简明英语运动对商务英语写作的影响.docx

简明英语运动对商务英语写作的影响.docx

《简明英语运动对商务英语写作的影响.docx》由会员分享，可在线阅读，更多相关《简明英语运动对商务英语写作的影响.docx（18页珍藏版）》请在冰点文库上搜索。

简明英语运动对商务英语写作的影响

TheInfluenceofthePlainEnglishMovementonBusinessEnglishWriting

简明英语运动对商务英语写作的影响

Abstract

AboutthreedecadesagothePlainEnglishMovementbegan,andsofarithasdevelopedonaspectacularscalearoundtheglobe.Itwasthenagainstgobbledygookandfightingforthebenefitofordinarypeople;nowitis,almostthesamebutmorepositively,againstthewasteoftimeandmoneyandfightingforeffectiveandcomfortablecommunication.

PlainEnglishhascertainlyenteredtheworldofbusiness.Forafieldthatissoinneedofefficiency,ithashelpedalot.Writtencommunicationinbusinessislikeacornerstone.Peopleconductthemajorityoftheirtransactionsviaitforitspermanencyandaccuracy.Withtheglobalizationofeconomy,businessEnglish,orefficientbusinessEnglishbecomesmoreandmoreessential.SotheoldstyleofbusinessEnglish,long-windedandobscure,startstoappearhelplessorevencausemoretrouble.That’swhyplainEnglishisnowwidelyacceptedandpracticed.

DuetotheinfluenceofplainEnglish,businesspeoplebegintomaketheirwritingsshorterbyemployingsimplerwordsandremovingneedlessjargons.Inthisway,theyexpressthemselvesmoreclearlyandhelpthereadersunderstandthemmoreeasily.AnumberofexamplesarepresentedinthispapertoshowhowplainEnglishactuallyhelpstosimplifybusinesswriting.ButthepurposeofplainEnglishisnotmerelytosimplify,totallydenyingtraditionalbusinessEnglish,buttostatealltheinformationinamoreconciseandclearerwayforquickerandbetterunderstanding.

TheauthorhopesthisstudywillhelppeoplegetabetterunderstandingofbothplainEnglishandbusinesswriting,andbebetteratwritingbusinessworks.

Keywords:

