原文：The substructures within the pyramid

As Chapter 1 explained, a clear piece of writing establishes a rigid set of relationships between its ideas, so that they will form a comprehensive pyramidal structure (see Exhibit 1). It then presents the ideas to the reader, starting at the top and working down each leg.

Because of the specificity of the pyramid rules, if you know what your ideas are before you begin to write, you can relatively easily form them into a proper pyramid. Most people when they sit down to write, however, have only a hazy notion of their ideas (if that). Nor should they expect much more. No one can know precisely what he thinks until he has been forced to symbolize it – either by saying it out loud or by writing it down – and even then the first statement of the idea is likely to be less precise than he can eventually make it.

Consequently, you cannot hope just to sit down and start arranging your ideas into a pyramid. You have to discover them first. But the pyramid dictates a rigid set of substructures that can serve to speed the discovery process. These are:

• The vertical relationship between points and subpoints.

• The horizontal relationship within a set of subpoints.

• The narrative flow of the introduction.

Let me explain the exact nature of these relationships and then, in Chapter 3, tell you how to use them to discover, sort, and arrange your ideas so they will be clear, first to yourself and then to your reader.

翻译：金字塔中的子结构

如第一章所述，一篇清晰的写作需要在其观点之间建立一套严格的关系，以形成一个完整的金字塔结构（见图例1）。然后，从顶部开始，将这些观点逐一呈现给读者。

由于金字塔规则的明确性，如果在开始写作之前你已经清楚自己的想法，就可以相对轻松地将其形成一个合适的金字塔。然而，大多数人在坐下写作时，对自己的想法往往只有模糊的概念（如果有的话）。他们也不应该指望自己会比这更清楚。在被迫通过说出来或写下来的方式将思想具象化之前，没有人能确切地知道自己在想什么——即便如此，思想的第一次表达通常也不如最终能达到的精确。

因此，你不能指望仅仅坐下来就能开始将你的思想安排成一个金字塔。你必须首先去发现它们。然而，金字塔结构规定了一套严格的子结构，可以加速这一发现过程。它们是：

• 观点和子观点之间的垂直关系。

• 一组子观点内部的水平关系。

• 引言部分的叙述流程。

接下来，我会解释这些关系的具体性质，然后在第三章中告诉你如何使用它们去发现、整理并排列你的思想，以便首先对自己清晰，其次对读者清晰。

原文：The vertical relationship
Some of the most obvious facts in the world take years to work their way into people’s minds. A good example is what happens when you read. Normal prose is written one-dimensionally, in that it presents one sentence after another, more or less vertically down the page. But that vertical follow-on obscures the fact that the ideas occur at various levels of abstraction. Any idea below the main point will always have both a vertical and a horizontal relationship to the other ideas in the document.

翻译：垂直关系
世界上一些最明显的事实可能需要多年才能深入人心。一个很好的例子就是阅读时的情况。普通的散文是一维写作的，句子一个接一个地呈现，基本上是垂直地排列在页面上。但是这种垂直的连接掩盖了一个事实：观点存在不同层次的抽象性。任何位于主观点之下的观点，始终在文档中的其他观点之间既具有垂直关系，也具有水平关系。

原文：The vertical relationship serves marvelously to help capture the reader’s attention. It permits you to set up a question/answer dialogue that will pull him with great interest through your reasoning. Why can we be so sure the reader will be interested? Because he will be forced to respond logically to your ideas.

翻译：垂直关系非常有效地帮助吸引读者的注意力。它允许你建立一个问答式的对话，以极大的兴趣将读者引导到你的推理之中。为什么我们可以确信读者会感兴趣？因为他会被迫对你的观点进行逻辑回应。

原文：What you put into each box in the pyramid structure is an idea. I define an idea as a statement that raises a question in the reader’s mind because you are telling him something he does not know. (Since people do not generally read to find out what they already know, it is fair to state that your primary purpose in writing any document will always be to tell people what they do not know.)

翻译：在金字塔结构中的每个方框里放置的是一个想法。我将一个想法定义为引发读者脑中问题的陈述，因为你在告诉他他不知道的事情。（由于人们通常不会为了了解自己已经知道的事情而阅读，可以公平地说，你在撰写任何文档时的主要目的一定是告诉人们他们不知道的事情。）

原文：Making a statement to a reader that tells him something he does not know will automatically raise a logical question in his mind – for example, Why? or How? or Why do you say that? The writer is now obliged to answer that question horizontally on the line below. In his answer, however, he will still be telling the reader things he does not know, so he will raise further questions that must again be answered on the line below.

