如何为读者而写

课程论文，未点名读者

做过阅读、但还没听过我论点的同学。我必须证明自己理解材料，而不能假定教师会补上缺口。

专业期刊论文

已经在做这些检测或模型的研究者。我可以使用本领域术语；我不能跳过改变争论的结果。

广谱科学期刊（Nature 风格）

本学科之外的职业科学家，包括英语非母语的读者。标题和摘要必须在没有说教讲座的情况下也说得通。

基金申请、政策备忘录或具名官员

将用此文本做决定的审稿人或官员。他们需要意义、可行性以及下一步该做什么——不是文献综述。

面向公众或从业者的文章

一位感兴趣的非专家。我翻译发现和利害；我不带他们走一遍引用网络。

• 哪些术语首次出现时要定义，哪些当作共享词汇
• 引言必须承担多少背景
• 方法放在叙述、附录还是补充材料里
• 读者会接受何种证据（试验表格、细读、政策选项）
• 语气与正式程度：专业，但不堆砌拉丁语风
• 体裁形态：课程论文、专业论文、广谱科学期刊、基金申请、备忘录、面向公众的文章
• 著录：APA、MLA、Chicago、Vancouver，或资助方模板

UNC Writing Center

When you’re in the process of writing a paper, it’s easy to forget that you are actually writing to someone. Whether you’ve thought about it consciously or not, you always write to an audience: sometimes your audience is a very generalized group of readers, sometimes you know the individuals who compose the audience, and sometimes you write for yourself.

UNC Writing Center（教师陷阱）

By treating your instructor as an intelligent but uninformed audience, you end up addressing her more effectively.

Harvard College Writing Program (Gordon Harvey, "Orienting")

The orienting question is, what does my reader need here?

Harvard College Writing Program (Gordon Harvey, "Orienting")

The trick is to orient briefly and gracefully—and not to orient when your audience doesn’t need it: e.g. “writer William Shakespeare.”

Harvard College Writing Program (Gordon Harvey, "Stance")

Stance is defined by such features as style and tone (e.g. familiar or formal); the presence or absence of specialized language and knowledge; the amount of time spent orienting a general, non-expert reader; the use of scholarly conventions of form and style.

Digital.gov, Principles of plain language（转述联邦指南）

The first rule of plain language is: write for your audience.

Digital.gov, Principles of plain language（“dumb down”神话）

One of the most common plain language myths is that you have to “dumb down” your content so that everyone can read it. That’s not true.

Digital.gov, Principles of plain language（匹配实际读者）

Use language your audience understands and feels comfortable with. Take your audience’s current level of knowledge, expertise, and interest into account. Don’t write for an 8th-grade class if your readers are PhD candidates, small business owners, or working parents. Only write for 8th graders if your audience is, in fact, an 8th-grade class.

Nature formatting guide（Readability）

Nature is an international journal covering all the sciences. Contributions should therefore be written clearly and simply so that they are accessible to readers in other disciplines and to readers for whom English is not their first language. Thus, technical jargon should be avoided as far as possible and clearly explained where its use is unavoidable.

Nature formatting guide（标题与摘要）

Titles and abstracts in particular should be written in language that will be readily intelligible to any scientist. Essential but specialized terms should be explained concisely but not didactically.

Nature Portfolio, How to write your paper

State the main finding clearly. A reader should be able to understand what you found and why it matters from the title and abstract.

Nature Portfolio, How to write your paper

Explain the research question early. Do not assume every reader knows the necessary specialist background of your study.

University of Toronto Writing Advice (Writing in the Sciences)

The key question to ask is always, Am I writing for fellow scientists or for a general audience?

Purdue OWL, Using Appropriate Language

When writing, it is very important to use language that fits your audience and matches purpose.

Purdue OWL, Using Appropriate Language（群体内部术语）

Jargon refers to specialized language used by groups of like-minded individuals. Only use in-group jargon when you are writing for members of that group. You should never use jargon for a general audience without first explaining it.

Harvard Gen Ed 1008（Melani Cammett 教授，2020 年春季）要求学生以 U.S. State Department 或其他外交部分析员的身份写作。备忘录写给正在准备叙利亚未来政治结构会议的 Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs（或同类官员）。读者不是“我的教授”。读者是将使用备忘录的具名官员。

• 主体位置：分析员，不是学生
• 主要读者：正在准备会议的特定官员
• 用途：在相互竞争的政策派系之间做决定
• 这禁止的是：文献综述腔、未定义的区域研究术语，以及从不说出官员该做什么的论点

Harvard Gen Ed 1099（Peter der Manuelian 教授）要求学生搭建一座虚拟博物馆展厅，并写一篇引言，“向参观者以及可能想展出它的潜在博物馆说明你的展览”。题目让学生先选定读者，再把这一选择解释给另外两位读者：展厅参观者和可能承办展览的博物馆。

• Who is your audience?
• Might you have more than one audience? If so, how many audiences do you have? List them.
• Does your assignment itself give any clues about your audience?
• What does your audience need? What do they want? What do they value?
• What is most important to them?
• What are they least likely to care about?
• What kind of organization would best help your audience understand and appreciate your argument?
• What do you have to say (or what are you doing in your research) that might surprise your audience?
• What do you want your audience to think, learn, or assume about you? What impression do you want your writing or your research to convey?