plainEnglish;businesswriting;influence;effectivecommunication

简明英语运动对商务英语写作的影响

摘要

大约三十年前简明英语运动兴起，至今已在全球蓬勃发展。

当初简明英语运动反对官样文章，保障普通老百姓的利益；现在它仍然行使着这职责，并且有了更加积极的一面：

反对浪费时间和金钱，保障有效沟通。

简明英语自然也进入了商业领域，对于如此讲求效率的商业世界多有裨益。

书面通信是商业的基石，因其持久性和准确性，人们大多数的生意都是通过书面通信进行的。

随着经济全球化的不断发展，商务英语，特别是高效率的商务英语扮演着越来越重要的角色。

以往的商务英语冗长、晦涩，早已显出其无用甚至反作用，而简明英语现今却被广泛接受与使用。

由于简明英语的影响，商务工作者已开始使用简易的单词、去掉不必要的陈旧术语，以使写作更加简明。

这样，他们将自己的意思表达得更清楚，也使读者更容易明白。

本文通过大量例证探讨了简明英语是如何影响商务英语，使其简明化的。

但简明英语的目的并不是为了简化而简化，甚至全然否定了传统商务英语，其目的实质为将所有信息更加简明扼要、清楚明了地呈现给读者，使读者更快更轻松地理解。

作者希望这一研究可以使读者对简明英语与商务英语都有一定的了解，并且通过这些了解对现代商务英语写作有更好的掌握。

关键词：

简明英语；商务写作；影响；有效沟通

Contents

Abstracti

摘要ii

Introduction1

1.PlainEnglishandthePlainEnglishMovement1

1.1PlainEnglish1

1.1.1TheDefinitionofPlainEnglish2

1.1.2BasicPrinciplesofPlainEnglish3

1.2ThePlainEnglishMovement4

1.2.1ThePlainEnglishMovementinBritain4

1.2.2ThePlainEnglishMovementintheUS5

2.BusinessEnglishWriting6

2.1TheDefinitionofBusinessEnglish6

2.2PracticalBusinessEnglishWritings6

2.3FeaturesofBusinessEnglishWriting7

3.TheInfluenceofPlainEnglishonBusinessEnglishWriting8

3.1WhyDoPeopleUsePlainEnglish8

3.2ObviousChangesinBusinessEnglishWriting9

3.2.1OmissionofUnnecessaryandRepeatedwords9

3.2.2UseofSimpleWordsandEverydayExpressions10

3.2.3AvoidingtheOut-of-dateCommercialJargons11

3.3OtherInspirationsofPlainEnglish12

Conclusion13

Acknowledgements15

Endnotes16

References17

TheInfluenceofthePlainEnglishMovementonBusinessEnglishWriting

简明英语运动对商务英语写作的影响

Introduction

ThesamewithlegalEnglish,businessEnglishhaslongbeenconsideredtypicalwrittenlanguagefilledwithtechnicaltermsandawkwardformulaicexpressions.Itcan’tbedenied,however,thatchangeshavetakenplacewiththedevelopmentoftimes,andofcoursethemostimportant,withthedevelopmentofplainEnglish.

PlainEnglishhasbecomeatrendineverywayofourdailylife,andamustinourworkandcommunication,especiallythewrittenform.Wehaveagoodreasontostudyitandmakeclearhowitwouldhelpusformoreeffectivecommunication.IthasaffectedmodernbusinessEnglishalotsothatthelatterhasbecomemucheasiertounderstand,thusmakingourworkmoreefficient.

Inthefirstpartwe’llgetanideaofPlainEnglishandthePlainEnglishMovement.ThesecondpartisabriefintroductionofbusinessEnglish.InthethirdparttheauthorwillusealotofexamplestostatehowplainEnglishhasinfluencedbusinesswritingnowadays.

1.PlainEnglishandthePlainEnglishMovement

InordertodiscusstheinfluenceofplainEnglishonbusinessEnglishwriting,we’dbetterfirstacquaintourselveswithsomebasicknowledgeofplainEnglishandthePlainEnglishMovement.ForwhatreasondidtheMovementoccurandwhatexactlyisplainEnglishabout?

Theanswersareinthefollowingparagraphs.

1.1PlainEnglish

PlainEnglishcannotbemisunderstoodasexcessivelysimplelanguageorbabylanguage,oralanguagethatlacksexpression.It’sanaudience-orientedmethodofdeliveringinformationclearlyandeffectivelywithdailylanguageandfamiliarwords,inpropergrammarandstructure.Theinformationoftheplainlanguagedoesn’thavetobereduced,whiletheredundantandobscurepartofasentencedoeshavetobeimproved.

1.1.1TheDefinitionofPlainEnglish

“WedefineplainEnglishassomethingthattheintendedaudiencecanread,understandandactuponthefirsttimetheyreadit.PlainEnglishtakesintoaccountdesignandlayoutaswellaslanguage.”1

—PlainEnglishCampaign,U.K.

PlainEnglishisawayofcommunicationaimingateffectivenessandefficiency.Effectivenessmeansthereaderscanunderstandtheinformation;whileefficiencymeansthereaderscanunderstandtheinformationthemomenttheyfirstreadit.Ithelpspeoplecommunicateassimplyandeffectivelyaspossible,usingstraightforward,concreteandfamiliarwords.Butit’snotchildishorsimplistic;itoffersallthenecessaryinformationtothereader.

Wecanhavealookatthisexample:

A:

Becauseweknewnothingaboutlocalconditions,wecouldnotdeterminehoweffectivelythecommitteehadallocatedfundstoareasthatmostneededassistance.

