Cover: A Guide to Writing in Economics, 1st Edition by Stephen Bernhardt; Nancy Sommers

A Guide to Writing in Economics

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First  Edition©2019  Stephen Bernhardt; Nancy Sommers

ISBN:9781319230661

About

A Guide to Writing in Economics, part of the Writer’s Help Guidebook Series, offers writing and research support for students writing in the discipline. This compact yet comprehensive guidebook provides the value students want with the essential instruction they need to get their writing tasks completed successfully. Students will find advice on how to think, read, research, design and write papers, projects and presentations like an economist.

Coverage includes the following topics, all focused on the specific needs of writers in economics:

  • Writing process
  • Conventions in the discipline
  • Integrating and evaluating sources
  • Documentation style required in the discipline--with plenty of models
  • Sample student writing

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Table of Contents

Introduction: A Guide to Writing in Economics
Thinking like an economist
        Models and behavior
        Empirical results and data
        Distinguishing fact, opinion, and value
        Questions economists ask
        Types of evidence economists use

Researching economics
        Using databases to find sources in economics
        Using economics journals
        Checklists for evaluating sources

Reading the economics literature
        The basic structure of an economics article
        Choosing your sources in economics literature
        Reading your sources actively

The process of writing papers and projects in economics
        Purpose and audience
        Thesis and hypothesis
        Checklist for assessing the writing situation
        Considering the “So what?” question
        Organizing and drafting
         Revising
         Four approaches to revising thesis statements
         Editing

Writing conventions in economics
        Phrasing for clarity, concision, and directness
        Sentence structure
        Vocabulary
        Using equations 
        Presenting data in tables and figures
        Presenting and documenting code

Integrating, citing, and documenting sources
      Quoting, summarizing, and paraphrasing sources
      Avoiding plagiarism and recognizing intellectual property
      Documenting sources in economics

Genres of writing in economics
      Abstract
      Analysis and evaluation
      Argumentative essay
      Annotated bibliography
      Literature review
      Theoretical or modeling paper
      Research proposal
      Research paper
      Policy memo

Glossary of vocabulary in economics
References
Practice activities
Practice activity: Thinking like an economist 1
Practice activity: Thinking like an economist 2
Practice activity: Thinking like an economist 3
Practice activity: Researching economics 1
Practice activity: Researching economics 2
Practice activity: Researching economics 3
Practice activity: Researching economics 4
Practice activity: Researching economics 5
Practice activity: In-text citations in author-date format
Practice activity: Evaluating figures
Practice activity: Writing in-text figure descriptions
Practice activity: Incorporating tables
Practice activity: Analyzing argumentative writing
Practice activity: Writing for an audience
Practice activity: Writing and revising thesis statements
Practice activity: Phrasing for clarity, concision, and directness
Answers to selected activities

Sample student writing: Economics
Annotated bibliography: Keynesian Policy: Implications for the 2008 U.S. Economic Crisis
Argument paper: Hosting the Olympics: A Poor Decision for Economic Growth

More help with documentation: Economics reference list
AEA-style reference list: Additional examples

Editing strategies
Subject-verb agreement
Pronoun agreement, reference, and case
Strong verbs
Sentence fragments
Run-on sentences
Distracting shifts
Parallel structure
Clear, uncluttered sentences
Sentence emphasis
Commas
Apostrophes
Quotation marks

Stephen A. Bernhardt

Stephen A. Bernhardt is Professor of English and the Andrew B. Kirkpatrick Chair in Writing at the University of Delaware, where he teaches composition, grammar, and technical writing. His professional interests include computers in composition/distance education, writing across the curriculum, professional and technical communication, and visual rhetoric. He has also taught at New Mexico State University and at Southern Illinois University. The author of many journal articles and technical reports, Bernhardt is also the author of Writing at Work (1997) and coeditor of Expanding Literacies: English Teaching and the New Workplace (1998). Bernhardt designed the research plan and reworked content for Writers Help.

Nancy Sommers

Nancy Sommers, who has taught composition and directed composition programs for thirty years, now teaches in Harvard's Graduate School of Education. She led Harvard's Expository Writing Program for twenty years, directing the first-year writing program and establishing Harvard's WAC program. A two-time Braddock Award winner, Sommers is well known for her research and publications on student writing. Her articles “Revision Strategies of Student and Experienced Writers” and “Responding to Student Writing” are two of the most widely read and anthologized articles in the field of composition. Recently she has been exploring different audiences through publishing in popular media. Sommers is the lead author on Hacker handbooks, all published by Bedford/St. Martin’s, and editor of Tiny Teaching Stories on Macmillan Learning's Bits Blog.