Effective Written Communication in Quantitative Economics

1. R. Keeney—April 23, 2012 Effective Written Communication in Quantitative Economics

2. Communicating Economics • It is expected that if you have a Purdue AGEC degree, you will be an effective communicator of economic rationale and ideas • Written and oral • Interviews and applications • Assignments, projects, technical reports, your own promotion etc.

3. Some Guidelines • All from Research without Tears • John Creedy, 2008, published by Edward Elgar Press • Quote from Samuel Johnson: • “What is written without effort is in general read without enjoyment.” • There are lots of types of writing • Each profession has its own standards and requirements • The aims here are meant to encompass nearly all professional (non-literary) writing

4. The objective of professional writing • Clarity • Written communication must emerge as a transparent statement of issues, methods, and results/conclusions • Data/Calculations/Graphs are not clear communication • These are supportive or contradictory evidence in the development of a thesis (argumentative or descriptive) • As the author, you are the expert providing the interpretation • Provide clear interpretations and justify them • Succinctness is a virtue (often where the effort part comes in)

5. Creedy’s 4 Characteristics of Well Written Analysis • Demonstrates a clear depiction of the question or problem addressed • Motivates the question as worthy of study or investigation • Explicitly states both methods and results • Recognizes both the value and limitations of results and conclusions

6. Effective writing… • …tells the reader… • What they will discover in the reading • Why this discovery is worth knowing • How this discovery was made • What is the importance or significance of the discovery • …consists of careful draft and revision • Critical review can be important to revision • …takes time and planning

7. Introduction • Nearly every document has an introductory section, in almost every case it is the key to successful communication • In some professions this may be less important than an Executive Summary • It must provide (at least in general) answers to what, how, and why relative to the topic addressed in the writing • Also might lay out the further writing via signposts • How is the document organized for the impatient reader who wants to read in a different order than you have written?

8. Background/Review Sections • Relevance • Reviewing literature is done to serve your purposes, not to drop names or show how much you have read • Good literature reviews are not exhaustive • Your knowledge/familiarity on the other hand… • Might be the worst taught aspect of the writing discipline • Be sure to avoid: Author 1 showed/said/found X…Author 2 showed/said/found Y…Author 3 showed/said/found Z…

9. Main Body • Technical and other descriptive reporting • Results reporting and analysis • A highly variable section of writing that is tough to generalize • Let your topic be your guide on how a body section is broken up among discussions of • Data and methods • Results • Analysis

10. Conclusions • Restatements • Question/Approach/Findings • Implications • Your analysis has to mean something… • What limitations have been overcome and what remain • Necessary future work

11. Example paper on website • On the class website, my writeup of the AGEC 352 diet using all 1100+ foods from the 2009 database • Whether it’s a good or bad example of written communication is up to you to evaluate • Reading critically helps your writing • When you are reading and find something you don’t understand, ask yourself if it is your knowledge or the author’s ability to communicate that is limiting…

12. The results: Total Cost = $1.04

13. Why these foods?

14. Sensitivity