Second Edition Economical Writing Deirdre N. MeCloskeyContents Preface tx ‘Why You Should Not Stop Reading Here 1 Writing Is the Boonomist's Trade 3 Writing Is Thinking 6 Rules Can Help, But Bad Rules Hurt 8 Be Thou Clear; But for Lara's Sake Have Fun, ‘Too 12 ‘The Rules Are Factual Rather Than Logical 15 Classical Rhetorie Guides Even the Feonomical Writer 17 Fluency Can Be Achieved by Grit 20 Write Barly Rather Than Late 22 ‘You Will Need Toale 25 Keep Your Spirits Up, Forge Ahead 29 Speak: to an Audionce of Human Beings 38 Avoid Boilerplate 95 Control Your Tone 39 Paragraphs Should Have Points 44 ‘Make Tables, Graphs, nd Displayed Bqustions Readable 46 Footnotes Are Nests for Pedants 48 ‘Make Your Writing Cohere 50 ‘Use Your Ear 53 ‘Write in Complete Sentences 55 Avold Elegant Variation 56‘Watet How Bach Word Connects with Others 58 Watch Punctuation 61 ‘The Order Around Switch Until Tt Good Sounds 65 Read, QutLoud 68 Use Verbs, Active Ones 70 26 Avoid Words That Bad Writers Love 72 27 BeConerete 78 28 BePiain 89 29° Avoid Cheap Typographical Tricks 83 30 Avoid This, That, These, Those | 85 31 Above All, Look at Your Words 86 It'¥ou Didn’t Stop Reading, Join the Flow 88 Works Cited 91 Index 95 Reese Preface "The implied reader of my litle book 1 a student of econom ves oF of related fields who noods to write, The hook orig ‘ated in a course for graduate economics students at the ‘University of Chicago in the 1970s. [thank tho students for ‘heir neip. An earlier vernon, directed at young teachers of| ‘economics, appeared under the present title in the April 1085 issue of Eeonomie Inguary, and something very like the present edition appeared in book form at Maeraillan of New York in 1987 as The Writing of Economics, long out of prt thank a group of good writers who have improved the argument by telling me where it was wrong or right: Eleanor Birch, Thomas Borcherding, Ross Echert, Clifford Geertz, Albert Hirschman, Sara Hirsehman, Linda Kerber, Charles Kindleberger, Meir Kohn, David Landes, mueh of ‘the McCloskey family (Laura, Helen, and Joanne), Joel Mokyr, Brin Newton, Carel Rowe, much of the Solow family (John, Barbara, and Robert), Richard Sutch, the late Donald Sutherland, Stoven Webb, A. Wick, and Barbara Yorkes. Getting someone to criticize a piece of writing early isa good. practice, though students seldom have time to fallow it. Bet- ‘er tobe criticized harshly by friends in private, and fix what ‘is wrong, than to he massacred in public. I've had the bene- fe In publishing the frst edition Anthony English, then at Macmillan, was his usual tasteful and energetic self Tory ‘vas the last editor of the litte book by Strunk and White, and it flattered me vo see my own tellus inthe same form. (Cathy Hanson gave it agood student's-eye reading ma the old dition. My assistant Deborah Reese got me a word pro:cexsced version to work on, Marguerite Knoede, who typed the many drafts befare the days of word processing, knows that I'm not joking when I say that even passuble writing involves rewriting again and again and aga. Hemingway rewrote the last page of Farewell to Arms sixty times. Sixty. In pencil. The Jobn Simon Guggenheim Foundation, the [National Endowment for the Humanities, the Institute for ‘Advanoed Stdy, and the University of lowa gave me the Why You Should Not Stop Reading Here ‘The man in the street loves his mistaken opinians about fee trade, and will not listen to professors of economics. His opinions are his own, afterall, and fre trade “ust a mat tor of opinion.” Bveryone is “entitled to his pinion ma free nun.” Phooey tothe professors But asa student of economics you have read the chap- ter on comparative advantage in your Be 1 text and you know thatthe man in the street is wrong. It's like that with ‘writing, Most writers have at first the man inthe street's attitude toward what they write. They don't know the rules, ‘They won't look into professional advice on writing, They never rewrite. They can't read the page they wrate yester- day with a cold oye. They admire uncritical everything ‘they've writen, favoring their mistakes as God-gwven and personal. Just matters of ¢pmion, ‘Now it’s true that you ean’t change your character ‘traits, very much, and it’s offensive for some louse to eriti- céze them: Linas: Whats thie? ly: This is something to help you be @ beter parson next your. Thioisalat Tmace up ofall your salts (it) Linus [readng, increasingly indignant]; Fite? You call ‘these fit? These arent fait! These are character ‘Amateur writers suppose that writing i a character trait Instead ofa skill If someone aya that i's clumsy touse “not only... but also” or that it's phony to use “prioritize” theytele truct he way thy tt tema au thor shape thats who Tam lay of ououe. Te pro ‘asin ycontrs, eh spot snout and tho best wes ofxonomes have ard otake advantage ot criicam ‘Tho fist andthe biggest roth bout writings that we auto, rand Dave Bary-can use more ream. We would bealot mre prefexsona fe ook mare 1 Writing Is the Economist's Trade Ina “Shoe” strip the unele bird eomesin the front door with a briefease overflowing with paper and says to the nephew bird, “I'm exhausted, but I've got to work: I've got ta get this report out by tomorrow morning.” Next panel: “Tl be up ‘until 5:00 wrtingit,” Last panel, picturing the nephew with ‘horrified look on his face: “You mean homework is for- ever?" Yes, dear, homework is forever. ot of itis writing Non-economists have been complaining about eco ‘homie and other socal scientifi writing for quite a while (Williamson 1947) Older economists mainly shrug of their responsibility to teach the young to write, offering the strange excuse that the young won't pay attention. (You'll remember that your lack of attention didn’t stop them fram, explaining income and substitation effects in tee different ways.) Only afew economists nave writen about economic writing. Walter Salant did has part in an essay published in 1969. J. K, Galbraith weote a piee called "Writing, Typing and Economics.” He was using Hemingway's crack about a Dad writer: “That's not writing: that’s typing” A lot of eoo ‘nomics isn’t even very good typing: The lack of interest in economical writing doosn't ‘ome from a Jack of importance. But no one tells the begins ner in trade with a lot of writing how important iti to Jearn the skill. The researchers at the Department of Agr. culture care about writing; so do Federal Reserve bans; pri- ‘vale companies do alot of busines by writing, And of eourceprofessors of economies must write. The big secret im oo ‘homies that goed weiting pays well and bed writing pays Daily, Honest, Rotten writing causes more papers and reports to fail than do rotten statisies or rotten research, ‘Yoru have to be read to be listened to, Bad writing snot read, ceven by professors oF bosses paid to read it. Can you imagine fecually reading the worst term paper you've ever turned fn? Your sainted mother herself wouldn't ‘Beonomics teaches things sligntly off the point. The courses don't tell you directly how to do economies—they {all you about if, but not how to do it—and most programs fffer litle m the way of on-the,ob practice. Students are taught minor details in statistics when the hard business of (quantitative thinking an economics is getting the data Straight; they are taught minor details in mathematics ‘whien the hard business of mathematical economics 16 get~ {ng economic ideas straight. (Un fact they are often taught niavaben details: that statistical sigifieance, for example, thas anything todo with substantive significance; or that a proof en a blackboard 1s the same thing as a proof in the orld (McCloskey 1098; MeCloskey and Ziliak 1996)), In est schools they are taught nothing about writing, when ‘the hard business of economic thinking is getting the words straight. The master carpenter turns her back on the pprentice, concealing the tricks ofthe trade, such as cut ting beard clean, ‘Mae reason for learning to cut it clean, T repeat, is that the skil is used a lot. What economists do, and what. people ‘educated in economics do even if they never see 2 demand ‘Carve after their education, depends on writing, because ‘weiting is the cheapest way to reach a big audience, expe ‘Gally i the age of the Internet, and because writing forces a the writer to think An eemomicaly rained persons to mpend mst of ber working fe wing papers, rears sora pop linn ed ater, Boe eda mich sve ot writing and 90 Spedking. other git rt iba o he ais nd ater ally touted as he tol of he rade Mate to ecorots Sls are ver An estemtchould be enbrasa to such slarge pa of he cat unpreensonally Shen on2 Writing Is Thinking ‘The usual reply i, “That's just a matter of style: after al, it’s content that matters.” Students will sometimes cor plain about bad grades earned for writing badly, arguing that they had the content right, or that they meant tosay the right thing (people who are complaining about grades speak imitalie) ‘Now the influence of mere style is greater than you think, The history of ideas has many wide turns caused by mere” lucidity and elegance of expression. Galileo's Dia Jogo of 1632 persuaded people that the earth, went around the sun, but not because it was a Copermican tract (there ‘were others) or because it contained much new evidence (it did not) It was persuasive because it was a masterpiece of Italian prose. Poincaré’s good French and Einstein's good German early m this century were no small contributors to their infuence on mathematics and physics, John Maynard Keynes (rhymes with “brains”) hypnotized three genera- tons of economists and politicians with his grseeful flueney in English, Keynes is acknowledged as the best writer that economies has had. (See, however. the hosile dissection of the style of a passage from Keynes im Graves and Hodge [1943 (1961), pp. 332-340]. Tt makes one wince, that our best 0 easy to fault.) ‘But the real problem isthe premise that you can split content froin style. I's