从William Zinsser的《怎样写出靠谱英文》中学习英语写作

Zinsser痛恨兜圈子，任何模棱两可的措辞，表意不明的句子在他看来都是灾难。他对简洁如此执着，以至于Zinsser这个名字成了文风简洁的代名词。美国有些老师会让学生Zinsser一下他们的文章，Zinsser成了一个清除文中clutter的动词。

　　什么是所谓的clutter呢? 放到中文语境里，遍地都是，我们来看看书里是怎么介绍的吧！

　　Clutter is the disease of American writing． We are a society strangling in unnecessary words， circular constructions， pompous frills and meaningless jargon．

　　Fighting clutter is like fighting weeds—the writer is always slightly behind． New varieties sprout overnight， and by noon they are part of American speech． Consider what President Nixon’s aide John Dean accomplished in just one day of testimony on television during the Watergate hearings． The next day everyone in America was saying “at this point in time” instead of “now．”

　　Take the adjective “personal，” as in “a personal friend of mine，” “his personal feeling．” It’s typical of hundreds of words that can be eliminated． The personal friend has come into the language to distinguish him or her from the business friend， thereby debasing both language and friendship． Someone’s feeling is that person’s personal feeling­—that’s what “his” means． Friends are friends， the rest is clutter．

　　Clutter is the ponderous euphemism that turns a slum into a depressed socioeconomic area， garbage collectors into waste disposal personnel and the town dump into the volume reduction unit．

　　Clutter is the official language used by corporations to hide their mistakes． When General Motors had a plant shutdown， that was a “volume－related production－schedule adjustment．” When an Air Force missile crashed， it “impacted with the ground prematurely．” Companies that go belly－up have “a negative cash－flow position．”

　　“Experiencing” is one of the worst clutters． Instead of “it is raining”， there is no way to say “At the present time we are experiencing precipitation．” Even your dentist will ask if you are experiencing any pain． If he had his own kid in the chair he would say，” Does it hurt?”

　　The point of raising these examples is to serve notice that clutter is the enemy． Beware， then， of the long word that’s no better than the short word： “assistance”（help）， “numerous” （many）， “facilitate” （ease）， “individual”（man or woman）， “remainder” （rest）， “initial” （first）， “implement”（do）， “sufficient” （enough）， “attempt” （try）， “referred to as”（called） and hundreds more． Beware of all the slippery new fad words： paradigm and parameter， prioritize and potentialize． They are all weeds that will smother what you write．