B:

Ourlackofknowledgeaboutlocalconditionsprecludeddeterminationofcommitteeactioneffectivenessinfundallocationtothoseareasingreatestneedofassistance.2

It’snotstrangethatmostofusmaychooseBasabetterexpressionatthefirstsight,butaccordingtoJosephM.Williams,theauthorofStyle:

TowardClarityandGrace,thefactistheotherwayround.Bisnotgoodbecauseitisfilledwithabstractnounswhichmakethesentencehardtounderstand,whileAiseasytounderstandwithsimpleandeffectiveverbs.

Nowwe’vealreadygrabbedtheessenceofplainEnglish.

1.1.2BasicPrinciplesofPlainEnglish

ForPlainEnglish,todeterminethewritingpurposeandtheintendedaudienceistheforemoststep.Theauthorshouldputthereadersfirstandtaketheirneedandlevelofknowledgeintoaccountwhendecidinghiscontentsandstyle.Herefollowsitsbasicprinciplesofwriting.

（1）PlainEnglishshouldhaveproperarrangementandbeclearlyorganized.Ifthere’salargeamountofinformationtodeliver,itshouldbedividedintologicalparts.Bulletpoints,examplesorpicturesareencouragedwhenone’sexplainingacomplexmessage.

（2）Vigorouswritingshouldbeconciseandtothepoint,containingnounnecessarywordsorsentences.

（3）Weshouldintroducenewinformationonthebasisofthefamiliarinformation,presenteveryactioninalogicalorder,andputthemostimportantinformationattheendofasentenceifnecessary.

（4）Thevalueofadocumentisnotproportionaltoitsweight.Soweshouldusesimplesentencepatternsandavoidexcessivelylongsentences.Butofcourse,wedon’tcutoutwordsjusttomakeitshorter;informationshouldbeexplainedexactlyandconcisely.

（5）Sentenceintheactivevoiceisshorterandclearer,whileinthepassivevoicelongerandvaguer.Whenwewrite,activevoiceshouldalmosttakeup90%ofatext.Butonecanstillemploysomesentencesinpassivevoicewhenitisnecessary.Forexample,whenonewantstostressthereceiveroftheaction,whenonewantstoputneworsurprisinginformationattheend,orwhenonewantstoevaderesponsibility,theytendtousepassivevoice.

（6）Verbs,notnouns,arepreferredinEnglish.Manynounsendingin“-ion”aresimplyverbsindisguise,buttheymakethesentenceobscure.Wecanturnthemintocorrespondingverbstomakethesentenceclearer.

（7）InplainEnglish,complicated,abstract,Latin,foreignandarchaicwordsorjargonsthatarenotfamiliartotheaudienceshouldbeavoided.Don’tuseaphraseifawordcando.AcomplicatedconceptcanbeexplainedbyplainEnglishalmostallthetime.Andifanarticleordocumentisparticularlyforexpertsinacertainfield,jargonswithintheirfieldarealsoacceptableasplain.

（8）Weshouldpreventvaguenessandambiguitybyputtingmodifiersintherightplacesandavoidaseriesofnounattributesandprepositionalphrases.Meanwhile,thepronouns,suchas“you”,“I”and“we”,willbenefitcompaniesandorganizations.Thesewordscreateacloserrelationshipbetweencompaniesandtheirclients.Theaudiencewillbemorelikelytocooperatewhentheinformationisconveyedwiththeseclearandkindpronouns.Sodothewritingasifyou’retalking.

（9）Inmostcases,neutralwordsarepreferred,andwe’lltryanywaytomakethesentencefreefromanydiscrimination.Anothersuggestionforusistoseldomadoptnegativesentences,especiallydoublenegatives,whichtakemoretimetocomprehend.Weshouldsimplyturnitintoapositiveone.Inaddition,we’dbetterleaveenoughmargins.Don’tusecapitallettersorunderlinesallthetime.Ifthelayoutisinamess,thelettersaretoosmall,ortheircolordoesn’tstandout,thenthereaderwillalsohavetroubleincomprehendingevenifthewr