世行的文字之戰

Until last month, Paul Romer, chief economist at the World Bank, was best known for his brilliant research in the field known as “endogenous growth theory” — the idea that growth comes from the decisions made within an economic system rather than as a result of external factors.

直至上個月，世界銀行(WB)首席經濟學家保羅羅默(Paul Romer)最爲人熟知的還是他在名爲“內生增長理論”領域的出色研究。內生增長理論認爲，增長來自經濟體系內部做出的決策，它並非外部因素作用的結果。

Now, however, Romer is creating waves for a very different reason: he is waging war on how economists use the word “and”. Yes, you read that right. Last month, Romer sent an email to World Bank staff demanding that they tighten up their writing skills. In particular, he implored them to be more concise and clear when compiling reports, and to avoid creating hopelessly long, confusing documents crammed with lists of pious goals linked by that offending word “and”.

然而，如今羅默卻在因爲非常不同的原因掀起風波：他正對經濟學家使用“以及”(and)這個單詞的方式發動戰爭。是的，你沒有看錯。上個月，羅默向世行員工發出了一封電子郵件，要求他們加強寫作技能。特別是，羅默懇請他們在編制報告時更簡明而清晰，避免製造冗長難懂的文件，避免文件中大量出現以令人不適的“以及”連接起來的長串不切實際的目標。

“Because sure to say that our message is ‘this, and this, and this too, and that...’ the word ‘and’ has become the most frequently used word in Bank prose,” Romer complained. “To drive home the importance of focus,” he added, “I’ve told the authors that I will not clear [a] final report if the frequency of ‘and’ exceeds 2.6 per cent.” The 2.6 per cent goal came about because that was the pattern found in World Bank reports a few decades ago (though Romer says it was merely a symbolic threshold). In contrast, “and” has recently accounted for 7 per cent of all words used in the organisation’s reports.

“由於……有壓力要表達出我們傳遞的信息是‘這個、以及這個、還有這個、以及那個……’，‘以及’一詞已成爲世行文章中最常用的詞彙。”羅默抱怨稱。“爲清楚地表明關注這一點的重要性，”他補充說，“我已告訴各位作者，如果一篇最終報告中‘以及’一詞的使用頻率超過2.6%，這份報告我不會批。”提出2.6%的目標，是因爲這是幾十年前的世行報告符合的規律（不過羅默表示這個數字只是一個象徵性閾值）。相比之下，“以及”一詞最近在該機構報告中出現的次數佔了總字數的7%。

Is Romer’s request reasonable Not if you talk to many World Bank staff. Romer is not the first chief economist to create angst, but his demands have left some colleagues so incensed that he has been stripped of management control of the research division (Jim Yong Kim, World Bank president, wrote in a note to staff that another senior official would lead the Development Economics Group in order to create a stronger link between the Bank’s research and operational divisions, but that Romer would continue to provide “timely thought leadership on trends directly affecting our client countries”).

羅默的要求合理麼？如果你問許多世行員工，答案是否定的。羅默不是第一位在世行內部引發焦慮的首席經濟學家，然而他的要求讓部分同僚怒不可遏，以至於他被剝奪了對發展經濟學部(Development Economics Group)的管理控制權（世行行長金墉(Jim Yong Kim)在給員工的一份通知中寫道，另一位高級官員將領導發展經濟學部，以便在該行研究和運營部門之間建立更緊密的聯繫，不過羅默會繼續對“直接影響我們客戶國的趨勢提供及時的、思想上的領導”）。

Personally, I am inclined to applaud what Romer has done. That 2.6 per cent threshold might seem bizarre; and perhaps it is a little unfair to focus on a single word. But speaking as someone who, in my work as a journalist, has been forced to read numerous official reports from bodies like the World Bank, I fully share Romer’s frustration with the impenetrable jargon that is bandied about.

從個人角度來說，我傾向於爲羅默所做的事鼓掌歡呼。這一2.6%的上限看起來可能很奇怪，而且僅關注一個單詞可能有失公平。不過，出於記者工作需要，我不得不閱讀大量世行等機構出具的報告，作爲一個讀者，對於滿篇難以理解的行話，我有着與羅默完全相同的不滿。

It is not only multilateral organisations that fail in this respect. Last month, the veteran British journalist and editor Harold Evans published a guide to good writing, entitled Do I Make Myself Clear, which identifies numerous examples of turgid and impenetrable prose from politicians, philanthropists, company executives and so on.

