Tips for writing well
Communicating your thoughts and findings clearly is as important as the rigour with which you carry out your research. Here are some dos and don’ts.
Use the active instead of the passive voice. For example, use “This study analyses the effect of immigration on house prices.” instead of “In this study, the effect of immigration on house prices is studied.”
Favour the present tense. “Tirole (1988) finds that …”.
Use positive rather than normative statements. For example, “Government ignored the policy’s impact on households” is preferable to “Government did not consider the policy’s impact on households”.
Keep sentences short and avoid using unnecessary words. For example, instead of using ‘in order to’ use ‘to’ and instead of using ‘whether or not’ use ‘whether’. Also, avoid using words like ‘clearly’, ‘obviously’ and ‘of course’.
Use pronouns appropriately. Although articles published in economics journals rarely do, do not be afraid to use the pronoun ‘I’ if you are writing about what you did (e.g. “In this study, I analyse …”). Use ‘we’ when writing about something you did with, say, a fellow student (e.g. “For the purposes of this study, we gathered data on …”).
Put details in footnotes. Any details that are not central to your point/argument should be put in footnotes or the appendix.
Also, avoid the following: repeating the same point; creating your own acronyms; misspelling words; and using overly dramatic words (such as ‘absolutely’ in “there is absolutely no straightforward way”).
Do the following: keep it simple; use graphs appropriately; and be boring to be clear (your dissertation is not a novel!).
Finally, read what you wrote, re-write it, re-read it, and if need be re-write it again (as many times as necessary!).
