中式英语之鉴：VI. Summing it All Up

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This chapter consolidates key principles for refining English translations of Chinese texts, emphasizing conciseness as the cornerstone of effective writing. The author underscores the need to eliminate superfluous words—redundant nouns, verbs, adjectives, and repetitive ideas—that obscure meaning and burden the reader. Drawing from Strunk and White’s classic advice, the text advocates for precision: every word must serve a purpose. However, it also cautions against overzealous editing, urging translators to balance brevity with fidelity to the original text’s intent and context.  
The chapter provides 20 revision examples, illustrating iterative polishing processes.
1. Redundancy Elimination: Phrases like "explore and open up" (Example 1) or "development periods and high-growth stages" (Example 3) often convey the same idea and should be merged or cut.  
2. Context Matters: Some "unnecessary" words may carry cultural or rhetorical weight, requiring consultation of the source text (Example 4).  
3. Active Voice & Directness: Passive constructions and nominalizations (e.g., "carry out work" → "work") weaken prose (Example 8).  
4. Logical Flow: Repeating terms like "terrorist" (Example 12) can be reduced if contextually implied, and so on .
Reflection:
  This chapter taught me a lot about writing clearly. I used to think using more words made my writing sound smarter, but now I see that extra words just make things harder to understand. For example, phrases like "in order to" can just be "to," and saying the same thing twice (like "development periods and high-growth stages") is pointless.  
  I also learned that editing isn’t about deleting words randomly—it’s about keeping the real meaning while making sentences smoother. Sometimes, I might cut too much and lose important details, so I need to be careful. The examples showed me how small changes, like switching from passive to active voice, can make a big difference.  Most importantly, I realized that good writing isn’t about sounding fancy—it’s about being clear.