书籍介绍
这不又是一本教你'某某词必须这样用、不能那样用'的写作手册。平克偏偏反着来：他劝你忘掉那些陈旧的规则清单，也别再为'今天的年轻人糟蹋了英语'而忧心忡忡。真正的好文字，靠的不是死记硬背的禁忌条目，而是从语言学和认知科学里长出来的道理——为什么句子该这样组织、段落该如何保持连贯、读者究竟怎样才能'读懂你的潜台词'。书里最耐人寻味的，是他对'知识的诅咒'的剖析：写得清楚，往往是因为作者忘了自己懂得太多，反而能站在读者的位置上重新搭建表达。它适合那些不愿被规则绑架、却真心想把事说明白的人读。
作者简介
Steven Pinker is the Harvard College Professor of Psychology at Harvard University. A two-time Pulitzer Prize finalist and the winner of many awards for his research, teaching, and books, he has been named one of Time's 100 Most Influential People in the World Today and Foreign Policy's 100 Global Thinkers.
AI导读
核心看点
- 基于认知科学破除知识诅咒
- 倡导古典风格与读者思维
- 用语言学原理指导清晰写作
读者共识
- 理论扎实且极具实操性
- 语言学家身体力行的典范
- 打破传统写作指南的刻板
精彩摘录
- "We are going to die, and that makes us the lucky ones. Most people are never going to die because they are never going to be born.The potential people who could have been here in my place but who will in fact never see the light of day outnumber the sand grains of Arabia. Certainly those unborn ghos"
- "The guiding metaphor of classic style is seeing the world. The writer can see something that the reader has not yet noticed, and he orients the reader’s gaze so that she can see it for herself. The purpose of writing is presentation, and its motive is disinterested truth. It succeeds when it aligns "
- "The metaphor of conversation implies that the reader is cooperative. The writer can count on her to read between the lines, catch his drift, and connect the dots, without his having to spell out every step in his train of thought."
- "The graybeard sensibilities of the style mavens come not just from an under appreciation of the fact of language change but from a lack of reflection on their own psychology. As people age, they confuse changes in themselves with changes in the world, and changes in the world with moral decline."
- "The abstruseness of the contest winners' writing is deceptive.Most academics can effortlessly dispense this kind of sludge."
- "As people age, they confuse changes in themselves with changes in the world, and changes in the world with moral decline—the illusion of the good old days. And so every generation believes that the kids today are degrading the language and taking civilization down with it:"
- "We are going to die, and that makes us the lucky ones. Good writing starts strong. Not with a cliché (“Since the dawn of time”), not with a banality (“Recently, scholars have been increasingly concerned with the question of…”), but with a contentful observation that provokes curiosity."
- "A writer, like a cinematographer, manipulates the viewer’s perspective on an ongoing story, with the verbal equivalent of camera angles and quick cuts."
目录
Good writing
A window onto the world
The curse of knowledge
The web, the tree, and the string
Arcs of coherence
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用户评论
我这个智商…
六星好书。断断续续读了近两个月，准备读第二遍。（启发最大的是前五章。以自己目前的英文水平，还不足以get到第六章的很多点呐T^T）
真棒！
「獨孤九劍的要旨在於一個「悟」字，當通曉劍意後，則無所施而不可。便是全部變化盡數忘記，也不相干。忘記得越乾淨徹底，越不受原來劍法的拘束。而九劍各式乃以此令使劍者領悟劍意，練到一定程度就是真正的無招，達到劍術最高的境界了！」
不太懂语言树的那一张，不过仅仅从Pinker自己完美的风格中就已经能学到很多。
年度好书！
从根源上入手，分析常见的被称为语法错误的点，具体的规则倒没有多少——或者说许多所谓的错误也并非错误。正如书里所说，记住文字是为了让思想清楚的交流。
主要在讲英文写作，理所当然应该看英文版。 We can remind ourselves of the reasons to strive for good style: to enhance the spread of ideas, to exemplify attention to detail, and to add to the beauty of the world.
比较庆幸在the elements of style和on writing well之后看它，因为它对读者有要求。必须对风格和规则有基本了解。
写作是阅读的逆向，但又是不同的事。人有语言本能所以阅读对写作有帮助。如何将串行的文本准确的编码和解码是门艺术，更需要认知科学。不能想当然的认为专业人士就等于讲得清楚。讲述是去提供解世界的窗口，不要假设受众的知识储备，尽量说人话，少把术语和模板当常识。最喜欢tree string web还有arcs of coherence的部分，用图阐明了句子的被认知过程和大脑的偏好(组块，左树轻，肯定优于否定)，好的风格就是利用认知偏好而不引起歧义。最后还有语言的流变过程中，哪些用法其实可接受而哪些不太行。
能理解，但细节比较多，可能得重看。
“The key is to assume that your readers are as intelligent and sophisticated as you are, but that they happen not to know something you know.”
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