如何写出简明直白的英语文章

郑磊 原创 | 2006-10-15 19:05 | 收藏 | 投票

HOW TO WRITE REPORT IN PLAIN ENGLISH

 

 

When we are taught in college, we are advised to write English paper with academic and linguistic style. The essay is full of formal words and expressions. We are encouraged to use propositional idioms and jargons. This style also leads us to a wrong way to speak written English and always it is hard to understand by native speakers.

 

Now it is time to change the style. When we cooperate in some projects sponsored by an international organization, weather it is the IMF, World Bank or UNCAD, we are requested to write plain English and present the results in an easy going way. It is sometime not a piece of cake even to a native speaker since all of us are not well educated to that form.

 

Here I quoted some guidelines and presented examples for your reference to have a rough idea on how to write a report in plain English. This is very similar with many guidelines you can get from some international organizations. That is why I omitted the name of the organization here.

 

A number of common problems occur when we write.  But, you can follow a number of basic guidelines to help you write in plain English – use active, short sentences directed at your reader, for example

 

Use short sentences and punctuation

The longer and more complex you make a sentence, the harder it is for your readers to understand any single portion of it. There is general agreement that a sentence begins to lose clarity if it has more than about 15-20 words. Shorter sentences are better for conveying complex information – they break the information up into smaller units that your readers will find easier to process. So, try to have only one or two ideas in each sentence. If you need to explain a term or qualify a point, use a separate sentence.  Alternatively, use different forms of punctuation and layout to achieve the same outcome – bullet lists are a good method.

Using shorter sentences for your writing does not mean that all your sentences need to be between 15-20 words long. A good guideline is to use only as many words as necessary. You need to take all necessary measures to ensure that the length of your sentences is not too excessive, which will mean that the complexity of your sentences will be reduced accordingly. In addition, variation in sentence length is a useful way of keeping your reader interested.

Example 1 provides an illustration of the sort of long sentence that commonly appears in some reports. This is 50 words long and was the first sentence in an executive summary.  Ask yourself how easy this is to read and understand.  Then consider a possible alternative, which simply introduces a full stop to break the sentence into two parts.  To what extent is this easier to read?  Has there been any loss in meaning or precision?

Example 1 Long sentences often appear in our reports

Fiscal or other cost-redundancy incentives tend to be most influential for footloose export oriented industries (garments, leather goods and the like) and most effective when offered early in the project’s life and with certainty in a generally sound business environment and where the country’s neighbours have similar economic structures.

Here’s a possible use of a full stop (period) to break up the text. The aim is to make the information about the use of incentives – their influence and effectiveness – more accessible to the reader.

Fiscal or other cost-redundancy incentives tend to be most influential for footloose export oriented industries (garments, leather goods and the like). They are most effective when offered early in the project’s life and with certainty in a generally sound business environment and where the country’s neighbours have similar economic structures.

Example 2 provides another illustration of a long sentence. The sentence here is 63 words long and was the second paragraph in the first chapter of a report.

Again, ask yourself whether the sentence is easy to read and understand. Are you told how many chapters you are about to read or do you have to work it out for yourself?  Are you clear about the meaning of each chapter?

Now consider a possible alternative. This uses full stops to break the sentence into two parts along with some limited re-writing. Is this example easier to read? Has there been any loss in precision?

Example 2 Another long sentence

In addition to this introductory chapter, which provides background information on Wallacia’s progress with economic reforms to date, the report includes a description of the opportunities that foreign investors see in Wallacia (Chapter II), an analysis of the obstacles investors face in Wallacia, along with recommendations to address them (Chapter III), and our recommendations for a medium-term investment facilitation strategy (Chapter IV).

Here’s a possible re-write to break up this example of a one-sentence paragraph.  The paragraph is also a few words shorter than the original.

This introductory chapter provides background information on Wallacia’s progress with economic reforms to date. There are three further chapters. Chapter II provides a description of the opportunities that foreign investors see in Wallacia. Chapter III analyses the obstacles investors face in Wallacia, along with recommendations to address them. Chapter IV gives you recommendations for a medium-term investment facilitation strategy.

Using full stops to indicate the end of your sentences, helps modulate the tone and measure the way your readers read. Other forms of punctuation and other visual cues give the same effect. For example:

·          the colon you have just read caused you to pause

·          the colon also provides a visual clue that you are about to read a list

·          the use of the bullet points in this also causes you to pause

·          the full stop at the end of this bullet point will produce an inflection and a pause.

