强大的商业写作的科学性

Strong writing skills are essential for anyone in business. You need them to effectively communicate with colleagues, employees, and bosses and to sell any ideas, products, or services you’re offering.

强有力的写作技巧对任何从事商业的人来说都是必不可少的。你需要它们来与同事、雇员和老板有效沟通，并推销你提供的任何想法、产品或服务。

Many people, especially in the corporate world, think good writing is an art—and that those who do it well have an innate talent they’ve nurtured through experience, intuition, and a habit of reading often and widely. But every day we’re learning more about the science of good writing. Advances in neurobiology and psychology show, with data and in images, exactly how the brain responds to words, phrases, and stories. And the criteria for making better writing choices are more objective than you might think.

许多人，特别是在企业界，认为好的写作是一门艺术--那些做得好的人有一种与生俱来的天赋，他们通过经验、直觉以及经常和广泛的阅读习惯来培养。但是，我们每天都在学习更多关于良好写作的科学知识。神经生物学和心理学的进展，通过数据和图像显示了大脑对文字、短语和故事的确切反应。做出更好的写作选择的标准比你想象的更加客观。

Good writing gets the reader’s dopa­mine flowing in the area of the brain known as the reward circuit. Great writing releases opioids that turn on reward hot spots. Just like good food, a sooth­ing bath, or an enveloping hug, well-­executed prose makes us feel pleasure, which makes us want to keep reading.

好的写作让读者的多巴胺在大脑中被称为奖励回路的区域流动起来。好的写作会释放阿片类药物，开启奖励热点。就像美味的食物、舒缓的沐浴或一个温暖的拥抱一样，执行良好的散文使我们感到愉悦，这使我们想继续阅读。

Most of the rules you learned in school—“Show, don’t tell” or “Use the active voice”—still hold. But the reasons they do are now clearer. Scientists using MRI and PET machines can literally see how reward regions clustered in the mid­brain light up when people read certain types of writing or hear it spoken aloud. Each word, phrase, or idea acts as a stimulus, causing the brain to instantly answer a stream of questions: Does this promise value? Will I like it? Can I learn from it?

你在学校学到的大多数规则--"展示，不要告诉 "或 "使用主动语态"--仍然有效。但它们的原因现在更清楚了。使用核磁共振成像和正电子发射机的科学家们可以从字面上看到，当人们阅读某些类型的文字或听到大声说话时，聚集在中脑的奖励区域如何亮起。每个单词、短语或想法都作为一种刺激，使大脑立即回答一系列问题。这是否有价值？我会喜欢它吗？我可以从中学习吗？

Kent Berridge, a pioneering University of Mi...