Steven Pinker《The Sense of Style》
原书:The Sense of Style: The Thinking Person's Guide to Writing in the 21st Century(2014) 作者:Steven Pinker — 哈佛大学心理学/认知科学教授,《语言本能》《思想本质》作者 类目:G-写作
核心观点
- 01
烂文章绝大多数不是因为作者想隐瞒,而是因为认知盲点 [行762]"I have long been skeptical of the bamboozlement theory, because in my experience it does not ring true. I know many scholars who have nothing to hide and no need to impress... Still, their writing stinks." 大众理论(Calvin对Hobbes解释"用复杂词汇隐藏空虚思想")听起来有道理,但实际见到无数学者,他们做开创性工作、认真对人,却仍然写得让人读不懂。Pinker拿出Hanlon's Razor:永远不要把可以用愚蠢解释的事情归咎于恶意[行766]。这彻底改变了"烂文章"的诊断方向——从道德问题(作者在装腔作势)变成认知问题(作者陷入了知识的诅咒)。
- 02
Strunk & White的很多禁令是错的,被语言学反复证伪 [行161]"Linguistic research has shown that the passive construction has a number of indispensable functions because of the way it engages a reader's attention and memory. A skilled writer should know what those functions are and push back against copy editors who, under the influence of grammatically naïve style guides, blue-pencil every passive construction they spot into an active one…
金句摘录
「原书:The Sense of Style: The Thinking Person's Guide to Writing in the 21st Century(2014)」
「作者:Steven Pinker — 哈佛大学心理学/认知科学教授,《语言本能》《思想本质》作者」
「[行768] "Call it the Curse of Knowledge: a difficulty in imagining what it is like for someone else not to know something that you know.」
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常见问题
这本书讲了什么?
原书:The Sense of Style: The Thinking Person's Guide to Writing in the 21st Century(2014) 作者:Steven Pinker — 哈佛大学心理学/认知科学教授,《语言本能》《思想本质》作者 类目:G-写作
适合谁读?
从核心观点看,适合想搞清楚「烂文章绝大多数不是因为作者想隐瞒,而是因为认知盲点 [行762]"I have long been skeptical of the bamboozlement」这类问题的人。
最核心的一个观点是什么?
烂文章绝大多数不是因为作者想隐瞒,而是因为认知盲点 [行762]"I have long been skeptical of the bamboozlement theory, because in my experience it does not ring true. I know many scholars who have nothing to hide and no need to im