wrong, They are yolk and white in a serambled egg. Eeonomsically speaking, the production func tion for thinking eannat be written as the sum of two sub i functions, one producing “results” and the other “writing them up." The funetion is not soparable. You do not learn the details of an argument until writing it in detail, and sn writing the details you uncover flaws in the fundamentals, ‘Thinking requires detail you can’t add 21 and 27 ifyou get all furzy about whether 2 plus 2 equals 4 ar 5, You have to know for sure. Good thinking is accurate, symmetrical, rel= ‘evant to the thoughts of the audience, concrete yet usefully abstract, conse yet usefully fall above allt is slPritieal ‘and honest, So too is good writing Good writers in economes write self-critically and honesty trying to say what they mean, They sometimes dis: ‘over m the act of writing that what looked persuaswe when ‘eating vaguely inthe mind looks foolish when moared to ‘the page. Botte, they dover tute they didn't knaw they ‘had. They refine their fuzay notion ofan obstacle to trade by finding the night word to deseribe i; they se the other side fa market by waiting about the demand side with clarity ‘Annie Dillard says m The Writing Life ‘When you yrite, you iy outline of words Thelino of wards ea miners pick, a woodsrver«goie, a eungoon's probe, ‘You wield it, anditdigs path you follow. Soon yeu find your lf deep im new terstey... The writing has changes, im your hands, and ine twmbling from an expression of your ‘otios to an epistemologsal tok. (Did 198, p 3) Writing resembles mathematics. Mathematics isa language, an instrument of communication. But so too language is a ‘mathematics, an instrament of thought.3 Rules Can Help, But Bad Rules Hurt Like mathemati, writing ean be learned Ws an evasion to talk of iting as. natural git, lunch fom te gods hich some people have snd some jt don't. Altiough we Cant all cone Mack Twas Gearg Orwell, anyone an write beter. Infact Twaln snd Orwell worked at ‘planing how Cain 1695, Orwell 1985) oentary writing ean be lard ko high schoo! algebra. On the simplest level neither is inborn. area lecan prove mportant new theorems in matemati Teck or ay ear wre eplry fe he Naw Yorker Yo tayone can lar i le ae of amullaneous equations {iat ao anyone can Tear to delete a quater of Oe wards fom at eather a Spe ve, ring at te szpet lvl allows rule 8 Speers cre rls on wong ctf em ety goo bythe way the computer programs tat eam erly you with wating ar ules; maybe someday they wil gi better, but ight now they are tribe, writen ty opie who dn't know tow). You can find the goed rule Tos nt writing scion of aby big bookstore My three {wrorite fom elementary to advanced are Willan Strunk, Shand BB, White, Phe Etements of Se (1089 and ate tations); Rebert Graves and Alan Hodge, The Reader Over Your Shoulder: A HandBook fr Wrter of English Prove {2946 and later editions); and Joaeph M. Willams, tye: TTasord Clarity and Groce 1981; ed. 1996. Not ever Growl et as much as i rom thw dre, but Strunk and White is fandamental: you can't be any kind of profes sional writer ifyou haven't read and taken to heart its litle Tessons. Other texts Fknow and admire are Rienard A. Lan- ham, Revtsing Prove (1979; Bred. 1982) and his Revising Business Prose (3rd ed. 1992); and Wayne Booth, Gregory Colom, and Joseph Williams, The Craft of Research (1988). ‘Some more advanced books are FL. Leas, Style (1965); ‘Facques Barzun, Simple and Direet: A Rhetoric for Writers (1976; revised ed. 1904); part HI of Jacques Barzun and Henry F Graff, The Modern Researcher (1970); Pat R, Hal ‘mos, pp. 19-48 in Norman E. Steenrod eta, How to Write ‘Mathematics (1973; 2nd od. 1981); Sir Ernest Gowers, The Complete Plain Words (1982 and subsequent editions); Howard 8, Becker, Writing for Soctal Serntste (1986); Wil- liam B. Blundell, The Art and Craft of Feature Writing (1980, by a writer forthe Wal! Street Journal); Franeis-Noel ‘Thomas and Mark Turner, Clear and Simple as the Truth Writing Classic Prose (1994); and anything by Annie Dil lard, such as The Writing Life (1980) ‘The rules I give here, many of them the same as the other hooks give, will be depressing at first, because of ther reat number ("Number 618: Query any sentence with ‘more than two adjectives init") and their vagueness ("Be clear"—but, you ask, how?) What you are really trying to learn slike good sewing or carpentry, watening what you're doing and giving it some thought. Ifyou resolve right now to put sway your amatour attitade toward writing and to start Watching and thinking, you'll do fine in the end, Meanwaile, just like the first stops an sewing or earpentry, there are ‘rules and rales and more rules. Don't believe everyone, though, who sets up as a ‘teacher ofthe rales. The ist rule is that many of the ruleswwe learned in Miss Jones’ class in the eighth grade are ‘wrong, Sometimes of courte Miss Jones had a point, For ‘ample, dangling out on lim alone, she yustly castigated partiiples balyplaoed in asentence. Her strictures against [make no sense ifthey merely result sn replacing “I” with, ey" ut do make sense ifyou see that wnen you're talking ‘about “T(r "we") you're not talking bout the subject. Yet mother ways her list of rules and the fol wisdom that rein- freed it have done damage. “Never repeat the same word or phrase within three Vines,” said Miss Jones, and because the rule Gt splendidly swith our budding verbosity at age 1 we adopted it as the habit of alifetime. Now we can't mention the “consumes” in ane line without an itch to calli the “household” inthe next fand the “agent” in the next, Our readers slip into a fog known in the writing trade as “elegant variation.” “Never write T,” wrote she, and we (and you and 1) bhave drowned in “we” ever sinc, “we” less suited to mere economists than to kings, editors, and people with tape “Don’t be common; emulate James Fenimore Cooper; writing well 6 writing sel," said she, praising Harry ‘Whimple and his fancy talk—and m later life we struggled toattan a splendidly dignified bureaueratese. ‘Mise Jones ruled against our urge to frely split mfin- ‘tives H.W. Fowler, who wrote in 1926 an amusing book on the unpromising subject of Modern English Usage, knew how to handle her (1926 (19681, article “Split Infinitives”) ‘Those who neither know nor eare [what split infinitive 8} are the vast majority, and are a bappy folk to be envied by host... "To really understand! comes readier to ther ips tind pens than ‘really to understand’; they see no reason io siya oneal nem, use aa ‘critics’ strong point).” that Se gen dn md ences ee ee nether germane ere nc re ee ih toni ‘up with which I will not put.” pertinence a nn cancun at hi tp in peg re een ier eat Serie ro eh eon ‘They never get to the point, eee eee a4 Be Thou Clear; But for Lord’s Sake Have Fun, Too ea, Roman ‘The one genuine rl, a glen ones Bo ler A rofouor st wting and speaking pt i ths wey "There recone otto tae cre towne notary ha the ‘eircom derstand but state cant psy “edema” (Quintin Boo VI) Clary aoa tater ot stmathing to be Scied uilateraly by the ter Te er i hore oe te Mor hina you write ela any defi tn tenga ogee thse {ipl correspondingly mide influence, wrote isamod never o dled anything Thad writen agit the sSonation a dear mou Ia concent fend ins a yoseage uno ih ob rowan ‘eran were wih earthly constantly kiegover iy ould and constantly pomting out te pseages tht trent car" 89) haray oe mater of psd dca atthe pant Bad siting saps you wih parse in vey ofr sence, Ends you ee netevane directions Te strats ou fro Sheps proving itated estos abo what ub. jects ov watt connstion ght be wih te ject scant a and why the words fer You av alraeloang Sour wa Bed writing mates slow roading Th practic ‘Bae and Hoge compiling heb exams ther principles ofa and rac eesnon was“ lance st Berber er Welbon yng abr and, whenever oat reading pace was checked by some difficulty of expression, to note the cause” (p. 127). (Their own sentence, inciden, tally lustrates one rule of reading pace they could have fal lowed better: Do Not Overuse Comes.) [in most writing the reader iin trouble more than half the time, You can see this by watehing your own troubles Notice m the present long and invoived sentence, since ‘here is alot of elumey intrusion of brand nev stuff and the Jumps in elevation of lingo, now no one eould fallow it, at least on first reading without having to go overt twa, three times, because itis ungrammatieal, which means not only ‘that it breaks a Miss Jones Rule but also that i confuses yout and anyone else, a reader, who happens tobe reading, by no: lating your expectations, and that it has too much ani any way, with no pleasing arrangement, which would make sense of it. You stumble and yawn and wander when you rend such stuff Reading your own writing cold, a woek after drafting it, will show you places where even you cannot follow the sense with ease. Knock such place into shape. Ifthe readers ‘have too much trouble they ge up. Lack of elarity is seliah and confusing. The writer is wasting your time. Up with this you need not put. Telling someone who is not already an accomplished writer to “Be Clea” though, is nt alot of help, It has bees sald that “Its as hard to write well as to be good." Ia the abotract the golden rate of writing clearly helps about as ‘much asthe golden rule of other doings, of which i isa cor allay. “All things whatsoover ye would that men should do ogo, doye even 0 to ther.” Wel, sare, yes all gt but ow? 2nd wit mune. Al thst rls" he setof tix bok gong te coninue~soandsawflly grim fi Saencomariy co Butonceyou earn afew of heules 1 Sa apling am youl eat to be able to py the ina at Wlting Tes nat pst grim flowing of rules, 2 Cat nae to the Depareent of English 1 great fan o street ng nese way tal ern oe Sina cing nt rio dole play bal Just put. ‘The peyhologst Mihaly Csikszentaibal 1eatek ante igs? as diced that hopes sea sopuatand wap tity wide Dt what he als Tron! witch oars when Persons sls ae uly