On Writing Well-2 简洁

简洁的文风 (Simplicity)

现实中我们总是被眼花缭乱的文字和信息包围。各种合同告示、商业广告、产品介绍常常让人不知所云。似乎写得简单，就不能显示出来“高大上”的范儿。繁冗复杂俨然成了写作风气。

但是，什么是好的写作？简洁有力！每一个句子干净至简。实现简洁，首先要思路清晰，逻辑清楚。思路清晰方能实现写作清楚 Clear thinking becomes clear writing .作者一直在强调 rewriting is the essence of writing。其中重要的一步就是要化繁为简，体现要义。

But the secret of good writing is to strip every sentence to its cleanest components . Everu wprd tjat serves mp fimctopm .everu ;pmg wprd that could be a short word ,every ......— these are the adulterants that weaken the strength of a sentence . 

在信息爆炸的时代，作为读者，我们也深有体会，各种长句子、修饰词的堆砌，让人备受摧残。 读者的注意力只有三十秒，面对海量的信息，我们的注意力何去何从？如果读者在三十秒内读不懂文章的话，就会很快另辟蹊径。

The reader is someone with an attention span of about 30 seconds — a person assailed by many forces competing for attention . 

文中作者特地附了本篇文字的修改稿。并且写下了修改心得。每次重写都要力求紧凑有力，准确简洁，改完后大声朗读，发现冗词再改。如此反复，常常四五个回合。

With each rewrite I try to mak what I have written tighter , stroner and more precise , eliminating every element that's not doing useful work .Then I go over it once more , reading it alound ,and am always amazed at how much clutter can still be cut .