & Pieces 零零碎碎

Verbs are the most important of all your tools.

动词是最重要的表达。
Most adverbs are unnecessary.

大部分副词都是多余的。(比如“的”、“了”、“呢”、“吧”。)

Don't overstate.
不要过度陈述。
Writing is not a contest...Forget the competition and go at your own pace. Your
only contest is with yourself.
写作不是竞赛。保持自己的节奏，忘掉和别人的比拼，你唯一要战胜的是自己。
The Quickest Fix: Surprisingly often a difficult problem in a sentence can be
solved by simply getting rid of it.
解决一个棘手句子的最快速方法就是删掉它。
Keep your paragraphs short.
段落要短。

Almost of nonfiction writers think in paragraph units, not in sentence units. Each
paragraph has its own integrity of content and structure.
大多数非虚构类作家都是以段为内容单元，而非句子。每段自有其故事的完整性和结构。

Rewriting is the essence of writing well: it's where the game is won or lost.
修改才是写好文章的本质，也是胜负所在。
You won’t write well until you understand that writing is an evolving process,
not a finished product. Nobody expects you to get it right the first time, or even
the second time.
只有你明白了写作是一个进化过程，而不是一个成品，你才能写好文章。没有人指望你第
一次就做好，第二次也不。
Most rewriting consists of reshaping and tightening and refining the raw material
you wrote on your first try. Much of it consists of making sure you’ve given the
reader a narrative flow he can follow with no trouble from beginning to end.
大多数修改主要是使你的初稿更紧凑、更精准、也更瘦身。是为了有个更好的叙事结构，
可以引导读者从开始到结尾，不会有阅读困难。
The longer I work at the craft of writing, the more I realize that there’s nothing
more interesting than the truth.
我写作时间越长，就越意识到没有什么比真实更有趣。

The reader plays a major role in the act of writing and must be given room to
play it. Don’t annoy your readers by over-explaining---by telling them
something they already know or can figure out.
读者在写作中也扮演着重要角色，要给他们空间去参与。过度解释——告诉读者他们已经
知道或者他们能自己搞明白的东西，往往会使他们厌烦。

No area of life is stupid to someone who takes it seriously. If you follow your
affections, you will write well and will engage your readers.
只要你认真对待，生活中就没有什么是愚蠢而你不能写的领域。追随你的热爱，你就能写
好，这也会吸引你的读者。

Chapter 3 Forms 形式

本章原书内容很多，我前后删除了不少。关于不同类型文章如何写作，作者举了很多例子，
但仍然遵循 Clarity、Humanity、Clear Thinking 等基本原则。

11.Nonfiction as literature 非虚构类文学

Motivation is at the heart of writing...The only important distinction is between
good writing and bad writing. Good writing is good writing, whatever forms it
takes and whatever we call it.
写作源于动机。其实写作并不分非虚构类与文学类，唯一区分的只有好与坏，好作品就是
好作品，而无论它采取什么样的形式或者我们怎么称呼它。
12.Writing about people(The interview) 如何写人物（采访）
Nothing animates writing as someone telling what he thinks or what he does -in
his own words...As soon as a writer steps in, everyone else's experience becomes
secondhand.
对于采访，没有什么比用采访者自己的话去表达他的所思所想，更让人感到鲜活，一旦掺
和了作者的想法，别人的谈论就成为了二手货。
Take heart. You'll find the solution if you look for the human element.
（如果你发现自己对于某件事或物的描写干瘪无力）振作点，尝试去挖掘事物背后人的因
素，你也就找到了出路。(比如关于图书馆 40 周年纪念的专访、拍卖行的故事)。
If you find on page 5 of your notes a comment that perfectly amplifies a point on
page 2 ---a point made earlier in the interview---you will do everyone a favor if
you link the two thoughts, letting the second sentence follow and illustrate the
first.
如果你发现采访稿中，有个观点前后几次都有提到，那么你就应该把前后的想法缝合起来，
放在一起说明，而不是生搬硬套采访中的时间顺序。