ncn rom bg nt sh ste 9T; 3DFlow maks work nto ply ar see ck "erhetrcn chard Lana agus ia he apo toes youre wings ode a eta Se af dowmingn proto tke wed sen by ‘inpag wi hem, overboming an artiste allege that abt manageable a to the rale-—though 1 hope you se from my stots Tat in ie shouldbe many rae den Teen talus nord tora fon, Tone fled ie Jouant fo aheve flow aleve me, ski writing ome wae 5 ‘The Rules Are Factual Rather Than Logical ‘Therules come from observation. Inthe best writing, you do not stumble. H's no triekto spot a bad sentence aad to see ‘What went wrong, Just read. You foe it, like rain ar sun- shine. You know that George Orwell wrote well, that Mary MeCarthy doesn’t take many false steps, that you seldom have difieulty understanding what Tom Woe is talking aout. Dr: Johnson said two eenturies ago: He who would acquire a good style should devote his days and nights to the study of Joseph Addison. Well, likewise: Orwell, MeCarthy, ‘and Wolfe, In recent economues the list would include Akeriof, Arrow, Boulding, Bronfenbrenner, Buchanan, Caves, East rl, Fogel, Frank, Friedman, Haberler, Harberger, Hei: boner, Hirschman, Hughes, Galbraith, Gerschenkron, Griliches, Harry Johnson, Keynes, Kindleberger, Leborgott, Leijonhufvud, Olson, Rabertson, Joan Robinson, Rostow, Schelling, Schumpeter, Theodore Schultz, Salow, Stigle, ‘Tobin, Tullock, and Yeager: Pay attention to how they write this is good ast gots. The diminishing returns in the list are sharp. Even economists who take some pains with their style will overuse “we,” the passive voice, and fancy tall. from Latin and Greek (“We perceive that equilibrium is achieved by a process of suecesive approximations") You can’t define good style without a lit of good writ- xs. (A list compile statistically by the economist Arthur Diamond showed that the best writer 1m economics was, i rouh, .,. me, Deirdre McCloskey. Depressing news, I know how badly I write. IPT'm the best...). Good style is what food writers do. Double negatives, for example, aren’t “illogeal” (modern French and ancient Crook ave them) they are social mistakes, a least right now. If Orwell and his ‘kind start using “I aint no fol," no amount of schoolmaster Jogicean stand in the way ofite imitation. In matters of taste the only standard is the practi of good people. Further- more, everything from the standard of proof in number the- ory to the standard of skill in baton twrling is a matter of taste. You find aut who i good by eomparing good with bad. "A reader grades waiters by stylistic competence. The violation ofthe rules of elarty and grace sends a signal of Incompetence. Ifyou start sentences habitually with “How- fever” the reader will discover that you are an uncompetent ‘writer in other ways, too. Because the violations signal Incompetence they are correlated with each other. It's a food bet that a writer who doesn't know how to express par allel ideas in parallel form, and doesn't care, wil also not now bow to avoid excessive summarization and anticipa- tion, It's about at good a bet that she will mot know how to ‘think, and will not eare s Classical Rhetoric Guides Even the Economical Writer Essays are made from bunches of paragraphs, which ae tuado fom bunches of entenes, whith tre made frm bunches of words. Blue you tartan esay hoon sae {hat mens the assignment yet stirs someting yous et (you cannot work on a subec unleo you love hee ‘should therefore do your economic nstry on the ss tn inde ad soda ennai on ner Ing). Tris about whole esas or paragraph arenes ef tthe stag of fist compost, te fle tot son tenes and words at the stage of nal revision. Sime rules sappy everywhere: it god to be be in the wile sony sin the angle word, daring ti midnight fever ofconpe, sion and the morning cil ef ronson, Brey i the oe ofr, on. Yt the rule of writing ean be staal ino, sary nto boxes by dimaning ze rom ey to word ‘What is neoed for sists an esonomieretore T do net mean by “rear” afl, oc a doce for ng the pos ‘cans “beatd chetonc” at news conferences the ee for “bad melon when argung a weak ce, Teen the whole arf argument, which ts asl and cone eating ts the arta Wayne Bort pat OST. 5, of discovering warrantableblits and improving vise beliefs in shared discourse.” ee ‘The thre important parts of classical rhtone were invention, arrangement, an ssl. Invention, the nang of arguments worth Istning she busines of esos atheory and of empirical economies. Theory and empirical fconommes have been hurt by an official methodology which Znawarenecs of rhstariccan heal (McCloskey 1998), It helps to see, for instance, thal some economic arguments are a series of analoges. Saying thatthe market for automobiles 4 Sjst like” a diagram of demand and supply is, when you think aboutit bizarre, Not false: bizarre. Iti aloo bizare to ‘compare a beloved to a summer's day, but Shakospeare did {fr exploring its persuasivenees. Economic models are e20- nomic poetry. "The ecouomic poems make remarks about each other. as poems do, Once you have solved one problem by stating it fas an analogy you can use the problem as an analogy fr oth- rs, Suppose you come to understand thst a waitress who trastomarily gos ips is not necessarily better off because of the custom: Without upping she would have to get a hgher salary to retain her and others inthe industry: The analogy Jpere is of waitresses fo business tycoons oF gold dealers ‘One you have grasped the primary analogy you can see oth fers later as analogses to it. Someone says, “Safety regula tions help eal miners.” You think: “Ah, baht That's just the ‘Tipped Waitress Problem," and then say outloud, astonish- ing your audience with your eoonomie brilianee, “No, with- fot the safety regulations they would be paid more: 9 only tthe miners who value bealth highly eompared to money are better oft” You have used analogy, part of the rhetoric of ‘economics t's the main way that economists approach the petting ofideas. "Arrangement, too, 8 @ part of economic rhetorie not much examined. A good deal af economic prose pls that the only proper arrangement of an empirical essay is intro duction, outline of the rest of the paper. theory, (linear) is ee ng ever works), and (again) summary. One rarely sees caperiments with alternative arrangement, such a das oe catrees emer eae heirs St tinecw'an moh otaes TEE marianne a a ec te es Sone es Se eceens nmi Soe sear penne ‘were asked in the way they were (see Medawar, 1964). It's Better to make your own cutie, one that fits your argi- @Zz Fluency Can Be Achieved by Grit ‘The third branch of classical rhetoric, style, is easter to teach, It begins with mere fuency, gotting the stuff down on paper And it ends with revising again and again, until $ou've removed all the traps and ugliness, ‘You will have done same research (this 18 known as “shining” and “reading” and “ealeuating”) and are sitting ddown to write, Sitting down to write can be a problem, Cor it fs then that your sabeonscious, which is dismayed by the finuiety of fling up blank pieces of paper, suggests that it ‘would bo ever so mich more fun todo the dishes orto go get {he mail Sneak up on it and surprise it with the ancient ree ipe for success in intellectual pursuits: locate chair: apply tear endl to it; locate writing implement; use it. You may ‘nuh to inereae the element of surprise by waiting standing Ttatall desk, as my colleague Gary Fethke does. Once at the ‘desk, though, you will find your subconscious drawing on trarious reserves of strength to persuade you to stop: fear, boredom, the impulse to track down that trivial point by ‘adjoueningto the library, Timeto go see Mary or Job, Time to watch the basketball game. Time to get some fresh air. Don't, Resist. I's time to write ‘One of these distractions 1s taste, The trouble with developing good taste a waiting, which i the point of study ing books like this one s that you begin to find your stall ‘dstastefu This ereates doubt. Waves of doubt—the conic: tion that everyting you've done so far is rubbish—will swash over you from time to tlm, The imo. The only help i a cheerful, faith that more work will raise even this rubbish up to your newly acquired standards. Once achieved, you can reraise {he standards and acquire beta doubt aa evel of stil bet taste. Buck up. Ierational ehoarfulness ts hard fo teach but good to have for any work, » a8 Write Early Rather Than Late ‘he teachable is gating ait ea Don't wat ni {he reoarch is dno to beg wring because writing soe a amay of tang Be wring al oie, wring Ga page orto er, sion tere Resear wing SRR radon you wil have notes, is of prose flood in abemmne ton ep tr rah note tle Mang toy or a nt ay wed. hough any rng Sura hws iy alt to computer srr cn ol fetes wie "6" ea ied on one ie ae Best hen oe ih aah wed pes i 9 wre cpl on te notes av paragraphs then pit them 2 ea hen up wth eco Rng te best arrange ‘ent, Use one idea per card or per paragraph evn the Hen enya une ine 1 atk to scoot br ving tveral das into oe space. Pape is ee cael rence ee he Aer ol ct gh il rte en exilaring es “On Intel ‘fou rattan” nich he call he Wao et of reader, and forth The lech n omer Sp trmed to eal the eee. You mst et te fle wich pee a eologa ay f N Tray tourna: Many creative westes keep Juels Snag fad somo nwt fr teat relation Stands 05, Tefie abou bone cha Sepa oon te door econ (or ranted ot ancl Up) and ceeranged ‘Read through the file (which i invention) trying to see sn outline init (which sarrangement)."The first outline will, be broad, Allocate the cards or strips of printed and eut up paper to related stacks. Add notes reminding you of trans tions and new ideas that oosur to you as you ponder the file, Arrangement is like good statistical work, searehing the data for patterns. I's like good dramatic work, too search ing the audience for response. Your arrangement should be artful, Make it nteresting Now set aside the broad outline, keeping i steadily in mind, You noed it asa goal to give the writing direction, You ‘an change