商业书信要注意选择合适的措辞
Appropriate choice of words in business wiring plays a vital part in achieving the writer＇s anticipated effect. The diction you choose should therefore reflect your sincerity and objectivity; equally important, the words should be tailored to the situation in order to arouse and maintain the reader＇s interest in the message.
To accomplish this objective, it is desirable for you to strive for a simple, direct, and natural writing style. Good writings in business sound like an informal conversation between the writer and the reader. Two reasons justify this simplicity in business writings.
First, many people are inclined to write at too difficult a level, using big words and complicated structures for fear that others say they lack intelligence and literary talent. Winston Churchill once made an excellent remark when referring to this tendency: "Little men use big words; big men use little words." We would do well to follow the example of this big man.
Secondly, the writer is in rarer cases more informed about the subject of the message than the reader. Thus, the two are not equally equipped to the communication on the matter. Only by reducing the message to the reader＇s level could the message be smoothly communicated.
在商业书信中恰当的选词是获得预期效果的关键。措辞直接反映了写信者的真诚态度和客观事实；同样重要的是，为了唤起和保持读信者的兴趣，你所选的句子要进行恰当地剪裁。
为了达到这个目的，我们就要力求使用简单，直接和自然书写字体。商务往来中好的书信是写信人和读信人之间的一种非正式的对话。两个原因说明这个问题。
第一，很多人倾向于使用一种比较难的水平来书写，用大词和复杂的结构，惟恐读信的人会觉得他水平不高。丘吉尔曾经对这一现象说过一句著名的话：“小人物用大词汇，大人物用小词汇。”我们应该信守这个大人物的名言。
第二，写信人肯定比读信者更清楚信息的内容。因此，两者对信息的掌握不是同等的。只有把信息降低到读者的角度才能使信息顺利地交流。
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