Don’t become the prisoner of your quotes---so lulled by how wonderful they
sound that you don’t stop to analyze them. Never let anything go out into the
world that you don’t understand.
不要成为引言的奴隶，觉得他们听起来如此优美就忘了去分析它什么意思、是否合适。如
果你没理解一句话，就永远不要让它从你口中说出来，进入这个世界。
13.Writing about places（The Travel Article）如何写地点（游记类）
He enjoyed his trip so much that he wants to tell us all about it---and “all” is
what we don’t want to hear. We only want to hear some.
（关于游记）一个人很享受他的旅程，所以就想把所有故事都告诉别人，但我们并不想听
“所有的”，只想听一部分。
First, choose your words with unusual care. If a phrase comes to you easily, look
at it with deep suspicion…Strive for fresh words and images.
（你如何描述好一个地方而不是老生常谈？）要谨慎选词。不要用头脑中第一个想起来的
词语。寻求些更有画面感、新鲜感的词语。（而不是这个地方“很有魅力”）
Eliminate every such fact that is a known attribute: don’t tell us that the sea had
waves and the sand was white. Find details that are significant…Make sure they
do useful work.
删除那些众所周知的事实：不要告诉我沙滩旁边有波浪而且沙子是白的。寻找那些重要的
细节，不管怎样，要确保每个词语都有作用。
But whatever place you write about, go there often enough to isolate the
qualities that make it distinctive. Usually this will be some combination of the
place and the people who inhabit it.
无论你写什么地方，你只有经常去那儿才能剥离出它的与众不同。这种不同的特质往往在
于当地人们和这片土地的融合。
If travel is broadening, it should broaden more than just our knowledge of how a
Gothic cathedral looks or how the French make wine. It should generate a whole
constellation of ideas about how men and women work and play, raise their
children, worship their gods, live and die.
如果说旅行是在拓宽眼界，那么它拓宽的应该不仅仅只是关于哥特式大教堂看起来怎么样
或者法国人怎么酿酒这样的知识。旅行应该让我们产生联想与迷思：那儿的男人女人如何
劳作与娱乐，如何抚养孩子，如何敬畏神灵，如何生存与死去。
Finally, however, what brings a place alive is human activity people doing the
things that give a locale its character.
一个地方之所以生生不息，是因为那儿劳作的人们给了它以脾性。
14.Writing About Yourself（The Memoir）如何写自己（回忆录）
What we’re all looking for ---what we want to see pop out of your papers--- is
individuality. We’re looking for whatever it is that makes you unique. Write
about what you know and what you think.
（关于自传）我们想要看见的是——你的个性。我们在寻找的是一切能使你独一无二的东
西，写你所知所想。（你不需要别人批准哪些可以写，哪些不可以写，你自己的生活才是
第一手资料来源）

Think narrow, then, when you try the form. Memoir isn’t the summary of a life,;
it’s a window into a life.
想窄一点，然后，再去写。回忆录不是一生的总结，它只是生命的一扇窗户。（一个人的
历史往事体现了一个时代的政治、经济、思潮的变迁）

