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????親愛的安妮：在上次專欄中，你提到在辦公室里采用“山谷女郎”式的講話方式很不得體，對此我完全贊同。現在，我想請教一個相關的問題：如何建議他人（尤其是職場新人）在給上司撰寫備忘錄或向更高級別的管理人員提出提案時運用得體的英文，而不是讓人讀起來感覺像一條發給好友的短信呢？ ????目前，我們公司新來了一群朝氣蓬勃的管理見習生，他們的很多觀點和建議確實非常新穎有趣。但問題是，當他們將想法通過郵件發給我時，閱讀這些郵件總是讓我頭疼，因為里面使用了大量的縮略語，句子結構也很松散。他們都是大學畢業生，我原以為他們學過如何根據情況寫出得體的文字。我不知道如何鼓勵他們改掉這個毛病，當然，我可不想讓自己看上去像個挑剔的“文法警察”。——32歲的守舊之人 ????親愛的O.F.：并不是只有年輕雇員才會犯這種毛病。到目前為止，讀者向我反映的類似抱怨中，涉及的對象包括各個年齡段的人。正因為這種現象很普遍，才有了桑德拉?萊姆的用武之地，她長期從事寫作指導工作，并于最近出版了新書——《文體寫作全攻略》（How to Write It: A Complete Guide to Everything You'll Ever Write）。 ????“短信和Twitter的流行改變了人們的寫作方式，但也只是導致人們濫用縮略語和殘缺句的部分原因。宏觀層面科技的影響盡管極其微妙，但它才是一切事物發展的助推器，”桑德拉?萊姆如是說。 ????要寫好文章，她說：“不要急于動筆，在開始之前先思考要寫的內容；事實上，思考過程恰恰是我們經常忽視的部分。” ????萊姆在她的新書中清楚地提出了一個簡單明了的商務寫作方法。首先要了解聽眾，考慮他們對話題究竟了解多少，哪些方面又是他們希望了解的。下一步就是撰寫信息，每一條信息都要非常清楚地表達出來；如有必要，甚至可以歸結為一句話來表達。 ????你所針對的對象是大學畢業生，那就更好辦了，因為萊姆所建議的步驟和完成一份合格的論文所要求的步驟甚為接近，因此，他們也許對這項工作并不陌生。 ????簡言之，一份得體的商務信函需要我們做到以下幾個步驟：整合思想，使其更加符合邏輯（有必要的話，列出大綱，即使大綱只存在于腦海中也是大有裨益的）。整理所有支持自己觀點的資料或相關內容，擬出草稿，然后進行修訂，刪除所有偏題或無關的信息。 ????“這樣做也許只需要幾分鐘，也許要一小時，”萊姆坦承。“但是對于重要的備忘錄或提議，花些時間是值得的。因為這樣寫出的內容才更加具有說服力，這是那些草草寫就的文章所做不到的。” ????“另外，熟能生巧，寫作也一樣。練習得越多，越能變成一種習慣，也會越快。” ????至于如何鼓勵你那些朝氣蓬勃的下屬，讓他們在自己的寫作上花點兒心思，萊姆提出了兩項建議。第一，“其實大部分人都知道如何將詞語或句子寫完整，問題是在給朋友編輯短信和給老板撰寫報告兩者間，他們可能僅僅是忘記了轉換自己的角色。作為他們的上司，何不直接提醒他們呢？” ????第二，對下屬曉以利害并沒有壞處。直接向他們指出：如果想取得進步，希望自己的想法被認可，有效的溝通技巧是極為重要的工具。萊姆表示，“向他們解釋清楚，無論他們的想法有多出色，如果不能采用令人信服的方式表達出來，那也無濟于事，個人的事業也會因此遭遇挫折。” ????祝你成功。 ????下面談論的是一個完全不同的話題，可以說是我的一個請求：今年9月份發布的失業統計數據令人沮喪。據報告，目前兼職人員新增了444,000個，而他們更希望成為全職員工。據估計，截至到現在，包括那些被大材小用的就業者在內，美國未充分就業人員的總數已經達到近900萬。 ????形勢很嚴峻。難道未充分就業問題會永遠成為我們難以逾越的一個障礙嗎？在今后的某專欄中，我將就此展開論述。我想聽聽大家的看法，尤其是那些成功擺脫兼職命運，獲得全職工作的人；還有那些曾面臨“被迫讓位”，但成功扭轉事業頹勢獲得更好職位的人。請把你的看法通過郵件發給我（[email protected]）。 |
????Dear Annie: I couldn't agree more with your column about the inappropriateness of "Valley Girl" speech habits in the office. I have a related question. How would you suggest that I communicate to people (especially young people who haven't been in the business world very long) that a memo to one's boss, or a proposal that may be read by people even higher up, should not be written as if it were a text message to a friend? ????We have a few very bright management trainees here who have some truly fresh, interesting ideas and suggestions. The trouble is, when they put them in an email, the abbreviations and sloppy sentence structure make me cringe. These are college graduates, so I assume they learned how to write decent English somewhere along the way, but how do I encourage them to do so without coming across as the Grammar Police? — Old Fogey at 32 ????Dear O.F.: Young employees aren't the only ones dropping the ball in this regard. I've heard similar laments from readers about colleagues of all ages. So has Sandra Lamb, a longtime writing coach and author of a useful new book called How to Write It: A Complete Guide to Everything You'll Ever Write. ????"Texting and tweeting have affected the way people write, but it's only partly because of the habit of using abbreviations and sentence fragments," Lamb