it, and should do so as the essay takes shape PPicka little part of the outline to write about today. It ned not be tho beginning, though it's sometimes difficult to ‘write fret drafts any other way. The paper should be a story because readers normally read from bapinning to end. Use the mad, creative file that is your brain, You need a certain intensity for all ths. Writing eannot be dane entirely a8 a routine ke peeling potatoes, Write another outline if you get stuck (never stop for outlining if you're not stuck), a narrower one about the points you are going to write inthe next few sentencxs oF peragraphs, chooking off the points as you write, Arrange. ‘ent is matter of finding good outlines, from tie level of ‘the book down to the level ofthe paragraph. The points in alloutlines from broad to narrow should be substantive, not formal: not “Introduction” or "Concluding Paragraph” but *Beonomists pay no attontion to the sexual division of labor” and “Housework should be included in national fncome"; or i a telegraphic styl, “di lab,” and “housewk & GDP" Keep a piece of paper at hand to try out turns of bras or to note ideas that occur in advance oftheir use, 2 3ation, dont depend on your memory aise ‘will jog it, Don’t let the moment co tools keri phrase or word wilioe pass, ave one. You should find pleasure in exerening the onl of {iting An expensive and well balanced fountain pence olf. ‘bloned, but fun to use when the mood strikes, Toduigs ‘3purselt On the other hand, try not to become compulsive shout oquipment and procedures and surzounding, Brno Most people compose these days ata computer screen, ‘ite dictate into a tape recorder, and some old fogs when, Jaa ezry sl write out everything in longhand on bg Anew medium will change your style, pore ex Switching from modium to medium is ‘ering because each madium suguests new arrange Here's an odd but valuable tip: if you change the %typeface on your draft you wil seit m anew light As Rico a raerians amaster ofthese things, advioed, “tore” eaameat most important tool isa dictionary: Every place you read oF wte shoul have its own ditions 1 place Yotine erammy little paperback dictionaries: they do ae i jak ana therefore require two bands to use, Use tbe Hug etllege dictionaries. Buy them secondhand fora few ee and then seatter them around your apartment (bei vitedate is anumportant in a dtionary except for some eee atepeling like hypbenation).A good ones Websters ‘Nese World Ditionary ofthe American Language. It'shand- Meiely produced, docs a good job at word origins, notes seme Snroms chandy when writing to non-Americals). er canyto follow pronunciation guides Caandy when erking) and distinguishes levels of wsage, Only if yous espe sofware has an exceptionally good dcionary and Sepa secs it quicker than you ca reach over er look up the word can yoa do without the book. 4 tionary is more than a spelling ist, Pause to read the definitions and the word orns. Part of the purpose ase co write well in te sense of not making embarrass sae takes in usage. Ifyou think “disinterested” means a ng as “uninterested,” for instance, you need to ek amuaanted witha dictionary and to start reading ened ae dog with iat hand, Yet beyond whats meet and proper Trak ep moet” noting that in this sense it is related to ok ePveynwordlore will make you grow as a wordsmith. cna ike words and to mnquare about their backgrounds Tes a useful friendsiyp, ajoy of ie 1 pelling would dive anybody nuts. The play verignt George Bernard Shaw noted once that you could Gall the word “fan” in Rnglish as “ghoti" (gh a in enous % ‘one learns to spell according to Webster. In the sixteenth cintury nobody much eared, and Shakespeare (Shakspere ‘Shokespere) spelt ‘em aa teo plece’d. But nowadays you must spell according to Webster or you Jook like a careless {ott It's stupid and unfair but that’s the way things are ‘Students chronically miaspll afew words, such as “receive! (Gomember: 1 before e except after ¢; but what about “let- Shee,” tether,” “weird,” of for that matter “Deirdre"?); “separate” (pronounce the verb form carefully—"sepa. RATE" and you'll remember it), schedule (which 1 could fot spell until graduate schoo!); whether (es again rain fand shine); their (as against over there or where they'*®. "The cpelicheeker isa great innovation: for Lord's sake we it, Never turn in anything to anyone, and certainly not to-a teacher or boss whose opinion matters if you haven't spellcheckod. (Though remember that you have to choose “Phere” and “here” and “they're” for yourself; and hun~ dreds of other choices; no substitute for giving the paper that last, slow rereading) "A thesaurus (Creek: “treasure”? shows you the precise word within a more or las fuzzy region ofthe language. Use {big one, not the pocket versions. Unfortunately the s0- Called “thesaurus” available with most word processing Pro fgams is almost useles, because the choices are too small Fine best thesaurus 18 Roget's International Thesaurus. T favor the old Sr edition over later ones, which for some re fon they decided to spoil. “Proper words in proper places, rake the true definition of style,” said Jonathan Swit (the ‘Rawma an the odd place is an eighteenth-century weird: aDictionaries of quotations (Bartlett's, Oxford, Pen- sguin) are worth having—not to extract omamental re- ‘marks in the manner of the speaker at the Kiwanis Chub {avoid quotation books organized by topie: you want them by author), but to find the precise words within a more or less fuzzy memory: What exactly did Swift say, weird comma and all? It’s instructive to keep a personal book of quotations, containing economic ideas you think are expressed well It's called « “commonplace book,” not because it's eheeey but Decause in classical rhetoric the commonly shared materiale of invention were called Joe communes, literally “the com- ‘mon places,” or “usual opis,” “hoino topoi” in Grook. Well kept, such a book ean be the writer's journal of which Mills spoke. Simon James published hie for economies, a3 A Dic- tuonary of Beonomic Quotations (1984), mainly British, ‘hich contains much encouraging evidence that British feoonamista know how to turn a phrase 10 Keep Your Spirits Up, Forge Ahead ‘Now start writing, Here I must become less helpful, not ‘because I have boon instructed to hold back the secrets of the trade but because creativity i saree. Where exactly the nest sentence comes from i8 nat obvious It were abvious then novels and economies papers could be written by machine ‘you ean’t think of anything to say, you might well read more, caleulate more, and in goneral research more ‘Most research, however, irns out to be irrelevant to the paper you finally write, which is another reason to mix writ- ang with the researching. The writing forees you to ask ques- tions about the facts that are strictly relevant. The next ‘sentence will sometimes reveal that you didn’t do all the right research. The guiding question in research (research is not th subject here, but I'm not chargingextr) is So What? ‘Answer that question in every sentence, and you will ‘become a great scholar, or a millionaire: answer it once or toric in a ten-page paper, and you'll write a good one If afterall this, though, you sill have nothing to say, ‘then perhape your mind is poorly stocked with ideas in en eral, Tho solution s straightforward, Edueate yourself. That 1a, Hv a ife of wide experience, and spend big chunks of it reading the best our esvilization has to offer. Began tonight. Ws not to late to joan the great conversation: ‘As civilized human beings, we are the nberitrs, neither of fn inquiry about ourselves and the world, nae of an accum+ B 2lating body of information, bt of aconversation begun in the primeval forest and extended and made moreartieulatein the ‘ours of centuries... Education, propery speaking, i an Ttiaon --un which we sequire the italia and moral Iabits appropriate to conversation. (Oakeshott 1833, p. 198-199), Anyway, say it. Saying it outloud wail help. 1f people wrote more the way they spoke, thei writing would ave Imore vigor (it they spoke more the way they wrote their speaking would have mare preesion). Witing expresses ersonality as does the speaking vote: itis said that to write ‘well you need merely to make yourself god and then write naturally Weare good when speaking to Mam or toa fiend, and we write well 0 them "You hear a sentence when you read it out loud. I's a ond rle not to write anything you would be embarrassed {o say to the intended audience. In tutorials at Oxford and Cambridge you have to read your writing outloud, and are cenbarrasted if i's stupid. Tha's why British people ofa Certain elas and generation dd not write stupidties. Don't ‘write entirely silently or you wil write enticelystif: Good ‘modern prose has tho iythma of actual epect—inteligent and honest actual speech, not the empty chatter of the soph comore trying to make it atthe fraternity party oF the wal fing obscurity ofthe Talbor Department bureaucrat tying to ell alie about black teenage bnemployment. Weexaager= tte the power of words to conceal a stamefil intent. Gener ally the words expose Regard the outline as aa ai, nol a master. When you set stuck, as you wil, look at dhe outline, revisit, reread ‘what you have wethen, reread the las bit out oud, talk to yourself about where is going, amagine explaining it to a ‘fiend, try to mnitate some way of speaking that Dennis or ‘Maynard had, write a sentence parallel tothe one just wr ‘ten, ill out the idea. Don't panic if the words don’t come eal. Try change {ng tho surroundings. Move to the library, sharpen a pencil, ‘sit the fridge, block out noise with earmuffs, put cassial ‘muse your siareo (Bach s bast for thinking; se Mozart; there's doubt concernung rap). Then got back to work. Don't expect to write easly all the time. Nobody does. Weting, ke any form of thanking, flares and fizzle like a candle. Don't ‘break off when on a burn. Don't let anyone entice you into ‘watching