写作改变人生：杜克大学教授关于提高英文写作水平的10点建议

在大学工作的近30年中，我看到很多有才华的人因为不能写作或者没有写作而失败。

而有些能力平平的人（每天早上，我都能从镜子中看到这个人）就因为掌握了写作技能在学界混得还算不错。

1、写作是一种训练，需要日积月累。

只有通过练习才能写得更好、更快。如果你一年后要跑马拉松，你能够等待几个月后一下子跑26英里吗？不可能，你应该逐渐增加，每天都要跑。你或许可以先在平地上练习，慢慢在要求更高的、难度更大的地方跑。想写的好，就要不断写、不断写！不要等待需要了才开始写作。

2、制定以产出导向的目标，而不是以投入导向的目标。

结果导向，不要认为投入一定量的时间就必然有产出。沉迷于十万小时理论不能自拔。要明确自己想要的结果，然后尽可能加快达到目标的速度。“我今天要学习三小时”是一种幻觉，而“我今天要写出3000字的文章”才是以产出导向的目标。写完3000字后再去做别的事。如果写完后你觉得还想写，那当然好，继续写就是了。如果都没有写的意愿，至少要强迫自己写点什么。

3、倾听内心的召唤，不能为发表论文而发表论文

詹姆斯•布坎南（JamesBuchanan）在1986年获得诺贝尔经济学奖。他向求职者提的问题之一是“10年后可能还有人阅读的你的作品是什么？100年后呢？”有人曾问过我这个问题，这确实让人感到恐惧，也令人尴尬，因为我们多数人不这样想。我们关心的是“发表”，就好像文章和观点或论证没有任何关系似的。矛盾的是，你越是竭力想“发表”，你就越发表不了什么东西。而当你真正对所写的东西感兴趣时，写作往往就变得更容易一些。

4、写作需要充足且整块时间

许多聪明人往往用善意的谎言欺骗自己，比如“我在以后时刻能做得好。”瞧瞧，根本不是那回事。谁也不能在压力下有更好的表现。当然，你是聪明人，但如果你要撰写一个艰深的问题，怎么可能就在会议的前晚上思考一下就能做出重要贡献呢？

作家坐在书桌前一连几个小时绞尽脑汁思考。他们提出问题，在喝酒或吃饭时与聪明人交谈，长时间散步，然后再一挥而就一个章节。不要担心写出来的东西不好，不能马上使用。你在写文章的时候可能有新的想法出现，而不仅仅是把思想写下来。

那些几十年后仍然有人读的文章和书是由那些坐在书桌前的人写出来的，他们强迫自己把深刻的思想转变成文字然后再让这些文字引导出更多的思想。如果你给自己充足的时间，写作可能有神奇的魔力，因为你能把自己思想中特定时刻的想法的形象刻画出来，让在时间和空间上都非常遥远的地方的人看得到。

5、没有写出来的东西越多，就越精彩。

我们都遇见过那些口若悬河、令人钦佩的研究生或者老师。他们在酒吧或者办公室聚会上一手拿着啤酒瓶，另一手拿着香烟，旁若无人般高谈阔论。他们对什么问题都能回答，会告诉你他们要写什么东西，内容将多么精彩。

但几年过去了，再问他“你在写什么书？”时，他们仍然给出同样的结果，200字的回答。从来没有变化，因为他们实际上除了吹嘘外，根本没有写任何东西。

另一方面，你在研究某些东西，它在不断变化。你不喜欢刚刚写完的东西，也不敢肯定接下来将发生什么。当有人问“你在写什么？”时你张口结舌，不知怎么回答，因为这很难解释。那些拿着啤酒和香烟的自鸣得意的家伙呢？他们是装腔作势的人，实际上从来不写任何东西。通过几百瓶啤酒和几千支香烟，没完没了地重复他们的结果。不要被象所迷惑，你才是胜利者。当你真正在写作，为了成功努力工作时，你会感到自己太愚蠢、水平太差、疲惫不堪。如果你没有这样感觉，那说明你还不够努力。

6、编一个好听的故事

描绘甚至设想你的著作是在猜谜。有很多有趣的谜语：甲和乙从同一个假设开始却得出了相反的结论，怎么回事？这里有三个似乎都不一样的问题，奇怪的是，它们是同一个问题伪装出来的，我来告诉你这是为什么。理论预测了某个结果，但我们观察到了其他内容。是理论错误还是我们忽略了某些因素？不要被这些模式所限制，但它们在把你的研究呈现给受众时非常有帮助，无论是演讲的听众还是文章读者。

7、找到自己佳写作状态的时间段；其他事情统统靠边站

我碰巧是个喜欢起早的人，所以总是在早上写作。然后才上课、开会或做文字工作。你或许是“夜猫子”或在这两个极端之间的某个地方。不管怎样，要确保把精力旺盛的时间留给写作。不要在忙完别的事后再写作，也不要安慰自己有了整块儿时间后再写作。先写作，有时间再做其他事。

8、不积跬步无以成千里

许多人感到沮丧，因为他们在自己感兴趣的大问题上提不出有说服力的分析，因此什么也不写。其实，刚开始要从小事谈起。奇妙的是，你可能发现自己已经在登山途中走了很长的路，继续长时间埋头一步一步写下去。重新描述问题，准确定义术语，了解论证如何起作用等是很困难的，除非你实际上把它们写出来。