Be generous with punctuation within your sentences – pauses and cadences greatly enhance the readability of your text. Example 3 provides another possible recasting of the one sentence paragraph from Example 2.

Example 3 Another alternative long paragraph re-write

This introductory chapter provides background information on Wallacia’s progress with economic reforms to date.  There are three further chapters:

·        Chapter II provides a description of the opportunities that foreign investors see in Wallacia.

·          Chapter III analyses the obstacles investors face in Wallacia, along with recommendations to address them.

·          Chapter IV gives you recommendations for a medium-term investment facilitation strategy.

Use shorter paragraphs

Arrange your thoughts into short paragraphs, with one central topic in each. This makes your writing much easier to read, understand and translate into other languages.  Large slabs of dense text are also visually unappealing for your readers.

The paragraphs in this document are consistent with this general guideline.

There are numerous examples in our reports of large paragraphs with many single sentence paragraphs and paragraphs that run to more than 250 words.  It’s possible to split these into smaller blocks of text with no loss of meaning but to gain an appreciable increase in readability.

Example 4 provides an illustration of a long paragraph.  This is an unbroken paragraph of 228 words.

Example 4 Deconstructing paragraphs

The need for investment promotion is driven by a number of factors, a sample of which is mentioned here. Wallacia’s relatively small size economy and absence of exceptionally rich natural resources do not put the country in the league of large developing countries and on the radar screen of multinational corporations. Wallacia has a few sub-sectors with existing or potential comparative advantages that are yet to be exploited. It is difficult to establish and operate businesses in Wallacia, and the red tape faced by investors is fairly challenging. The large size of the country makes it difficult for investors to access services if there are centralized in Wallyville. It is desirable to let the foreign investment community know more about the serious, though initial, efforts of the government at improving the investment environment in the country. Because of the recent history of the region, Wallacia, like many of its neighbours, is thought of mainly as a political entity rather than an economic one.  With these factors in mind, investment promotion can bring Wallacia’s business opportunities and the government’s intent at improving the business environment to the attention of the foreign investors’ community. It can help take advantage of the country’s comparative advantages. It is needed to provide services to foreign investors to make their life easier so as to put Wallacia in a position to benefit from FDI.

Here’s a possible deconstruction of the same paragraph into a series of more bite-sized paragraphs. There has been no other change made to the text. The passage still has 228 words.

The need for investment promotion is driven by a number of factors, a sample of which is mentioned here.

Wallacia’s relatively small size economy and absence of exceptionally rich natural resources do not put the country in the league of large developing countries and on the radar screen of multinational corporations.

Wallacia has a few sub-sectors with existing or potential comparative advantages that are yet to be exploited.

It is difficult to establish and operate businesses in Wallacia, and the red tape faced by investors is fairly challenging.

The large size of the country makes it difficult for investors to access services if there are centralized in Wallyville.

It is desirable to let the foreign investment community know more about the serious, though initial, efforts of the government at improving the investment environment in the country.

Because of the recent history of the region, Wallacia, like many of its neighbours, is thought of mainly as a political entity rather than an economic one.

With these factors in mind, investment promotion can bring Wallacia’s business opportunities and the government’s intent at improving the business environment to the attention of the foreign investors’ community. It can help take advantage of the country’s comparative advantages. It is needed to provide services to foreign investors to make their life easier so as to put Wallacia in a position to benefit from FDI.

Although more readable, this particular example can also benefit from further review and re-drafting to make the information clearer to the reader. So here’s a further possible version of the original paragraph. It now comprises 192 words.

Investment promotion can draw foreign investor’s attention to Wallacia’s business opportunities and comparative advantages. It can also highlight the Government’s initial efforts and longer-term intention to improve the business environment. It is needed to provide services to foreign investors to make their life easier to put Wallacia in a position to benefit from FDI.

The need for investment promotion by Wallacia is important for a number of reasons.  Among the more important of these are:

·            The relatively small size of its economy and absence of rich natural resources. These do not put the country in the league of large developing countries. Neither do they put it and on the radar screen of multinational corporations.

·            The lack of sub sectors with existing or potential comparative advantages that can be exploited.

·            The challenging business environment. Investors face considerable red tape in establishing and operating businesses in Wallacia.

·            The large size of the country makes it difficult for investors to access services centrally located in Wallyville.

·            The recent history of the region means Wallacia, like many of its neighbours, is thought of as a political rather than an economic entity.