a movie on TV; tell Jane to go away, remit break ing for a snack. Be selfish about your litle candle of ere- ation. ‘Keep the finished manuseript in some form handy for ‘rereading and revising. This isnot a problem with word pro: cessing, but you'll want to see the thing in hard copy, too. A Jeose-laf ringhinder ¢ good because it ean be added to eas ily is bard to misplace even on a crowded desk, and can be studiod and revised while ying mn bed, ‘When dull, and especially when starting a session, reread a chunk ofthe draft, pencil in hand, to insert, amend, revise, coreet, cancel, delete, and improve. On a computer, scroll up a litte and read what you've done as though you ‘were a first-time reader, noting where your reading pace 16 checked by some difficulty of express ‘At the end of a session, oF at any substantial break, always write down your thoughts, however vague, on what ull come next. Ths isa very god tip. Don't getup without doing it, ever to answer nature's call. Writ or type the notes directly onto the end ofthe text, where they can be looked at and crossed off as used. A few scraps will do, and wil save a» athalf an hour of warming up when you start again. Jean Piaget, a titan of paychology—not much of « stylist if one ‘can judge fom the English translations, atthe matter here ts luenes, not grace—remarked once (1980, p. 1), “I's bet- ter to stop in the middle of the sentenes. Then you don't ‘waste time startingup.” Paul Halmos urged the mathemat- teal writer to plan the next session at the end ofthe present ‘one (1973, p. 28). After a session of writing, the ideas not yet ‘used stand ready in the mind. Get them onto that ideal stor- ‘age medium, the computer lo oe Speak to an Audience of Human Beings Style, to repeat, is rewriting, and rewriting ean be earned in rules. Rewriting can be tiresome. The myth of the free lunch tothe contrary, good or even adequate writings easy for few writers, and some of the best writers work ati the hardest, to make less work for the reader. Hemingway said, “Easy writing makes hard reading.” Balzac rewrote his novels from printer's proofs as often as 27 times, bankrupting him- self with the egpense (veas, . 270). Virgania Woolf rewrote parts of The Waves twenty times. Writing rally well takos ‘as much devotion as playing an instrament really wel. The treat violinist Giardias was asked how long it took him to learn how to play: “Twelve hours a day for twenty years” Lucas, p. 271). Yet in truth the practice hours are not as stresaful as the performances, Once you are equipped with a technique for doing it wel, much of the rewriting is pleasant ‘and not excesawely hard. Rewriting for style does not have the anety of invention and arrangement—that you will ‘ot be able to produce anything ut all. [Look your audience directly in the eyes. Be honest with them. Ask who they are, am the draft toward them, and koep hauling yourself back ta facing them in revisions. Choose a reader and stick with her Changing your implied reader is in an economic sense inefficient. There iano point in telling your reader mn a paper an the oil industry that oil isa black, burnable fluid, then turning to an exposition that sstumes the reader understands supply and demand curves. 2 B i ]It you've started with a pro-schooler for an umplied reader ‘you have to keep her around, Similarly, an artile using the {ranslog production function wastes motion i it rederves the elementary properties of a Cobb-Douglas production function, No one who has gotten so far into such an article vill be mnooent of Cobb-Douglas. "The writing mixes up two ‘mutually exclusive audiences ‘Some find t best to choose an Implied Reader of imag- ‘nation, an ideal economist; others find it best to choose a ‘real person, such as Richard Suteh or good old Professor ‘Smith or the friend down the hall. Its healthy discipline to be haunted by people with high standards (but with some ‘sympathy for the enterprise} looking over your shoulder in ‘magiation. It keops the prose steady at one level of diff- culty to imagine one master spirit. “How would Sutch see this?” If it embarrasses you. imagining how Sutch would read, the stu is embarrassing: fx it R Avoid Boilerplate ‘Your writing must be interesting. This sounds harshly dif cult. Few of us are great wite, and we know we aren't, But you can avoid some dullnesses by rule. Choosing oneself as ‘the audience tends to dullness, since most of us admire ‘uneritically even dull products of our own brains, A reason: ably correct recitation ofthe history of prices and intorest rates over the past ten years may strike its author aa a remarkable intellectual achievement, led with drama and novelty, But Richard Sutch, who knows it, or good old Pro fessor Smith, who lived it, or the eolleague down the hall ‘who couldn't eare less about it, probably don’t agree. Spare ‘them. Restatements of the well known bore the readers; routine mathematical passages bore the readers; excessive introduction and summarvzation bore the readers, Get to the point that some skeptical bt serious reader cares about and stick to it ‘Therefore, avid boilerplate. Boilerplate in prose is all that i prefabricated and predictable. I's common in eco nomic prose. Excessive introduction and summarizing is boilerplate; redoing fora large number of repetitive eases ‘what ean be done just as well with a smgle wellchosen ane ‘s boilerplate. The academic pose inspires boilerplate, Little an gotting accomplished with econometric chatter copied out ofthe textbook, rederivations ofthe necescary emditions for consumer equilibrium, and repetition of hackneyed formu: lations of theory.Impenetrable theoretical utterances have prestige in ‘economics, Thats sad, beeause no scntiic advance can be texpected from such games on a blackboard. A young writer ‘of economics will sacrifice any amount of relevance and clar- ity to show that shecan play the gamo. The result sfiligreed boilerplate, The economist will write about tho complete- ness of arbitrage inthis way: “Consider two cities, Aand B, trading an asset, X. Ite prices ofX are the same in market ‘A.and in market B, then arbitrage may be said to be com- plete.” The clear way does not draw attention to its “theo- retical” character at all: “New York and London in 1870 both had markets for Union Pacific bonds. Tho question is, did the bonds sll fr the same m both places?” ‘Never start a paper with that all-purpose filler for the Dankrupt imagination, “Thus paper...” Describing the art of writing book reviews, Jaoques Barzun and Henry Graff note (p. 272) that “the opening statement takes the reader from where he presureably stands n pont of knowledge and brings him tothe book under review" (. 272). Inournalism it’s called the “hook.” A paper showing that monopoly greatly reduces income might best start: “Every economist Iknovs by now that monopoly does not much reduce income [oohich is where he presumably stands in pount of knowl ‘edge, Every economist appears to be mistaken (thus bring- tg him to ite matter under review” It bores the reader to begin “Thie paper diseussos the evidence for large effoet of ‘monopoly on meome." The reader's pulse, fully yustified by the tiresome stuf to follow. sto give up. “Another piece of boilerplate, attached to the early parte of most student papers, “background,” a polite word for padding, the material you collected that you later dizeov- ered was beside the point. It seems a shame not to use it, you Ey seyjandafter ates th thing weight: Resi. youhave ‘ead alot and fon have teen thing tu be ques ton you began wie, making snd answer ne queduon afer another yo wave plenty oy you have tread 2lotand di not think hroagh the questions youre eng, ou wl have nothing to uy No ne il ofa nen ir hat roftsos and bee re expr a dtactng ck felt and lack of sce, You mit a wl ar se Still anather pe of bllerpat and one wich Els the momentum of most papers in economies on te ead pate the tale ofeontants paragraph The soa ae Paper ia flows Don's pleas, plese, for God's sake Eat Nie ot ten renee pot subane thy tan ind Te fw ops on the paragraph ae Wasting the tne. The ent understand the pergraph vl ke tho stn, they Rave red the pope at whieh pont they don't nett. Usly te talootconients para hs been writen with a prticalarandigne nnd eo al the audience of frstne rears of he paper Even an done well nk spurge. on wil racially novo in good writing. unos inserted by an iar who tocar ore good writing, Wek writer dnd ta “ronda” They ao the iden Eom Mls Jones: “Tel the render wat our gong to aay. Say ie Say that you've aide tee ‘cetinal bad ac, and the person ho mae up the ‘memorable phrasing oft suming ah nw i Hel “Therefore, vad overt, td donot ve ebarte sommais of what you have cad. Never repent wie fpologiing fort "ae sid earlier" cr merely “aga aes ou plz de ts yo have not al repetition, and wil nape that you ave no throug the xpunzation, Shell berg: Remue tet a‘te paper that took you days or a week to write will be read in about half an hour: You must read the paper yourself in this rapid way to ge the experience the reader will have, and ‘tw make the experience good. ‘The writer who wishes to be readable does not clo his prose with traffie direetiona, He thinks hard about the srrangement, Add headings afterwards i you wish, espe. cally ones with declarative sentences advancing the argu tment, lke the ones used here. Your prose, however, should read well and clearly without the headings. 