observes. "The far bigger, although more subtle, impact of technology has been the way it speeds everything up." ????In order to write well, she says, "you have to give yourself the time to stop and think about what you want to say before you say it, and it's that time for reflection that we often feel we just don't have anymore." ????In her book, Lamb spells out a straightforward approach to business writing. It starts with understanding one's audience, taking into account both what they already know about the topic at hand and what they want or need to know. The next step is to develop a message, which should be clear enough that, if necessary, it could be boiled down to one sentence. ????It's helpful that the employees whose writing you'd like to fix are college graduates, because the process Lamb prescribes is not all that different from the steps required to turn out a passable term paper -- a task with which they are probably familiar. ????In a nutshell, the steps involve the following: Organize your thoughts into a logical progression (making an outline if necessary, even if only in your head). Marshal any supporting data or other evidence for your point of view, write a draft, and then revise it, cutting out any distracting or irrelevant information. ????"It may take a few minutes or an hour to do this," Lamb acknowledges. "But for an important memo or proposal, it's worth taking the time, because it will be so much more persuasive than just dashing something off quickly. ????"Besides, the more you practice writing well, the more it becomes second nature and the faster you can do it." ????When it comes to encouraging your bright subordinates to make the extra effort, Lamb has two suggestions. First, she notes, "Most people do know how to write in complete words and sentences, but they may simply be forgetting to switch gears between texting their friends and writing a report to a boss. As their boss, why not just remind them?" ????And second, it can't hurt to appeal to your employees' self-interest. Point out that, for anyone who wants to get ahead and be recognized for his or her ideas, effective communication skills are paramount. Says Lamb, "Explain that, no matter how great your ideas are, if you don't express them in a cogent fashion, your career will suffer." ????Good luck. ????On an entirely different subject, a request: September's dreary jobless statistics included a reported increase of 444,000 in the number of people working part-time who would rather be working full-time. Some estimates put the total number of "underemployed" Americans -- including those who are doing jobs for which they are overqualified -- at about 9 million. ????It's grim, but is underemployment always a permanent setback? For a future column, I'd like to hear from anyone who has successfully turned a part-time job into a full-time one, or who has found a way to turn a "step down" into a steppingstone to a better position. Please email me at [email protected]. |
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