下面一例節選自一篇論說文，它較為清晰地顯示了論說文體的主要特點：

Science and Ethics

Science impinges upon ethics in at least five different ways.

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.

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.

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.

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, 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.

這篇論說文的主題句是Science impinges upon ethics in at least five different ways.作者分別從四個方面來說明這一主題思想，邏輯清晰、層次分明，讀后讓人一目了然。

翻譯英語論說文，應注意以下幾點

1(世博英文翻譯公司)） 理清原文的篇章結構。論說文的篇章結構往往較為復雜，因此在著手翻譯前譯者應首先分析一下原文的結構與布局，理清段與段之間的關系，以便從整體上把握全文的脈絡。

2） 謹慎遣詞造句。論說文在遣詞造句上有其明顯的特點，因此翻譯中譯者必須最大限度的體現原文在字、詞、句方面的文體特征。在措詞方面，一定要使譯文與原文在語域上相適應。在句法方面，譯文在避免翻譯腔的同時應反映原文的句法特征，以體現論說文嚴謹、慎密的特點。此外，譯文還應盡量再現原文的修辭特征，例如，原文如有排比結構，則譯文也應設法以排比結構將之譯出，以體現原文的氣勢與感染力。

3(世博北京翻譯公司)） 如果原文作者引經據典，譯者在翻譯中可采取加注或.釋義的方法。如譯一般論說文，以上2種方法則可視情況選用。如譯演講或發言，應以后一種方法為主。這主要是考慮到譯文的語篇功能應與原文對等。當然，如果我們翻譯一篇演講或發言，只為他人參考或為了研究等別的目的，那么譯者在處理典故時，不妨多用加注的方法，以便讀者參考或弄清出處。

試看下面這篇論說文及其譯文：

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.

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.

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. 翻譯公司 (責任編輯：世博翻譯公司)