# Economical Writing  ## Metadata - Author: [[Deirdre N. McCloskey]] - Full Title: Economical Writing - Category: #books ## Highlights - The man in the street loves his mistaken opinions about free trade, and will not listen to professors of economics. ([Location 35](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0058V0M2W&location=35)) - J. K. Galbraith wrote a piece called "Writing, Typing and Economics." He was using Hemingway's crack about a bad writer: "That's not writing: that's typing." ([Location 52](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0058V0M2W&location=52)) - Rotten writing causes more papers and reports to fail than do rotten statistics or rotten research. ([Location 56](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0058V0M2W&location=56)) - (In fact they are often taught mistaken details: that statistical significance, for example, has anything to do with substantive significance; or that a proof on a blackboard is the same thing as a proof in the world [McCloskey 1998; McCloskey and Ziliak 1996]). ([Location 61](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0058V0M2W&location=61)) - What economists do, and what people educated in economics do even if they never see a demand curve after their education, depends on writing, because writing is the cheapest way to reach a big audience, especially in the age of the Internet, and because writing forcesthe writer to think. ([Location 64](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0058V0M2W&location=64)) - Keynes is acknowledged as the best writer that economics has had. ([Location 74](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0058V0M2W&location=74)) - the real problem is the premise that you can split content from style. ([Location 76](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0058V0M2W&location=76)) - Writing resembles mathematics. Mathematics is a language, an instrument of communication. But so too language is a mathematics, an instrument of thought. ([Location 86](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0058V0M2W&location=86)) - The first rule is that many of the ruleswe learned in Miss Jones' class in the eighth grade are wrong. ([Location 106](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0058V0M2W&location=106)) - Her strictures against "I" make no sense ([Location 108](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0058V0M2W&location=108)) - Papers in economics consist mostly of summary, outline, anticipation, announcement, redundancy, and review. They never get to the point. ([Location 122](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0058V0M2W&location=122)) - The one genuine rule, a golden one, is Be Clear. ([Location 123](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0058V0M2W&location=123)) - "Therefore one ought to take care to write not merely so that the reader can understand but so that he cannot possibly misunderstand" ([Location 124](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0058V0M2W&location=124)) - The reader like the consumer is sovereign. If the reader thinks what you write is unclear, then it is, by definition. ([Location 125](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0058V0M2W&location=125)) - It's great fun to get a sentence just right, ([Location 145](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0058V0M2W&location=145)) - Richard Lanham argues that the best way to teach yourself writing is to indulge in a certain amount of clowning in prose. ([Location 148](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0058V0M2W&location=148)) - Boulding, ([Location 154](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0058V0M2W&location=154)) - Haberler, ([Location 154](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0058V0M2W&location=154)) - Heil- broner, ([Location 154](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0058V0M2W&location=154)) - Schumpeter, ([Location 155](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0058V0M2W&location=155)) - You can't define good style without a list of good writers. ([Location 157](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0058V0M2W&location=157)) - In matters of taste the only standard is the practice of good people. ([Location 161](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0058V0M2W&location=161)) - It's about as good a bet that she will not know how to think, and will not care. ([Location 165](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0058V0M2W&location=165)) - (you cannot work on a subject unless you love it or hate it; ([Location 168](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0058V0M2W&location=168)) - Brevity is the soul of clarity, too. ([Location 171](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0058V0M2W&location=171)) - The three important parts of classical rhetoric were invention, arrangement, and style. ([Location 174](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0058V0M2W&location=174)) - Invention, the framing of arguments worth listening to, is the business of economictheory and of empirical economics. ([Location 175](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0058V0M2W&location=175)) - some economic arguments are a series of analogies. ([Location 176](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0058V0M2W&location=176)) - Economic models are economic poetry. ([Location 178](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0058V0M2W&location=178)) - Once you have solved one ([Location 179](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0058V0M2W&location=179)) - problem by stating it as an analogy you can use the problem as an analogy for others. ([Location 179](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0058V0M2W&location=179)) - Arrangement, too, is a part of economic rhetoric not much examined. ([Location 184](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0058V0M2W&location=184)) - Economists might try learning good arrangement from their own behavior. ([Location 188](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0058V0M2W&location=188)) - It's better to make your own outline, one that fits your argument. ([Location 191](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0058V0M2W&location=191)) - The third branch of classical rhetoric, style, is easier to teach. ([Location 192](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0058V0M2W&location=192)) - Don't. Resist. It's time to write. ([Location 199](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0058V0M2W&location=199)) - One of these distractions is taste. ([Location 199](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0058V0M2W&location=199)) - Irrational cheerfulness is hard to teach but good to have for any work. ([Location 202](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0058V0M2W&location=202)) - Don't wait until the research is done to begin writing because writing, to repeat, is a way of thinking. ([Location 203](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0058V0M2W&location=203)) - Arrangement is like good statistical work, searching the data for patterns. ([Location 214](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0058V0M2W&location=214)) - Writing cannot be done entirely as a routine, like peeling potatoes. ([Location 218](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0058V0M2W&location=218)) - Arrangement is a matter of finding good outlines, from the level of the book down to the level of the paragraph. ([Location 220](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0058V0M2W&location=220)) - When you get an inspiration, do not depend on your memory to keep it. A phrase or word will jog it. Don't let the moment pass. ([Location 223](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0058V0M2W&location=223)) - An expensive and well balanced fountain pen is old-fashioned, but fun to use when the mood strikes. ([Location 227](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0058V0M2W&location=227)) - Switching from medium to medium is worth trying, because each medium suggests new arrangements. ([Location 233](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0058V0M2W&location=233)) - Learn to like words and to inquire about their backgrounds. It's a useful friendship, a joy of life. ([Location 243](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0058V0M2W&location=243)) - Most research, however, turns out to be irrelevant to the paper you finally write, which is another reason to mix writing with the researching. The writing forces you to ask questions about the facts that are strictly relevant. ([Location 262](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0058V0M2W&location=262)) - If people wrote more the way they spoke, their writing would have more vigor (if they spoke more the way they wrote their speaking would have more precision). Writing expresses personality, as does the speaking voice: it is said that to write well you need merely to make yourself good and then write naturally. ([Location 270](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0058V0M2W&location=270)) - Regard the outline as an aid, not a master. ([Location 277](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0058V0M2W&location=277)) - Note: Start here. - Don't expect to write easily all the time. ([Location 281](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0058V0M2W&location=281)) - Be selfish about your little candle of creation. ([Location 283](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0058V0M2W&location=283)) - At the end of a session, or at any substantial break, always write down your thoughts, however vague, on what will come next. This is a very good tip. Don't get up without doing it, even to answer nature's call. Write or type the notes directly onto the end of the text, where they can be looked at and crossed off as used. ([Location 287](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0058V0M2W&location=287)) - Hemingway said, "Easy writing makes hard reading." ([Location 295](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0058V0M2W&location=295)) - Look your audience directly in the eyes. ([Location 300](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0058V0M2W&location=300)) - Some find it best to choose an Implied Reader of imagination, an ideal economist; others find it best to choose a real person, such as Richard Sutch or good old Professor Smith or the friend down the hall. ([Location 305](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B0058V0M2W&location=305))