Writing tips

Based on Michael Kremer’s “Checklist”,

Caroline Hoxby’s “Structuring Your Term Paper” and

John H. Cochrane’s “Writing Tips for Ph.D. Students”

Organization

Formulate the one central question that your paper is addressing

Write this central question down in one paragraph in your introduction.

Organize and focus your whole paper around this central question.

It may not be easy, because you will realize how much you will to have to throw out.

Main point, main finding or result come right upfront.

Not like a joke building up to the punch line, rather like a newspaper starting with the headline.

Organization (continued)

Paper length is 20-25 double-spaced pages (including everything)

The different parts of the paper typically include (for an empirical paper without a theoretical model): Abstract Introduction Short literature review Empirical strategy Data description (data set, summary statistics) Evidence Conclusion References

Abstract

Always include an abstract. The abstract should be no longer than 100-150

words. The main function is to communicate the one

central question and contribution. You should not mention other literature in the

abstract. Abstract should be concrete: say what you find, not

what you look for.

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Introduction

Purpose: state the question to be answered and the results you find.

Explain the contribution so that readers without much background information can understand it.

Then explain why the question is interesting.

Briefly explain how you are planning to answer the question and mention your data.

Optimal length about 2 pages.

Literature Review

After you’ve explained your contribution, you can write a brief literature review.

Cite literature that explains 1) why your question is relevant and to what extent it is

unanswered,2) why the method you are applying is justified.

Don’t give long general literature review on the topic of your paper.

Write around 2 sentences per cited paper. Don’t try to summarize other papers exhaustively. Don’t write negatively about other papers.

Introduction and literature review should take no more than 5 double-spaced pages.

Body of the Paper

Your task is to get to the central results as fast as possible.

Many papers do exactly the opposite.

Nothing should come before the main result that a reader does not need to know to understand the main result.

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Empirical Strategy

The goal of this section is to convert your question into a testable prediction.

Start by restating your question, as clearly and starkly as possible. State what evidence would support and what evidence would

contradict your hypothesis. Describe the approach you are going to take and the regression

equations you plan to use. If you write any equations, explain what the variable names mean.

Consider carefully what controls should or should not be in the regression.

Explain your empirical procedure in enough detail that someone could replicate your work.

Empirical Strategy (continued)

Describe your empirical identification strategy clearly: If your empirical question boils down to a claim that A causes B, explain how the

causal effect is identified. Try to include an explanation that would be intelligible to a non-economist.

Describe the source of variation for each specification of the regressions you run.

This might for example change between a specification with and without fixed effects.

If you use instrumental variables, explain why you think they might be valid.

Think of reverse causality or confounding factor stories. It’s okay if they exist, but definitely point them out.

Explain the economic significance of your results. Optimal length: about 3 pages.

Data

The goal of this section is to describe the data that you use. You may start by stating what the ideal data for answering

this question would look like. Then tell the reader what you can actually use.

A number of practical issues should be covered: Source Years Reliability Number of observations Missing observations How you constructed variables Whether you dropped any data and if so what rules you used in

deciding what data to drop Any imputations or assumptions you make

Data (continued)

Include a table of descriptive statistics of your variables. Descriptive statistics are usually

Mean Standard deviation Minimum and maximum of each variable

If you use Stata, the command “summarize” creates such a table.

You may also create a graph of the most important variables or correlations.

Optimal length of the data section: about 3 pages, depending on how complicated your data is.

Evidence

The goal of this section is to describe your findings.

It is not enough to just show the results. You should point out and discuss what is interesting in your findings.

In your interpretation, link the evidence to the testable predictions you discussed earlier.

You can make a limited number of tables and figures.

Optimal length: about 3 pages of text, not including tables or figures.

Tables

It is usually better to show standard errors, rather than t-statistics. Look at a journal to see how tables are laid out. Avoid horizontal lines in tables. Include basic information like sample size and R-squared in all

tables. Each table should have self-contained caption

So that the reader can understand the fact presented without having to go searching through the text.

Explain all variable abbreviations in the table. Avoid them as much as possible.

Use only one (or two) digits of rounding, not 4.56783. Use sensible units. Percentages are good. If you can report 2.3

instead of 0.0000023, that is easier to understand. You can use the “outreg” command in Stata as a starting point to

create tables.

Conclusion

Think about a reader who is going to skip right from the first paragraph to your last section. Include the things that the reader should know about

what you want to test what you did how it turned out

To what issues are your conclusions related? What else would you have liked to be able to

test? Optimal length: 1 page

Footnotes and References Don’t use footnotes for parenthetical comments

If it’s important, put it in the text; if not, delete it.

Use footnote only for things that the typical reader can skip, but a few readers might want to know e.g. longer lists of references, simple bits of algebra,

or other documentation.

The references in the end of your paper include all papers you cited and no other papers.

Optimal length of the references: 1 page

Writing Style

Don’t assume too much previous knowledge on the part of the reader

Keep it short. You will find that the challenge will not be to fill the 20-25 pages, but not

to go past that limit.

Don’t repeat things too much Keep track of what the reader knows

Use active tense e.g. “I assume α = 3”, instead of “it is assumed..” or “we assume”

Avoid technical jargon

Writing Style (continued)

Crimson, October 2006:

Psychology study found that “Contrary to the prevailing wisdom among undergraduates, readers are more likely to think that clear, concise writers are more intelligent.”

End