世行內部因報告語言發生爭吵

May 29th 2017

2017年5月29日

by THE DATA TEAM

A WAR of words has flared up at the World Bank. Paul Romer, its new chief economist, has been stripped of control of the research division. An internal memo claimed that the change was to bring the operations department and research arm closer together. But many think that it was because Mr Romer clashed with staff over the Bank』s writing style. He had demanded shorter, better-written reports. In the most recent spat, Mr Romer questioned the excessive use of the word 「and」. He proclaimed that he would not clear a final report for publication if 「and」 made up more than 2.6% of the text. His tenacious approach had, it is said, rubbed some employees the wrong way.

世界銀行內部爆發語言戰爭。世行新任首席經濟師保羅·羅默（Paul Romer）被剝奪研究部的管理權。公司內部備忘錄稱，該項變動是為了進一步拉攏業務部和研究部。但是很多人認為，原因是羅默因世行的寫作風格而與員工發生衝突。他之前要求報告要寫得簡短有力。在最近一次爭吵中，羅默對「and」的過度使用提出了質疑。他聲稱，報告終稿中的「and」如果佔比全文超過了2.6%，就禁止發表。有人說，他固執的手段無意間惹惱了一些員工。

The prevalence of 「and」 is hardly the only or best measure of good style. But used to excess, it can render prose turgid and, at worst, unreadable. One of the Bank』s reports from 1999 promises to 「promote corporate governance and competition policies and reform and privatise state-owned enterprises and labour market/social protection reform.」

「and」一詞的廣泛使用並不是衡量優秀寫作唯一的、也不是最好的尺子。但是過度使用，將會使行文變得枯燥晦澀，甚至毫無可讀性。世行1999年的一篇報告承諾「要推進公司治理和競爭政策並改革和私有化國有企業和勞動力市場或社會保障改革」。

The 2.6% limit set by Mr Romer roughly matches the prevalence of 「and」 in academic work. By contrast, in this week』s print edition of The Economist, 「and」 accounts for just 1.5% of the text (excluding advertisements).

羅默設置的2.6%上限跟學術工作里「and」的使用情況基本一致。對比之下，《經濟學人》本周的列印版中，「and」只佔文本（排除廣告）的1.5%。

A study by Franco Moretti and Dominique Pestre of the Stanford Literary Lab, a research outfit, analysed the language of the World Bank since its founding in the 1940s. Back then, the average report roughly met the 2.6% standard. By 2012, however, the conjunction took up about 6% of the words in its reports.

斯坦福大學文學實驗室研究機構的弗蘭科·莫萊蒂（Franco Moretti）和多米尼克·佩斯崔（Dominique Pestre）的研究分析了世行四十年代以來的語言。當時，其報告平均程度上基本滿足2.6%的標準。然而，直到2012年，「and」約佔報告全文的6%。

Other stylistic sins abound. Acronyms now account for about 5% of reports, up from 3% in the 1970s. Financial terms, such as 「fair value」 and 「portfolio」, also became more popular.

其他文體上的罪也大量存在。首字母縮略詞現在佔比達到5%，七十年代期間僅佔3%。金融術語也變得更加流行，如「公允價值」、「證券投資組合」。

The World Bank』s report-writers face other difficulties, too. In 2014 the Bank』s number-crunchers highlighted the unpopularity of its studies: of the 1,611 documents they assessed, 32% were never downloaded by anyone. Mr Romer has a point: if the World Bank wants its reports to be read, they should at least be readable.

此外，世行的報告作者也面臨著其他難題。2014年，世行的數字搗弄者更加凸顯了其研究的不受歡迎程度：在其評定的1611篇文件中，32%從未被人下載過。羅默說得對：如果世行希望有人閱讀他的報告，這些報告應該至少具有可讀性。