Guidelines for Good Writing

如何才能写得一手好文章

2020-08-01 23:41 Lingua Greca

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When I taught journalism at the University of Illinois, I created a Journalist’s Handbook that I required my students to purchase. I collected and revised the information contained in the  Journalist’s Handbook for almost four decades. Some of it dates back to my time as a journalism student at the University of Kansas. Some of it is information that I accumulated and consigned to a three-ring binder during a 27-year career as a reporter and editor for the Chicago Tribune. The binder accompanied me during my years as a foreign correspondent in Asia and Latin America and as a national correspondent covering the West Coast of the United States. I kept it close at hand when I was an editor. As the years passed, the binder got older and frayed (sort of like me), but that never kept me from consulting it–a humbling reminder that you will never know all there is to know about journalism, nor should you ever stop learning. My old binder was rife with coffee stains, grubby handprints, lots of barely readable hand-scribbled notes, and to top it off the pages kept falling out. Before I created the handbook I used to pass out much of the material as handouts. I suspect many of those handouts were tossed away once my class ended. Below is one of the chapters of the handbook. Occasionally, I will post other chapters of the Handbook. Stay tuned! Guidelines for Good Writing Subject and verb always has to agree. Do not use a foreign term when there is an adequate English quid pro quo. Foreign words and phrases usually are not apropos. It behooves the writer to avoid archaic expressions. Do not use hyperbole; not one writer in a million can use it effectively. Avoid clichés like the plague. (They’re old hat.) Even if a mixed metaphor sings, it should be derailed. Placing a comma between subject and predicate, is not correct. Parenthetical words however must be enclosed in commas. Consult a dictionary frequently to avoid mispelling. Don’t be redundant again and again. Don’t repeat yourself or say what you have said before. Remember to never split an infinitive. The passive voice is to be avoided. Use the apostrophe in it’s proper place and omit it when its not needed. Don’t use no double negatives. Proofread carefully to see if you have any words out. Hopefully, you will use words correctly, irregardless of how others use them. Never use a long word when an infinitesimal one will do. Avoid colloquial stuff. No sentence fragments. Avoid alliteration. Always. Prepositions are not words to end sentences with. Eschew ampersands & abbreviations, etc. Parenthetical remarks (however relevant) are unnecessary. Contractions aren’t necessary. One should never generalize. Eliminate quotations. As Ralph Waldo Emerson once said, “I hate quotations. Tell me what you know.” Don’t be redundant; don’t use more words than necessary; it’s highly superfluous. Profanity sucks. Be more or less specific. Understatement is always best. Exaggeration is a billion times worse than understatement. One-word sentences? Eliminate. Analogies in writing are like feathers on a snake. Go around the barn at high noon to avoid colloquialisms. Who needs rhetorical questions? Remember to finish what                    –30–   Comments comments
在伊利诺伊大学教授新闻学的时候,我编写了一本《记者手册》,要求我的学生购买。近四十年来,我整理并修订了《记者手册》中的内容。其中一些可以追溯到我在堪萨斯大学学习新闻专业的时候。还有一些是我在27年的《芝加哥论坛报》记者和编辑生涯中积累起来的,我把它们放进了一个三环活页夹里。 在我作为驻亚洲和拉丁美洲的外国记者以及作为美国西海岸的国家记者的那些年里,这份活页夹一直陪伴着我。 我做编辑的时候就把它放在手边了。 随着岁月的流逝,活页夹变得陈旧和磨损(我也老了),但我仍然时常翻阅它——它提醒我要时刻保持谦逊:你永远无法知道关于新闻业的所有知识,你也不应该停止学习。 我的旧活页夹上布满了咖啡渍,脏手印,还有许多难以辨认的手写笔记,一些书页已经开始从活页夹中脱落。 在我创建这本手册之前,我经常把很多材料作为讲义分发给学生。 我怀疑那些讲义很多在我下课后就被扔掉了。 下面是手册的其中一章。 时不时,我也会上传这本手册的其他章节。 请持续关注! 优秀写作指南 主谓需始终保持一致。 可以用英语的时候,尽量避免使用外来语。 外来词和短语通常会不那么恰当。 避免使用古语。 不要夸张; 很少有作家可以有效地使用夸张手法。 避免使用陈词滥调。 (它们太过时了。) 即使是一个多重隐喻也应当避免使用。 在主语和谓语之间加逗号是不正确的。 然而,插入语两侧必须要有逗号隔开。 经常查字典,以避免拼写错误。 不要赘述。 不要一直重复,也不要重复你之前的话。 记住千万不要拆分不定式。 要避免使用被动语态。 在适当的地方使用撇号,在不需要的时候省略。 不要用双重否定。 仔细校对一下,看看有没有遗漏的单词。 希望你能正确地使用单词,不要管别人怎么用。 可以用小词说清楚的时候别用大词。 避免口语化的东西。 避免使用残缺句。 一定避免使用头韵。 介词不是用来结束句子的词。 避免使用“&”和“,etc”。 尽可能避免插入语,无论多么相关。 避免使用单词的缩写形式。 不要以偏概全。 避免使用“引语”。 正如拉尔夫·沃尔多·爱默生曾经说过的:“我讨厌引语。 告诉我你知道的。“ 不要冗余; 避免使用不必要的词语; 这些词完全是多余的。 别说脏话。 尽可能具体一点。 低调陈述总是最好的。 夸大其词比低调陈述糟糕一万倍。 避免使用一个词的句子。 特别恰当的时候再使用类比手法。 避免说白话。 谁愿意听反问句? 记得要做什么 -30- 评论 评论

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