Organization and Outline
• Readings for today:
– Boonpramote, T. 2000. “Writing for Economic
Journals: Elements of publication success,”
working paper, Colorado School of Mines.
– Sand-Jensen, K. 2007. “How to write consistently
boring scientific literature,” Oikos, 723-727.
• What are the main message in these papers?
– Successful research is published and used.
– One of the primary traits common to most
unsuccessful research is lack of clarity.
– Unclear research often is a result of author’s
inability to communicate.
• What does unclear mean?
– Poorly written (much more on this later)
– Poorly organized (the focus of today)
• General Organization of a Paper
– Introduction, including where it fits into the
literature
– Model and/or conceptual basis
– Approach and Analysis
– Results
– Implication/Conclusions (may be one section or
may be separate)
– Supporting material (tables, graphs, references)
• Before you begin writing:
– Have a sense of the contribution of the work (How
do you know what this is?)
– Identify the audience
– Think of yourself as a story teller
– Organize your thoughts
– Plan on writing and rewriting MANY times
• Once you start
– Think about the intro/conclusions as you do the
work (why?)
– Keep in mind that you are trying to sell the paper.
• What sells a paper?
– #1 is the contribution. So you need to understand
• How it is important (this is the main
motivation); and
• What it means for our understanding of the
problem.
• These need to come through in the
introduction and the conclusion
– Only after that are other considerations
• How appropriate is the approach?
• Does it rely on an accepted model or
conceptual basis>
• Does it use modern tools?
• Other considerations (continued)
– Does it demonstrate sufficient rigor?
• To be viewed as a legitimate piece of work by other
economists and analysts.
• This usually means that it is either a rigorous
mathematical model, econometrically strong or a very
sophisticated case study.
• Case studies and anecdotal examples usually are not
considered sufficient for most economic analysis.
– Other considerations can be part of the
contribution. How?
• What you need to communicate in your paper
– Motivation for topic
– Research question
– Related literature
– Contributions of your work (how it extends the
literature)
– Theory or conceptual basis, including a formal or
informal model
– Connection between question and theory how
model drops out and generates your testable
hypothesis
• What you need to communicate in a paper
(continued)
– If relevant, data description and adequacy
– Hypothesis, and tests
– Results of your tests
– Implications
• At the end, connect results/implication back
to question
– Who should care about what you found
– Why they should care about what you found
– Implications are never obvious; this is your last
chance to sell the paper. Use it.
• Paper outline
– Introduction
•
•
•
•
Motivation
Research question
Contributions
Maybe related literature (but often is a separate section)
– Conceptual basis
• Theory and/or model
• How your research question comes out of the
theory/model
– Approach
– Analysis/Results (may include 10-11, or may
separate)
• Paper outline (continued)
– Analysis
• May include data description, but this is often a
separate section that precedes the analysis
• Results
– Implication/Conclusions
• What the results imply
• How they connect to the research question
• Who should care, and why
– References
– Figures
– Tables
• As you write the paper, refine outline
– Understand the main point of paper
– Understand the main point of each section given
above
– Eliminate points that don’t drive reader to focus
on main point of paper
– Include sub-points that build to make main point
of each section
– Eliminate sub-points that don’t focus reader on
main point of section
– Group sections above into larger sections
• You are a story teller telling a focused story.
Stay on plot.
• MOST IMPORTANT. GOOD WRITING TAKES
TIME AND IT TAKES REVISION.
• Writing and rewriting is not just to correct
grammar and spelling.
– It changes organization, syntax, wording and
organization.
– When you rewrite track changes.
– If you are doing a good job of rewriting, the
tracked changes will make it almost impossible to
follow in the tracked changes view. (example)
– Don’t rely only on yourself. If English is not your
native language, hire help. Maybe do so even if
English is your native language.