翻译：向读者陈述他不知道的事情会在他脑中自动引发一个逻辑性问题——例如，为什么？如何？或者你为什么这么说？此时，作者有义务在下一行以水平方式回答这个问题。然而，在他的回答中，他仍然在告诉读者他不知道的事情，因此会引发更多的问题，而这些问题必须再次在下一行得到回答。

原文：The writer will continue to write, raising and answering questions, until he reaches a point at which he judges the reader will have no more logical questions. (The reader will not necessarily agree with the writer’s reasoning when he’s reached this point, but he will have followed it clearly, which is the best any writer can hope for.) The writer is now free to leave the first leg of the pyramid and go back up to the Key Line to answer the original question raised by the point in the top box.

翻译：作者将继续写作，不断提出和回答问题，直到他认为读者不会再有逻辑性问题为止。（当读者达到这一点时，他不一定会同意作者的推理，但他会清晰地理解它，这是任何作者所能期望的最佳结果。）此时，作者可以自由地离开金字塔的第一条腿，回到关键线，以回答顶部方框中的观点所引发的原始问题。

原文：Chesterton says that pigs should be kept as pets, the reader asks Why? Chesterton says, ‘For two reasons: First, they are extremely beautiful, and second, they could be bred to fascinating variations.’

翻译：切斯特顿说猪应该被当作宠物来饲养，读者问为什么？切斯特顿回答：“有两个原因：首先，它们非常美丽；其次，它们可以被培育出各种迷人的变种。”

原文：Reader: Since when are pigs beautiful?
Chesterton: They’re beautiful because they’re marvelously fat and they’re typically English.

翻译：读者：猪什么时候变得美丽了？
切斯特顿：它们很美丽，因为它们胖得不可思议，而且非常具有典型的英国特色。

原文：Reader: What’s beautiful about being fat?
Chesterton: It presents lovely curves to the onlooker and it creates modesty in the possessor.

翻译：读者：胖有什么美丽的？
切斯特顿：胖给旁观者展现出可爱的曲线，同时让拥有者更为谦逊。

原文：Now at this point, while you clearly do not agree with Chesterton’s argument, you can at least see what it is. It is clear to you why he says what he says, and there are no more questions in your mind. Consequently, he can move on to the next leg of his argument – that pigs are beautiful because they are typically English.

翻译：现在，到这个时候，尽管你显然不同意切斯特顿的论点，但你至少明白了他的意思。你清楚他为什么这样说，你心中也没有其他疑问了。因此，他可以继续他论证的下一个部分——即猪之所以美丽，是因为它们具有典型的英国特色。

原文：Reader: Why is typically English beautiful?
Chesterton: Pigs are linked to the land; this link symbolizes that power is not inconsistent with kindness; that attitude is so English and so beautiful that they deserve to be the national symbol.

翻译：读者：典型的英国特色为什么是美的？
切斯特顿：猪与土地紧密相连；这种联系象征着力量与善良并不矛盾；这种态度如此具有英国特色，如此美丽，以至于它们理应成为国家的象征。

原文：Again, you may have a certain prejudice against the sentiment, but it is clear to you why he says what he says. And it is clear because the grouping of ideas sticks to doing its job of answering the question raised by the point above. The last section, about variations, enters the mind equally clearly.

翻译：再一次，尽管你可能对这种情感抱有一定的偏见，但你清楚他为什么会这样说。之所以清楚，是因为这些观点的分组在完成其回答上方提出的问题方面做得很好。关于变种的最后一部分同样清晰地进入你的思维。

原文：You can see this same technique at work in a piece of business writing (Exhibit 3). Here we have the structure of a 20-page memorandum recommending the purchase of an Internet Cafe franchise. It is a good buy for three reasons, and underneath each reason is the answer to the further question raised in the reader's mind by making this point. The reasoning is so clearly stated that the reader is in a position to determine whether he disagrees with the writer’s reasoning, and to raise logical questions concerning it.

翻译：你可以在一篇商业写作中看到这种相同的技巧（见图例3）。在这里，我们有一个20页的备忘录的结构，建议购买一家网吧加盟权。它是一个不错的购买选择，原因有三个，并且在每个原因之下都回答了读者在理解这一点时产生的进一步问题。这种推理如此清晰指出，读者有能力判断是否不同意作者的推理，并提出相关的逻辑问题。

原文：To summarize, then, a great value of the pyramid structure is that it forces visual recognition of this vertical relationship on you as you work out your thinking. Any point you make must raise a question in the reader’s mind, which you must answer horizontally on the line below.

翻译：总结来说，金字塔结构的一个重要价值在于，它强制你在思考过程中视觉化地识别这种垂直关系。你所提出的任何观点都必须在读者脑中引发一个问题，而你需要在下一行以水平方式回答这个问题。