simple form

In the Chinese civil-service examination system, 申论 (Shēnlùn) is the analytical-writing paper that tests a candidate's capacity to read administrative source material (给定资料, gěidìng zīliào) and produce officially usable text. Within this paper, the "simple form" (often rendered as 简单应用文, jiǎndān yìngyòngwén, or "short applied writing") refers to a category of compact, purpose-bound documents that deliver a single administrative function — informing, persuading, instructing, summarising, or proposing — in roughly 200 to 500 characters. It contrasts with the 复杂应用文 (complex applied writing) and with the terminal large essay (大作文, dà zuòwén) that closes most Shēnlùn papers. The simple form is the second tier of the standard Shēnlùn skill ladder: comprehension (概括), analysis, applied writing, and argumentation.

The defining feature of the simple form is that it imitates a real bureaucratic document while compressing its apparatus. The State Administration of Civil Service (国家公务员局) and the Party and Government Organs Official Document Processing Regulations (党政机关公文处理工作条例, 2012) recognise fifteen formal document genres — including 通知 (notice), 通报 (circular), 报告 (report), 请示 (request for instructions), and 倡议书 (proposal/initiative). The exam's simple form borrows these templates but typically waives the full headings, document number, and red-letterhead (红头) formalities, asking instead for the substantive body: an opening that states purpose and audience, a middle that carries the message drawn faithfully from the materials, and a closing call to action or sign-off. Markers reward 格式 (correct format), 内容 (material-faithful content), and 语言 (官方、得体, official and appropriate register), with format errors penalised even when content is strong.

Common simple-form prompts ask the candidate to draft a 短评 (short commentary), a 倡议书 urging residents to conserve water or sort waste, a 宣传稿 (publicity script), a 发言提纲 (speech outline), or a 工作建议 (work suggestion) addressed to a fictional bureau head. In the 2020 national Guokao (国考) and successive provincial 省考 papers, the 副省级 (deputy-provincial) and 市地级 (municipal) tracks have both featured such short applied tasks, often weighted at 15–20 marks. The instruction usually fixes the writer's role, the intended reader, and the word ceiling — for example, "as a township official, draft a notice to villagers, within 400 characters." Faithfulness to the supplied 资料 remains paramount: invented facts are marked down even when stylistically polished.

For the exam, the simple form is tested squarely in the 申论 paper across both Guokao and provincial recruitment, and increasingly in 事业单位 (public-institution) selection. The typical question angle demands that the candidate identify the correct genre from cue words, reproduce its skeletal format, extract and reorganise points from the materials rather than free-compose, and maintain the impersonal, directive register of officialdom. Candidates from comparative systems — UPSC précis and FSOT writing — will recognise the underlying competence: condensing source content into a fixed institutional template under strict length discipline.