One secret of the art is detail. Any kind of detail will work---a sound or a smell or
song title---as long as it played a shaping role in the portion of your life you have
chosen to distill.
重要的是细节。任何细节只要扮演了塑造你生活的角色都可以写，比如儿时母亲回来的开
门铃声、父亲身上熟悉的味道、小时候哼的一首歌。
The best gift you have to offer when you write personal history is the gift of
yourself. Give yourself permission to write about yourself, and have a good time
doing it.
当你要写个人往事的时候，最好的礼物就是自己，剖白自己，并好好享受这个过程。
15. Science and Technology 科普
Writing is thinking on paper. Anyone who thinks clearly can write clearly, about
anything at all.
写作是纸面上的思考，任何事只要你想清楚了就都能写清楚。（科学，只不过是另外一个
非虚构类写作主题而已）
Describing how a process works is valuable for two reasons. It forces you to make
sure you know how it works. Then it forces you to take the reader through the
same sequence of ideas and deductions that made the process clear to you.
描述一个过程如何运作有两个好处。首先，你得确保自己知道它怎么运作。其次，它也会
逼着你去思考如何描述、精简语言来让读者明白它如何运作。
Imagine science writing as an upside-down pyramid. Start at the bottom with the
one fact a reader must know before he can learn any more.
将科普想象成一个倒置的金字塔。底部基石是读者知道的少量事实，你只有让他明白前一
个事实，才能往下一个事实进发。（用一个小事作引导）
Another way to help your readers understand unfamiliar facts is to relate them to
sights they are familiar with.
另一种方式就是用一些熟悉的场景或图片来帮助读者了解那些不熟悉的概念。（减少抽象
词语从而让读者能在脑海中可视化，用自己生活中、自然中事物类比。）
Another way of making science accessible is to write like a person and not like a
scientist.
另一个使科学平易近人的方法，就是要说人话而不是像个科学家一样甩专业名。
16.Business Writing in your job 商务写作
After I had read various good and bad examples, the principals began to hear the
difference between their true selves and their educator selves…I recited my four
articles of faith: clarity, simplicity, brevity and humanity.
（教育行业）我看过很多案例，其实好坏的差别在于是否能区分自己的教育者身份和真实
的一个人的身份（如何发公告、公开信）。我重申自己的写作信念：简洁、人情味。
Managers at every level are prisoners of the notion that a simple style reflects a
simple mind. Actually a simple style is the result of hard work and hard thinking.
每个管理者都认为，简单的风格反映了简单的思考，错了，其实简单的风格是努力工作、
辛苦思考的结果。（混乱的风格反映的是一个混论的思考者，或者他太过自大、太呆板、
太懒去组织他的想法）

If you work for an institution , whatever your job, whatever your level, be yourself
when you write. You will stand out as a real person among the robots.
如果你为一个机构工作，无论什么工作，什么级别，当你写作时一定要做自己。这样你才
能在那些文字冰冷、毫无人情味儿就像机器 的人群中脱颖而出。

17.Sports 体育类
One new role for the sportswriter is to let us know what it feels like to actually
perform a sport: to be a marathon runner or a soccer goalie, a skier or a golfer or
a gymnast.
对于体育专栏作家来说要能让人们知道参加一个运动是什么感觉，所以他们新的角色：要
成为一个马拉松跑者、一个足球运动员、滑冰运动员。
Those are the values to look for when you write about sport, people and places,
time and transition.
这些才是你关于体育写作需要寻找的价值，那些曾经挣扎的人和地方，那些流逝的时间和
转变。
18.Writing About the Arts（Critics and Columnists）艺术写作（批评家和专栏作
家）
This is criticism at its best: stylish, allusive, disturbing.
最好的批评就是能联系现实，针砭时弊，要不停地耳提面命让人们重新审视他们自己所相
信的东西。
Critics should be among the first to notify us when the truths we hold to be self-
evident cease to be true.
当我们曾坚持的东西被证明并非真相时，批评家应该第一个告诉我们。
What is crucial for you as the writer is to express your opinion firmly. Don’t
cancel its strength with last minute evasions and escapes.
对批评家来说，重要的就是要强烈地表达你的观点。不要在最后关头犹豫，逃避从而削弱
了观点的力量。

19. Humor 幽默
The writer must find some comic device----satire, parody, irony, lampoon,
nonsense--- that he can use to disguise his serious point.
写作者必须要找到一些喜剧工具---讽刺，嘲笑，无理取闹，他可以用这些来伪装自己严
肃的观点。
This heightening of some crazy truth--- to a level where it will be seen as crazy---
is the essence of what serious humorists are trying to do.
对于事实真相的夸张与放大，放大到被人们认为疯狂的地步，这才是严肃幽默的精华。
Don’t make the same kind of joke two or three times--- readers will enjoy
themselves more if you make it only once.
同样的笑话不要讲两三次，你只说一遍的话读者会更喜欢。
They aren’t writing about life that’s essentially ludicrous; they are writing
about life that’s essentially serious, but their eye falls on areas where serious
hopes are mocked by some ironic turn of fate.
（幽默并不是一个孤立 的存在，它是基于社会的迭代而不停地与时俱进，它是基于一种
生活的真实。）那些伟大的幽默家并不是要描写那荒诞滑稽的生活，而是要描写那些真正
严肃的东西，他们的目光着落于那些被命运玩弄、嘲笑、逆转但又无比严肃、认真的希望
之所在。

