为什么你应该学习公共写作的“经典风格”

有一种重要且有影响力的公共写作类型，学者们称之为“经典风格”。教授这种风格的经典教科书名为“清晰简单如真理”，作者是弗朗西斯-诺埃尔·托马斯 (Francis-Noël Thomas) 和马克·特纳 (Mark Turner)。

封底的这一段是一个很好的介绍：

For more than a decade, Clear and Simple as the Truth has guided readers to consider style not as an elegant accessory of effective prose but as its very heart. (The authors) present writing as an intellectual activity, not a passive application of verbal skills. In classic style, the motive is truth, the purpose is presentation, the reader and writer are intellectual equals, and the occasion is informal. This general style of presentation is at home everywhere, from business memos to personal letters and from magazine articles to student essays.

You would not think that a writing style called “classic” might also be versatile, but it is. For our interests, it often serves as a tool of civic clarity and public understanding. As a test case, I looked for examples of it in a museum, a place usually designed for us to see and observe, but a place that requires the creation of thousands of texts — usually short ones — to fulfill their mission and purpose.

My hometown, St. Petersburg, Florida, has over the past few decades become a city of museums. The Imagine Museum and the Chihuly Museum display an astonishing collection of glass art; the Florida Holocaust Museum is a place that moves the mind and the heart; and the Salvador Dalí Museum, well, what can I say, it’s surreal.

The new kid on the block is the James Museum of Western and Wildlife Art. When it first opened, it came under fire for the depictions in Western art of Native Americans. That said, large galleries of art created by Indigenous artists stand out for their creativity and authenticity.

The first texts I ran into when I entered the museum were two “Youth Activity Guides.” I am not embarrassed to say that I learned a lot from the guide created for ages 6-plus. Hey, I am old enough to get early doses of the COVID-19 vaccine, and to learn from this guide.

The three-page guide offers three lessons on how artists use shape and form, color and line. Here is a taste:

这本三页的指南提供了关于艺术家如何使用形状和形式、颜色和线条的三个课程。这是一个味道：

有两种形状。几何形状精确而统一，如圆形、正方形和三角形。有机形状是自由的和不规则的，如岩石、树叶和云。

The creators of the guide leave lots of white space for easy reading and add useful illustrations for quicker learning. Even better are creative activities, beginning with the image of a red and yellow stagecoach: “Find this stagecoach in the Frontier Gallery. What shapes do you see? Design your own unique stagecoach. Try using geometric and organic shapes.” That would be an ambitious project for a 7-year-old, not to mention a 73-year-old.

第二个指南适用于 11 岁以上的儿童，介绍更具挑战性的概念，例如透视：

透视用于在设计中营造深度感。有两种类型的透视：

非线性透视：在设计中放置或重叠元素以创建深度。在画布上放置较高的元素看起来更远。在其他元素面前重叠的元素看起来更近。

线性（单点）透视：平行线汇聚在一个消失点以产生深度错觉。

Illustrations and diagrams are essential for learning. But let’s not ignore the way that the authors translate the technical jargon of the visual arts for a multi-generational audience.

If you were to follow me through a museum gallery, you would be amused. While others stand back to take in the visual experience of art, my nose is pretty close to the accompanying text block. My style is to glance at the image, read the text, then stand back and enter into the picture.

Take, for example, this text accompanying a painting called “Bronco Break” by American artist Thomas Blackshear II:

布面油画

在 1800 年代后期养牛业的鼎盛时期，历史学家估计非裔美国人约占工作牛仔的 25%。数千人最初是得克萨斯州牧场的奴隶，在那里他们培养了养牛技能，这些技能后来使他们对蓬勃发展的畜牧业经济产生了无可估量的价值。南北战争（1861-1865 年）之后，自由的有色人种几乎没有就业机会，许多人找到了牛仔工作。这个角色并不能逃避种族主义，因为黑人牛仔经常被赋予最艰巨的工作，但他们通常比其他职业的前奴隶有更大的自主权。

尽管黑人牛仔对西部扩张做出了重大贡献，但长期以来，黑人牛仔在美国历史的更广泛叙事以及艺术和流行文化的描绘中一直被忽视。幸运的是，近几十年来，围绕西方多样性的对话突出了更多非裔美国人的观点。今天的黑人牛仔——和女牛仔——世代传承着骑马和套绳的家庭传统。

Blackshear 自 20 世纪 80 年代初开始作为一名成功的插画师，以富有表现力的灯光和对情绪的敏感度来描绘西方主题。在这里，他向黑人牛仔在西部成功中发挥的内在作用致敬。2020 年，Blackshear 入选了著名的插画家协会名人堂。过去的入选者包括 NC Wyeth、John James Audubon、Frederic Remington 和 Charles Russell。

这篇散文和其他此类“经典文本”给我留下了深刻的印象，这些“经典文本”是我在信息性和展示性作品中找到的，例如关于动物、星星、建筑、重要地点等的指南。在大多数例子中，作者没有使用第一人称，但从文本中出现的声音确实很有帮助和对话，想象读者可能有一些问题。

让学者 Thomas 和 Turner 描述所谓“经典风格”的特征和效果会有所帮助：

经典风格的成语是谈话的声音。作者摆出了一个效率近乎完美的演讲者的姿态，他的句子是声音的产物，而不是某种写作工具。… 经典风格以语音为模型，第一次就可以正确地大声朗读。

在演讲中，一个表达在说出的那一刻就消失了，只有那个瞬间进入脑海并在记忆中占据一席之地。由于经典写作假装是演讲，所以它从不要求读者向前看或向后看；它从不承认读者处于这样做的情况。每个短语的呈现都好像只有一次机会——现在——完成它的工作。当然，读者实际上可能会多次阅读经典散文的段落。但经典作家从不明确或暗示地承认这种可能性。

经典风格的理想演讲似乎是自发的，并且出于向听众传达某事的需要。

经典风格的段落——口头或印刷——有一定的文体要求，或者，如果没有要求，那么好处。即使有一种智能对话的一方的感觉，也没有第一人称或第二人称的迹象，这在其他情况下会表明一种非正式的类型。第三人称效果最好。

学者们坚持认为，以经典的方式写作可以避免离题、旁敲侧击，甚至避免印刷体的过渡，例如“正如我们之前提到的”或“展望未来”。取而代之的是，风格直率而自信，传递的信息具有权威，看起来既不专横也不学究气。