Example 5 provides another illustration of our use of long paragraphs (and sentences).  It contains a list and 165 words.

Example 5 More paragraph deconstructions

This report was prepared by the project team at the request of the Government of Wallacia, Ministry of Privatization and Public Economy, which wanted advisory assistance on strengthening (i) the business climate for foreign direct investment (FDI) and (ii) the country’s FDI promotion strategy and institution. In preparation for this general diagnostic review of the FDI environment, we interviewed 40 investors that had investments in Wallacia or had at one time considered investing in Wallacia across many sectors, including banking, construction, assembly industries, agriculture, transport, trade, natural resources and other services.  The team also interviewed several investors who after considering investing in Wallacia decided not to come. Investors interviewed were asked open-ended questions about what in their view were the top obstacles of investing in Wallacia. Investors were asked to describe the major problems in broad terms so that they could set the agenda. Further, the team consulted representatives of the government, international donor community, non-governmental organizations and private sector facilitators.

Here’s possible revision, splitting the original, unbroken paragraph into related topics.  It includes a possible revision to break the text into sentences with alternative punctuation. It still contains the same list but has less words – 158 in total.

The project team prepared this report, at the request of the Government of Wallacia, Ministry of Privatization and Public Economy.  The Ministry wanted advisory assistance on strengthening:

·            the business climate for foreign direct investment (FDI)

·            the country’s FDI promotion strategy and institution.

The team completed a general diagnostic review of the FDI environment, interviewing 40 investors with investments in Wallacia or that had considered investing in Wallacia. The investors included those from the banking, construction, assembly industries, agriculture, transport, trade, natural resources and other services sectors. The team also interviewed several investors who, after considering investing in Wallacia, did not.

The investors were asked open-ended questions about their views on the top obstacles of investing in Wallacia.  Investors were also asked to describe the major problems in broad terms, to form the basis of an agenda.

The team also consulted representatives of the government, international donor community, non-governmental organizations and private sector facilitators.

Use the active voice

The active voice enlivens writing and makes it more personal. This is because readers understand sentences in the active voice more quickly and easily because it follows how they think and process information.

Many documents are written with the passive voice. In general, this makes writing sound dull and is more difficult for readers to understand. It also makes documents appear academic, bureaucratic and inaccessible. This is because it forces readers to take extra mental steps to convert the passive into the active voice.

There are numerous examples where the passive voice appears in our reports.  Example 6 provides an illustration of this.

Example 6 The passive voice is less interesting

The seminar was attended by many officials of the Government of Wallacia, including the Prime Minister and the Minister of Economy.

Here are the same sentences re-written using an active voice.

Many officials of the Government of Wallacia, including the Prime Minister and the Minister of Economy, attended the seminar.

Example 7 shows other examples of passive voice use in our reports.

Example 7 Other passive voice examples

Administrators are perceived by many foreign investors as inefficient and not supportive.

Progress is being closely watched by direct investors interested in Wallacia.

The day-to-day activities of the IPU should be managed by its chief executive under the direction of its Board.

Use personal pronouns

In general, we tend to shy away from using personal pronouns (I, we, our, you, your, etc.) in our reports. This detracts from the friendliness and readability of our documents by not addressing readers at a personal level. The US Securities and Exchange Commission identify five good reasons why personal pronouns in documents (even financial disclosure documents) are useful:

·          they aid your reader’s comprehension because they clarify what applies to them

·          they allow you to “speak” directly to your reader, creating an appealing tone that   

will keep your reader reading

·          they help you to avoid abstractions and to use more concrete and everyday  

language

·          they help you keep your sentences short

·          they help you avoid using gender specific language – he or she.

You may have noticed my use of personal pronouns in this document.

One reason (or perhaps excuse) often put forward for using impersonal language is that reports are written on behalf of an organization for another organization.  Usually those involved asked for our advice, know who wrote the report and conducted the interviews and completed the research and so on.  So, in many ways, being impersonal can appear contradictory. More importantly, impersonal language appears inconsistent with our policy of being client oriented.

Example 8 is an illustration of the impersonal (official) form of writing we use and alternatives.

Example 8 Making reports more personal

Some of the most important recommendations include the following:

Here is an example of how you can make this impersonal language more personal.

Some of our most important recommendations include the following:

Example 9 gives more examples of impersonal writing in our reports. Our reports indicate we wrote the report – it’s usually on the front cover. We also identify who our client is – this is usually in a preface. In each all these examples, therefore, with some minor text changes we could use “we” and “our” and get the same message across.