13 Control Your Tone ‘The tone of the writing and much ofits clarity depends on choosing and then keeping an appropriate implied author, ‘the character you pretend to be while writing the Enthusi. astic Student, the Earnest Scientist, the Reasonable and ‘Modest Journeyman, the Genius, the Math Jock, the Profes- sor, the Breezy Journalist. Look ata piece of economies and ‘ask what Implied Author it has in mind. The successful piece will kave an author the reader can tolerate, Writing is alittle drama in whieh the writer chooses the roles, You ea ‘ot abstain asa writer from making a choice. You can't jst “be yoursel{” though you will probably do a mote persuar save job ifthe implied author in your writing is similar to yourself: Writing, like teaching or social life, 1s a perfor~ ‘mance, ajob of acting, ‘Many times in your writing career, though, you will be ‘required tobe les than candid, It would be bad for @ dean to tell everytbing in her memorandum—bad for the college, bad for the students. Ifyou are the VP for Sale you are not under oath to reveal in your advertising that the competi- tor's product is better and cheaper. The ethical problem sits ‘ight inthe middle of the road, “Rhetoric” gets a bad name from such problem easee—of having to tell less than the ‘uth for another worthy goal. Bem elear before you decide 1 hide the whole truth will at least make the choice plain You won't be deciding to le by accident. Welcome t life's demas,Everyone as a problem with tone—student and pro- feceor, employee and boss. The student wil sometimes use ‘an implied author encountered only mn government forms, ‘using phrases like “veto” and “period of time” and “views ‘were opposing." No ane realy talks like this. Adopting the ‘plied author The Nowspapor Reporter is a natural altar native since much of the reading a student does 3 from newspapers, The stuf wil be sappy, but it's hard to toler- ‘ato outside the newspaper. The journalist writes forthe one paragraph jolt. A Hollywood autobiography (“withthe assis- tance of Elmer Snerd”) will have this implied author. It reads like a year’s worth ofthe National Enquire. ‘Out of stage fright, professors m economies overuse the pompous and unintelligible implied author The Scien- tat. Have pity on them, and help them overcome their fea. Wright Mills" discussion ofthe problem of writing sociol- ‘ogy is applicable to economics and other academie writing: ‘Such lek of ready telly believe, usually has ile or nothing todo with th complexity of suhoet matter, and ‘thing wal with profundity of ought I hast do almost ‘catizely with certam confusions ofthe academic writer about his own sat. [Boone the adem writer in Americal fess his own lc of puble position he often pts ela or hi own status blore his lam Tar the attention ofthe ‘reader towhatheiseayng...Deare fr labun wanereason ‘way weademiemen [and women Milsvedinamotably sonst {ee ipo realy into unatellglty. To overoome the ‘cade prose yo hve Getto overcome tbe academic pase Thismuch ss important to study grammar and Ango-Savon roots than to cafy your anower t tneso important ques tons: 1) How difficult and eomplex aftr all is my subject? (2 Whon T wie, what status am Tetuming for mye? @) or whom am I yang to write? (p. 218) In other words, what spoils academic writing i lack of con ‘idence Ts realy not that dificult to explain a Malthusian ‘demographic mode or arational expectations model in plain ‘words to smart poople willing to pay attention. A reader of a student paper oF of professional journal is smart and will ‘ng. Above al, in other words, one must decide to be under- stood and worry some other time about being admired. Do not try to umpress people who already understand the argu ‘ment (they will not be aiused) Try to explain it in a reason able tone to people who do not now understand. Your roommate is a good choice of audience, of your professor: neither wil stand stil for fakery. ‘Tone of writing is like tone of voice. It is personality ‘expressed in prose. Students would do better to reveal more of their charactor in their writing. college teacher on the ‘whole likes students (ar else she would be selling msurance), 80 don’t worry. Be nice, not servile or pompous. Similar ‘words of comfart apply to the profesor herself: relax; take off the mask of The Scientist; you're lovable, ‘The worst mistake is to be unpleasant: if you yell at people they will walk away, in reading as at a dorm party ‘Avoid invective, “This is pure nonsense”, “there is abso- Iutely no evidence fr this view”, “the hypothesis is fanciful” are fun phrases to write, deeply satisfying a3 only political ‘and intellectual passion can be, but they arouse the suspi- ‘Gon in any but the most unertieal audience that the argu ‘ment needs a tone of passion to overcome its weakness. ‘Adam Smith (in tis best book, The Thoory of Moral Senti- ‘ments) pointed out that indignation by you the Author against That Idiot arouses m the reader sympathy for That a aIdiot, which is not what your indignation was meant to sacieve (LiL3.). "Tone is transmitted by adverbs, those "-1y” words that rive up the emotional prossure of verbs or adjectives, Run ‘your pen through each “wary” (or tell your word processor to fag it). Most things aren't very. “Absolutely.” “purely.” and ‘the like are the same: most things aren't absolute or pure, land to claim po conveys a falsely emphatic tone. “Literally” ts routinely misused, as when a Fedoral judge said that the Clinton administration was “literally and figuratively declaring war on the Special Prosecutor.” The word means ‘actually in truth, sn actual fact. Yet-no tanks or cannons were drawn up around the Special Prosecutor's office. The judge meant, "Wow, I really fel this strongty!” Sereaming. ‘wot speaking wel, ‘Keep your opinions pretty much to yourself Strunk and White warn (p. 80) that “to air one’s views gratu- itously.. 1s toamply that the demand for them is brisk.” To air them intemperalaly redoces whatever demand there is. ‘A oorncal example of what can go wrong with verbal abuse ‘8: "These very tendentious arguments are false.” The ‘writer meant “tenuous” (lok it up]. But even had she said “tenuous,” the word “these” gives the reador the fleeting ‘and hilarious ampression that the writer was characterizing her own arguments, not the victim's. Tenuous and tenden ‘tous they are. ‘Wit compensates for tendentiousness, as in the liter~ ary careers of the Journalist HT, Mencken and the econo- ist George Stigler Mencken's railings against the bocbocraey, or Stigln's against the buremucracy, were made less tiresome by rhetorical coyness, ducking behind self- repudiating exaggeration or arch understatement. The reader allows such writers more rom to be opinionated Deune thoi opinions aces amusingly express ‘Most academic prose from bot students and fecal, could use more humor Theres nothing unsceatifneelf doprecating jokes about the sample size, and nothing nell in ry wi abot the lings of mle opps nents, Bvon a pin ean bring cheer fo a grader working through the 64th erm pape. writer must entertain itshe istobe read. Only third-rate scolar and C etudent reso ‘wormod about the academic pose tht thay insist on ther Aig. The Nobel laureate Habert Solow sa of economic prot ena nna fm a arcs en tbe "unsoeaie” An autor opening open testing ngpathens proving rena pring the ‘ener tina ter ay ofthe aoa an hat ‘riingwouldbe eter ifmerectustan coon av ey eterna ough nd persis sone ‘aor tans poor mitaen ops 98) a14 Paragraphs Should Have Points So much forthe essay asa whol, Tur then tothe par aap. ('mnot much enjoying the prin of arrangement Fe imposed here: ssy-pararapineentnee-word. {wah I sworobater a such things) The paragraph should bea mare {or Len complet discusion of ene tpt. Paragraphing is puncriaton,smilart stanza n pox: he stanzas can't Be too long ou will want eceasionally to pane for venous Teasons, having completed abit of dscuston, siting the tone perhaps or ply gngthe reader abreake Te reader vil ip around wen he attention anders, ad wil kip to the next paragraph If your paragraphs are to long (as thoy wl ond tobe fom a word proce, by th way) the rear wl ski a lot of or ef to gett te next brek ‘Paragraphs though, should not be ton short to often ‘Taotane is tuoef sentences Shore paragraphs give abreathless quality othe wrt i Nowspaper writers, expecially he sports pag fen write one sentence parsgrap, firth ser excitement ait Big quotation (ina block mor than four typed ines, always indented, ith no quotation marks ound the Whol) have two legitimate pbs. Pirst. they ean ge the devi his de Hyon plan top to pecs particular arp tent then you aoould quote in fll gee a least te impression of beng fr MU eiticam, however, can’ a Jow a big quote: you must deed rip tt places, word hy veord.Otherwie the rear fol thatthe ert of ating Into enewstlehas ot been worthwhile Second block que tations ean gee an angler vse, If the great economist ‘Armen Alcan ani something strikingly well with winch you entirely agree then you domo art your ease by open ing what he sad, and gaining from his greatness. Routine explanations donot belong anywhere, wheter i long or Short quotations. Thay convey the impresion that Fou think wth our scion and not very wel ‘Awards inorder bee sbow plagarism, “Plagiarism” ‘is using other people's tums of phrage with te intent of claiming them as your own. Pletse don't its chilis and immoral The wore students sometimes do tout of desper ation then clam that they didn’t understand the rales. Booaise they are the worst students they often get caught. Wp serious offense, and mn a welbran cllge res expulsion, No cilloge paper can bo fasinned by stings together passages from other writers, Your taghers Kn you ean ead a lest nthe seve of paling oat te word ‘They want you to learn bow ta thnk and write Plea elp the dot a15 Make Tables, Graphs, and Displayed Equations Readable ‘The wretched tables and graphs in economics show how lit- ‘te economist care about expression. Tables and graphs are ‘writing, and the ustal rules of writing therefore apply. Bear ‘your audience m mind. Ty to beclear. Be bret Ask: “Ts this fenliy necessary? Would I dribble on in similar way m prose for mathematics?” No reader wanta the annual figures of income between 1900 and 1980 when the issue isthe growth of income over the whole span, The reader wants statistics ‘ven in the sumplest form consistent with their use. The ‘ight digit generated by the average calculator are not ordi- natily of any use, Who wants to read 3.14159256 