CIA Writing Style Book

简介编辑本段 回目录

封面

最近网上流传着一份长达185页的写作指南，这是美国中央情报局(CIA)为帮助特工写出得体语句而编撰的，显示了中情局(the agency)重视保卫牛津逗号（指英语中列举多个对象时，最后一个“和”(and)前面的逗号——译者注）几乎赶上重视保卫美国。如果你想像间谍一样写作，那么除非有充分理由，否则绝不要在不定式的to和动词之间增加别的词。此外，你还必须清楚“口头”(oral)和“言语”(verbal)这两个词的区别，在表示愿望的时候，只能用“hopefully”（有望），而不能用“with hope”（带着希望）。

这则消息将令全世界的学究感到由衷地踏实。在告别了红色恐怖、寻常日子里也不必担心被炸飞的当今世界里，能让学究觉得恐怖的事情本已所剩无几，其中之一就是语法错误。

FOREWORD

PREFACE

1. CAPITALIZATION

1.1. A Few Basic Rules

1.2. Proper Nouns

1.3. Derivatives of Proper Names

1.4. Articles in Place Names

1.5. Names of Persons

1.5a. Particles in Personal Names, 3

1.5b. Nicknames, 3

1.6. Government Bodies

1.7. Military Forces

1.8. International Organizations

1.9. Diplomatic and Consular Units

1.10. Religious Terms

1.11. Titles of Religious Leaders

1.12. Political Parties and Similar Groups

1.13. Political Philosophies

1.14. Geographic Terms

1.14a. Direction, 6

1.14b. Special Geographic Groupings, 6

1.15. Nationalities, Tribes, and Other Groups of People 7,

1.16. Coined Names 8

1.17. Holidays, Religious Feasts, and Historic

and Other Significant Events

1.18. Trade Names

1.19. Titles of Persons

1.19a. Before the Name, 9

1.19b. After or in Place of the Name, 9

1.19b1. Head 0; Assistant Head of State or Government; Royal Heir Apparent, 10

1.19b2. Top OffiCials, National Govemment Unit; Principal Members, Legislative and Judicial Branches. 10

1.19b3. Officers of Patty Organizations in Communist Countries, 10

1.19b4. Top Officials of Rrst-Order Subnational AdmInistrative Divisions, 11

1.19bS. Top Officers in a Militaty Service, 11

1.19b6. Principal Official of an Intemational Organization, 11

1.19b7. Principal Members of the Diplomatic Corps, 11

1.20. Publications 12

1.20a. Titles In English, 12

1.20b. Shortened Titles, 12

1.20c. Laws and Treaties, 12

1.20d. Foreign Titles, 12

1.21. Graphics, Tables, and Chapters

1.22. Cross· References

1.23. Indented Bullet or Dash Paragraphs

1.24. Miscellany

1.24a. Seasons, 13

1.24b. Major Storms, 13

2.~BERS 15

2.1. Basic Guidance 15

2.2. Numbers of 10 or More 15

2.3. Numbers Under 10 15

2.4. Mixes of Numbers Above and Below 10 15

2.5. Ordinal Numbers 16

2.6. Indefinite Numbers 16

2.7. Figures of 1,000 or More 16

2.8. Millions and Billions· 16

2.9. Numerical Unit Modifiers 17

2.10. Possessives 17

2.11. Ranges of Numbers 17

2.11a. Below the Millions, 17

2.11b. In the Millions, 18

2.12. Numbers in Tables and Graphics and for Pages, Paragraphs, and Footnotes 18

2.13. References to Numbers as Numbers . 18

2.14. Numbers in Nonliteral Sense 18

2.15. Decimals 19

2.16. Fractions 19

2.17. Mixed NUl)1bers 19

2.18. Expressions of Value 19

2.18a. US Money, 19

2.18b. Foreign Money, 20

2.19. Percentages and TImes Phrases 20

2.19a. Percentage, 20

2.19b. Times Phrases, 20 C05757260

2.20~Expressions of Time 21

2.20a. Ages of Persons, 21

2.20b. Ages of Inanimate Things, 21

2.20c. Dates, 21

2.20d. Years, 22

2.20e. Decades, 22

2.2Of. Centuries, 22

2.20g. Clock Time, 23

. 2.20h. Other TIme Expressions, 23

2.21. Units of Measure 23·

2.22. Figures With Units of Measure 23

2.23. Other Number Rules 24

2.23a. Numbers Close Together, 24

2.23b. Ratios, Odds, Scores, Returns, 24

2.23c. Indefinite Expressions USing Figures, 24

2.23d. Scientific Notation, 24 Factors for Converting to Metric Units of Measure 25·

