Thread by @TDeryugina

Some miscellaneous writing advice, especially for those writing up their JMP right now.

1. Completing a solid draft will take a lot longer than you think. Plan accordingly (i.e., spend as much of your research time writing as possible).

2. Ask your letter writers NOW when they want a polished draft for letter purposes and plan accordingly. Don't give them a half-finished (or 3/4 finished) paper; it will hurt your letter quality.

3. What SHOULD a full empirical paper consist of? Don't worry about getting every single possible robustness check and extension in there for now. The 100-page appendix will naturally appear as you make your way through the market.🤷‍♀️

4. Plan and make your main paper figures and tables FIRST, then write the paper around these, it will be much easier. Of course, you may end up shuffling things around later, but having an initial results roadmap is key.

5. Think very carefully if you end up with >10 tables+figures in the main paper. Do you really need so many? What does the reader get out of each one? Cut unnecessary figures/tables and put marginally important ones into the appendix.

6. Don't try to make your writing great on the first try, you will get stuck. Get words down on paper and then edit and edit and edit and edit. And then edit some more. Good writing takes many many rounds of editing.

7. When editing, always keep the reader in mind. What do you want him/her to get out of each paragraph (yes, you should ideally think about each paragraph!)? Will the average reader follow the paragraph?

8. Your introduction/conclusion should be easily accessible to most PhD economists. It's ok (and expected) to get more technical in other sections, but make sure your contributions in the introduction are clear to all economists not just those in your field.

9. How can you tell if it's clear to others? Ask a graduate student outside your research area to read your introduction and then verbally state back to you what it is you do in the paper and what your contributions are. If they can't, it's not clear enough.

10. Give yourself time and space to rest. Writing is hard work and mentally taxing (as a general rule, I can't write for more than 2 hours/day). Start early and write often but also take care of yourself first.