I took many writing classes in college but perhaps the most useful was one focused on business writing. My classmates and I spent a semester editing example after example of rambling or confusing letters, memos, and other professional materials. Here are seven bits of simple advice for clear and concise writing。

大學時我上了不少寫作課，但是最有用的還是商務寫作課。我和同學用了一學期的時間不斷地修改那些雜亂無章的信件，備忘錄和其他專業(yè)材料。下面是7條簡單的建議，讓大家學會清楚簡潔的寫作。

1. Limit prepositions when possible。

1.盡量少用介詞。

If you don't remember what they are, here's a list and primer. When overused, prepositions can weaken writing and contribute to wordiness. For example: "The meeting on December 1 about the budget" is sharper when written "The December 1 budget meeting." Also watch out for prepositions following a verb, such as "come up with" or "find out." Instead, you could use "generate" or "determine," respectively。

如果你不記得了，下面是一些簡單的例子。如果過度使用介詞，會降低寫作質量，造成冗余。比如：“關于預算的會議在12月1日召開”就沒有“12月1日開預算會議”來的簡潔有力。動詞后面的介詞也需要特別留意。比如“come up with”(想出)或“find out”(找出)，你就可以分別用“generate”和“determine”代替。

2. Avoid "very."

2.避免使用“very”。

It smacks of laziness and indicates your sentence needs editing to pack a stronger punch. For example, consider: "The very tall man strode to the front of the line." The phrase "very tall" doesn't help a reader understand if the man is six feet tall or having to duck seven-foot doorways. How about: "Standing a head taller than everyone in the room the man strode to the front of the line." The second version paints a better picture, right?

用“very”會顯得你懶惰，表明你的語句還需要修改以達到更加有力的程度。比如：“這個很高的男人跨步上前。”“很高”并沒有幫助讀者理解這個男人是否有6英尺高或者進7英尺高的門都需要低頭。再比如：“比房間里所有人都高一個頭的男人跨步上前了。”第二句是不是比上一句更能給人一種畫面感?

3. Watch out for forms of the verb "to be" such as am, are, is, was, were, being, and been。

3.注意不定式當中be動詞的形式，如am, are, is, was, were, being, 和been。

Usually you should aim for an active, not passive voice. "There are three things you can do to improve your golf game" is tighter when written "three things can improve your golf game."

通常你應該寫主動句而不是被動句。“有三種方法可以提高你的高爾夫技術。”就沒有“這三種方法可以提高你的高爾夫技術”這句話來的緊湊。

4. Don't try to impress with jargon or big words。

4.不要以為專業(yè)術語和大詞就能讓人印象深刻。

Readers don't appreciate grandstanding but do value an unclouded message。

讀者不喜歡嘩眾取寵，只需要清楚的信息。

5. Use exclamation points sparingly。

5.少用感嘆號。

Overusing them reduces their impact. And never use more than one at the end of a sentence。

過分使用只會削弱感嘆號的感染力。并且千萬不要在一個句子后使用超過一個感嘆號。

"Elmore Leonard wrote of exclamation marks: 'You are allowed no more than two or three per 100,000 words of prose.' Which means, on average, an exclamation mark every book and a half," points out Stuart Jeffries of The Guardian. "In the ninth book of Terry Pratchett's Discworld series, Eric, one of the characters insists that 'Multiple exclamation marks are a sure sign of a diseased mind.'"

埃爾莫·倫納德曾經(jīng)寫道：“10萬字的文章中感嘆號的出現(xiàn)的次數(shù)應少于2-3次。”《衛(wèi)報》編輯斯圖亞特·杰弗里斯指出：“也就是說，平均一本半書里才有一個感嘆號。”“在特里·普拉切特的《碟形世界》系列小說第九本中，其中一位主角艾瑞克堅持認為‘過多使用感嘆號是心理不正常的表現(xiàn)。’”

6. Limit emails to five or fewer sentences。

6.郵件最好不要超過5句話。

"Seriously. I know it's painful. You have so many important things to say. However, getting it read is more important than getting all that explanation in there. Preferably, it's three sentences. Your goal is to make it easy for [a recipient] to respond immediately from his smartphone," advises 42Floors founder Jason Freedman。

42Floors創(chuàng)始人賈森·弗里德曼建議：“我知道這很難。你有那么多重要的東西要說。但是，讓收件人讀郵件比把所有的解釋都放在那兒更重要。3句話是最好的。你的目的是讓收件人能夠輕易地通過智能手機馬上回復。”

7. Read it out loud。

7.大聲地讀出來。

Before delivering your writing to a recipient, read it out loud. Doing so will likely oust any typos, missing words, or other errors you may not have spotted。

將寫的東西在發(fā)給別人之前，大聲朗讀。這樣可以排除打印錯誤，漏字或者其他你沒有發(fā)現(xiàn)的錯誤。