when 3! Aeseribes the elasticity without making the reader stop to igragp the stream of numbers? (The pomt 1s widely misun- ‘derstood. Read Oskar Morgenstern, On the Accuracy of Eco- rome Observations, 2nd ed, chapter L.) ‘Titles and headings in tables ahould be as close to self: ‘explanatory as poasile. In headings of tables you should use ‘words, not computer acronyms, Remember: you're trying to be clear, not Phony Scientific. A column labeled “LPDOM” requires a step of translation to get to the meaning: "Loga- rithm of the Domestie Price.” You want people to under- ‘stand your stuff, not to jump through mental hoops. ‘The same principles should guide graphs and dia grams, Edward R.Tufte’s amazing book, The Visual Display ‘9 Quantitanve Information (1989), demonstrates such pre- ‘epts as “Mobilize every graphical clement, perhaps several times over to show the data” (p. 199; Tufte isnot tobe taken ‘a guide to writing prose). Everyone who uses tables or ‘graphs should buy and study Tufte’s book, and then reward ‘themselves by getting his second book, Envistoning Infor- ‘mation (1990). Use titles for diagrams and for tables that state their theme, suchas “All Conferences Should Happen 1m the Midwest” instead of “A Model of Transport Costs” Use meaninglul, spelled-out names for lines, points, and ‘reas, not alphanumeric monstrosities: “Rich Budget Line’ instead of “Locus QuERtY.” You'l find it easier to follow your oven argument and will be less likely to produce graph seal nonsense ‘The same things can be said of displayed equations {U's dearer and no less scientific to say “the regression was Quantity of Grain = 8.56 + 5.6 (Price of Grain) ~ 3.8 (Real Income)” than “the regression was Q = 3.58 + 56P - 3.8Y, ‘where Q is quantity of grain, P its price, and ¥ real income.” Anyone can retrieve the algebra from the words, but the overse is pointlessly harder: The retrieval is hard even for professional mathematicians. The sot theorist Paul Halmos said: “The author had to code his thought an [symbols] deny that anybody thinks in feuch] terms), and the reader has to decode” (p. 38, italics mine). Stanislav Ulam, with ‘any other mathematicians, complains ofthe raising ofthe symbolic ante: “I am turned off when I soe only formulas ‘and symbols, and little text. Its too laborious for me to look at such pages not knowing what to concentrate on” (1976; p. 2150. Tables, graphs, diagrams, and displayed equations should elucidate the argument, not obscure it. «16 Footnotes Are Nests for Pedants A footnote should be subordinate, That 18 why itis at the foot. In aeadomie and student writing, bowover, the most Important work sometimes gets done in the small print at the bottom of the page. The worst sustained example in eco- romucs is Schumpeter's History of Economie Anatyete (1954), in which the liveliest prose and the strongest points ‘cccur toward the end of footnotes spilling over three pages. Footnotes should not be used as a substitute for good arrangement. Ifthe idea doesn't ft maybe it dosn't belong. CClutzering the maun text with little side tp will break up the lo of ideas like the footnote attached to this sentence. Footnotes should guide the reader ta the sources ‘That's all. When they strain to do something else they get anto trouble. Your attempt to assume the mantle of The Scholar looks foolish when the best you ean do i cite the textbook. Citing whole books and articles isa disease in ‘modern economics, spread by the author-date citation, such as that used inthis book. Its easier fr the author to write 2 Tvitng the reader to look away is not wise, Practically never ita good idea to do what this note does, reakng ssantenc, It should have boen woven mio tho txt, ited anything, which itdoes not Aren't you annoyed that I made you look dove? ‘orto otimo, ee? An amuaung fotaae an the matter, vewing ‘it more cheerfully, 1 G. W. Bowerseck, “The Ar of te Foot: note” (198588), “See The General Theory” than to bother to find the page and sentence where Keynes, fatally adopte the mistaken assumption ofa closed econams. By not bothering to find it ‘the author mises the chance to reread, and think. oiz Make Your Writing Cohere Behind rules on what to nvid osu on what a ek. T's the Rule ef Gonerence. make writing hang together. The reader can understand waiting thal bangs together, om Phrases up to entire book, Se ean understand waiting Ghd a Took again tthe paragraph I jut wrote. K's no mas tera, bit yo probly grape witout mach fort Thereasn yu is that ech eontonca inked othe pr tious oe. heist promisena “ule” The scoad nao, Fepeting the word rat afer he colon te next bit dl tern the prem ofa are sg the ord wing” for the fie of thre ies and the pro “hang togete” fr the ist of wo. The verte net al why isa god rl, ensing “bang vgeer” and introducing & character called "Che redex sang bat she ean understand” certain weit ‘ng, The nal sentence enophasizes the pont hy puting i {he other wey eying what welling te cannot understand ‘The paragraph tslthang ogtbr ands ely grasped by theming enone woul call it “transitive” writing To dit sos st eh scholar ot repaing Yorde, Very, you must repeat them, linking the sentancs Andring pronounlike io “thr to rive manchony ‘helinkage can be ed neatly ft too often, by epeting words wil the eae rot in dflerent versions was at done withthe verb “king” an the pronoun sentence and the noun “kage” i hi ho fgue ellen cial setonc “polyptoton”). There are other tricks of cohesion ‘They rely on repetition. (In this paragraph for instance the ‘word “repetition” is repeated right to the end in various forms: repetition, repeating, repeat, repesting, repetition.) tyou draw on the tricks you wil be les likey to fill ‘your prose with irrelevancies: (ABYBC\CD) looks pretty, is easy to understand, and is probably reasonat (ABZYX)(MNOP)(BIKLC) looks ugly, is possible to ‘understand, and is probably nonsense. A newspaper editor fonce gave this advice to a cub reporter: “Ie doesn’t much matter what your first sentence is. It doesn't even much matter what the second is. But the third damn well better follow from the first and gecand," Ifyou once start a way of talking—a metaphor of birth m eoonomie development or a tone of patient explanation to an idiotyou have to earry it through, making the third sentence follow from the others. You must reread what you have written again and again, unifying the tenses of the verbs, unifying the vocabulary ‘unifjang the form. That's how to get unified, transitive para. raphe Yet, a dumey way to get transitive paragraphs begins cach sentence witha linking word. Indeed, not only did good. Latin prose in the age of Cicero have ths feature, but alo Greek had it, even in common speeeh. In English, however, it te not successful. Therefore, many Ciceronian and Greek adverbs end conjunctions are untranslatable. To be sure, ‘the mpalse to coherence is commendable, But on the other ‘hand (as must be getting clear by now), you tre of being, pushed around hy the writer, told when you are to take a sentonee illustratively (“indeed”), adversatively (“yet,” “however,” “but”), sequentially (furthermore,” “there- fore”), or concessively (“to be sure"). You are crushed bytanking machinery sch a the hideous “nat only... bot flan" Englsh anise coberese by repaint by fal Repeat, and your paragrephs wil cobee. Use Your Ear Prose has rhythms, some better than others. Abraham Line calm and Martin Luther King knew rhythm in speech, Some- ono les gifted can atleast avoid ugiy rhythms by listening ‘to what they have written, Far nstance, if every sentence is the same length and construction, the paragraph will ‘become monotonous, Ifyou have some dramatie reason for repeating the construction, the repetition is good. If you have no good reason for doings, the reader wil fel mised, {you talk always in sentences of precut form, the pars: graph will havea monotonous raythm, Ifyou have been pay 1g attention recently, you will sae what i mean, The novelist John Gardner gave some good advice ‘about variety in sentences (p, 1040. Become self-conscious, he said, about how much you're puting into each past, An ‘English sentence has grammatically speaking three parts: subject, verb, object. Thus: subject = “An English sentence” verb = “has grammatically speaking” (“grammatically speaking” modifies the verb “has”); object = "three parts subject, ves, object.” Vary your sentences, Gardner sug ested, by how much you put into each, and in each sentenos choose only one of the three parts for elaboration. In the ‘sentence jst finished the score is: subjct absent but under. stood = “you; verb = “vary,” eamplexly modified by “how ‘uch you put into each” objet = "your sentences,” quite simple, though not as simple asthe subject. Gardnen who wrote pretty well, uncovered beautifully with his simple principle ofthe three sentence parts which we have just dis: 8tnt facet critter anna ee oe ‘this one, in which every part has much too much init, every eter See ieoeaibecaeeoneeee eae 12 Write in Complete Sentences Which leads to the sentence. That is not one. Sueh tricks ‘should be attempted only oecasonally, and only fora reason (here: a dramatic surprise, if corny). Write mainty in come plete sentences. This isn't a matter of sebool grammar It's ‘matter of not raising expectations that you don't fulfil. AS fluent speaker of English (or atleast of your dialect), you know when a sentence is a sentence by asking whether it could stand as an isolated remark. Now the phrase ‘Asa fla- ent speaker of English” could stand alone, but only 23 an sanawer to a question ina conversation, Socrates: “Tell me, Polus: how do you know what an English sentence is?” Plus: “As a fluent speaker of English.” Ask if t could stand alone as an wolated remark. No, it eun't [fsomeonecame up to you on the street and said “As a fluent speaker of English,” you would expect her to continue, If continuing to ‘stare at you fixedly with a maniacal smile. she did not, you ‘would edge carefully away. 3520 