UNC 的大众杂志句

The piranha generally lives in shallow rivers and streams in South America.

UNC 的专业期刊句（示例，不是真实论文）

Serrasalmus piraya lives in fresh and brackish intercoastal and proto-arboreal sub-tropical regions between the 45th and 38th parallels.

What your audience doesn’t want to read is a literature review. Insofar as you engage with what others have written, it is better to rely on other writing from the public sphere. If you want to bring any scholars into your discussion, look first to see whether they have explained their ideas in a public forum. If not, make sure to translate those ideas into non-academic prose.

• 2–3 sentences of basic-level introduction to the field
• A brief account of the background and rationale
• A statement of the main conclusions, introduced by "Here we show" or an equivalent
• 2–3 sentences putting the findings in general context so a reader sees how the field moved
• Ideally no more than 200 words; avoid numbers, abbreviations, acronyms, or measurements unless essential
• Titles and abstracts intelligible to any scientist; specialized terms explained concisely, not didactically

Nature 带注释示例（构造说明）

One or two sentences providing a basic introduction to the field, comprehensible to a scientist in any discipline.

Kapitein et al., Nature 435, 114–118 (5 May 2005)

Here we show that the vertebrate kinesin-5 Eg5 drives the sliding of microtubules depending on their relative orientation.

专业论文（引用这个来说明试验发现了什么）

SPRINT Research Group. "A Randomized Trial of Intensive versus Standard Blood-Pressure Control." N Engl J Med 2015;373:2103-16. Published 9 November 2015. 10.1056/NEJMoa1511939. ClinicalTrials.gov NCT01206062.

机构新闻稿（2015 年 9 月 11 日）

National Institutes of Health. "Landmark NIH study shows intensive blood pressure management may save lives." 11 September 2015. https://www.nih.gov/news-events/news-releases/landmark-nih-study-shows-intensive-blood-pressure-management-may-save-lives

报纸报道（与通报会同一天；方法论文两个月前）

Gina Kolata, "Lower Blood Pressure Guidelines Could Be 'Lifesaving,' Federal Study Says," New York Times, 11 September 2015, https://www.nytimes.com/2015/09/12/health/blood-pressure-study.html

Background

The most appropriate targets for systolic blood pressure to reduce cardiovascular morbidity and mortality among persons without diabetes remain uncertain.

Conclusions

Among patients at high risk for cardiovascular events but without diabetes, targeting a systolic blood pressure of less than 120 mm Hg, as compared with less than 140 mm Hg, resulted in lower rates of fatal and nonfatal major cardiovascular events and death from any cause, although significantly higher rates of some adverse events were observed in the intensive-treatment group.

Digital.gov, Write for the reader（2026 年 9 月 16 日打开）

Many documents and websites address more than one audience. Mixing material intended for different audiences may confuse readers and make it harder to find the material that applies to them.

Digital.gov, Write for the reader（grant / coal / Rwanda 例子）

If you want a research grant, here’s what you have to do.

U of T 论写给同行科学家的术语

The main function of such jargon is compression. The dictionary definition of each of these terms is two or three lines long. If the paper had provided definitions, it would have been considerably longer, and the flow of the argument would have suffered.

U of T 的堆砌句（他们的反面例子）

Members of the medical establishment are not presently cognizant of efficacious treatments resulting in the complete elimination of symptomatology in acute viral nasopharyngitis.

U of T 的平实改写

There is no known cure for the common cold.

对期刊或研讨课论文过于随意（模板）

The results were pretty surprising and kind of showed that the treatment worked okay.

专业且不带俚语（模板）

The results were unexpected. The treatment produced a moderate benefit on the primary outcome.

过于堆砌（U of T 的句式，不是引文）

It is of the utmost importance that one consider the manifold implications heretofore adumbrated.

同一主张，可读（模板）

These implications need a careful look.

• 休息——锻炼、小睡，或一天。前一晚才写完，几乎不可能新鲜地阅读。
• 写完后再列大纲。按顺序把每段压成一点。若一段压不下去，读者即将迷路。
• 大声读。UNC 教练在面谈中这样做。它让你减速，并浮现出使论证更难跟上的缺词。

• 我能用一句话点名主要读者，包括他们将用文本做什么
• 作业点名的读者（如有）与草稿相符（同学、期刊、官员、公众）
• 我解释得足够让该读者复述论点或目的
• 我没有定义该读者已经使用的术语（没有 “writer William Shakespeare”）
• 留下的术语是压缩，不是雾（U of T 的测试；Purdue 的群体内部规则）
• 语气专业，没有俚语，也没有堆砌用词（U of T 的感冒例子）
• 面向公众或新闻的改写仍包含专业文本包含的局限
• 当用章节或附录就能分开时，我没有把两位读者混在同一段
• 刊物的标题、摘要和引用惯例与读者匹配
• 目标读者——或接近的代理人——已经听过或读过草稿