Humorists operate on a deeper current than most people suspect. They must be
willing to go against the grain, to say what the populace and the President may
not want to hear.
幽默作家其实比大众认为的要更深沉，他们必须要迎头面对生活，说一些大众和官方想听
的话。

Chapter 4 Attitudes

此章为本书最后一篇，作者泛泛而聊些写作人的态度，恐惧、犹疑、愉快，对自己作品的
捍卫，对人生的探求，也亲自操刀剖析了自己的文章。
20.The Sound of Your Voice 个人语调
Don’t alter your voice to fit your subject. Develop one voice that readers will
recognize when they hear it on the page.
（无论写什么主题，爵士乐、棒球,他们都应是“你的”文章，都应该有你的印记）不要去
改变自己的风格以适应某个主题，要形成自己的风格好让读者第一眼就能认出你。
Taste is a quality so intangible that it can’t even be defined. But we know it
when we meet it.
风格难以捉摸也很难定义。但当你看到时，你就能感觉到它。

The trick is to study who have it. Never hesitate to imitate another writer.
Imitation is part of the creative process of anyone learning an art or a craft.
（如何形成自己的品味与风格？）技巧就是研究那些你所欣赏的作家作品。不要犹豫是否
要模仿，因为无论学习艺术还是手艺，模仿都是创造性过程的一部分。
Don’t worry that by imitating them you’ll lose your own voice and your own
identity. Soon enough you will shed those skins and become who you are
supposed to become.
（去找你兴趣领域内最牛的作家，大声读出他们的作品。听它们读起来如何、风格又怎样
以及他们对语言的态度。）不要担心模仿他们会失去自己的特征，久了之后别人的印记就
会慢慢退去，你就会变成你想要成为的人。
21.Enjoyment, Fear and Confidence 享受、害怕、自信
If something strikes me as funny in the act of writing, I throw it in just to amuse
myself. If I think it’s funny I assume a few other people will find it funny, and
that seems to me to be a good day’s work.
写作时若有什么东西触动了我，我就会把它写下来。因为我想如果它很有趣触动了我，那
也能同样取悦别人。
How can you fight off all those fears of disapproval and failure? One way to
generate confidence is to write about subjects that interest you and that you care
about.
（非虚构类作品要对事实、采访人物、事件地点与时间负责，不能过度描述或逻辑混乱）
那你如何对抗这些失败的恐惧呢？获得自信的一个方法就是写那些使你感兴趣，你也很关
注的主题。
Remember this when you enter new territory and need a shot of confidence.
Your best credential is yourself.

