Have you ever finished reading a piece of writing and then felt totally baffled about the intended meaning? Sometimes this is a sign that you are reading an advanced textbook, but sometimes this is a sign you're just reading unclear writing!

　　你是否有这样的经历，阅读完成一些作品后对其想要表达的含义摸不着头脑?遇到这种情况，可能是提示你正在阅读一本深奥的书籍，也有可能是这些作品的思路本身是不清晰的。

　　Bad writing is unkempt. It is disorganized and inappropriately decorated. It includes a lot of flashy words that just don’t fit.

　　质量差的写作是不整洁的。文章的修饰是无组织或不恰当的。文章中包含很多华丽的词汇却使用不得当。

　　The seven rules below will help you identify and create organized, clear writing that leaves the reader informed and satisfied.

　　这七条规则可以帮助你鉴别和创作有组织的结构清晰的文章，使读者更容易理解。

　　1. Say what you mean 说出你想表达的含义

　　Overly fancy words are not necessarily direct words, and they often fail to state your point clearly.

　　使用过多奇幻的词汇是不必要的，并且这些词汇可能会干扰你清晰地表达自己的观点。

　　You should certainly be willing to improve your vocabulary, but there is an art to doing this without sounding like you’re trying a bit too hard. If you find that your writing sounds too vague or elementary, you must avoid going overboard with fancy-sounding words and, instead, try to find more precise words.

　　对于这种情况，你当然应该提高词汇量,这里有一种听起来不太费力的方法可以改善这个问题。如果你发现你的写作听起来太过含糊或基础，你必须避免过量使用听起来不切实际的词语,相反,试着使用更精确的词语。

　　2. Give your readers a road map 为读者提供引导图

　　Our brains like to receive messages in a tidy order. They don’t like to be surprised by a big point – which is why introductory statements are important. When writing, it is generally a good idea to start broad and provide an overview of the information to come. But don’t worry so much about this on your first draft.

　　我们的大脑喜欢接受有次序的信息，而不是无序杂乱的信息，因此引言是非常重要的。在写作时，从整体的角度对全文的信息做一个概述是个不错的想法。但在写初稿时可以先不考虑概述。

　　You should never expect to write all of your messages in the correct order on the very first try – no matter what type of messages you are writing. You can reorder paragraphs and sentences for your final draft.

　　在写初稿时，不论是哪种文章，我们都不能保证第一次写作就将文章顺序一次调整好。可以在之后的修改当中重新调整段落和句子的顺序。

　　3. Get to the point 适时切入主题

　　As mentioned above, every paragraph should have an introductory statement. This is important to establish a context or a background for the main point of a paragraph. But you should avoid overdoing it with the intro. Don’t surround your point – just introduce it and then go for it!

　　像之前提到的，每一段落都应该有一句引言引出段落内容。这对于建立段落的上下文背景是非常重要的。但应该避免引言过多。不要一直围绕主题叙述，引出主题然后直接展开论述。

　　4. Cut the fat 去掉不需要的部分

　　Every single writer who ever published a paper or a book has had to chop off some paragraph, page, or chapter that they loved. But if it doesn’t serve a purpose, it should go. But cutting the fat is healthy.

　　每个曾经发表过文章的人都有这样的经历，文章中作者喜欢的段落，页面，章节可能会被删除。但如果这些内容没有为文章的主题服务，那么这些内容应该被删除。但剪切掉这些内容可以使文章更精简。

　　5. Don’t jolt the reader’s brain 避免与读者的思路冲突

　　You may have some excellent paragraphs, but they are not going to be very pleasing to read if they jump awkwardly from topic to topic. As you revise your paper, be sure to order your paragraphs in a sensible fashion and create smooth transitions between them. It just takes a few minutes extra, but it’s worth your time.

　　你可能会有一些很好的段落，但是这些内容从一个主题生硬地跳转到另一个主题，不符合读者的阅读思路。在你修订自己的文章时，确保你的段落采用一种合适的组织顺序，且段落之间转换流畅。这些工作可能只花费几分钟的时间，但收获却是值得的。

　　6. Use meaningful examples 使用有意义的举例

　　If you are attempting to explain something complicated to your reader, it is a good idea to provide examples that will clarify the subject. But make sure your examples are meaningful.

　　如果你尝试向读者解释一些复杂的事务，提供一些切合主题且阐明主题的例子。确信你的举例是有意义的。

　　Imagery is a good tool for showing examples. Graphs and tables will work, but whatever you decide to use to clarify your point, try it out on a friend. Have a friend, parent, or teacher read the segment with the example and see if it makes sense to them.

　　图像是展示例证的得力工具。图表同样起作用，但不论你决定使用什么例子来阐明你的主题，试着让朋友，父母或老师来读这些例证材料来看看这些举例是否对他们同样有效。

　　7. Punctuate properly 合理添加标点

　　Observe the difference between these statements:

　　观察下面的句子有哪些不同：

　　I once saw a man-eating frog.

　　我曾看到过可供人食用的青蛙。

　　I once saw a man eating frog.

　　我曾看到过吃青蛙的人。

　　You can change the meaning of a sentence pretty drastically when you leave out some punctuationmarks. What about this:

　　遗漏一些标点可以彻底地改变句子的意思，比如下面这句：

　　That that that that teacher wrote was incorrect.

　　It’s a little better when you punctuate with:

　　添加标点后句子会更易懂：

　　That “that” that that teacher wrote was incorrect.

　　那个老师写的“that”是不正确的。

　　Even if those examples are a little goofy, they do demonstrate the importance of punctuating.

　　尽管这些例子有一些夸张，它们却表明了标点符号的重要性。

（编辑：何莹莹）