3. ABBREVIATIONS 27

3.1. General Guidance 27

3.2. First Reference 27

3.3. Well-Known Abbreviations 28

~.4. Foreign Terms 28

3.5. Incomplete or Possessive References 28

3.6. Plural Forms 29

3.7. Military Ranks 29

3.8. Unusual Forms 29

3.8a. MIRVs, 29

3.8b. SALT, MBFR, INF,30

3.9. Country Names 30

3.9a. US, UK, 30

3.9b. China, 30

3.9c. Miscellaneous Rules, 30

3.10. Titles of Persons 31

3.10a. Civil or Military, 31

3.10b. Complimentary, 31

3.11. Latin Abbreviations 31

3.12. Political Subdivisions 31

3.13. Months and Days 32

3.14. Percent 32

3.15. Units of Measure 32

3.16. Ambiguous Abbreviations 34

4. ITALICS

4.1. Prominence or Em.,hasis

4.2. Titles

4.3. Foreign Words

4.3a. Familiar or Anglicized Foreign Words, 35

4.3b. Other Foreign Words, 36

4.3c. Titles of Publications, 36

4.3d. Names of Organizations, 36

4.4. Names of Craft

4.5. Cited Letters, Words, and Phrases

5. PUNCTUATION

5.1. General Principles

5.2. Apostrophe

5.2a: Possessives, 39

5.2a1. Words That End in an s Sound, 39

5.2a2. Words That Do Not End in an s Sound, 40

5.2a3. Compounds, 40

5.2a4. Combinations Indicating Joint Possession, 40

5.2a5. Geographic, Firm, or Organization Names or

Publication Titles, 40' '

5.2a6. Organized Bodies That End In s, 40

5.2a7. Personal Pronouns, 41

5.2b. Possessives With Persons or Inanimate Bodies, 41

5.2c. Noun or Pronoun Preceding a Gerund, 41

5.2d. Plurals, 41

5.3. Brackets

5.3a. Inside Parentheses, 42

5.3b. Editorial Remarks, 42

5.4. Bullets (Ticks)

5.5. Colon

5.5a. Summaries or Expansions, 42

S.Sb. Separation of Clauses, 43

5.5c. Titles and Subtitles, 43

5.5d. Ratios, 43

5.5e. Indented Material, 43

5.6. Comma

5.6a. For Comprehension, 43

5.6b. Separation of Coordinate Modifiers, 44

5.6c. With Nonrestrictive Words, 44

5.6d. With Contrasting Statements, 44

5.6e. Serial Comma, 44

5.6f. Compound Sentences, 45

5.6g. Numbers In the Thousands and Higher, 45

5.6h. Introductory Phrases, 45

5.61. Title of Person and Name of Organization, 46

5.6j. Omission of a Word or Words, 46

5.6k. Before Direct Quotations, 46

5.61. With Geographic, Personal, or Corporate Names, 46

5.7. Dash (or Em Dash) 46

5.7a. Parenthetical Matter, 46

5.7b. Before a Anal Summarizing Clause, 47

5.7c. In Place of a Bullet, 47

5.S. Ellipsis

5.9. En Dash

5.10. Exclamation Point

5.11. Hyphen

5.12. Parentheses

5.12a. With Comments, 48

5.12b. With Cross·References, 48

5.12c. With Numbers or Letters In a Series, 48

5.12d. With foreign Words, 48

5.13. Period

5.14. Question Mark

5.148. To Show Uncertainty, 49

5.14b. In a Title, 49

5.15. Quotation Marks

5.15a. Double Quotation Marks, 49

5.15a1. Direct Quotations, 49

5.15a2. Titles That Do Not Merit Italicization, 50

5.15a3. Selected Words or Phrases, 50

5.15b. Single Quotation Marks, 50

5.15c. Punctuation With Quotation Marks, 50

5.15d. Terms Precluding Need for Quotation Marks, 51

5.16. Semicolon 51

5.16a. Series, 51

5.16b. Compound Sentence, 51 .