9、摸着石头过河

你深刻的思想往往是错误的，或至少不完全是对的。尤其是在问题很难的时候，准确地提出问题或疑问不是轻而易举的事。当刚入学的研究生说他们知道自己希望研究的东西或毕业论文要写的内容时，我总是暗自发笑。几乎所有的学者在研究和写作的切身经历中都经历过重大改变。他们都是在做中学，有时候了解到自己错了。

10、好文章是改出来的

文章写出来后请他人看看。大学的一大好处是我们大部分时间都在一起，我们都知道面对一张白板一个字也写出不来的恐怖。当你实在厌恶自己的写作时，不妨与同事或导师交换论文，相互批改。你需要克服可能遭到批评和回绝的恐惧。谁的初稿都不好，成功的学者和失败者的区别不一定是他们写得好，常常是这些人的编辑工作做得好。

如果你写作时遇到麻烦，那说明你写得不够多。在我看来，一下子写很多页轻而易举，虽然我不可能成为作家，毕竟我文笔不好。但是，因为考虑了这些建议，并试图按这些建议来做，我已经达到了轻松对付自己和职业所需要的写作的地步。希望读者也能从中受益。

原文：

10 Tips on How to Write Less Badly

By Michael C. Munger

In my nearly 30 years at universities, I have seen a lot of very talented people fail because they couldn't, or didn't write. And some much less talented people (I see one in the mirror every morning) have done OK because they learned how to write.

What I have tried to produce below are 10 tips on writing that might help people write less badly.

1. Writing is an exercise. 

You get better and faster with practice. If you were going to run a marathon a year from now,would you wait for months and then run 26 miles cold? No, you would build up slowly, running most days. You might start on the flats and work up to more demanding and difficult terrain. To become a writer, write. Don't wait for that book manuscript or that monster external-review report to work on your writing.

2. Set goals based on output, not input.

"I will work for three hours" is a delusion; "I will write three thousand word" is a goal. After you have done this, do something else. Prepare for class, teach, go to meetings, whatever. If later in the day you feel like writing some more, great. But if you don't, then at least you wrote something.

3. Find a voice; don't just "getpublished.

" James Buchanan won a Nobel in economics in 1986. One of the questions he asks job candidates is: "What are you writing that will be read 10 years from now? What about 100 years from now?" Someone once asked me that question, and it is pretty intimidating. And embarrassing, because most of us don't think that way. We focus on "getting published" as if it had nothing to do with writing about ideas or arguments. Paradoxically, if all you are trying to do is "get published," you may not publish very much. It's easier to write when you're interested in what you're writing about.

4. Give yourself time.

Many smart people tell themselves pathetic lies like, "I do my best work at the last minute." Look: It's not true. No one works better under pressure. Sure,you are a smart person. But if you are writing about a profound problem, why would you think that you can make an important contribution off the top of your head in the middle of the night just before the conference?

Writers sit at their desks for hours,wrestling with ideas. They ask questions, talk with other smart people over drinks or dinner, go on long walks. And then write a whole bunch more. Don't worry that what you write is not very good and isn't immediately usable. You get ideas when you write; you don't just write down ideas.

The articles and books that will be read decades from now were written by men and women sitting at a desk and forcing themselves to translate profound ideas into words and then to let those words lead them to even more ideas. Writing can be magic, if you give yourself time,because you can produce in the mind of some other person, distant from you inspace or even time, an image of the ideas that exist in only your mind at this one instant.

5.The more unwritten it is, the more brilliant it is . 

Everyone's unwritten work is brilliant. And the more unwritten it is, the more brilliant it is. We have all met those glib, intimidating graduate students or faculty members. They are at their most dangerous holding a beer in one hand and a cigarette in the other, in some baror at an office party. They have all the answers. They can tell you just what they will write about, and how great it will be.

Years pass, and they still have the same pat, 200-word answer to "What are you working on?" It never changes,because they are not actually working on anything, except that one little act.

You, on the other hand, actually areworking on something, and it keeps evolving. You don't like the section you just finished, and you are not sure what will happen next. When someone asks,"What are you working on?," you stumble, because it is hard to explain. The smug guy with the beer and the cigarette? He's a poseur and neveractually writes anything. So he can practice his pat little answer endlessly,through hundreds of beers and thousands of cigarettes. Don't be fooled: You are the winner here. When you are actually writing, and working as hard as you should be if you want to succeed, you will feel inadequate, stupid, and tired.If you don't feel like that, then you aren't working hard enough.

6. Pick a puzzle. 

Portray, or even conceive, of your work as an answer to a puzzle. There are many interesting types of puzzles:

• "X and Y start with same assumptions but reach opposing conclusions. How?"

• "Here are three problems that all seem different. Surprisingly, all are the same problem, in disguise. I'll tell you why."

• "Theory predicts [something]. But we observe [something else]. Is the theory wrong, or is there some other factor we have left out?"

Don't stick too closely to those formulas,but they are helpful in presenting your work to an audience, whether that audience is composed of listeners at a lecture or readers of an article.

作者：迈克尔·芒格（Michael C. Munger）

2000年起担任杜克大学政治学系主任，著有《政策分析：选择、冲突和实践》、《解析政治学》等作品。