Avoid Elegant Variation ‘The first duty n writinga sentence sto ako it lear. Away to make it clear is to use ane word to mean one thing. Get ‘your words and things lined up and keep them that way. The positive rule is Strunk and White's: “Express parallel ideas ‘m parallel form.” [An example s about to happen:] The neg- ative rule 1s Fowler's “Avoid Elegant Variation.” The two ‘ideas are parallel and are expressed in parallel form: “The positive rule 1 leads the reader to expect “The negative rules.” One hears every day the paur “positive” and "nega: tive.” The reader gets what she expects, She can fit the litle novelties into what she already knows. “Elegant Vanation uses many words to mean one thing, ‘with the result in the end that the reader, and even the ‘writer, don't quite know wha is being talked about. A paper fon economic development used in two pages all these: “industrialzation,” “growing structural differentiation,” al development,” “social and econamic “economic growth,” "growth," and “rovolutiomzed means of production.” With some effort you can soe n context that they all meant about the same thing, The writer simply liked the sound ofthe dif- ferences and had studied eleyance too young. A writer on foonomic history wrote about the “indifarent harvests of | 1815 and calamitous volume defieencis of 1816." It takes a ‘while to see that both mean about the same thing, a pretty ‘simple thing. Notice that Elegant Variation often comes draped in fve-dollar words grownng structural diferentia- tion” = new obs» manufacturing; “ndferent harvst® bad cops Yt lune eee” = ey Dal ops Some people who wrt this way mistake the cf writing baleng it tobe a chance for empty pig The tight gro, hey should seal, ves Most people do out of correctable nora a nthe nw economic his torysconcerned not nly th what happened but alo ith why events turnod out as they di" Something is wrung ‘Th loge that th rear Stages Hetil tat “wash happened” and tho “events that] trned out as they dd” are diferent higs She st gv thought to whelba ty fre. Elegant Varation requires the pants ltr to sce that calamitous valume defences fr the sme things ed crops It wastes he readers attention on unimportant rte I Ge raader' attention strays itle—and itt always straying, alot—ahe wll come avay fram the re tc wt wn a a et you also want Lo ao patton repetition. “It isa nce where work gus dane The new plan gels don by set ting new agenda” The two “pete dane” are bot quite the samo coi sonfunng ou the same phrase, yr: dont ‘ary your words otf please Miss Jes e 7Watch How Each Word Connects with Others Trimming away the elegant vanatin, ke othe rales of rovriling doesn make ewer sifecay Mest peoples fist drafts including mine belo mel ate ammed With ttogan vanation, rife ipa gia sentence o0- Stance, maqusations erp, menoenies, and ies Baoy writing, remember, makes herd reading. Dr. Sfonnson sid two centres ago, What is written withoat ‘tort in genera read without pleasure” ke effort ny stork, such a sewing or ano ep, you mse check and Tignton tech and gaten, Instore seasons the enerse wil plas you. Is god to do something wel The net lamina dus or the smth ont a ender rome the Spit wom fom te fr. Stl bolo the end its tng Bo nouns an ere tink sicotmane sents Have Fused tne word to mean one thing? Have eed parle forms to Crptmze paral eas Ca [op any wor? Check and tanten The eae extends ony dats For sstancs, you Shin ieee repeatedly whether o erry over words fom Go construct o ts pral Shoal you wrt“ a {and damned” or" beg and the darned? eave tat mn English geronds supplying”) and ate seaplane oo "Supping a potable forecant «contradiction of er omen or “To supply a proftabe forecast a conrad thon of economies" You can ute the subsist to ave a repetition that would otherwise be ugly or misleading, or to keep a parallelism, Put modifies adjectives, adverbs, and whole phrases called in Miss Jones’ class “pacteiples"—close to the word they modify. Otherwise they tend to connect with other ‘words and spol the meaning. Other tools to line up word and thing are singulars and plurals, masculines and feminines, Unlike the inflected Latin and Anglo Saxon from whieh it deseend, English does not have eases and gender (surviving i he, sho i, ber, i, his, hers. it, I, me) to keep related words hitebed. Use the few resources we have. The fllowing sentence, for example, is ambiguous because “them” ean refer to so many things: “Owners ofthe original and indestructible powers ofthe soil ‘earned from them [powers or owners] pure rents. and that ‘tenant farmers were willing to pay them (the rents? the ‘owners? the powers? indicates that these powers ofthe eoil ‘were useful” You ean work out what it means, but remem ber that the object is not to write so that the reader ean ‘understand but so that she eannot possibly misunderstand ‘The singulars and plurals here are not essential to the meaning, and so they can be exploited to make it elear: "An owner ofthe orypinal and indestructible powers of the soil ‘earned from them (now effortlessly unambiguous because it agrees with the only ploral referent available: the powers] Dare rents, and thatthe tenant farmers were willing to pay ‘him (unambiguous: the owner) indicates that these powers ofthe sol were useful.” The use of “she” alongside “he” can tn like fashion become an advantage for clarity of reference as much asa blow for sexual equality. Ifyou assign gender tothe two people you are talking about (a T do sometimeshere n distinguishing the writer from the reader) then your reader will see what you mean. Capitals are useful word-changes, too: you can make a word into a concrete and Proper Noun by eapitalizing it, whichis useful for reference. It's easy to point at a named ‘Thing. That's why arguments mn economics go by names, ‘even By names af people: “the Coase Theorem” is mare vivid ‘than “the proposition that property rights matter to alloca ‘ton mn the ease of high transaction costs” (whieh, inciden- tally, 18 the correct statement of the theorem, widely ‘misunderstood in economics). Capitalization can be used nicely for referring to a Point in a diagram, Be careful, ‘hough: capitals have an Ironic Air to them, whieh is Fun ‘only im Moderation ( tend to use them Too Mach) 22 Watch Punctuation ‘Another detail is punctuation. You might think it would be ary nce there are only seven marks (excepting parenthe- ses (and brackots, which are used in math style for paren theses within parentheses or for your insertions into some- ‘one else's words). But feelings run strong on tie matter You should understand the old printer's conventions about spaces in typing after marks of punetuation. After a comma (, semicolon (9), ar colon (:), put one space before you start something new. After a period (.), question mark (?), or ‘exclamation point (), put two spaces. Just do it: don’t argue Te makes word processing short of desk-top publishing look better. You should also understand, and forgive, the strange convention about quotation marks and punctuation, Con- trary to what you would think, “the close quote goes inside the mari of punctuation, thus ” Look where the period is at ‘the end ofthat last sentence. In the author date aystem used 1m this book and in most of economies look at: “how one treats a quotation” (McCloskey 2000). Notice where the end {quotation mark, the parentheses containing the eitation, ‘and the period are placed. You'll look silly if you do what freshmen do: “a quotation here fllowed by the close quota tion mark and a period and then the lonely citation” (McCloskey 2000) Not evil: we're not talking end murder ‘hore, just picking up the wrong fork at a formal dinner. Don't do itunderstand the ‘The pero is no problem, though to understan roster yo ve fo ow ta the English of Haytnd it called fl stop inthe ast sentonoe oftheir spot history of England. 1068 and It hot, Soars and Venta write tat afer the ist World ‘War “America became Top Nation and bstory eae to Nori the question mara prob judge by er: are you ting te dusting toe fe The athe ie ssa sot of parentbes spoon ina l0uler toe of vice tan be overused to solve problem vith badly organized sentence idoitalotn dah, but int ober dic. “At of ope ae confined aout the enon () andthe semicolon Ti sale flea tat the clon indicates an ‘lution to flow: just ke this The semicon ndcalee {par eman i es ean aol strain ‘The semicolon (;) means roughly “furthermore”; the colon {) moans roughly to be space” The semicolon used tx mcf msn so wen ei tans re Tong Faith, hop, and catty” uses commas; but eats itm were elaborated (“Charity tho greats of those, the hte ewer wd sty with enh) yo gh je sricotn () ana srt of supereomma. You ean see thon anor fpr go cn bry it by splicing two sentences with a somielon. a8 ie. th samc ill between comma and pero. Remember the dierence between soon and saiclon By noting thatthe semicolon contain bath comma and & rod within, printed compro ® ‘The comma. Here's where everyone gets confused or argumentative Avo the dreaded Comma Splice I've us {zed one, [connected to sentence, now thee, ated to top dont wl dave you crazy Wm gredectoal ert, your boss wil think you're a dope, The rales ifboth classes ‘ould stand alone as sentences then you need either a big. me mark (period, semicolon, colon) ar conjunction. “Ties sitizens lived in fea, the resut was poor eoonamie growth? contains a comma splice. Change it to; “The citizens lived in fear. The result was poor economie growth,” or "The citieens lived n fear. and the result was poor economic growth (And yet Thave found comma splices inthe writings of Mat- thew Arnold, admitted as one ofthe masters af English in ‘the minetaenth century; its socal custom all the way down) Weal writers these days use too many commas, and tse them by rule rather than by ea, probably because Miss ‘Jones told them to, I's no rule of life, for instance, that “an ‘clause always requires a comma after it” or “When a

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