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Style: Lessons in Clarity and Grace （amazon.co.jp）
Style: Lessons in Clarity and Grace (amazon.com)
Style: Lessons in Clarity and Grace (Amazon.co.uk)


９月のサテライトシンポの時、同じくスピーカーだった土谷さんが絶賛してたStyleという本を買って先日読了。

非常に良かった。

ここ数年、ライティング力向上を、と思って、いくつか関連の本を読んだりした。その中でもこの本には重要テクが凝縮されている。第１０版まで出ているのも納得。

この本のポイントは、表紙・裏表紙をめくったところに書かれていて、それは以下の通り。（実際、この本を読まないと、その本質はなかなかわからないかもしれません。。）

Ten principles for writing clearly
1. distinguish real grammatical rules from folklore
2. use subjects to name the characters in your story
3. use verbs to name their important actions
4. open your sentences with familiar units of information
5. get to the main verb quickly:
* avoid long introductory phrases and clauses
* avoid long abstract subjects
* avoid interrupting the subject-verb connection
6. push new, complex units of information to the end of the sentence
7. begin sentences that form a unit with consistent topic/subjects
8. be concise:
* cut meaningless and repeated words and obvious implications
* put the meaning of phrases into one or two words
* prefer affirmative sentences to negative ones
9. control sprawl:
* don’t tack more than one subordinate clause onto another
* extend a sentence with resumptive, summative, and free modifiers
* extend a sentence with coordinate structures after verbs
10. above all, write to other s as you would have others write to you

Ten principles for writing coherently
1. in your introduction, motivate readers to read carefully by stating a problem they should care about
2. state your point, the solution to the problem, at or near the end of that introduction
3. in that point, introduce the important concepts that you will develop in what follows
4. make everything that follows relevant to your point
5. make it clear where each part/section begins and ends
6. order parts in a way that makes clear and visible sense to your readers
7. open each part/section with its own short introductory segment
8. put the point of each part/section at the end of that opening segment
9. begin sentences that form a unit with consistent topics/subjects
10. create cohesive old-new ties between sentences

この本では、以上のprinciplesが例文・例題をまじえつつ説明されている。この本は２００ページほどだけど、構成がさすがにすばらしく非常に読みやすい。

日本語で文章を書く場合、主述の関係が曖昧になることが多かったりするけど、おそらくこの本に書かれていることは、英語に限らず、どんな言語でも普遍的な原則かもしれない。

とにかくお薦めの一冊。