Como cierre de esta TERCERA PARTE del
curso, presentamos dos famosas cartas –una británica y la otra
norteamericana– con muy diferentes enfoques en su estilo de
redacción.
Hemos considerado importante no traducir
estas cartas. Sin embargo, acercando el cursor de tu ratón a los textos
resaltados en color obtendrás una traducción instantánea -perfectamente
adaptada al texto- que te permitirá continuar la lectura.
Lord Chesterfield: 'On How
to Write a Letter'
Influenced by his own
neglect as
a child, LordChesterfield began to
write the letters to his son
Philip when the boy
was only five years old. These letters
were private and were never
meant to be read publicly. However,
LordChesterfield's advice
remains fascinating, and much of what he related in them
still holds true today.
My dear boy,
When you
read my letters, I hope you pay attention as well to the spelling
as you do to the histories. You must
likewise take notice of the manner in which they are written: which ought to be easy and natural, not
strained and
florid.
For instance, when
you are about to sending a love letter,
to Miss Pinkerton, you must only think of what you would say to her if
you were both together, and then write it; that
renders
the style easy and
natural; though some people imagine
the working of a letter to be a great
undertaking, and think they must write
abundantly better than they talk,
which is not
at all necessary.
Most persons who write
ill, do so because they
aim at writing better than
they can, by which means they acquire a formal and unnatural style. For
instance, if you want to write a letter to me, you should only consider what
you would say if you were with me, and then write it
in plain terms, just as
if you were
conversing.
Written during the heart of the Civil War,
this letter is said to be one of the most
widely read
in American history. Abraham Lincoln's letter to Hon. Horace
Greeley, editor of the influential New York Tribune, explains
the reasons
for the Civil War.
Basándote en la carta de Lord Chesterfield, selecciona del menú las
preposiciones adecuadas para completar las siguientes frases
(algunas preposiciones se repiten):
1.
You must take notice
the manner in which they
are written.