当你要写一个新领域却害怕被别人说什么都不懂时，获取自信最好的凭据就是你自己，以
及真诚。
If you master the tools of the trade—the fundamental of interviewing and of
orderly construction--- and if you bring to the assignment your general
intelligence and your humanity, you can write about any subject. That’s your
ticket to an interesting life.
如果你掌握了写作技巧---如何采访以及文章构建的基本技能，也给写作任务注入了自己
的才干和人性，你就可以写任何一个主题。那是你有趣人生的一张门票。
“That’s interesting.” If you find yourself saying it, pay attention and follow
your nose. Trust your curiosity to connect with the curiosity of your readers.
“那很有趣。”如果你发现自己说了这句话，就要注意了并跟着感觉走。信任你的好奇心，
它终将带着你与读者的好奇心相遇。
22.The Tyranny of the Final Product 对作品的专制
I have no interest in teaching writers how to sell. I want to teach them how to
write. If the process is sound, the product will take care of itself, and sales are
likely to follow.
我对教别人如何销售作品并没兴趣，我只想教他们怎么写。如果是好文章，流畅易懂，那
么作品自己就会流转、传播开来，所谓销售也就自然而然。
“People and Places”: how to situate what they write in a particular place, and
how to get the people who live in that place to talk about what makes it--- or
once made it--- special.
“人物和地点”：怎样摆放人们在一个具体地方所描写的东西，怎样使生活子在那个地方
的人们谈论使这个地方或曾经使它特殊的地方。
The writer would have to write about one small town in Iowa and thereby tell her
larger story, and even within that one town she would have to reduce her story
still further: to one store, or one family, or one farmer.
（一位女士想讲述美国西部，从小到大已经如何变迁）她必须通过描写一个具体的小城来
讲述她更宏观的故事和主旨，甚至一座小城，她也要把故事主题缩小到一家商店，一个家
庭，或者一个农民。
The quest is one of the oldest themes in storytelling, an act of faith we never get
tired of hearing about… something deeper than the place itself: a meaning , an
idea, some silver of the past.
追寻一直是讲故事最古老的主题了，我们永远不会厌倦探寻人生。你要写一个地方，要挖
掘出比这个地方更深层次的东西：一个意义，一个想法，一些岁月光辉。
Moral: any time you can tell a story in the form of a quest or a pilgrimage you’ll
be ahead of the game. Readers bearing their own associations will do some of
your work for you.
任何时候，只要你能以一种追问或朝圣的形式去讲述一个故事，往往你就领先了。读者也
会把自己投射进作品中，完成和故事的结合。
23.A Writer’s Decisions 写作者的决定
All your clear and pleasing sentences will fall apart if you don’t keep
remembering that writing is linear and sequential , that logic is the glue that
holds it together, that tension must be maintained from one sentence to the
next…
你要记住：写作是线性的、连续的，要有逻辑、有张力、有叙述方式，不然所有你清晰、
令人愉悦的句子就会分崩离析，不成一体。逻辑就像胶水，它把句子前后粘合起来；句子
张力也要一直保持，从这个句子传递到下一个，从这一段落到下一段落，从这一篇章到下
一篇章，而好的、传统的故事叙述方式，就是在读者毫不察觉间，拉着他们向前。（让读
者觉得你写的每一句都是选择的必然。）
Each sentence contains one thought--- and only one. Readers can process only
one idea at a time, and they do it in linear sequence.
每个句子有且只应该包含一个想法。读者一次只能处理一个想法，他们是以线性思维去理
解的。
Never be afraid to break a long sentence into two shorts ones, or even three.

不要害怕将一个长句拆分成两个短句，或者三个。
Now, what do your readers want to know next? Ask yourself that question after
every sentence.
现在，想一想，读者们接下来想要知道什么？在每个句子后，你都要问自己这个问题。