5.1Sc. With Conjunctive Adverbs, 51

5.17. Slash

5.17a. To Show a 12-Month Period Occurring In Two Calendar Years, 52

5.17b. To Represent Per in Abbreviations, 52

5.17c. To Separate Alternatives, 52

5.17d. To Show Combination in Certain Instances, 52

6. SPELLING

6.1. General Principles

6.2. Preferred and Difficult Spellings

6.3. British Terms

6.4. Anglicized Foreign Words

6.5. Plural Forms

6.5a. 0 Endings, 54

6.5b. Compound Terms, 54

6.Sc. Other Difficult Plurals, 54

6.6. Endings ·yze, ·/ze, and ·Ise

6.7. ~dings -sede, -ceed, and ·cede

6.8. Endings ·Ible and ·able

6.9. Doubled Consonants

6.10. Indefinite Articles

6.10a. With Consonants and Vowels, 55

6.10b. With Initials That Begin With a Consonant Sound, 56

6.10c. With Initials That Begin With a Vowel Sound, 56

6.10d. With Acronyms, 56

6.10e. With Abbreviations That Have Variable Pronunciations, 56

6.1Of. With Numerical ExpreSSions, 56

6.11. Geographic Names 56

6.12. Names and Titles of Persons and Organizations 57

6.13. Diacritical Marks 57

6.14. Transliteration Guidance 57

7. COMPOUND WORDS 59

7.1. General Rules 59

7.1a. Separate Words, 59

7.1b. Jolne~ or Hyphenated, 59

7.2. Solid Compounds 59

7.2a. Combinations of Nouns, 59

7.2b. Combinations of Verbs and Adverbs, 60

7.2c. Compounds Beginning With Certain Nouns, 60

7.2d. Compounds Ending With Certain Words, 60

7.2e. Any, Every, No, or Some Combined With Body, Thing, Where, or One, 60

7.2f. Self or Selves, 60

7.2g. Compass Directions, 61

7.3. Unit Modifiers

7.3a. Hyphenated, 61

7.3b. Unhyphenated, 61

7.3c. With Ordinal Numbers, 62

7.3d. Predicates, 62

7.3e. Comparatives and Superlatives, 62

7.3f. Adverbs Ending in -/y, 63

7.3g. Three-Word Modifiers, 63

7.3h. foreign Phrases, 63

7.3i. Proper Nouns, 63

7.3j. En Dash In Proper Noun Compounds, 63

7.3k. Quotation Marks, 64

7.31. Chemical Terms, 64

7.3m. letter or Number Elements, 64

7.3n. Common Basic Elements, 64 61. C05757260

7.4. Prefixes and Suffixes

7.4a. Unhyphenated, '65

7.4b. Hyphenated, 65

7.4c. Doubled Vowels or Tripled Consonants, 65

7.4d. To Avoid Confusion, 65

7.4e. Duplicated Prefixes, 66

7.4f. Prefixes or Suffixes in Compounds With Capitalized Words, 66

7.4g. Unit Modifier Containing a Multiword Compound, 66

7.5. Numerical, Compounds 66

7.5a. Spelled Out, 66

7.5b. Adjective Compounds With Numerical First Element, 67

7.5c. Fractions, 67

7.6. Other Compound Words 67

7.6a. Titles, 67

7.6b. Noun Compounds Containing a Prepositional Phrase, 67

7.6c. Improvised Compounds, 67,

7.6d. Verb Forms of Noun Forms Written as Two Words, 67

7.6e. Single Capital Letter Plus a Noun or Participle, 68

8. SPELUNG AND COMPOUND WORDS LIST

9. WORD WATCHERS LIST

9.1. What's In This Chapter?

9.2. Who Are the Word Watchers?

9.3. Some Helpful Precepts

故事由来编辑本段 回目录

中情局（the agency，或按照指南的要求写作the Agency）的这份指南花了150页记述各种写作规则，然后它就如何写好文章给出了一些建议（或用他们的话来说，一些“有用的戒律”。它极力主张“优先使用主动语态，避免连续使用多音节词和介词短语”。乔治•奥威尔(George Orwell)当年若是听到这样的建议，应该不会感到惊讶（他本人生前就曾说过“能够用短词的地方千万别用长词”之类的话）。

具体内容编辑本段 回目录

语言的特点在于它会改变，尽管在中情局这种改变似乎十分缓慢。目前这版更新于2011年的指南仍然认为，有必要解释“电子邮件”是“一种用电子传递信息的方式，也指被电子传递的一条或数条消息”。

指南里还说第三世界“指的是非洲、亚洲和拉丁美洲的经济欠发达国家或发展中国家”，并指出其中部分国家更发达一些。指南没提到这条术语已经没人用了，因为它显得不太礼貌，并且如果你连不同国家间存在财富差距都不知道，那么间谍这个职业大概不适合你。

不过所有条目里最令人震惊的应是“战争”一词。对于这一范围广泛且意义重大的主题，这份指南只写了一句“见大写字母部分脚注7”。

根据这个脚注，判断出语法战争中的“war”（战争）首字母应该小写。还判断出这不是一场正义的战争。间谍之间的文字往来只要准确、清楚和尽量简短，几个语法小错误肯定无关紧要。中情局的宣战对象应该是行话、委婉语和夸张法。

在这份指南的前言里，中情局情报主管弗兰•穆尔(Fran Moore)称，它“反映了（中情局）在谨慎、准确方面一贯秉持最高标准……”

这句空洞的废话令人生厌又让人有些沮丧。其实她想说的是：“我们的报告必须行文清晰，以下是实现方法。”就连她头衔里使用的代词“for”（头衔名Director for Intelligence）都暗示出大事不妙——中情局摒弃了更准确的“of”，而采用了更暧昧的“for”，假意暗示拥有该头衔的人不会对别人颐指气使。

在针对官僚的写作指南方面，英国内政部(Home Office)去年树立了良好榜样，禁用了50个使用最普遍、危害最大的术语。

英国内政部规定，在不涉及方向盘的情境中不许使用“驱使”(driving)一词、对除披萨以外的东西不许“递送”（deliver，也做“实现”——译者注）、没锁不许说“钥匙”（key，也做“关键”——译者注）。最重要的是，除在指路时，其他时候不许说“前进”(go forward)。

套话之所以危害甚大，在于它们会不经大脑地滑出舌尖或键盘。取缔这些术语，可迫使员工遵循唯一重要的那条写作规则：先想好你要说什么，再把它写出来。