Read and Write Effectively in Economics: Writing your paper is about directing your own learning on a specific subject. The expected outcome is for you to understand the subject in sufficient depth so as to be able to explain it to your audience (your peers and the economics faculty) in a clear, precise, structured and selfcontained manner. Note you are not writing for a general audience, but for a specialized one. Your writing should be of interest to your peers while it also demonstrates your competencies in economic thinking to the faculty.
Thus, this writing assignment will serve to develop your skills of research and inquiry, including design and hypothesis formation, interpretation of data, information literacy, analysis, and communication. And you will have to think and reason like an economist. Your assignment can take the form of a monography, a survey or literature review, a case study,
a report, a policy proposal, a position paper or some other format you propose. Whatever the format you choose, you must frame your subject within the field of Economics. The purpose of your written assignment must be to gain knowledge into a topic–and a specific issue within this topic– from an economics perspective. Please, find a non-exclusive list of possible topics for your perusal at the end of this document. Note this is a list of general topics; you must choose a
concrete question or issue within each topic, the more specific the better.
How to Proceed.
The Proposal stage is about discovery and examination of ideas. You will need to do active thinking and engage critically with your subject of choice. This is the phase where you are ‘figuring out’ and refining what you think before you proceed to communicate it in a more formal way (to be done in the First Draft and Final Version of your paper). These are the steps
you should follow:
1. Identify topic within economics that interests you (or any topic that can be
approached using economics)
2. Establish the purpose of your research
3. Undertake a background search
4. Identify a specific issue within the topic
In step 1, you may start by thinking about a topic or an issue that you brushed upon in a class and
you wished you had learned more about. Or something you read about in the news or social
media that made you curious but you never had a chance to explore more in depth. Or about that
ongoing discussion you have with a classmate or a friend that has never been settled, because
neither one of you did serious research. This is your chance to do so.
2
In step 2, establish the reason for your research. Do you wish to summarize what is known about
a topic and issue? To contribute to knowledge on a topic? To solve a problem/puzzle? To present
the puzzle and its alternative solutions? To disentangle a confusing, little known or new subject?
To weigh in on a debate? To defend a stance in a particular issue? To …? You may want to pose
a question about your subject, determining what evidence is needed to answer the question, and
collecting information and data that will allow you to answer the question, which takes us to the
next step.
In Step 3, do not rely solely on general internet searches to locate literature. A Wikipedia
entry or an article you read in The New York Times or The Economist might be good sources of
inspiration to choose a subject and think how to approach it, but you must make an effort to find
more scholarly sources of information and reference (primary sources). That is, any source
addressed to a general audience (secondary source) may be a great place to start, however, you
must remember who your audience is and rely mostly on primary sources of research, i.e.
technical studies and scholarly research, such as books, book chapters, edited volumes, and,
especially (given the time available) journal articles, technical reports, and working papers.
Sometimes you will find these primary sources too mathematical or too technical: do not focus
on the details, but on the narrative and their contribution. 1
If you feel lost or are not sure how to
approach your subject, it may be a good idea to consult (the relevant chapters of) a textbook on
your subject; this will give you a good framework for reference and will point to all relevant
connections to be taken into account.
In Step 4, try to be as specific and concrete as possible in your choice of issue. This is important
even if you have decided to do a literature survey: narrow down your subject. For example, if
you are interested in ecosystem services, you may narrow it down to “Ecosystem services in the
dry tropical forest.” Or you may decide to work on “Valuation of Ecosystem Services: Direct vs
Indirect Methods.” Any of these will still require you to tell your audience about ecosystem
services in general in your Literature or Background Review, but you will find that, by focusing
on a narrower topic, your work becomes more directed and easier.
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