A crucial decision about a piece of writing is where to end it. Often the story will
tell you where it wants to stop.
（有时它未必是你实际旅程的终点，如果你觉得再继续下去并没意思，只是一种苦差事只
是为了完成而完成，那就停下来）一篇文章很重要的一个决定就是在哪儿结束它。经常是
故事本身会告诉你它想停下来了。
When you get such a message from your material--- when your story tells you
it’s over, regardless of what subsequently happened--- look for the door.
当你从材料中收到一个讯息---你的故事告诉你该结束了，不管接下来发生什么，寻找那
个结束的出口。
An exhortation I often use to keep myself going is” Getting on the plane.” As a
nonfiction writer you must get on the plane. If a subject interests you, go after it,
even if it’s in the next county or the next state or the next country. It’s not
going to come looking for you.
一个我经常用来保持自己前进的训告就是：涉身其中。作为一个非虚构类作家，你必须要
投注到一些不期而遇的事件中。如果一个主题使你感兴趣，就去追寻它，即使它在另外一
个乡镇，另外一个州，或另外一个国家。它不会自己来找你。
24.Writing Family History and Memoir 家族史和回忆录
Only when they have children of their own--- and feel the first twinges of their
own advancing age--- do they suddenly want to know more about their family
heritage and all its accretions of anecdote and lore.
只有当人们拥有了自己的儿女，第一次感受到年龄已去的阵痛，他们才突然想知道更多关
于家族传承的历史，以及所有的传说与轶事。
Writing is a powerful search mechanism, and one of its satisfactions is to come to
terms with your life narrative. Another is to work through some of life’s hardest
knocks--- loss, grief, illness, addiction, disappointment, failure--- and to find
understanding and solace.
（回忆录并不是为了出版）写作是一个有力的探寻方式，它让你与自己一生的过往，起伏
荣衰达成和解。它另外一个作用就是穿过生命中最艰难的一些冲击----失去，悲伤，疾病，
沉溺，失望，失败---为了寻找谅解和安慰。
Don’t try to be a “writer.”… Be yourself and your readers will follow you
anywhere... Your product is you.
不要尝试用“写作者”的视角去写回忆录，正常地去叙说那些往事就好。做自己，读者会
跟随你去任何地方。你一生的作品就是你自己。
Don’t worry about that problem in advance. Your first job is to get your story
down as you remember it--- now.
（写回忆录，关于是否侵犯亲朋好友的隐私）不要过早担心隐私问题，你第一要务是趁你
还能记得住时把它写下来——趁现在。

What can be done? You must make a series of reducing decisions.（Think Small）
（最难部分是自传从何处下手？写谁？在哪儿结束？家族关系纷乱复杂，记忆碎片繁多）
你必须要做些删减的决定。（比如一个大家族，最好只写一个分支，比如在爸妈分支选一
边来写）
25.Write as Well as You Can 尽己所能去写好

Therefore I’ve always tried to write as well as I could by my own standards: I’ve
never changed my style to fit the size or the presumed education of the audience
I was writing for.
因此我总是尽力写好——以我自己的标准：我还从来没改变我的风格以适应文章的题材或
者那些潜在的大众。
When we say we like the style of certain writers, what we mean is that we like
their personality as they express it on paper.
当我们说喜欢某些作者的风格时，其实是指我们喜欢他们所展现的个性。
We know that verbs have more vigor than nouns, that active verbs are better
than passive verbs, that short words and sentences are easier to read than long
ones, that concrete details are easier to process than vague abstractions.
我们知道动词比名词更有生命力，主动动词比被动更好，短句子比长句子更容易阅读，详
实的细节也总比模糊的抽象更容易推进。
You must take an obsessive, pride in the smallest details of your craft. And you
must be willing to defend what you’ve written against the various middlemen---
editors, agents and publishers--- whose sights may be different from yours,
whose standards not as high.
如果你想写的比其他人好，你就不得不想写的比其他人好。你必须要对你自己的作品有一
种占有式的爱和骄傲。你必须要捍卫自己所写的东西，哪怕是要对抗不同的中间人，编辑，
代理机构，出版社----他们的眼光也许不同于你，他们的标准也许不如你高。
Remember that the craft of nonfiction writing involves more than writing. It also
means being reliable. Editors will properly drop a writer they can’t count on.
（你对自己作品的在意与苛刻，以及准时交稿）意味着出版社认为你更可靠，编辑不想要
一个他们不能依赖的作者。
A reporter once asked him how he managed to play so well consistently, and he
said:” I always thought that there was at least one person in the stands who had
never seen me play, and I didn’t want to let him down.”
(Joe DiMaggio 是伟大的棒球外场手，我很惊讶他每天要付出多大的努力训练才能使他在
赛场上看起来毫不费力。)一个记者曾问他怎么能一直打得这么好，他说：“我总是在想
象着看台上至少有一个人从来没看过我打球，而我，不想让他失望。”
<< 完>>

书名：On Writing Well

原著：William Zinsser 翻译 ：大汪（原创）
出版社：Harper Collins Publisher
申明：本 文仅供个人研习之用，教学、转载等商业用途需提前取得授权，本译文所涉法
译

律后果均由本人承担。