Telling You That You Need to Write is One Thing, But Learning How to Write is Another

|Peter Boettke|

The insightful and wise Michael Munger told you that if you want to be a successful academic you need to publish, which means you need to actually sit down and write.  James Buchanan told me and my classmates that academic success was about the consistent application of the seat of the pants to the seat of the chair.  On other occasions he said that if you worked from 6am to 6pm everyday on writing and research, you will outwork your competitors in the academic game.  When someone like Buchanan speaks about how to build a caereer as an academic economist, it makes sense to listen to him -- and in a very literal way.

Anyway, sociologist Deborah Lupton posted at her blog This Sociological Life some tips for academic writing.  This post was reposted at the LSE blog Impact of the Social Sciences.  My favorite tip is the 1st one -- pick a topic you care passionately about.  Good academic writing is a by-product of passion and purpose disciplined by an analytical structure (which is why rational choice theory and invisible hand theorizing are so essential in the social sciences) and the historian's attention to specificity and detail.

HT: Peter Klein.

Comments

[Steve Fritzinger]

The best piece of advice I ever heard (which I think I got from a Munger blog post), "Thinking without writing is day dreaming."

[Jerry O'Driscoll]

Writing is part physical labor and part mental effort. It is hard work. I have known a number of truly bright people who weren't up to it, and have consequently been ineffective.

I think blogs are a valuable complement to the process of writing papers and articles. One can work out ideas and get feedback. I am, however, perplexed by some who seem to view blogging as a substitute rather than a complement to the production of papers and articles. It doesn't work.

[John Daren Lorenzo]

Writing is indeed a skill that takes consistent application to perfect. As it was said in the blog post "Good academic writing is a by-product of passion and purpose". Writing about a topic that motivates you makes you want to talk, write, and research more about it. This will therefore eventually lead you to know more about that topic. This whole process of writing and research is indeed just like Adam Smith’s idea of the invisible hand. It’s each individual’s personal effort to maximize their own knowledge that eventually leads to learning how to write better. A good example of the invisible hand applied to social sciences.

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