上较为复杂，往往段落之间环环相扣，层层递进。除此之外，论说文还十分讲究修辞，辞格 上多用排比、递进、设问等，以增强文章的感染力和说服力。
下面一例节选自一篇论说文，它较为清晰地显示了论说文体的主要特点：
Science and Ethics
Science impinges upon ethics in at least five different ways.
Secondly, it may create new duties by pointing out previously unexpected consequences of our actions. We are all greed that we should not run the risk of spreading typhoid by polluting the public water supply. We are probably divided as to the duty of vaccinating our children, and we may not all be of one mind as to whether a person likely to transmit club foot or cataract to half his or her children should be compelled to abstain from parenthood.
此类文章讲求理性与逻辑性，在措词上表现为正式语体的词、
大词、抽象词、 外来词用得较
多，而绝少使用俚语俗语及过于口语化的词，以体现其庄重、严谨的特点。
2） 句法及篇章结构较为复杂。由于论述文旨在解析思想，阐发论点，辨明事理，展开 论证，因此文章内容往往比较复杂。为全面、慎密地表述自己的见解，避免片面、疏漏，论 说文中往往长句、 复杂句使用较多。 另外论说文讲究谋篇布局及条理层次， 因而在篇章结构
In the first place, by its application it creates new ethical situations. Two hundred years ago the news of a famine in China created no duty for Englishmen. They could take no possible action against it. Today the telegraph and the steam engine have made such action possible, and it becomes an ethical problem what action, if any, is right. Two hundred years ago a workman generally owned his own tools. Now his tool may be a crane or steam hammer, and we all have our own views as to whether these should belong to shareholders, the State, or guilds representing the workers.
But in a large sense, we cannot dedicate - we cannot consecrate - we cannot hallow - this ground. The brave men, who struggled here, have consecrated it far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note nor long remember what we say here; but it can never forget what did here. It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us - that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion - that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain - that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.
但是，从更广泛的意义上来说，这块土地我们不能够奉献，不能够圣化，不能够神化。
处。
试看下面这篇论说文及其译文：
Fourscore and seven years ago, our fathers brought forth on this continent a new nation, conceived in liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.
Thirdly, science affects our whole ethical outlook by influencing our views as to the nature of the world-in fact, by supplanting mythology. One man may see men and animals as a great brotherhood of common ancestry and thus feel an enlargement of his obligations. Another will regard even the noblest aspects of human nature as products of a ruthless struggle for existence and thus justify a refusal to assist the weak and suffering. A third, impressed with the vanity of human efforts amid the vast indifference of the universe, will take refuge in a modified epicureanism. In all these attitudes and in many others there is at least some element of rightness.
这篇论说文的主题句是 Science impinges upon ethics in at least five different ways. 作者分别从 四个方面来说明这一主题思想，逻辑清晰、层次分明，读后让人一目了然。
翻译英语论说文，应注意以下几点
1） 理清原文的篇章结构。 论说文的篇章结构往往较为复杂， 因此在着手翻译前译者应 首先分析一下原文的结构与布局，理清段与段之间的关系，以便从整体上把握全文的脉络。
any serious study of the habits of foreigners, whether scientific or not, had this effect, as comes out plainly enough in the history of ancient Greek ethics. Hence science is not wholly responsible for the ethical results of anthropology.
3） 如果原文作者引经据典，译者在翻译中可采取加注或Biblioteka .释义的方法。如译一般论说
文，以上 2 种方法则可视情况选用。 如译演讲或发言，应以后一种方法为主。这主要是考虑
到译文的语篇功能应与原文对等。 当然， 如果我们翻译一篇演讲或发言， 只为他人参考或为
了研究等别的目的， 那么译者在处理典故时， 不妨多用加注的方法， 以便读者参考或弄清出
Fourthly, in so far as anthropology is becoming scientific, it is bound to have a profound effect on ethics by showing that any given ethical code is only one of a number practiced with equal conviction and almost equal success; in fact, by creating comparative ethics. But, of course,
论说文是书面语体中运用得非常广泛的一种文体， 通常分为议论和论述两种， 是相对于散文
中的记叙（ Narration ）和描写（ Description ）而言的。其常见形式包括社科论著、论文、评 论、演讲、讲座、报告等。论说文的文体特点主要有以下几条：
1） 措词严谨规范。论说文的功用主要在于对某一观点进行解释、说明或阐述，因此，
Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great battlefield of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of that field, as a final resting place for those who here gave their lives that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this.