Example 9 Other impersonal writing

It is envisaged that these recommendations and the assessments on which they are based will form the basis for the investment promotion strategy workshop, which will be the final component of the project.

The foreign investors who were interviewed by the team saw promising opportunities in Wallacia’s strategic location and natural resources.

Within the constraints imposed by time and resources, it was not possible for the  team to make any evaluation of the extent to which the regional development objective had been achieved.

Omit surplus words

Words are surplus when fewer words can convey the same meaning.

We don’t often use surplus words in our reports. But, they do pop up periodically.  Example 10 provides some examples of these instances and their simpler alternatives.

Example 10 Surplus words and possible alternatives

·                    In order to

·                    Provided that

·                    Subsequent to

·                    Prior to

·                    Despite the fact that

·                    In light of

·                    To a large extent

·        Give careful consideration to

·                    To

·                    If

·                    After

·                    Before

·                    Although

·                    Because / since

·                    Largely

·                    Consider

Limit the use of jargon and acronyms

Many documents and reports, including those present special challenges:

·          some contain highly technical information

·          they often need to address multiple audiences – some more knowledgeable than others.

So, we often use jargon in the form of specialized terms or acronyms. As a form of shorthand among other experts and when used sensibly jargon can be a quick and efficient way of communicating. The difficulty for readers is when they are not experts or the jargon is unfamiliar to them – a point argued for The Plain English Network by Nick Wright in Keep it jargon free.

Most jargon consists of unfamiliar terms, abstract words, non-existent words and acronyms and abbreviations, with an occasional euphemism thrown in for good measure.

As a general guide, he suggests that when using jargon:

·  avoid as many as you can

·  try to keep them to a maximum of two a page

·  use them only if they are convenient for your readers i.e. when:

·  your readers know exactly what they mean

·  spelling them out would annoy your readers

·  convert as many as possible into words:

·  use full words – Vice-president, not VP

·  use a shortened word form – each camera, not each CCTV unit.

·  use an alternative – computer memory, not RAM.

·  if you must use an abbreviation or acronym, spell it out the first time you use it – Computer-based training (CBT).

I will admit that we generally follow these guidelines. Still, there are instances where we use jargon and acronyms without clearly indicating their meaning. Example 11 gives some of examples of jargon and acronyms.

Example 11 Some occurrences of well used jargon and acronyms

Jargon

Acronyms

Automaticity

Conditionality

Externalities

Globalisation

Governorates

Parastatal

Transparency

Export processing zone (EPZ)

Foreign direct investment (FDI)

Gross domestic product (GDP)

Intellectual property rights (IPRs)

Investment promotion agency (IPA)

Joint venture (JV)

Multinational companies (MNCs)

Non-governmental organizations (NGOs)

Small and medium enterprises (SMEs)

The problem of ambiguous words

The reality is that our writing is generally unambiguous. Unintended ambiguity is a common problem in many documents, especially newspaper press, technical and legal writing.

Something is ambiguous when it is open to two contrasting meanings. This can leave you uncertain about intended meaning. So, the general guideline is to try to avoid it.

One example of ambiguity comes from parks and gardens:

Dogs must be on a lead at all times.

Does this mean that everyone using the park must have a dog on a lead? Or does this mean dogs must be on a lead but that you don’t have to be holding the lead? What’s going to happen to the dogs that can’t read?

A less serious problem and related issue is a lack of verbal awareness – intended or unintended. This occurs where words or phrases combine in a way that is ambiguous, yet unintentionally humorous. It will not normally give rise to any real uncertainty, as the context usually clarifies meaning. There are numerous other examples of this type of ambiguity. They often appear in newspapers, advertisements and signs and over-excited sports commentators mouths.

Here are some of my favourite ambiguities. Sadly, I can never remember the perpetrators.

That’s the fastest time ever run – but it’s not as fast as the world record.

I never make predictions and I never will.

He dribbles a lot and the opposition don’t like it – you can see it all over their faces.

The French are not normally a Nordic Skiing Nation.

Cars are killing 110 people a day. We have to resolve to do better.

 

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首席经济学家,香港中文大学(深圳)SFI客座教授,行为经济学者,创新发展,金融投资专家,南开大学经济学博士,荷兰maastricht管理学院mba,兰州大学数学学士 email:prophd@126.com
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