在這方面做得不好的不僅僅是多邊組織。上個月，英國資深記者兼主編哈羅德埃文斯(Harold Evans)出版了一本有關好文風的題爲《我說清楚了嗎？》(Do I Make Myself Clear）的寫作指南。該書列出了大量造作難懂的文章範例，這些文章出自政客、慈善家、公司高管等各色人等之手。

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The kind of writing that Evans highlights is not merely irritating — it has serious, albeit subtle, implications. If official statements and documents are wrapped in layers of jargon, it becomes difficult for ordinary citizens to have any idea what is going on. And if voters are surrounded by baffling gobbledygook, they find it hard to trust what politicians are saying, or to take their utterances literally. One of the reasons for Donald Trump’s success as a politician is his blunt, no-holds-barred style of speech, which cuts through what Evans describes as the “endless fog” of linguistic complication. And while Trump’s words often seem contradictory, many voters simply ignore this fact — precisely because they have become so cynical about language.

埃文斯專門提到的那類文體不僅僅是令人煩惱而已——這類文章會產生微妙卻很嚴重的影響。如果官方聲明和文件被裹在一層又一層的行話之中，普通公民就很難了解發生了什麼。如果選民被費解的官八股包圍，他們將覺得很難信任政客所說的話，或很難照字面意思理解他們的話。唐納德特朗普(Donald Trump)作爲政客會獲得成功，其中一個原因就是他直白、毫無顧忌的講話風格，這種講話風格能夠穿透埃文斯所說的語言複雜性的“無盡迷霧”。而且，儘管特朗普的話經常看上去似乎相互矛盾，許多選民卻完全忽視了這一事實——這恰恰是因爲他們對語言已變得如此不抱希望。

Is there a solution Evans’s book offers plenty of practical advice for those seeking to improve their writing skills, with a 10-point checklist to encourage a clear approach (tips include “Banish clichés” and “Don’t be a bore”).

還有解決的辦法麼？對於那些尋求提高寫作技能的人，埃文斯的書提供了大量實用建議，還提供了一份包含十個要點的清單，以鼓勵清晰的文風（其中的訣竅包括“避免陳詞濫調”和“不要讓人討厭”）。

It seems to be a message people want to hear: Do I Make Myself Clear has just hit the New York Times bestseller list, which is startling for a book about language, grammar and “proper” writing.

這似乎是人們願意接受的信息：《我說清楚了嗎？》衝上了《紐約時報》(New Yorks Times)的暢銷書排行榜，一本有關語言、語法和“規範”寫作的書籍能上榜是令人吃驚的。

The big question now is how institutions such as the World Bank will respond.

如今，最大的問題是世行這類機構會如何迴應。

Romer was not the first person to complain about the World Bank’s reports; a couple of years ago, academics at the Stanford University Literary Lab declared the Bank’s communications so “codified, self-referential and detached from everyday language” that they were in effect a “technical code”, dubbed “Bankspeak”.

羅默並不是第一個抱怨世行報告的人。幾年前，斯坦福大學文學實驗室(Stanford University Literary Lab)的學者宣稱，該行的對外溝通如此“刻板、自說自話和脫離日常語言”，它實質上是一種“技術代碼”，別名“銀行語”。

But it was not until Romer arrived there last October that anybody tried to reform the language. And I suspect he only acted because he was new to the job and knew he could return to a tenured post as an economics professor if his war on “and” went awry.

不過，在羅默去年10月來到世行之前，一直沒有人試圖改革這種語言。而且我懷疑，他會採取這一舉措，僅僅是因爲他新官上任，並知道就算他對“以及”發動的這場戰爭失利，他也可以重返經濟學教授的終身職位。

Either way, Romer has no intention of abandoning his campaign. “There are many reasons why we must write is a commitment to integrity,” he says. Indeed, he hopes this campaign will gather traction thanks to people such as Evans. “I can’t say enough about how much I admire Harry Evans and how important his new book is,” Romer told me. All eyes on the World Bank’s next Development Report.

不管怎麼說，羅默不打算放棄這一運動。他說：“我們必須清晰行文的原因有許多……這是對誠信的承諾。”事實上，他希望，得益於埃文斯這類人，這一運動的聲勢會加大。羅默告訴我：“我對哈里埃文斯(Harry Evans)的欽佩無以言表，他的新書有多重要，我怎麼講都不爲過。”對於世行的下一份《發展報告》(Development Report)，大家都拭目以待。